A lot of fans love watching offensive basketball, where players score plenty of points. However, the old saying that “defense wins championships” still rings true even today, and there’s no doubt that most championship-winning teams are good both offensively and defensively.
The Portland Trail Blazers have been a playoff team for quite some time now, but they haven’t made a deep run into the playoffs bar their 2019 Western Conference Finals run. A lot of people have pointed at the team’s defense as the reason for their failure, in particular stars Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, neither of whom are known as great perimeter defenders.
A recent viral photo Tweeted by @lory_pasquali shows that Paul George and the Los Angeles Clippers wanted to target Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum when playing against them on offense. It makes sense that the Clippers would want to score on subpar defenders in order to get easy baskets.
*ATTACK*
Lillard
McCollum
Simons (second unit) pic.twitter.com/mbbLcrvzsd
— Lorenzo Pasquali (@lory_pasquali) November 10, 2021
The Los Angeles Clippers ended up defeating the Portland Trail Blazers 117-109 in their recent matchup, and it’s clear that the Clippers’ strategy worked. The Trail Blazers have always been a great offensive team due to the firepower from their two lead guards: but perhaps sacrificing some offense and making the defense better could help them make the next step as a team. Damian Lillard has previously stated that he wants to win a championship with the Portland Trail Blazers but that is unlikely to happen if the team doesn’t improve defensively.
The Portland Trail Blazers have had an inconsistent start to the season, sporting a 5-6 record before their game against the Phoenix Suns today. However, things can change really quickly in the NBA, and we’ve seen plenty of teams go on runs after starting off slowly. Hopefully, that happens with the Trail Blazers, and perhaps we do see their defense get better in the future.
