The Portland Trail Blazers lost a 103-101 thriller to the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday night. I had the privilege of being in attendance at the Moda Center for the game, as it was also Blazer\u2019s Edge Night, the evening when we sent 2617 children, youth, and chaperones from the Portland area to see the Blazers play in person.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not gonna lie. I walked almost two miles from my hotel to a MAX line to get to the arena at 2:00 this afternoon to go on the radio for a couple hours with Rip City Radio 620 host Chad Doing. I love those moments. It always goes by too quickly. Then there was another radio spot, the game, then riding MAX back in the dark and walking two more miles in the mixed rain and slush to my hotel room. I\u2019m a little tired! (And desperately in need of a tutorial on how to use ridesharing, I guess.) But the buzz from the evening hasn\u2019t left, so here are a few observations from the event and the game. You always see things differently in person. Maybe some of these will be new and relevant!<\/p>\n
I\u2019m calling this right now. As long as he\u2019s on the team, Deni Avdija needs to be the point guard. Things go better for him and his teammates when he runs the show. He\u2019s the spiritual captain of the squad already, also its leading scorer right now. Taking the reins is a natural step. His vision and passing just keep getting better. Frankly, the team plays differently when Deni has the ball up top than they do with anybody else, even Jrue Holiday. The Blazers get better looks too.<\/p>\n
I know Portland has approximately 56 true point guards right now. I\u2019m not trying to insinuate what will, or should, happen with any of them. But I am saying that this is almost certainly Deni\u2019s best destiny. The way the team is built now, that also makes it the Blazers\u2019 best destiny.<\/p>\n
During that aforementioned radio show, we talked quite a bit about Scoot Henderson. I opined that three-point shooting was not optional for him, but essential. Not only does it make him a better scorer, it pulls in defenders who can then be driven past, opening up layup and passing possibilities.<\/p>\n
We saw that play out in miniature tonight. Scoot went 4-5 from distance in the first half. It turned him into a monster, an impossible handful for the Hornets. The defense came out, the floor opened, it was practically paradise.<\/p>\n
In the second half, Henderson wasn\u2019t hitting. As the defense sagged back (on him and other Blazers who also started missing) both paint points and rebounds evaporated.<\/p>\n
The other thing that\u2019s really obvious with Scoot\u2019s game right now is that there are two different Hendersons out there. One is decisive and confident, catching the ball and moving right into a shooting motion, driving off of a hard dribble and bulling through his defender. The other is slower, more deliberate, dribbling several times or holding the ball. That Scoot isn\u2019t nearly as good as the first one.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d almost say that you can measure Henderson\u2019s success on a given possession by the amount of time he takes to set up whatever he\u2019s doing. Zero or one dribble into a shot or hard move, he\u2019s golden. More time than that and it gets dicey.<\/p>\n
The Blazers were aided by red-hot three-point shooting in the first period, which more or less carried them through the first half in total. Scoring was easy, energy was high, the tempo was fast. The combination of sweet shooting and hard charging made them all but unstoppable.<\/p>\n
Both characteristics failed in the second half. Calming down from 50% shooting beyond the arc was to be expected. The Blazers are not, after all, the Hornets. But it was disturbing how soon, and how totally, Portland went into walk-it-up mode after halftime. They still ran off of turnovers, but otherwise their energy looked about half the level that it was before intermission. Maybe that\u2019s fatigue from playing a whole season with a short roster. Maybe it\u2019s just a bad habit. Whatever it was, it was disastrous. I do not like the deliberate Blazers any more than I like a hesitating Scoot Henderson. If you\u2019ve got it, use it, repeatedly and quickly.<\/p>\n