Blazers Muggle Their Way to Magic Loss

ThePortland Trail Blazerswelcomed the Orlando Magic to the Moda Center on Friday night for their home opener of the 2023-24 regular season. On Wednesday night, the Blazers faced the most experienced team in the league in the Los Angeles Clippers, suffering a convincing defeat. The Magic are almost as young as Portland themselves. The Blazers were hoping for speed, emotion, and aggression would be enough to disrupt the Magic and bring victory.

On their way up Victory Mountain, the Blazers tread on the gravel of their own inexperience. Their passing game was a danger mostly to themselves. Their defense had no answer for Orlando’s tall forwards. Once again they couldn’t hit a three-pointer to save their lives. Scoot Henderson collected fouls like Halloween candy. Deandre Ayton barely saw the ball outside of offensive rebounds. Worst of all, they gave up more fast break points than they scored.

The cumulative result was a 102-97 loss in which Portland shot 35-88, 39.8% from the field. Shaedon Sharpe led the Blazers with 24 points on 9-23 shooting. Anfernee Simons missed the game after being diagnosed witha thumb injurythat will keep him out 4-6 weeks.

First Quarter

开拓者集中,明显的努力get the ball to Deandre Ayton early, likely an artifact of his frustration and lack of shot attempts in their season opener against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night. Ayton hit Portland’s first two shots of the game, a face-up mid-range jumper and a post-up hook. That got the Blazers off to a good start. Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe both looked aggressive in the absence of Anfernee Simons, feeding passes and attacking the lane with a devil-may-care attitude.

Ayton was active on defense, but his guards couldn’t quite keep up with the program, especially in transition. Matisse Thybulle is ok, of course, but the young guards still need work. As a result, the hot start didn’t do much more than keeping the Blazers close.

Henderson’s optimistic view of his own passing ability provided subtext to the first period as well. He had plenty of turnovers early. When it became evident that the passing game wasn’t going to work, Portland got bogged down into iso ball, easily defended by the swarming Magic. That created turnovers as well. Orlando started scoring in transition and picking up foul shots. That gave them a 16-10 lead at the halfway mark of the period.

In the middle minutes of the quarter, Head Coach Chauncey Billups rolled out a big version of his frontcourt, playing Ayton with fellow center Robert Williams III and forward Jerami Grant. That made the interior defense stiffer. It also made their rebounding more secure. They still couldn’t keep control of the ball at the guard positions, though. Run-outs for Orlando killed whatever momentum the Blazers could build.

Henderson hit a three and made a nifty drive, giving him 7 points in the period. He also committed 3 fouls by the 3:00 mark, forcing him to sit. A couple of dunks in the halfcourt off of broken Blazers defense kept the Magic ahead despite continued offense from Portland’s reserve unit. Orlando led 31-26, shooting 57% from the floor for the period.

Second Quarter

Three pointers came fast and plentiful for the young teams at the start of the second period. 9 of their first 12 combined shots came from distance. The Magic went 2-4, the Blazers 3-5 beyond the arc. When the flurry passed, Orlando still led by 6...no closure for Portland on the scoreboard.

Shaedon Sharpe got to run the two-man game with Ayton, sometimes off of forward screens too. He made appropriate passes and took his own shot whenever left open. The process looked good even when the results weren’t quite there. Malcolm Brogdon also got extended run with Henderson on the bench and Simons in street clothes. Unfortunately, the turnover bug bit him as well, indicating that it might be a function of sets and experience running them as much as individual point guard error.

That’s when things turned great for the Blazers. The tempo quickened and Sharpe went on an unholy tear, scoring four buckets AFTER he hit one of the initial threes of the period. Scrambling and rambling covered up many of the shortcomings of Portland’s offense. Their defense was still suspect, but scoring points in droves made up for it.

Only in the final couple minutes of the period did Orlando regain mastery. They turned a 5-point Blazers lead into an 8-point deficit in just over 180 seconds, as Portland couldn’t compensate when their own shots stopped falling. The Magic led 63-55 at the half despite Portland’s second-quarter fireworks. Sharpe had 13 on 6-15 shooting at the half. After hitting his first two attempts in the first minute of the game, Ayton had only four total shot attempts at the half.

Third Quarter

In the early minutes of the third quarter, the Blazers continued to put the “fun” in “fundamentally unsound”. The offense went quick. Sharpe hit a long three. Ayton got a twisting attempt in the lane. Everything else missed. Portland didn’t get set on defense, didn’t rotate, and couldn’t shake their addiction to fouling the opponent. Orlando isn’t exactly an offensive powerhouse, but them missing a few relatively easy shots were all that kept this game from becoming a 20-point blowout on the spot. At a timeout for a Portland challenge at the 8:45 mark, Orlando led by 11, 70-59.

That’s when Jerami Grant asserted himself, hitting free throws and a tough lane attempt, assisting on another Sharpe three. When Sharpe hitanotherbomb with 4:40 remaining, Portland trailed by just 2, 74-72.

The Blazers defense remained shaky for the balance of the third, but Orlando is a young team too. Their frantic offense didn’t produce organically. When the whistles finally stopped going against Portland, the Magic couldn’t escape with field goals alone. Despite Portland trying to singlehandedly create a new stat category—dunks allowed in the halfcourt—solid rebounding was enough to preserve momentum for the home team. They tied the game at 80 at the 1:04 mark, trailing by 2, 82-80, going into the fourth.

Fourth Quarter

Defense reared its ugly head again at the top of the fourth period. Orlando pulled the nasty trick of pump-faking at the three-point arc, causing Portland defenders to soar into the air, leaving an empty driving lane below. Once past the initial defender. the Magic got almost anything they wanted, as Portland’s secondary defense is a confused pile of pudding right now.

Brogdon and Henderson tried to make something happen on offense, but they were playing a banjo with three strings broken and one out of tune. Sharpe missed an open three off a Brogdon pass. Ayton fumbled an interior dish from Scoot that was a bit too hard. Portland managed half a play on most possessions, seldom finishing.

Orlando crept to a 94-84 lead with 6:00 left in the game. Absent a Blazers run, it was going to be white flag time.

Instead, the Magic completed a 9-1 run, keyed largely by tall guys named Wagner, for whom Portland had no answer. The Wagners rebounded hard, blocked shots, pulled the Blazers bigs to the outside (away from their own blocks and rebounds), and confounded Portland at every turn. Orlando pushed the lead to 13 at the 5:35 mark and kept it there for the next couple minutes. That drained enough clock to foil any comeback plans. Portland got a couple of buckets late, creating an 11-3 run to close the margin, but the clock ran out on them and that was ballgame.

Up Next

Stay tuned for extended analysis, coming soon!

Boxscore

The Blazers will travel to the East Coast to begin a three-game road trip against thePhiladelphia 76erson Sunday, tip-off at 4:30 PM, Pacific.