If Thursday's game proves a harbinger of their play to come while Damian Lillard is sidelined by abdominal tendinopathy, the Portland Trail Blazers' season could very well be at risk of going off the rails. The San Antonio Spurs came to Rip City and throttled the depleted Blazers, 114-83, in a game every bit as lopsided as the final score suggests.
Not even the familiar comforts of Moda Center, where it hadn't lost since the opener, could protect Chauncey Billups' team from the visitors' onslaught of 3-point shooting, offensive tempo and overall activity. Portland, down not just Lillard but also Nassir Little, was always going to be in trouble on Thursday if it got outworked. Losing the effort battle for the first half's entirety left the Blazers down 24 points at intermission.
They couldn't keep up with Doug McDermott sprinting around screens. The pace and aggression of Dejounte Murray and Keldon Johnson off the dribble was just too much for Portland. Jakob Poeltl absolutely dominated at the rim defensively. When the Blazers finally responded to nearly getting run off the floor, their defense had no answer for Bryn Forbes, who scored all 18 of his points after halftime.
“It was disappointing,” Chauncey Billups' said of his team's performance. “I just felt like competing-wise, we never really gave ourselves a chance from the start of the game.”
Portland missed its first seven shots, falling behind 9-2 and forcing an early Billups timeout. The second unit helped stanch that continued bleeding, then did it again in the third and fourth quarters. Billups lauded the competitive fire of his bench, even going so far as to praise Dennis Smith Jr. — pressed into rotation minutes — for picking up a technical foul.
“I was happy to see him mad that we're losing,” he said of Smith. “I don't see a lot of that. I want a guy to be mad when we're losing.”
Portland's best lineup in Thursday's game was comprised of Smith, Ben McLemore, Tony Snell, Larry Nance Jr. and Cody Zeller. That group cut San Antonio's always insurmountable lead to 12 a few minutes into the fourth quarter, rousing an antsy Moda Center with multiple efforts defensively and pace on the other end. All that activity left the Blazers' all-bench unit fatigued, though, forcing Billups' hand into substitutions.
Less than 90 seconds of game time after CJ McCollum and Norman Powell came in for a gasping Smith and Snell, Portland's hole had cratered to 24, causing Billups to call timeout and wave the white flag.
“Unfortunately, I had to take 'em out. They was tired,” he said of the Blazers' reserves. “If I could've, I would've rolled with them the rest of the way. But they were tired, they were tired. I took 'em out and [San Antonio] made a run again, then the game was over.”
The loss pushes Portland 11-12 on the year, good for ninth in the West. At this rate, the Blazers are more likely to compete for a spot in the play-in tournament than the NBA Finals. The schedule only gets more difficult from there, and there's no assurance whatsoever Lillard and Little will be back almost immediately upon being “r-evaluated.” Portland's depth took another hit on Thursday, with Anfernee Simons not returning after spraining his right ankle in the second quarter.
Things seem likely to get worse for the Blazers before they get better, especially if this team doesn't address the issue that worries Billups most.
“I want us to compete harder. I want us to be more competitive in every game,” he said. “I don't feel like every night we do that. I really don't. I don't feel like we do that every night, and that concerns me.”
As The Athletic's Jason Quick followed up, noting that critique was a “brutal thing to hear,” Billups quickly responded.
“It's a brutal thing to say, it really is,” he said. “It's a brutal thing to say.”
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