Yes, the Blazers are extremely shorthanded; they’ve lost three point guards and one of their 20-point-per-game scorers to injury. However, that does not excuse the lack of execution and poor play from the healthy players who did suit up tonight, especially the ones who are supposed to be the future of this franchise.
The Blazers had a chance to pull off a 21-point comeback against the Pistons. Cade Cunningham, the current favorite to win the Clutch Player of the Year award, fouled out with 8:30 left to go. Portland even held a one-point lead.
But collectively, Portland’s young core choked. They let a Cade-less Pistons team swipe an avalanche of momentum from their grasp. With the help of the Blazers, Detroit showed Rip City why they’ve only lost six games all year.
Did Shaedon Sharpe Play Well?
Shaedon Sharpe was masterful when shooting the basketball inside the arc tonight. Turn around mid-range shots, baseline pull-ups, transition dunks, acrobatic layups with a kiss of the glass — he had it all.
He also added five steals, which was the only saving grace for the fact that he had eight turnovers.
Eight!
No two were bigger than the two at the end of the game. Ausar Thompson picked his pocket for a free dunk to bring the lead back to three points for Detroit. And then, in dire need of a bucket, Shaedon stepped back and onto the sideline in front of the Pistons’ bench.
Deni Avdija Needs to Fix the Foul Fixation
Watching Deni Avdija, it feels like his incessant desire to get fouled is starting to affect his play. It doesn’t help that when he kicks the ball out to someone that, more likely than not, they’re a sub-30-percent three-point shooter, but Deni has struggled finishing on his drives. Through nine games in December, he’s shot above 50% on twos just three times. Against Detroit, he couldn’t figure out when to shoot or when to pass and looked extremely uncomfortable doing both.
Free throws are his biggest offensive weapon, and he’s been great at them for the most part. He secured three huge trips to the free-throw line in the fourth quarter, but missed the front end each time. It’s not the first time he’s held the Blazers back at the stripe in a tight contest.
Deni was playing great defense at the end of the game, though. No moment was more indicative of that than when he locked up Tobias Harris and forced him into a side-step three-point look as the shot clock was expiring. He even got a small piece of the ball on the shot…but the ref called it a foul.
Tiago Splitter used his second and final coach’s challenge to successfully overturn the ruling. However, on this missed shot attempt, even though the ball landed in Clingan’s hands, the refs ruled not only that there was no imminent possession for Portland, but also that the shot clock would reset. The Pistons would win the ensuing jump ball and score two more points, wasting a full 17 seconds in the process.
Sidy Cissoko Shines Bright
Sidy Cissoko was Portland’s brightest player against the Pistons. In a game in which the Blazers lost by eight points, he was a +11 in 27 minutes. He finished with 16 points thanks to his 10-of-13 performance at the free-throw line.
Blazers Not a Winning Team Yet
This Blazer team is playing at a severe talent disadvantage nearly every night with how many key players are hurt for them. That makes the jobs of everyone who is talented much harder.
But in a coin flip game, when it was four of Portland’s regular starters out on the court, aided by a two-way player having one of the best two-way games of his career, up against a team without their go-to clutch scorer, at home, the Blazers need to find a way to pull out a win; there’s no other way around it.
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