Game 36: Portland vs Detroit 7:00pm Root,Root+

[Brandon-Clyde]

vs



Time: 7:00 pm
Place: Moda Center
TV:Root, Root+



GLB of the game Lauren Cohan

Spoiler:

[JasonStern]

No Root/Root+, so will have to wait for the highlights.

Should be a winnable game. But I like Detroit's young core. Blazers still need to show up. And Detroit should be an exciting team in the future.

[HoopsFanAZ]

The next 5 games are both winnable and MUST win. Playing down to the level of the competition — even with many banged-up Blazers — is beyond unacceptable to go after the 6th seed (no play-ins). After all the road games and tougher schedule, the Blazers need to feast.

[Brandon-Clyde]

1st quarter GLB pic

Spoiler:

[Brandon-Clyde]

2nd quarter GLB pic

Spoiler:

[Brandon-Clyde]

3rd quarter GLB pic

Spoiler:

[Moonbeam]

Nice to see Portland build a big lead! Hopefully they can cruise to an easy win. Lots of fun here in the 3rd.

[Brandon-Clyde]

4th quarter GLB pic

Spoiler:

[Moonbeam]

Portland with 80 points combined in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.

[Brandon-Clyde]

Victory GLB pic

Spoiler:

[Case2012]

Dame had 4 steals and 10 assists, loved his old school play tonight.

[DaVoiceMaster]

Not bad for an "average" point guard!!!

Nice to see GP2 out there. Would love to see the Blazers improve at center without having to include any other main players.

Nurk and some combination of Little, Walker, GBIII, Watford, and/or a future pick.

[Moonbeam]

Awesome, feel-good blowout win!

[monopoman]

Very impressive game, Detroit may not have won many games but they typically don't get blown out like this. Nice to see the immediate impact from a GP II, he also seemed to inspire better D from the rest of the Blazers. I noticed some nice defensive plays by both Dame and Simons in this game.

GP II could be one of our most important players by the end of the season, oh and I almost forgot Grant with the insane game here. He had 36 points in 28 minutes of action, feels like this could have been a 40+ point win if the starters weren't taken out.

I am curious if Lillard has ever had 4 steals in a game before this one, because I can't recall that many.

[Shem]

I am curious if Lillard has ever had 4 steals in a game before this one, because I can't recall that many.

The last time Dame had 4 steals in a game was in a game at Madison Square Garden on February 6, 2021:

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/202102060NYK.html

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Very impressive game, Detroit may not have won many games but they typically don't get blown out like this. Nice to see the immediate impact from a GP II, he also seemed to inspire better D from the rest of the Blazers. I noticed some nice defensive plays by both Dame and Simons in this game.

I noticed that too with Sharpe. He looked like he was playing with a bit more intensity on defense with GP out there.

We were just flying everywhere, and I just think that energy is contagious and got everybody going. Shaedon picking up full court now, so I like that a lot in him, and, you know, just being disruptive. He’s got to stop fouling a lot but he’s doing a nice job.

Everybody helps mold the young fellas, but, especially in a game, things move to fast or their just still picking up the speed of the game, and all they really need is somebody just to guide them and, you know, just to talk to them. I had it growing up in this league and, you know, just pass it down naturally. But he listens and that’s one of the biggest things with him is he’s coachable, so that’s going to help him along the way.

[GEE]

Not bad for an "average" point guard!!!

This is the best game Dame has had yet as a PG, and not an "average" performance from him. He showed he's capable of being an elite PG, if willing to put his point totals aside and focus on doing what great PGs do, which is making the players around him better. 10 assists with only 2 turnovers is the biggest stat, but was also a dog on defense with 4 steals, had 5 boards and still got almost 20 points fairly easily. He also played much smarter by not driving into the paint to draw contact, hoping to get a foul called, but instead left that job to Grant and the other wings. Getting that Technical foul proved big as well.

SMART BASKETBALL, and exactly what is needed from him (IMO) on a nightly basis, if we want to get beyond the first round of the playoffs. I hope he'll continue to play this way in the future, but again, not a typical performance by him. What we witnessed was special. Hope he can stick to it against the better teams too. If he can, and we can simply add a Mark Williams level player with mostly draft picks, there's no telling where this team will be a month or two from now, but I'd confidently wager at minimum, top-4 in the West.

[monopoman]

Not bad for an "average" point guard!!!

This is the best game Dame has had yet as a PG, and not an "average" performance from him. He showed he's capable of being an elite PG, if willing to put his point totals aside and focus on doing what great PGs do, which is making the players around him better. 10 assists with only 2 turnovers is the biggest stat, but was also a dog on defense with 4 steals, had 5 boards and still got almost 20 points fairly easily. He also played much smarter by not driving into the paint to draw contact, hoping to get a foul called, but instead left that job to Grant and the other wings. Getting that Technical foul proved big as well.

