In the Portland Trail Blazers' 116-103 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday, the team again struggled with turnovers, coughing the ball up 17 times.
Those 17 turnovers – including seven in the third quarter alone – led to 26 Clippers points, a worrying trend that Blazers coach Chauncey Billups pointed out after the loss.
“Yeah, it has been our Achilles heel. I think you can go back a couple games…against New Orleans I think we gave up 31 points off turnovers. In games that we're competing in… I think in Chicago it was 19 points. It's a tough spot for us. And some of it is youth and just, we're just careless with the ball, and a night like tonight, it really was [the Clippers]. Those other couple games, they didn't really pressure us enough to turn us over. Tonight, the pressure was real. You have some real defenders out there that were forcing us into some bad situations.”
The Blazers currently ranked 28th in the NBA with 15.2 turnovers per game. While much of their turnover issue can be attributed to youth, there is also the challenge of having to shuffle lineups and rotations due to injury. When players simply aren't used to playing with each other, a natural consequence is a tendency to cough the ball up.
Then there's the fact that the Blazers are starting a rookie point guard who is still trying to get his feet wet. Scoot Henderson, after looking like he had settled down the turnover issues that plagued him through the first two months of his NBA career, has played up-and-down since returning from his strained adductor last week. Against the Clippers, Henderson turned it over only twice, but often seems to get caught in the paint without a clear plan and ends up losing the ball.
The Blazers rookie commits the third most turnovers in the NBA with four per 36 minutes.
None of this is necessarily unexpected, but over their final 13 games, the Blazers will need to focus on establishing better ball control. As Billups pointed out, Portland is hanging in a lot of these games, but losing possessions and allowing the opponent to get out on the break has been backbreaking for them this season.
Up next, the Blazers take another crack at the Clippers on Friday night.
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