Trail Blazers Get a Much-Needed Vibes Reset in Blowout Win Over Jazz

PORTLAND, Ore. — This is not a story of Scoot Henderson returning after a nine-game absence and carrying the Trail Blazers to a blowout win over the Jazz, their first victory since a home win against Memphis on Nov. 3.

Henderson returning from his ankle injury—now with goggles!—was the headline, but he wasn't the reason Portland snapped its eight-game losing streak and got a much-needed vibes reset ahead of a long post-Thanksgiving Midwest road trip.

Henderson wasn't the reason for the win because there wasn't one reason for the win. Jerami Grant had 30 points on 10-of-13 shooting, but it was a quiet 30-point game as these things go. 24 hours after guarding Devin Booker, Toumani Camara was given the Lauri Markkanen assignment and held his own against another on a growing list of All-Stars he's been tasked with slowing down. Jabari Walker played what might have been the best game of his career. Matisse Thybulle was a menace in the passing lanes and Malcolm Brogdon once again brought the calming presence at point guard that was missing in the five games he missed with a hamstring injury. About 20 minutes before tipoff, Deandre Ayton was scratched with back soreness, and Duop Reath filled in capably in his first career NBA start. 

The pace that Chauncey Billups has been begging the Blazers to play with picked up as they ran the Jazz out of the building from the opening tip. Both of these teams were on the second night of a back-to-back, but only one of them looked like it. And with about five minutes to go and the Blazers up by 30, as Billups emptied his bench, Jazz head coach Will Hardy left his starters in until the final buzzer to make them wear it.

There aren't going to be many times this season that the Blazers are the team that does that to another team. They needed a game like this in the worst way, not only to end a long losing streak but to remind themselves that they're capable of playing this kind of basketball.

It's funny what having healthy point guards can do.

And Henderson? He was fine. He shot 1-for-7 from the field, with six of those seven shots coming in the first half. But the pull-up threes that have never been one of his strengths weren't as prominent as they were at the beginning of the season. His turnovers weren't of the wild, out-of-control variety they were in his first few games as he was trying to adjust to the speed of the NBA.

"I think I played alright," Henderson said. "I didn't take as many shots, I was just trying to get my conditioning up. I'm never pressed about taking shots. I know they're gonna come. The main goal was to come back and try to get a win."

Henderson started the first five games of his NBA career. On Wednesday, he came off the bench. The Blazers are going to say that's just to ease him back in after missing three weeks. It's a convenient way to soften what will be seen as the blow of a No. 3 overall pick being taken out of the starting lineup. But it wouldn't be a surprise to see him continue to come off the bench for a while—especially once Anfernee Simons returns in mid-December—and it may be what's best for him in the long run.

Before Henderson's NBA debut against the Clippers in Los Angeles, Billups looked back on his own first game with the Celtics in 1997, when he came off the bench against Michael Jordan and the Bulls. Billups put Henderson in the starting lineup that night, but admitted that he benefitted 26 years ago from being able to see the game before checking in. Henderson returning from the ankle injury (he was on a minutes limit on Wednesday) provides perfect cover to slow-play his workload in a way that will benefit him in the long run.

Henderson admitted there were things he gained from sitting out while he was hurt.

"I've seen a whole bunch of things that I didn't see while I was playing," he said. "Being more patient, watching Skylar and Malcolm, how patient they are in certain situations, and just trying to piggyback off that."

The goggles are a new wrinkle to the Scoot experience. During his downtime, as he was rehabbing his injured ankle, he also saw an eye doctor who recommended he get fitted for contacts, which he'd never worn before. The team's trainers recommended he also wear protective goggles to combat the urge to touch his eyes constantly during a game as he gets used to it.

But they're going to be an immediate hit. It's a callback not only to Buck Williams, who retired six years before Henderson was born, but to Wesley Matthews' "3 Goggles" celebration, which he popularized in Portland when Henderson was starting elementary school. 

All of us reporters in the locker room on Wednesday have at least 10 years on him, and we all laughed uncomfortably as we listened to a teenager talk about how his eyesight changes "as I get older." Already, teammates are pushing him to capitalize on it. Maybe Puma will make him the first-ever NBA player with a signature line of protective goggles to go along with his forthcoming signature shoe.

In his own words: "They're very stylish."