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Damian Lillard struggled in Game 2 before he dislocated his finger, putting him out for the remainder of the game. His Portland Trail Blazers were smacked around by the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night, 111-88, and Lillard had seen it coming way before he exited the floor with his injury.
Defenders suddenly invaded his driving space, trapping him and keeping him from his normal one-on-one fluidity. Lillard has seen the feared box-and-one strategy before, and he knows he's going to have to make an adjustment:
“I just kept hearing them yell out ‘box, box, box,’ and a guy would come, and they would try to keep me in a boxed-in area,” said Lillard after the loss, according to Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “I recognized it, and I’ll go back and watch more to see what they were doing, and where we could take advantage of it and make that adjustment. I think I’m going to have to give it up and trust the pass out to score and make them pay for it.
“Hopefully, it will soften up and I can find my spots to be even more aggressive against them.”
This is the same strategy the Toronto Raptors employed after Stephen Curry torched them for 47 points in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, trying to keep the ball away from the long-range threat.
The Lakers are treating Lillard in a similar way, considering he's among the leaders in 3-pointers made since the resumption of the season. The box-and-one is a beatable strategy, but it will consist of other players making shots to make them pay — the very reason the Lakers are employing it this early in the series.
Los Angeles has quickly gone to an “anyone but Lillard” shell after a Game 1 loss, and now it will be up to the Blazers' franchise player to figure out how to navigate this challenge.
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