The Portland Trail Blazers took care of business against a heavily, heavily depleted Memphis Grizzlies squad on Friday night, winning 135 to 115. Memphis’ motley crew of young talent, new acquisitions, and newly acquired young talent gave Blazers fans plenty to be nervous about in the first half. In a defense-optional first quarter, the Grizzlies hung 36 points on the sputtering Blazers. Scoot Henderson’s inspiring presence, and hot shooting, helped the Blazers claw their way back into the game in the second quarter. The Blazers continued their dominance into the third quarter, finishing the period with a 106 to 97 lead, enough to carry them to a win.
The Blazers demonstrated that through the power of friendship, and by having more proven NBA talent on their roster than the Grizzlies anything is possible. Unfortunately, the basketball gods do not want to see a Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe backcourt. Sharpe exited the game at halftime and would not return with what the team has labeled a left calf injury. Sigh.
Henderson looked fantastic in his return from a nine-month absence, dropping 11 points, 9 assists, and posting a plus-minus of +19. His activity on both ends on the floor provided a dynamism that the Blazers have sorely lacked in recent games. The question now becomes, what does the rotation look like when Deni Advija returns from injury? The last three months of Blazers basketball have been defined by a ball handling drought, resulting in a league-worst turnover rate. Suddenly, they face the opposite problem: too many ball handlers.
As a consequence of this congestion, standout rookie guard Caleb Love did not dress tonight. The coming weeks will involve lots of tinkering from the coaching staff. Will they continue to employ Deni as the primary ball handler? Will the starting lineup look meaningfully different? The Blazers’ vets deserve a mandatory shoutout.
Sure, Scoot is the player of the game by default. However, Jerami Grant and Jrue Holiday brought a steady scoring presence to the game that helped the Blazers create separation in the second half. Grant and Holiday finished with 23 points on 8 of 15 shooting, and 20 on 6 of 12, respectively.
The Blazers won the turnover battle tonight, scoring 23 points on 16 Grizzlies turnovers. Conversely, the Blazers had an exactly average ball security night, by their standards, coughing the ball over 17 times.
The Grizzlies did not possess a healthy center in this one, meaning the Blazers exercised complete domination in the paint. Donovan Clingan and Robert Williams feasted on Memphis’ small-ball-by-force lineups. Clingan finished with 13 points and 17 rebounds, 7 of them offensive. Williams posted totals of 13 points and 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks in 19 minutes.
The Blazers take on the Grizzlies again tomorrow night for the second of a double-header. Game time is 7:00 PM.