I agreed<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\nAlthough one game puts us in super-small-sample-size territory, one thing is still clear: Dame\u2019s deep ball is aging like fine McCollum Family Vineyard wine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his first game back, Lillard looked like he never left. More importantly, he looked like he\u2019d never missed a season to injury, including both his movement and his production.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his 24 minutes, Lillard hit nearly every type of three you can imagine. Spot up? Check. Stepback? Of course. Contested? Yep. Transition? Obviously.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the night, Lillard shot 6-of-10 from distance. Those six makes tied Jared McCain for the third-most three-point makes through two games. And the confidence with which he shot\u2014not to mention the variety of shot types he took\u2014suggests this could be the best season of his career from behind the arc.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n3. The Guard Chemistry Is Good <\/p>\n
Lillard deserves an A+ for his season debut. But Ja Morant was excellent in his first game as a Trail Blazer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Morant shot an efficient 6-of-8 from the field. He hit two of his three attempts from long distance. His eight assists on just one turnover speak to his ability to run an offense without being the No. 1 scorer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Off the bench, Scoot Henderson looked very good. His 1-of-6 from deep isn\u2019t ideal, but it should be an unfortunate anomaly, as he\u2019s otherwise trending in the right direction, and nothing about his mechanics was concerning, even on the misses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Otherwise, Scoot attacked the rim with a Ja-like smoothness and a Dame-like Confidence. Off the bench, Jrue Holiday was quieter, but he was always in the right place, collecting two steals and dishing out four assists alongside eight points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To paraphrase the Trail Blazers\u2019 broadcast team: Imagine you\u2019re on the opposing defense, and you see Lillard and Morant sub out, only to watch Scoot and Jrue jump in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New head coach Micah Nori also experimented with some three-guard lineups right out of the gate. We\u2019ll need to see how those look against more than just one team. But that already feels like it could become a staple of the rotation all year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n4. 3-Point Shooting Is Contagious <\/p>\n
Lillard was in his zone against Phoenix, and his new teammates also looked much improved from last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2025-26, Portland ranked 28th in three-point percentage. On Wednesday, they shot 40 percent\u2014a number that would\u2019ve ranked No. 1 a year ago\u2014and they got the following three-point showings from the starters:<\/p>\n
Damian Lillard: 6-of-10Toumani Camara: 4-of-7Deni Avdija: 2-of-4Donovan Clingan: 1-of-2Ja Morant: 2-of-3 <\/p>\n
None of this is a coincidence. Yes, Dame may be working with the guards on their shooting. And of course, you can go back to the \u201cDame Time\u201d or \u201dculture\u201d point from above. But it also comes down to gravity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lillard has commanded more defensive pull than most stars not named Stephen Curry throughout his career, and that evidently hasn\u2019t changed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although we can expect Dame to be a bit more of a catch-and-shoot distance shooter than before, Wednesday showed that his stepback game and transition shot still put defenses on notice as much as ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The more defenses look Lillard\u2019s way, the less they think about Morant or Avdija as deep threats.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n5. Defense Concerns Might Be Overblown <\/p>\n
Critics of the Morant trade pointed to defense as the main concern. Morant and Lillard are seen as poor defenders, and doubters often called them the \u201cworst defensive backcourt in the league\u201d in season previews.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If Game 1 is any indication, those concerns might be exaggerated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For starters, Morant showed off his quick hands multiple times in iso defense situations. He finished with a team-high +33 in plus-minus, and his efficient offense more than made up for any minor lapses on the defensive end of the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then, more broadly, the defense locked in and locked down the entire contest. Donovan Clingan wasn\u2019t credited with a block, but his rim protection altered shots significantly during the team\u2019s initial 21-0 run to open the first quarter. Robert Williams and Toumani Camara rotated quickly and played physically just about every minute they saw.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As of Wednesday night, Portland looks like the league\u2019s best defensive team. Or, at least, they put together the best defensive showing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Suns\u2019 83 points were the lowest of any team debut this season. The 66 points they scored through three quarters, while rotation players were still playing, are also the lowest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although Portland\u2019s overall Defensive Rating\u2014a more telling, comprehensive advanced stat\u2014isn\u2019t available as of this writing, don\u2019t be surprised if the Blazers lead in that category when it comes out on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Overall, this team looks ready to fight defensively. Neither Lillard\u2019s nor Morant\u2019s insertion into the starting lineup seems to be impacting that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Or at least, if nothing else, Game 1\u2019s defense gave fans extra optimism ahead of a long, 82-game grind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a lot of basketball left to play. But Wednesday\u2019s showing against Phoenix was as good as it gets for Lillard and the Trail Blazers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oregon Sports News is a KGW News partner. Read more of their content at\u00a0oregonsportsnews.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Damian Lillard’s triumphant return energized the Portland Trail Blazers, who dominated the Phoenix Suns 124-83. PORTLAND, Ore. \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":["post-865031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-portland-trail-blazers","tag-basketball","tag-blazers","tag-nba","tag-portland","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-portlandtrailblazers","tag-trail-blazers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117485316606412219","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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