After beating Phoenix, Portland hoped to follow up with the reception of Washington. Facing one of the worst teams in the league, and even if the Blazers are not much better, there was a shot to play. Except that everything quickly fell apart, with a failed first quarter.
The figures show it perfectly: only 24 points scored at 37% shooting success, 1/7 at 3-pts, five lost balls and a gap which rose to 16 units…
” It was terrible “sighs Chauncey Billups to The Oregonian. “We talked about it all day, to prepare the guys for the rhythm. The Wizards run a lot and have a lot of shooters. They are therefore dangerous. We try to be prepared, and yet we are totally dominated. It's disappointing, really. »
And this is not the first time since Portland is the worst team in the league in the first quarter (-17.4 points per 100 possessions). For their coach, a leader is missing, a real star to lead the charge.
“We have good players, some of whom will become All-Stars. But currently, we don't have that player to whom we can give the ball and who can start us in the first four or five minutes of the match. We simply don't have it, so we have to do it collectively. »
Anfernee Simons tried
It was obviously Damian Lillard who occupied this role in recent years. Jerami Grant, Malcolm Brogdon or Anfernee Simons are not of the same caliber, and Chauncey Billups is talking about players like Damian Lillard, or even Luka Doncic, Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant.
Anfernee Simons nevertheless wanted to do it against the Wizards. He shot eight times in the first quarter. “I feel like I was trying to get my team started.”, he notes. In vain therefore, especially with its 0/4 at 3-pts. “These shots can sometimes destabilize the team, especially when we don’t score them”he adds.
While waiting to find this savior at the start of the match, are the Blazers doomed to miss their start? Not necessarily, but this defect absolutely must be corrected.
” It's easier said than done “, answers Anfernee Simons. “We want to make good starts and we are aware that bad starts put us in a difficult situation. We're shooting ourselves in the foot. »
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Anfernee Simons | 9 | 34.1 | 45.7 | 37.5 | 91.7 | 0.8 | 2.3 | 3.1 | 5.9 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 27.1 |
| Jeremy Grant | 23 | 35.3 | 45.6 | 42.0 | 82.3 | 0.7 | 3.1 | 3.8 | 2.5 | 2.3 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 2.3 | 22.6 |
| Shaedon Sharpe | 26 | 35.1 | 41.0 | 36.0 | 82.4 | 1.3 | 4.0 | 5.3 | 3.3 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 3.0 | 16.8 |
| Malcolm Brogdon | 20 | 27.4 | 41.9 | 38.7 | 76.8 | 0.8 | 2.7 | 3.5 | 5.4 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 15.1 |
| Deandre Ayton | 23 | 31.8 | 55.0 | 0.0 | 81.8 | 3.5 | 7.4 | 11.0 | 1.6 | 2.1 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 2.5 | 13.1 |
| Scoot Henderson | 18 | 26.3 | 36.4 | 23.5 | 80.5 | 0.7 | 2.1 | 2.8 | 4.2 | 3.1 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 3.8 | 10.7 |
| Duop Reath | 18 | 14.7 | 42.9 | 35.7 | 90.9 | 1.1 | 1.8 | 2.9 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 8.2 |
| Jabari Walker | 27 | 17.8 | 46.5 | 27.5 | 76.6 | 1.7 | 3.4 | 5.1 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 2.2 | 7.3 |
| Skylar Mays | 15 | 19.3 | 40.6 | 29.3 | 84.6 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 4.5 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 7.3 |
| Toumani Camara | 27 | 25.0 | 41.6 | 30.0 | 67.6 | 2.0 | 2.7 | 4.7 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 2.9 | 7.1 |
| Robert Williams | 6 | 19.8 | 65.4 | 0.0 | 77.8 | 1.8 | 4.5 | 6.3 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 2.8 | 6.8 |
| Matisse Thybulle | 27 | 23.4 | 45.0 | 40.2 | 80.0 | 0.5 | 1.6 | 2.1 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 6.1 |
| Kris Murray | 13 | 11.1 | 32.4 | 33.3 | 60.0 | 0.6 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 2.7 |
| Moses Brown | 5 | 7.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.6 | 2.0 | 3.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 2.4 |
| Jamaree Bouyea | 6 | 9.5 | 23.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.7 |
| Justin Minaya | 6 | 6.4 | 33.3 | 50.0 | 50.0 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 1.2 |
| Rayan Rupert | 7 | 4.4 | 8.3 | 16.7 | 50.0 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.7 |
| Ish Wainright | 2 | 2.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 |
