It’s rare, but you can easily lose a basketball game without being behind for 47 minutes and 59 seconds. The Blazers have just had the bitter experience of it in Philadelphia.
In detail, they led for 45 minutes and 10 seconds, counting up to 13 points ahead in the last quarter, before Joel Embiid equalized at 114 everywhere. Then, the two teams will exchange baskets, without the Sixers ever passing in front, except after the last decisive pivot one second from the end.
How to analyze this part for Chauncey Billups?
“Overall, we played well. I’m happy with our game.” assures the Blazers coach, repeating what he says more or less every week, at The Oregonian. “We crumbled a bit at the end, we had our chances. It’s disappointing, the guys are affected. We are disappointed to have lost, to have finished the match like that. But we have no reason to lower our heads. »
Same comment at Anfernee Simons. “During the majority of the meeting, we played a good game”, he explains at ESPN. “They had a strong moment, but we played hard. We did what we had to do to win this game. »
As the coach points out, the Blazers indeed missed out on killing the game in the final minutes. Jusuf Nurkic missed four free throws and Damian Lillard lost two balls, including the second twenty seconds from the end, while Portland had a one-point lead.
It is precisely this wasted end to the match that leaves the playmaker the most regrets.
“She’s hard to swallow this one because we played so well and we needed this game,” remarks Damian Lillard, facing the 13th place of his team in the Western Conference. “It’s a bit like the story of our season: we play well in sequences and we don’t manage to end the matches well. It happened again in this game, against an excellent team. We had opportunities but we simply let this meeting slip away. »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Damian Lillard | 54 | 36.3 | 46.6 | 37.3 | 91.9 | 0.7 | 3.9 | 4.7 | 7.3 | 3.2 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 32.1 |
| Anfernee Simons | 58 | 35.2 | 45.1 | 38.5 | 90.7 | 0.3 | 2.4 | 2.7 | 4.1 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 2.3 | 21.3 |
| Jerami Grant | 62 | 35.9 | 47.7 | 40.4 | 81.4 | 0.9 | 3.7 | 4.5 | 2.4 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 2.5 | 20.7 |
| Cam Reddish | 12 | 30.8 | 46.4 | 38.2 | 85.7 | 0.7 | 2.6 | 3.3 | 2.7 | 1.8 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 13.8 |
| Jusuf Nurkic | 47 | 27.0 | 52.3 | 37.1 | 66.3 | 2.2 | 7.1 | 9.3 | 2.9 | 2.4 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 3.6 | 13.5 |
| Josh Hart | 51 | 33.4 | 50.4 | 30.4 | 73.1 | 1.9 | 6.3 | 8.2 | 3.9 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 2.6 | 9.5 |
| Shaedon Sharpe | 66 | 20.4 | 47.0 | 34.4 | 66.7 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 2.5 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 7.8 |
| Matisse Thybulle | 11 | 29.4 | 44.1 | 40.4 | 50.0 | 1.4 | 2.6 | 4.0 | 1.7 | 0.5 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 2.5 | 7.3 |
| Justise Winslow | 29 | 26.8 | 40.9 | 31.1 | 71.4 | 1.7 | 3.3 | 5.0 | 3.4 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 3.1 | 6.8 |
| Nassir Little | 46 | 17.3 | 46.7 | 40.6 | 65.7 | 0.5 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 6.3 |
| Drew Eubanks | 65 | 19.8 | 68.2 | 42.9 | 66.7 | 1.6 | 3.5 | 5.1 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 2.2 | 6.1 |
| Trendon Watford | 50 | 17.5 | 56.6 | 38.6 | 72.2 | 0.7 | 2.9 | 3.6 | 1.9 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.9 | 6.0 |
| Keon Johnson | 34 | 9.5 | 37.0 | 35.5 | 61.5 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 4.1 |
| Gary Payton II | 15 | 17.0 | 58.5 | 52.9 | 100.0 | 0.7 | 1.9 | 2.6 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 1.9 | 4.1 |
| Ryan Arcidiacono | 3 | 14.4 | 33.3 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 |
| Jabari Walker | 43 | 8.8 | 44.0 | 21.4 | 72.4 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 2.0 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 2.7 |
| Greg Brown III | 16 | 5.8 | 39.3 | 14.3 | 41.7 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 1.8 |
| Kevin Knox | 7 | 4.5 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.9 |
| John Butler | 9 | 3.4 | 20.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
