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The Portland Trail Blazers fell to the Phoenix Suns 111-107 in overtime on Tuesday night, extending their losing streak to six games. Even that depressing string of defeats, unfortunately, isn't an accurate indication of the Blazers' current depths. Portland is now 1-9 in its last 10 games and has lost five straight at Moda Center after beginning the season 10-1 from the comforts of Rip City.
“I just think we're in one of those situations where it's gonna be ugly sometimes, it's gonna be a grind-it-out situation. But to me it's a mental thing, just getting over the hump,” Damian Lillard said after the game. “Sometimes it gets harder. Sometimes you gotta work a little bit harder. You come up on the short end and gotta work harder to get over the hump. I thought tonight was that opportunity, a big game against a good team. We had our opportunities. We could've done a lot of things better. It's a tough one to let go.”
Lillard notched 47 minutes against Phoenix, on the floor for the entirety of the second half and overtime in just his second game back from nearly two weeks on the sideline managing abdominal tendinopathy. He dropped 31 points and 10 assists on Tuesday, at times after intermission looking like the All-NBA playmaker he has been for the last four seasons. The inefficiency that has dogged him since 2021-22 tipped off reared its ugly head again, though, with Lillard shooting 10-of-31 from the field and 5-of-16 from 3-point range.
Portland, playing absent the injured CJ McCollum and Cody Zeller, roared back from a double-digit deficit early in the third quarter, encouraged by a raucous Moda Center crowd yearning for the smallest success. The home team led 89-83 with 7:28 remaining when Jusuf Nurkic subbed in for Larry Nance Jr, who had helped spearhead the Blazers' comeback on both sides of the ball.
It was a one-point game just a couple minutes later, ceding way to a back-and-forth affair in crunch time and the extra session that exposed Portland's oft-stagnant offensive execution when scores were needed most.
“We haven't been the best,” Lillard said of Portland's play in the clutch this season. “In the past it's been a time where we usually make something out of nothing and we come up big.” The first thing that I think of is I've been able to come up big a lot more often in the past. This year it's been less of the case.”
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The loss pushes Portland to 11-17 and 11th place in the Western Conference. Don't expect the Blazers to give up fighting for more than a spot in the play-in tournament, though. Sensing his team needed an emotional boost, Lillard even took the rare step during Monday's practice of addressing Portland's dire straits and what it will take for them to end.
“This is the moment that a lot of teams choose to pack it in and say, ‘You know what, it's tough, we're this many games under .500, we haven't been playing great,'” he said. “And they just fold and they become one of those bottom teams. I just said [at practice], ‘That's not who we are. This ain't our first time being in this situation. It's not the situation we wanna be in. We dig. We dig out, we find a way, and we're gonna do that once again.'”
Lillard shouldered much of the blame for Tuesday's loss. He lamented the way he shot the ball, excoriated himself for missing a crucial late free throw and admitted his role in Portland's ongoing crunch-time labors.
Still, Lillard knows exactly what it will take for the Blazers to end their losing streak, and he's ready to do it.
“I'm a soldier,” Lillard said. “I know that in my heart. I know how to will a team.”
He tried against the short-handed Suns, who were still without Devin Booker on the second night of a back-to-back, and failed. At least Lillard won't have to wait long for his next chance, though. Portland hosts the surging Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night.
