Trail Blazers Show Proof of Concept in Loss to Pelicans: "This is More Who We Are"
Portland's second game of the season was night and day from its first.
📍 PORTLAND, Ore. — Is there such a thing as a bounceback loss? Because that’s what it felt like the Trail Blazers got on Friday.
The end result was the same as Wednesday’s disastrous season opener against Golden State—they lost to New Orleans, dropping their record to 0-2 on the season. But what it looked like couldn’t have been more different.
“I thought we played good,” Chauncey Billups said. “Obviously wished we’d come away with the win, but definitely, this is more who we are. We’re gonna compete, we’re gonna scrap. Defensively, I thought we did a pretty good job. It got away from us a few times. But I thought we played hard. I’m proud of our guys.”
After the Warriors game, Billups said he didn’t think any Blazers player had a good game, and he was mostly right. On Friday, there weren’t many who didn’t.
Let’s start with Scoot Henderson, who looked much more in control in every aspect of the game Friday. He finished at the rim with confidence, made the right reads, competed defensively and only took one bad shot. His 22 points on opening night were misleading—he looked lost driving to the basket and struggled to finish over the Warriors’ physical defenders. Everything was easier for him on Friday.
Toumani Camara took on the assignment of guarding Zion Williamson and acquitted himself well. Jerami Grant made a career-high eight three-pointers. Deni Avdija, despite shooting 1-for-9 from the floor, was impactful in his minutes, defending, rebounding and making plays. The scoring will come around—he got good looks that didn’t go down.
Most encouragingly, Donovan Clingan continues to look fully NBA-ready as a rim protector. He had four blocks in his 14 minutes, including one on Williamson. His offense is going to take time, but the defense is as advertised.
In a season like this, all the organization wants is coming away from some of these losses with things to like. There weren’t many of those on Wednesday. There were plenty on Friday. If they can look like this more nights than not, a season sure to end with a similar record to last season won’t be another wasted year.
I was once a rabid fan of this team, but now I'm not and probably won't be again until the team is sold which doesn't appear imminent. We're now 80 games away from seeing what kind of draft pick the Blazers can look forward to. I hope that someday this will be a team with an owner we can be proud of.