A hard lesson for Blazers, Billups
Ty Lue got creative and the Blazers panicked
These losses are always the worst. The ones where a former player comes home to bury you in a game you thought you had. The ones where one head coach loses to his mentor, with the mentor making one fourth-quarter masterstroke after another to steal a game the Blazers had dominated through three quarters. The ones you can see coming because you’ve already been on the other side.
The story after Tuesday night should have been about Anfernee Simons again showing the player he has become with 38 points. He went Anime Mode as he often does when the aura of his game starts to vibrate over the court. Or it could have been another big night for Jerami Grant, as it seems he will make every shot he takes. But it was the play of Powell and other former Blazers (Nicolas Batum and Robert Covington) who ruined what should have been a National TV triumph for Simons, 118-112.
Instead of a feel-good bump into tomorrow night’s tilt with the Lakers, Tuesday night was about the successful gambles Ty Lue made to defeat his former assistant coach Chauncey Billups. And while it may not be for the next game, or even several games from now, Billups hopefully learned a lesson from his former mentor when it comes to maintaining the flexibility of thought.
While Billups has every right to be frustrated with his team for allowing Norm Powell to get to his right hand, he also has every right to be upset with himself that his former mentor outmaneuvered him and he was too late to respond. Whether it was Batum covering Simons nearly full court in the 4th quarter and not finding alternative ways to get into the offense, or Lue going with recent G League arrival Moussa Diabate to switch out onto Simons on ball screens, forcing others to create offense – the Blazers failed to answer the questions Lue demanded of them.
Could they score if Grant and Simons weren’t able to get to their spots? Could they play a 5-out style for an entire quarter? The answer was no and the Blazers even got lucky with a few desperation shots from Justise Winslow going in. Foul trouble for Drew Eubanks complicated things, but that’s exactly why tonight was trouble for Billups. The comforts he has leaned on weren’t there and his inability to properly adjust was a difference, if not the ultimate one. Both coaches were working with limited decks, but only one stopped shuffling.
The Blazers are limited at the guard spot suddenly and Lue might be the best coach in the NBA so he asked them to play a game based on guard skills. Asking the Blazers to play a 1-on-1 game without Dame proved to be a smart move, even more so when Grant fouled out of the game. But Billups also made it hard by continuing to go with Justise Winslow over Shaedon Sharpe, even with Grant out of the game.
While Winslow’s Basketball IQ and defense are assets, the Blazers scored just 17 points in the 4th quarter. We will never know if Lue’s gamble of Diabate could have been canceled out by going to someone like Sharpe down the stretch who can create their own shot against a switching defense, but perhaps it was the experience Billups needed to be willing to try the next time a similar scenario arises. And while everyone wishes it wasn’t the scenario he was put in tonight, 82 games have a way of creating the exact scenario you don’t want.
It’s also impossible to ignore that the Blazers have been on the other side of this feeling, most notably on the night of Jerami Grant’s buzzer-beater in Phoenix to beat the Suns without Lillard or Simons. And this is not to say that Billups has not had his tactical masterstrokes, with late-game substitutions proving pivotal in several Portland wins. But tonight he got outmaneuvered.
It is only one game and this is part of the process, but the Blazers have played poorly for about two weeks, with seemingly a different issue every night. Even the turnovers were mostly OK tonight. The intensity with which the Blazers play under Billups is not the question. But nights like tonight are a reminder that he’s still learning how to coach this team as much as this team is still learning how to play together.
Notes
Check out my recap from tonight’s game for the Associated Press! I’ll be covering the rest of the Blazers’ home games through the calendar year while the AP’s Annie Peterson is in Qatar covering the World Cup and taking some much-deserved vacation. Speaking of the World Cup, shout out to the USMNT for making it to the World Cup knockout stage and getting their first W of the tournament.
Speaking of shoutouts, shout out to TNT’s Chris Haynes making his return to Portland and getting a scoop on the beat for old-time’s sake. Haynes reported during the game Damian Lillard plans to make his return to the floor on December 4 after the Blazers get back from their quick two-game trip to L.A. and Utah.
Even though he outfoxed his former assistant, Ty Lue had nothing but good things to say about the Blazers and how hard they play. He also had high praise for Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons, who combined for 69 points in the loss. “Chauncey has those guys playing extremely well, believing they can win every night no matter who is on the floor. He’s got those guys, Simons and Grant, playing at an All-Star level. In the absence of Dame, they keep competing. They’ve won some games when they’ve been down and had to come back and win. We knew it was going to be a tough game for us but we tried to get the ball out of their hands (Simons and Grant’s) and make other guys beat us. Justise made a couple of tough shots in the paint but overall I thought we did a good job with it.”
One of the bigger moments of the game was the nasty fall taken by Reggie Jackson in the 2nd quarter. Lue said after the game that Jackson underwent concussion tests before he was allowed to come back into the game.