The Portland Trail Blazers took yet another loss in a mind-boggling start to the season, this time a 132-108 beatdown at the hands of the high-octane Houston Rockets.
The Blazers have tried to keep an optimistic front through a 5-9 start, but backcourt star CJ McCollum admits things behind closed doors aren't as happy as they seem
“To (the media), we are always positive,” said McCollum, according to Jason Quick of The Athletic. “Behind closed doors, there is probably more sense of urgency than we let on. Because that’s how you have to be — you can’t panic, especially in front of everyone.
“But we are two people who are extremely frank about everything,” added McCollum, referring to his longtime backcourt partner Damian Lillard. “And looking at how we’ve played this season — 5-9 is not good. That sucks. We are like (12th) in the West. That’s not good; that sucks. So you are what your record says you are. Whatever adjective you want to use to describe us, I’m sure fits right now.”
Three years and two days ago the Blazers were in a very similar situation, enticing Lillard to say “we suck” and local media to hold onto that priceless headline-worthy phrase. Now three years the wiser, Lillard admits there are issues his team needs to solve, but won't press the panic button just yet:
“The defense is not good enough, it’s not even close to good enough,” Lillard said. “But out of all the things we see on film, the stuff where we say we have to get better at this, better at that, there are equal possessions where we do it, and the team misses and we don’t get the ball. If we just get the ball, we can eliminate a lot of our struggles.”
The Blazers will be getting some reinforcements with the arrival of Carmelo Anthony, but that won't fix the effort getting to loose balls or the rebounding issues they've had through the opening stretch.
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