The New Orleans Pelicans has surprised the Portland Trail Blazers as the latter find themselves down 0-3 in the series, despite holding the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
Damian Lillard has had one of his best seasons in the league and asserted himself as a clutch player with his timely fourth-quarter scoring, but he has yet to shoot over 39 percent from the field in any of the three games against the Pelicans.
The All-Star guard explained how the Pelicans have frustrated him on the pick-and-roll game with how they've managed mismatches.
“There were times when I come off and once the guard caught up, the big would leave,” Lillard said of past opponents, according to Andrew Greif of The Oregonian. “This is probably the first time where the big is just staying and the other guy is coming and they're making me give the ball up.
“… I think this is a different coverage than I've seen in any point in my career. It's two and three layers of defense.”
The Blazers had ramped up their play after a key win over the Golden State Warriors right before the start of the All-Star break, which jump-started a season-high 13-game win streak, but the team flamed out at the end of the season losing four of their last five games and forced to need a win over the Utah Jazz to hold on to the third seed.
“I think it matters how well you play going into the playoffs,” Lillard said. “We were playing our best basketball and then we hit a rough patch and that rough patch was coming into the playoffs and that was when they started playing their best basketball. I think that matters. Once you get to the playoffs you've got to be able to be sharp and understand that the season is on the line. To this point they've just outplayed us.”
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