The Portland Trail Blazers finished exhibition action on Friday night pretty much the same way it started, with a double-digit loss to the Golden State Warriors. Preseason basketball is hardly a surefire indicator of regular-season performance, and Chauncey Billups has stressed he sees it as nothing more than a glorified extension of practice. Results just don't matter before the real games begin.

But Portland certainly would've liked to leave the preseason with one victory regardless, or more importantly, at least the sense of confidence it's made measurable progress since training camp tipped off nearly three weeks ago. The win, obviously, didn't come. The Blazers sandwiched those blowouts to Golden State with a short-handed home loss to the Sacramento Kings and a 36-point drubbing by the Phoenix Suns during which their starters played deep into the third quarter.

As for palpable on-court growth, though? Billups went out of his way to acknowledge that he saw it during certain segments of Friday's preseason finale.

“I stepped in front of y'all after the last game and I was really disappointed with our effort, with our execution,” he said. “I don’t feel that way today. I thought guys played hard, I thought they tried to play the right way.”

The effort was definitely there for Portland from the opening tip. No doubt invigorated by harsh public criticism from Billups following Wednesday's ugly loss to the Suns, the Blazers came out with the type of fire and intensity defensively they'd sworn would be a hallmark of their revamped approach on that end since official preparations for 2021-22 began. They were stouter at the point of attack and more active on the backline, making the type of multiple-effort plays that are necessary to stringing together stops in Billups' aggressive scheme.

“Defensively, I thought we had some times where we had some really amazing possessions,” he said. “Where we did a good job of stopping their first action, then had two or three multiple efforts and did a good job there. And sometimes they score those buckets, sometimes they don’t, but if it’s a good defensive possession we’ll take those small victories. So I thought we had a lot of those moments.”

This defensive sequence comes to mind as evidence of the above.

Ben McLemore goes from tagging the roller to closing out on Nemanja Bjelica as Marquese Chriss recovers to the paint after showing on a Steph Curry ball screen. Chriss then cuts off the drive, forcing a pass to the corner where marksman Otto Porter is waiting. But Greg Brown III keeps his hands high and stays low on the close-out, forcing Porter to put the ball on the floor and settle for a contested push shot over length as Chriss digs down to swipe at the ball on the way up.

That encouraging sequence, and the majority of those Billups was referencing, took place before Curry erupted late in the second quarter. The Blazers let go of the rope on defense once basketball's most flammable scorer caught fire, falling victim to the misdirection and miscommunication the Warriors always induce when Curry has it going. By the time Dennis Smith Jr. picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter, leaving C.J. McCollum to chase Curry, Portland had lost its previous defensive mettle almost entirely.

Not that Billups seemed overly perturbed by that unsurprising turn of events, though.

“Our offense and defense, things like that, those things will come. I’m not really concerned with that,” Billups said. “We have some really good players that you can make up for some of those things at times as you’re trying to get there, so I’m really not concerned with that. I’m more concerned by the things you can’t control.”

Instead of lamenting the two-way issues that plagued Portland on the court after a solid start Friday night, he was more bothered by how many of the Blazers' regular rotation players were forced to sit out due to injury. Damian Lillard was the only player on his team who missed the game due to rest; Larry Nance Jr., Anfernee Simons, Cody Zeller and Nassir Little were all sidelined by injury.

Nance, dealing with right knee soreness, will almost definitely be available for Wednesday's season opener. Statuses for the rest of Portland's injury brigade against the Sacramento Kings, though, are varying bolds of question marks. Even if Simons, Zeller and Little prove to be available, it's a near certainty all of them won't be on the practice floor before then—and that's what worries Billups most as he continues introducing the Blazers to specific offense-defense concepts.

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“The one the thing that you just hope to have is health, man. We’ve already been a little unfortunate with guys being out, really, really important guys to what we’re gonna try to do being out,” he said. “When you’re practicing, and your introducing things and you’re changing things and you’ve got three or four or five guys that are in your rotation who can’t do it, it makes it tough. It makes it really tough.”

These injury woes, unfortunately, could be a harbinger of more to come over the next six months. Jusuf Nurkic, Nance and Zeller have been prone to missing time with injury throughout their careers, and Smith nabbing the final roster spot over Chriss leaves Portland bereft of traditional reinforcements up front.

McCollum, previously an iron man, has dealt with significant injuries each of the past two seasons. Lillard's blend of age and wear and tear factors in here, too.

The silver lining? Billups will be better prepared to deal with the injury bug biting come the regular season after dealing with it now, helpful for a rookie head coach especially. But that's a problem the Blazers would be far better off avoiding, and the fact it's already surfaced is a reminder of just how likely it is to return over the 82-game grind.