For the second consecutive night, the Portland Trail Blazers rallied from a daunting double-digit deficit in the second half on Tuesday. Just like the night before, they recaptured the lead late in the fourth quarter as the Moda Center went bananas. Just like the night before, the Blazers didn’t have enough gas to get across the finish line, as the Orlando Magic held on for a 110-106 win.
Two days. Two heartbreakers. Now the Blazers sit at 12-18 in a season littered with similarly deflating defeats.
”The first thing I said was keep your heads up,” Blazers acting head coach Tiago Splitter said about his postgame message to the team after the loss. “You guys fought. You guys were there. You guys competed. I’m proud of them. And I told them that this work, this effort, is going to pay off sooner or later.”
Similar to Portland’s 110-102 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Monday, the Blazers somehow stayed in the game on Tuesday despite a rough 3-point shooting night and a rotation rocked by injuries. This time, the Blazers did it in an ultra-physical, chippy game that featured lots of trash talking and bodies hitting the hardwood.
Guard Desmond Bane played the heel for Orlando. The Memphis transplant flexed his biceps after big plays and barked at the Blazers bench on his way to a team-high 23 points, three steals and three blocks. Blazers forwards Sidy Cissoko and Toumani Camara didn’t back down from the talk, taking the fight right back to Bane by getting in his jersey high on the perimeter. Deep in the paint, opposing big men Donovan Clingan and Wendell Carter Jr. were battling in their own 1-on-1 wrestling match. Their jostling for position on the boards featured tangled arms, shoves and dueling pleas to the officials as they went up and down the court.
There was also a name in the mix of all that scrappiness you might not expect: Blazers two-way guard Caleb Love. The 6-foot-3 rookie more known for occasional scoring outbursts was a major factor on defense during Portland’s fourth-quarter surge, pursuing Bane through ball screens on and off the ball. Love finished with a career-high three blocks, two of those coming against Bane in the fourth quarter.
“Caleb Love had a great game, defensively especially,” Splitter said. “He was chasing Bane all over the court. Blocking [shots], deflections, rebounds. Very active.”
That defensive production was compounded by one of Love’s hot shooting nights. He finished with a badly needed 17 points (on 7-13 shooting) off the bench, and he let Bane know about it along the way.
“That’s just competitive nature,” Love said about the back-and-forth with Bane. “I’m gonna always compete every time I step on the floor. He’s a competitor as well. That’s just two ball players competing.”
“We’re not backing down from nobody,” Blazers forward Deni Avdija added about the physical nature of Tuesday’s game.
Alongside that dirty work from the role players, Avdija was the dogged conductor of Portland’s attack again. Carrying an immense burden on the offensive end, the 6-foot-8 forward finished with 25 points, eight assists, six rebounds and two steals. Blazers guard Shaedon Sharpe filled in the secondary scoring role, providing 22 points on 8-18 shooting. With those guys leading the charge, the Blazers overcame a big 3-point shooting disparity by bashing the Magic in points in the paint, 58-36. Portland also won the transition scoring battle, 28-13.
A Sharpe mid-range pull-up with 8:30 left in regulation gave Portland its first lead since early in the second quarter. The bucket also marked the Blazers’ emergence from a 17-point deficit. But down the stretch in crunch time, Portland just couldn’t make enough winning plays. Sharpe split a pair at the free throw line with 39 seconds left, keeping the Blazers down by one point. Then after a stop, Avdija drove and dished to Clingan on the left block. The 7-footer’s attempt to take the lead at the rim was rejected from behind, snuffing out Portland’s best chance to win the game.
With 11 seconds left, Portland trailed 109-106 coming out of the timeout with the ball and one more opportunity. Directly off of the inbound pass, Avdija’s leaning, potential game-tying 3-pointer didn’t seem to stand much of a chance when it left his hands from 30 feet. It missed hard off the backboard and rim, careening into the opposition’s hands.
“I sensed they were gonna foul me,” Avdija said about that play. “I didn’t really want to get fouled so I wanted to get a quick shot. … Sometimes it’s gonna go in, sometimes it’s gonna go out. So I’ll just live with the results.”
With so many injuries, the remaining healthy Blazers have had to carry larger responsibilities and minute loads. They also had to exert a lot of energy over these past two losses to claw out of big holes. It made this writer wonder how much tired legs might’ve been a factor down the stretch in both games. Presented with that idea, Splitter said “for sure.”
“I would rather have them playing 32 minutes at most,” Splitter said. “But, Toumani [played 39 minutes], Deni played 40 [minutes] yesterday, 36 [minutes] today. Guys were in minutes restrictions. I was doing math during the game and seeing how many seconds they had left.”
“I’ll be honest, and I’m gonna say it’s not easy to be the primary ball-handler the whole [game],” Avdija added. “A lot of the scouting report is like they switch defenses on me, and they’re throwing different defenders on me. And I’m trying to make the right play and really trust the guys around me. They’re doing a great job of moving and making my life easier. But there’s definitely fatigue. I won’t lie. But ain’t nobody care how tired I am, so I’ve gotta go out there and produce.”
After a tough two-game stretch, the Blazers get two days off to recharge over the holiday. Then they resume with a home matchup against the LA Clippers on Dec. 26. Everybody who spoke with the media after the Orlando loss — from Splitter, to Avdija, to Cissoko to Love — all made it clear these close losses aren’t breaking their spirit.
They’re sticking together and continuing to fight. They’ve backed up those words so often this season, it’s hard not to believe them.
“We believe in each other. We believe in ourselves as a team,” Avdija said. “It’s only gonna make us better, for real. Those losses, those are tough, but you really learn from them. I’d rather lose tight games like that than get blown out.”