Believe it or not, we’re already almost a quarter of the way through this Trail Blazer season. While not hopeless like the poor Seventy Sixers or Lakers’ seasons have been looking so far, it has been a tough go. The sting from the Blazers overtime loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday was still present. When your two big guns Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum go virtually silent shooting 14/45 combined, it doesn’t help. However, when your bench puts up 73 of your 112 points, it shows there’s still a will to win. Sometimes there just aren’t enough shovels at the end of the game to keep digging.
Facing off with the 12-5 Pacers at home tonight, the Blazers needed to find the means to hold off a team on a 6 game winning streak. Paul George is ranked 2nd in the NBA with 56 three-point shots. Nipping at his heels in 3rd with 54, is Damian Lillard. It was certain to be high noon at the Moda Center, and Dame needed to snap out of his slump and be the last man standing for the Blazers to come out on top. And, the 6th, 7th, and 8th men off of the Blazer bench needed to produce like they did on Tuesday. Meyers Leonard, Ed Davis, and Allen Crabbe needed to harness some confidence from their double-digit performances against Dallas and bring the fury.
After the dust settled, the Blazers walked off with a 123-111 win, riding off into the sunset, and into a 4 game road trip. Yee-haw!!
Pacers got off to a nasty 10-2 run in the first 2 minutes. The Blazers stayed true to their formula from the last two losses of getting manhandled right out of the gate. The Pacers swarmed around the ball on both sides of the court, forcing turnovers and snagging loose balls. Just past the halfway mark, Coach Stotts started trickling in the Blazer bench, and that second string fury started to show. Meyers Leonard and Allen Crabbe put up a quick 7 points combined, bringing the Blazers within 3 going into the 2nd quarter.
Both teams went shot for shot through most of the 2nd. The Pacers maintained the lead, but the Blazers never let them get over 5. CJ and Dame woke up a little and scored 12 points a-piece before the quarter was over. Ed Davis nabbed a total of 9 rebounds and was on his way to his 3rd consecutive double-double.
After pushing hard for the first four minutes of the 3rd, the Blazers finally got their first lead of the game off a technical foul shot made by Dame. Pacers’ head coach Frank Vogel was a smidge to mouthy after a call, and Dame punished him for it. The momentum started to swing in the Blazers favor. Dame and CJ quickly cranked the lead to 5. With a minute left, Dame and Paul George collided off a pick, sending George wincing to the floor. Indiana called a quick 20-second time out to sort him out. The Blazers held the Pacers to 47% shooting, topped them 46% to 43% behind the arc, and were able to take a 7-point lead into the 4th.
Tensions were very high going into the 4th. Coach Stotts got himself a technical foul in the first minute after he spoke out against an out of bounds call. From his red-hot face, you could tell Stotts wanted this win bad before they head out on their road trip, and was willing to give a little lip to get it. About halfway through the quarter, “Cool Breeze” Crabbe started to blow through the offense and helped maintain the lead with a couple threes and jumpers. From there, the Blazers collectively ran off with the W.
The Trail Blazers out played the Pacers in every category. Rebounds, assists, steals, shooting percentage, and on and on. While this first quarter of the season was a little bumpy, if the young Blazers can keep this groove of starters and bench players performing at almost the same level, we could definitely smooth things out. Personally, I don’t think a play-off appearance is too farfetched…