Welcome to the Basketball Hangover. I write about what’s happening in the NBA daily, even when COVID has ravaged the league.
The Blazers finished their road trip at 5-1.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Ken Blaze/USA Today.)
So after that horrid stretch where the Portland TrailBlazers went 2-9 (and went 0-4 in their last home stand where they lost two games by one and one game by two), they had a strong road trip where they got revenge on Memphis, defeated Brooklyn, and had an excellent win over Boston, who is struggling to turn the corner. While they did lose against a surging Atlanta team, they beat the hell out of Cleveland.
Portland is currently 7th in the West, meaning that they’d have to do the play-in game to get to the postseason outright. In the midst of all of this, there was a curious article by Yahoo’s Chris Haynes about Dame not being demanding enough to management about continuing to build a championship team. And very recently, it was said that Terry Stotts could be out as Portland’s head coach if they don’t run deep into the playoffs.
The Blazers have routinely been an early out in the postseason. They did peak in 2019 when they got to the Western Conference Finals, only to be run over by a sweep by Golden State. Injuries have been consistently an issue to Portland and this year has been no exception. With Utah and Phoenix being the new top dogs in the West, the L.A. teams always lurking around, and Denver (even with their own injuries) trying to top their performance from last season, it’s hard to envision Portland going far.
Damian Lillard is in his prime and management would hate to waste those years. It’s been questioned for years whether CJ McCollum really is the right #2 guy. But again, we have seen flashes of what this team could do. In 2018, Portland’s defense was Top 10. And Portland’s offense is as dynamic as any team right now.
Maybe the Blazers need a new voice. Maybe Stotts has taken this team as far as he could. Maybe a new scheme is needed. But the Blazers are definitely at a crossroads. They might have to do something big with the roster or/and the coaching ranks for the Blazers to get to the next level. And they’ll have to do it soon because pretty soon, we’re going to be counting the days down on Damian Lillard’s prime. Dame turns 31 this summer and before we know it, he’s 37 and out of time.
The playoffs could answer a lot of those questions for Rip City.
Bullet Passes
7 of 9 games on Wednesday turned out to be double digit margins. Four of those games had margins of 30 points or more. Not the most exciting night of basketball.
The Suns inexplicably got iced by the Hawks. Meanwhile, the Jazz took care of business against San Antonio. Utah has regained the #1 spot and are up by a game on the Suns.
Sacramento has won four in a row and, man, that’s just headscratching. With the Spurs loss, the Kings have cut the margin down to 2.5 games for the #10 spot.
After a 42-point performance, it just seems hard to not give the Rookie of the Year award to Anthony Edwards. For a guy that is still not really into basketball, he’s very very good at it.
After that slip-up against the Lakers, the Nuggets came back to pound on the Knicks. They go back to the #3 seed due to tiebreakers while the Knicks and Hawks are having a battle for the home court.
The Pacers sound really fun right now. More and more damning reports are coming out about first-year head coach Nate Bjorkgen. If a lot of this turns out to be true, I can’t see him lasting beyond this year. And that Greg Foster/Goga Bitadze exchange certainly didn’t help the Pacers’ cause. It seems like a firestorm is going on in there.
NBA Scoreboard
May 5, 2021
Watch This Play
Yet another Ja Morant highlight. The hangtime before the bangtime.
(VIDEO CREDIT: MLG Highlights.)
I feel like this is the 66th time I put a Morant highlight on this section this season.
Everyone, please take care of yourselves during this pandemic. And that goes for everyone involved with the NBA as well.
You can find Rey-Rey on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
You can also check out Rey-Rey’s podcast, Rey-Rey Is Fundamental, for more basketball content and, really, whatever else.
R.I.P. Nala.