Welp, that got ugly right quick.
The Portland Trail Blazers, like most of the other lower-seeded teams in these 2016 NBA Playoffs, let Game 1 of their series with the Los Angeles Clippers slip from a close game after the first half, to a pure blowout in the second. The difficulty Portland had generating offense can’t really be overstated; it looked at times like a team of 12-year-olds playing a team of high school kids.
Instead of providing a cut-and-dried game recap (something we at Oregon Sports News are discouraged from doing, with good reason; you can find that crap anywhere), I’ll jot down five observations from watching the game. Spoiler alert: it ain’t gonna be real positive.
- Chris Paul Takes Round One: For all those who’ve laughed in my face when I mention Paul as an elite defender, watch Game 1 of this series. Then shut up. Forever.
Paul was in Damian Lillard’s jersey all night on defense, denying him the ball, poking the ball loose from him when Lillard did get it, and making sure Lillard couldn’t launch any of those 30-foot bombs he uses to loosen defensive pressure. I don’t think Paul can stay with Lillard like that all series, but with a couple days to rest before the next game, his energy level should still be relatively high. Plus, Paul’s a competitive little bastard; he won’t want Lillard upstaging him.
As for Paul on offense, he shot 10-19 for 28 points, and dished out 11 assists (against two turnovers) into the bargain. He got credit for two steals, but he forced at least three more turnovers from being a general pest. Paul also had six rebounds.
Lillard shot 7-17, including 3-8 from three-point range, for 21 points. He had eight assists, but he also turned the ball over four times. Lillard’s plus/minus was the worst of the game, at -22. That stat doesn’t matter much to starters, but since you almost never see a star like Lillard have such a bad showing in plus/minus, I thought it was worth mentioning.
In a matchup Lillard has to win if the Blazers are to have any hope, he got outplayed badly.
- IT’S A TRAP!!!: That quote from Admiral Akbar in Return of the Jedi is an old meme, but given the way the Clippers were defending the pick-and-roll, Akbar may as well have been shouting it all game.
Whenever Lillard or CJ McCollum ran the pick-and-roll, the defending guard and big man would jump out and trap the ball handler, letting the Blazer big go free. Lillard got some easy assists out of it, but he also had a few passes deflected.
McCollum had a much worse time of it. Unused to seeing that kind of attention, he faltered badly, shooting 3-11 for just nine points. He turned the ball over just twice, but his discomfort was apparent, and the bench unit he led at the start of the second quarter was ill-equipped to assist him.
Portland must adjust to what the Clippers are doing on the pick-and-roll, if only to get McCollum going a little bit. The Blazers desperately need him.
- How About A Little Help, Guys?: Let’s segue into what the Blazers didn’t do when Los Angeles did trap their guards, and they were able to get the ball to the other players.
The Clips do not fear a 4-on-3 advantage in the Blazers’ favor when the trap happens, and that’s due to the bigs not being skilled with the ball, and the other perimeter players not making open threes.
Ed Davis is awesome in most respects, but a creator he is not. Mason Plumlee can be used as a secondary offensive outlet, either catching on the roll and finishing or making the proper play in the aforementioned 4-on-3 situation. But even when the proper play was made, Portland often failed to connect on the open shot.
Al-Farouq Aminu has improved drastically from long range this year, but Clippers coach Doc Rivers was comfortable leaving him out there to shoot wide-open threes. And I mean WIDE OPEN; there sometimes wasn’t a Clipper within spitting range of him, much less capable of contesting the shot. Unfortunately, Aminu proved Rivers right in this game, shooting a paltry 3-12 (including 2-8 from three).
As for the other guys? Gerald Henderson shot well, but the Clips didn’t allow Allen Crabbe to shoot much at all, and while Mo Harkless was able to abuse JJ Redick at the start of the game on the inside, he is still a sub-30% three-point shooter. Rivers will let Mo jack all night without caring one whit.
The key is going to be Aminu. Is his improved shooting real, or was it just a mirage that’s disappearing in the heat of the playoffs?
- JJ Redick Won’t Bite, Get Up Into Him!: Redick ran McCollum ragged, despite playing with a bad heel. He sure didn’t look hurt last night, doing his White Reggie Miller thing and frequently popping out from behind picks, then burying long-range daggers into the Blazers’ chests.
Redick shot 8-12 for 17 points. The three-point line shots CJ can’t do much about; either he fights through the screens and makes it hard on Redick, or Redick gets an open jumper. When Redick goes midrange, though, the center must help.
Redick isn’t Paul. You don’t have to fear the lob to DeAndre Jordan or Blake Griffin with Redick, which is why I got pissed at Plumlee for sitting back and letting Redick calmly sink a 15-footer instead of coming up on him early in the game.
Portland coach Terry Stotts has his big men stay back like that in his conservative scheme, but sometimes it’s on the player to know the situation and the player in question. With Chris Paul, hell yes you sit back and let him shoot. It’s more preferable to letting him throw that lob behind you.
With JJ Redick, you don’t want one of the best shooters in basketball to get any kind of clean look. Ever.
- Blake Griffin And The Post Game: I mentioned in my series preview Friday that Griffin would try to post up Aminu and Harkless whenever he could. Lo and behold, the start of the game featured a steady diet of Griffin post-ups.
Aminu and Harkless are both tough and game guys, but Blake Griffin, out-of-shape as he is right now, is a beast from a different planet. He had 19 and 12 tonight, and got Harkless into foul trouble. Harkless was abusing Redick at the start of the game, and once he came out, the Blazers were a little less effective.
In the playoffs, “little less” can mean a great deal. I really can’t offer a practical solution to this problem that also doesn’t totally kill the Blazers’ spacing, though switching out Harkless for Chris Kaman for more minutes might be an option. As mentioned above, Harkless isn’t much of an outside threat anyway, so why not get the extra beef out there?
Game 2 is Wednesday at 7:30, on TNT and KGW.
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