Blazers trying to stay positive amid latest losing streak
The Blazers have shown flashes of brilliance over the past couple of weeks, but don't have a full-strength win to show for it.
Welcome to rebuilding. If you thought that getting everybody back in uniform would lead to wins, the last couple of weeks have been a cruel reminder that the Portland Trail Blazers have only played three games with something resembling a full roster. With all due respect to the healing Robert Williams, the Blazers are as healthy as they can possibly be this season. But Sunday night, against a Golden State team looking to rekindle a championship fire, the Blazers dropped their seventh straight game.
And save for the Utah game on Thursday, Sunday’s game mirrored a majority of their losses. They fought hard, excited the fans and eventually lost to a more veteran squad, with 50-50 plays going against them late. That they snapped Stephen Curry’s NBA-record 268-game streak with a 3-pointer was little consolation.
“No,” Jerami Grant said with a smile when asked if stopping the Curry streak could be some kind of positive momentum.
Grant does know a thing or two about being on young teams that struggle. Being on Detroit for two years before joining Portland last year, he has experience as the only guy who can really get things going. Thankfully for Portland, they are in a much better situation that Grant’s Detroit teams, let alone the current Detroit Pistons. But losses are losses, even for a team looking at next year’s draft. For a group of players who have known nothing but winning throughout their AAU, prep and college careers, this is new to most of the roster.
Anfernee Simons, who along with Grant, is one of the team’s leaders, knows his NBA history. Contending teams rarely become contenders right away.
“We are still a new group. We are still trying to figure each other out. Just in general, not just from the beginning of the season to now, we all trying to figure it out. That just takes time. It’s kind of rare when you just throw a team together for the first year and they start winning,” Simons said. “All of the good teams, most of the good teams, have been together for years before they actually get a shot. That’s kind of the thing I try to preach to the young players going through this for the first time. It’s a process. We have to get off to better starts, that will help as well. But we scrapping at the end of games and put ourselves in position. I think that’s a head start for where a lot of ‘young teams’ are at.”
It’s probably for the best that the Blazers are currently in a stretch where they are playing basically every other day between now and the New Year.
“We don’t have a choice,” Grant said of Portland trying to stay positive. “Games every other day, so we gotta stay mentally strong and be ready for the next one. We got a bunch of resilient guys so we will keep going.”
Portland still had a chance to tie the game late. And ultimately losing right now, especially with the way they are losing most of these games, is not alarming. The decision by Chauncey Billups not to call a timeout in the final seconds is hard for me to get upset about considering Shaedon Sharpe attacking the basket was probably a better option than they could have drawn up with less than six seconds. However, the second challenge, which resulted in the Blazers not having a challenge when the ball appeared to go off Curry down the stretch, could be a place where I could nitpick if I had to. Billups said postgame he wished he had that challenge down the stretch.
Nevertheless, the Blazers are a work in progress and you can see the outline of a good start to things. It is a bit concerning defense has regressed lately, but their offense has more firepower and has allowed them to keep pace with teams in higher weight classes.
The good thing about this season is, they can continue to work on finding balance without worrying about wins and losses, or playoff positioning. But they also need to find a win soon, just to balance out the vibes. While morale seems pretty high still, everyone is getting compensated pretty well to play a game, the season will get a lot harder if they let this losing streak extend beyond 10 games.
We’ll see if these close losses can turn into a win or two before the New Year.
Notes
Scoot Henderson has had games with better stats, but I really enjoyed the steadiness and intention he played with on Sunday. He showed his athleticism on both ends, finishing strong at the rim and fighting on the defensive end without fouling a ton. In general, it seems like the move to the bench has been good for him. Billups mentioned before the Dallas game that he thought Scoot benefitted from the time he missed due to injury, as well as seeing the start of games from the bench, so he can better understand what he needs to bring to the game. There isn’t a ton of data yet on Henderson-Simons-Sharpe playing together, but they have been exciting at times and the rotation of the three seems promising. While most people are rushing to make a decision on which two they have to keep long term, ultimately, you still do need at least three competent guards to field a backcourt rotation. Let them play first. Make decisions later.
Brandon Roy, my personal favorite Blazer of all-time, since that was truly the last time I was really wrapped in the fandom of it all, was in attendance as a welcomed guest of the franchise on Sunday night. After Roy represented the Blazers at the 2023 Draft Lottery, Sunday was another sign of the improving relationship between the franchise and the star player who created so many memorable moments for Blazers fans from his debut in 2007 until his departure from the team in the winter of 2011. We are seeing way more Roy around these parts than we used to. Here’s to hoping that continues.
Maybe the Warriors needed Draymond to lose his mind again. Maybe Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins needed a wake-up call. Or maybe Brandin Poziemski was the missing link. Either way, I came away from tonight feeling better about the Warriors this season as a potential contender. I know that’s not fun to hear for Blazers fans hoping for another lottery pick, but if Thompson and Wiggins find something, they’re right back in the mix. Or maybe they just had two good games and Boston beats them by 30 on Tuesday. They could have easily lost tonight if the ball bounces Portland’s way, but that’s the way of the NBA. Progress or regression sits atop a razor’s edge.
Since the Blazers snapped Steph Curry’s 3-point streak, former Blazer Damian Lillard now owns the longest active 3-point streak with 101 consecutive games with a made 3-pointer.