The Portland Trail Blazers entered Sunday's matchup with the Denver Nuggets at 6-7, that relative success coming in spite of Damian Lillard enduring the longest slump of his career. Playing without their injured superstar against Nikola Jokic and company, though, nonetheless proved a reminder of just how reliant the Blazers remain on their best player—apparently both physically and mentally.

Portland was routed by the Nuggets 124-95 on Sunday at Ball Arena, never coming within realistic reach of the home team after a disastrous start in the first quarter. Even small bright spots like the play of Nassir Little and Dennis Smith Jr. aren't as luminous as they seem. Denver wasn't just playing without Michael Porter Jr. and Jamal Murray, but Will Barton—playing the best two-way basketball of his life in the season's early going—was a late scratch with low back tightness.

Michael Malone's team was even more short-handed than it was in the first round of last year's playoffs.

Expecting a win from the Blazers at mile-high elevation sans Lillard for the first time this eason was setting yourself up for disappointment. But even just passing competitiveness was very much achievable for Portland, and aside from a couple lively bench stints spearheaded by Little and Smith, they just didn't come to pass for any sustained period of play.

Chauncey Billups noticed, just part of a stern message he relayed to his team at the postgame presser.

“I'm just confused at I don't think we came to compete in this game,” he said. “I mean, this is a team that beat us in the playoffs last year, and we don't come and don't even compete in the first quarter. I was a little disappointed in that, in the effort. But you can't control if shots will or won't go down. We had some good looks, just no fight, no fight.”

Denver got out to 10-2 lead on the Blazers' starters, with Anfernee Simons in Lillard's normal place. Billups called timeout to regroup, only to watch the Blazers fall behind 24-8. Playing such a drastic game of catch up to the reigning MVP's team at high altitude without your best player is a losing proposition, a reality Billups acknowledged after the game.

Portland's reserves kept punching pretty much all night, but it didn't matter with the starters taking hit, after hit, after hit, barely mustering the energy to absorb the blows.

“The second unit played as hard as we need to play,” Billups said. “The first unit just didn't have it.”

The rookie head coach admitted the difficulties of playing without a high-usage playmaker Lillard. Still, he wasn't about to let the Blazers use Lillard's absence as an excuse.

“I mean obviously when you're missing your leader and you're missing your best player there's probably gonna be an impact, but them dudes are missing threee starters over there, you know?” Billups said. “They're missing three starters. You figured it would probably have an impact, but no matter who plays or not it should never control whether you play with urgency and desperation.”

It's unclear at this point whether Lillard will play in tomorrow's game against the Toronto Raptors in Rip City. After a 1-3 road trip, Portland could certainly use the home cookin' it's enjoyed en route to a 5-1 start at Moda Center this season.