SMART BASKETBALL, and exactly what is needed from him (IMO) on a nightly basis, if we want to get beyond the first round of the playoffs. I hope he'll continue to play this way in the future, but again, not a typical performance by him. What we witnessed was special. Hope he can stick to it against the better teams too. If he can, and we can simply add a Mark Williams level player with mostly draft picks, there's no telling where this team will be a month or two from now, but I'd confidently wager at minimum, top-4 in the West.

I'm not sure where posts like this come from Dame has typically been in top assists of most seasons. Acting like he only looks for his own shot is a ridiculous notion in general. In the 2021 season he was 7th out of all players, he missed a huge chunk of the 2022 season so you can't really count that. In the 2020 season he was 6th out of all players, again anywhere near the top 10 means he is at least a pretty damn great passer and he passes the ball quite a bit.

He is not an elite passer but he is easily a top 10 passer of active players and it's blatantly obvious to anyone that watches a good chunk of Blazer games. Does he look for his own shot at times? Yes, but he is nowhere near as focused on that as many other prolific shooters. **** by my recollection he typically looks for his own shot mostly in the 4th, and usually when we are down say 8 or more.

I get frustrated when people ignore this aspect of his game though, he does seem to go out of his way to try set guys up especially in the first 3 quarters.

[Moonbeam]

Not bad for an "average" point guard!!!

This is the best game Dame has had yet as a PG, and not an "average" performance from him. He showed he's capable of being an elite PG, if willing to put his point totals aside and focus on doing what great PGs do, which is making the players around him better. 10 assists with only 2 turnovers is the biggest stat, but was also a dog on defense with 4 steals, had 5 boards and still got almost 20 points fairly easily. He also played much smarter by not driving into the paint to draw contact, hoping to get a foul called, but instead left that job to Grant and the other wings. Getting that Technical foul proved big as well.

SMART BASKETBALL, and exactly what is needed from him (IMO) on a nightly basis, if we want to get beyond the first round of the playoffs. I hope he'll continue to play this way in the future, but again, not a typical performance by him. What we witnessed was special. Hope he can stick to it against the better teams too. If he can, and we can simply add a Mark Williams level player with mostly draft picks, there's no telling where this team will be a month or two from now, but I'd confidently wager at minimum, top-4 in the West.

I'm not sure where posts like this come from Dame has typically been in top assists of most seasons. Acting like he only looks for his own shot is a ridiculous notion in general. In the 2021 season he was 7th out of all players, he missed a huge chunk of the 2022 season so you can't really count that. In the 2020 season he was 6th out of all players, again anywhere near the top 10 means he is at least a pretty damn great passer and he passes the ball quite a bit.

He is not an elite passer but he is easily a top 10 passer of active players and it's blatantly obvious to anyone that watches a good chunk of Blazer games. Does he look for his own shot at times? Yes, but he is nowhere near as focused on that as many other prolific shooters. **** by my recollection he typically looks for his own shot mostly in the 4th, and usually when we are down say 8 or more.

I get frustrated when people ignore this aspect of his game though, he does seem to go out of his way to try set guys up especially in the first 3 quarters.

I agree. I think Dame's game can be criticized, and he does look for his shot a little more than I'd like at times, but he's hardly egregious and has been a lynchpin behind successful Portland offenses for years. Since blowing the team up in 2015, Portland's relative offensive rating (positives scores meaning better offense) and league ranking has been as follows:

2015-16: +2.4, 6th
2016-17: +1.5, 11th
2017-18: +0.5, 15th
2018-19: +4.3, 3rd
2019-20: +3.1, 3rd
2020-21: +5.5, 2nd
2021-22: -4.2, 27th
2022-23: +1.6, 9th

Obviously, Dame was out for most of the 21-22 season and the team deliberately tanked. IMO, Portland has been pretty close to its ceiling in terms of offensive potential in the Lillard era.

It's been on the defensive side of the ball where the team has struggled. The corresponding relative defensive rating (positives scores meaning worse defense) and league rankings for the same seasons have been:

2015-16: +1.6, 20th
2016-17: +2.0, 24th
2017-18: -2.2, 8th
2018-19: +0.1, 16th
2019-20: +4.2, 28th
2020-21: +3.7, 29th
2021-22: +4.9, 30th
2022-23: +0.6, 18th

Excepting the 2021-22 season, Portland has been about 2.2 points per 100 possessions better than league average over this span, while their defense has been about 1.4 points per 100 possessions worse than league average. For as much as we've all complained and witnessed the ineptitude of Portland's defense over the years, we should have been marvelling even more about Portland's offensive prowess, and Dave is the key driver of that. Sure, he could add a bit more Chris Paul to his game and I think the team could be slightly better for it, but it's hard to argue with the results overall given the offensive personnel the team has had. Dame's an elite offensive player and has consistently led the team to good to very good offenses.