I’ll say this. The Blazers look like they have made a decision on the direction of the team. This is something that has not been the case for the last few years. The trade for Deni is quickly becoming the best thing that happened during the offseason. Plus, the inclusion of Toumani Camara is going to haunt the Suns as one of the dumbest decisions this decade. And then, us taking a flier on Shaedon because we needed help at every position that we might as well take the crazy athletic dude jumping out of gyms even though he hasn’t play a single min of competitive ball since high school. The last two weeks now seem to be filled with more losses than wins, which at this point is fine. We proved to the NBA we can be a good defensive team, and we’re ending the season on a high regardless of our finishing record.
Game #73 - 3/25 vs Cleveland (122-111 L)
Unfortunatley, this result was inevitable. The Cavs are one tough team to beat this year, especially with the addition of De’Andre Hunter as a spark plug off the bench and Ty Jerome continuing his heater of a season. The Blazers had a decently even scoring night with six guys all scoring between 13-18 points, with Clingan and Shaedon both leading the way with 18 each. But when your opponent shoots 54% from the floor, taking 12 less shots than you, that’s gonna be a tough recipe for success. As much as our defense has improved since the New Year, you have to put up a special performance against a team like Cleveland. Getting Matisse back is massive for this team, especially when he’s able to have sticky hands on defense and make 5/6 shots from deep. This loss doesn’t put us out of the Play-In, but it definitely doesn’t help our cause when teams like Dallas and Phoenix are winning games.
Game #74 - 3/27 @ Sacramento (128-107 L)
In a must-win game against a team also fighting for the playoffs, this is a terrible result. Not only were the Blazers more than capable of winning this game, but they’ve been trending better than the Kings as of late. Neither team has had a stellar month of March, but the Blazers’ losses are to teams they probably should be losing to i.e. the Celtics and Cavs. This game truly featured scoring from the starters on each side of the ball. Ant, Toumani, and Shaedon all scored 20+, with Domantas Sabonis, DaMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Keegan Murray all scoring 17+. And with all of that scoring coming from the starters, the Blazers lead at the 8:17 mark in Q1 and then surrendered the lead for the rest of the game. With this loss being to a team we need to beat, it lessens our odds for the Play-In quite drastically. We would essentially need to run the table and hope for a lot of losses from the Suns, Mavs, and Kings. The season seems to not be in our hands like it was a week ago and losses might be the move to improve our odds in the draft.
Game #75 - 3/30 @ New York (110-93 L)
What a collapse in the 4th Quarter. Getting outscored by 16 in the last 12 minutes is quite catastrophic against a team locked into the 3-seed in the East. They just need to coast these last handful of games and a loss to the Blazers was much more of a necessity for Portland than New York. OG Anunoby cooked us and underscored Deni’s 33-point evening scoring 28 points on 69% shooring with 7 rebounds. This was a very back-and-forth game that maybe Chauncey decided to give up once Q4 started, knowing the probability of making the Play-In isn’t in the cards anymore. It’s tough to think that’s the case when the January came with the commentary about him leading the mentality of “keeping everyone accountable”. And it would be a disservice to him, and ultimately hypocritical, for him to give up with eight games remaining.
Record: 0-3 (32-43)
Next Week’s Games: 4/1 @ Atlanta, 4/3 @ Toronto, 4/4 @ Chicago, 4/6 vs San Antonio