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📍BOSTON — When the Trail Blazers' schedule was released in August and I was considering which road trips to prioritize, one jumped out as an obvious choice: a late-January three-game east coast trip that would see them face the Celtics, Wizards and Knicks. It was a pretty great travel setup: I'd get a day off in Boston and essentially two full days in New York.
By the middle of January, the decision to go on this trip was looking even better. The Blazers had turned it around and gotten back to .500, it was their last road trip before the trade deadline, and I'd get to see Jrue Holiday and Robert Williams III play their first game against the Celtics and Deni Avdija play his first game against the Wizards.
So far, we're 1-for-2.
I got to Boston in one piece on Saturday—my connection was delayed in Chicago, but it could be worse. I was even able to get to and from Sunday's practice at Boston University without much trouble before the snow really started coming down. And as games in other NBA cities hit by this week's snowstorms got postponed, Monday night's Blazers-Celtics game went off without issue. So far, good trip.
This morning, though, my early flight into Washington, D.C. for tonight's Wizards game was cancelled and I couldn't get rebooked onto another flight until it would have been too late. The train I had booked from D.C. to New York on Wednesday was cancelled, too. So I stayed an extra night in Boston, watched the Wizards game on my iPad and am (allegedly) going to New York tomorrow to finish out the road trip.
Overall, it could have been a lot worse—the airline was nice enough to put me up in a hotel for the inconvenience—and it's far from the worst travel experience I've had in my life. But I was planning to cover all three games on this trip and will only be able to get to two.
Not that I missed much in Washington.
There haven't been too many truly awful Blazers losses this year, but I'd call this one the worst of the year. Even on the second half of a back-to-back, they had Avdija back in the lineup after missing two games, had most of their regular rotation players healthy (only Robert Williams III was out), and were playing a 10-win Wizards team that had lost nine straight.
They turned the ball over 20 times and missed 10 free throws in a game they lost by four points, their second straight night with double-digit missed free throws. That was a problem for them earlier in the season, but they'd seemed to have gotten it under control lately. Shaedon Sharpe had a nice bounce-back performance after a couple of rough outings, but Avdija looked rusty and tentative, and just like against Boston and Toronto, there were too many unforced errors all around. Getting two days off in New York will do them some good.
Some other notes and thoughts from the trip so far:
The NBA announced the Rising Stars selections on Monday. Donovan Clingan made it as a sophomore and, as I predicted, they used the G League category to put Yang Hansen in. I was a little surprised Caleb Love didn't make it, but this is a deep rookie class.
The selections were announced while reporters were allowed in the locker room pregame, so I got to see the real-time reactions. Yang had no idea until he walked in and we broke the news to him. Everyone was happy for him and Clingan, but players also expressed confusion at Love not being included as well.
On Tuesday, they drafted the three teams for the game and Blazers legend Carmelo Anthony took Clingan. He also took Clingan's former UConn teammate Stephon Castle, as well as Cooper Flagg, whose mom played at University of Maine with Clingan's own late mother.
One of the silver linings of missing the Wizards game and having to watch it on TV was getting to hear Evan Turner on the call with Kevin Calabro. When Kevin brought up Flagg and Clingan being Rising Stars teammates, ET responded, "America will be happy that day." Amazing.
The Wizards game was one of Yang's better games of the season.
Robert Williams III revealed after the game in Boston that he and former Celtics teammate Sam Hauser caught up at the game by discussing Yellowstone.
Williams also said that he had mixed emotions watching the Celtics win the 2024 title after trading him (and Malcolm Brogdon) for Holiday.
We talk about this all the time, but Holiday and Williams playing in Boston brought home how full-circle the current Blazers team is. The trade that sent Williams to Portland was the follow-up to the Holiday-Damian Lillard trade. Now all three of them are teammates.
Celtics game ops did a great job with Holiday's tribute video.
