After a tremendous start to the season, the losses are starting to pile up for Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers. They were 10-4 and the 1st seed in the West at one point before going 9-14 and dropping to 7th.
The change has mostly come on the defensive end of the floor, which has completely fallen off a cliff from its early-season form.
After the team’s 113-106 loss to the Timberwolves on Thursday, a clearly frustrated Lillard spoke candidly about his ball club and what has gone wrong this season.
(via The Athletic’s Jason Quick)
“The hardest thing to do in this league is to have it every night,” Lillard said. “Not just having your body ready and energy, but your mind has to be into it — you have to care. You have to have pride. You have to be sharp and locked into the scouting report and know how the game is going to be won, outside of bringing your ability to the table. And I think where we are as a team, we just haven’t decided who we are going to be all the time.”
The problems for Portland are deep and wide-ranging. With as many weapons as they have, the team has rarely been able to string together a complete 48 minutes of good basketball. Whether it’s turnovers, poor defensive effort, or a little of both, the Trail Blazers have not been on the same page over the last few weeks.
Damian Lillard Says The Blazers Are Contenders
Hopefully, Portland will make a trade or two before February’s deadline, but it should be noted that Damian Lillard once had full confidence in the roster he has now.
“I think we can be a championship team,” Lillard said. “We’ve got a good mix of veterans with experience and young talented guys. Right now in the league, that’s who you’re seeing are the most successful teams. It’s no longer look at this super team over here. It’s who’s got the talent, who can get up and down and score, who’s fearless, who defends, who has experience and leadership? It’s all of those things that give you a shot to be one of those final teams. You’re seeing it across the league, and I think we fall into that category. We’ve got to be healthy.”
The Trail Blazers do not look like a championship team right now, but there’s still time for them to prove me wrong.
But, at the moment, there are some very obvious problems that not even Damian Lillard can try to deny. Until the team addresses and solves those issues, they will never sit at the table with the true Western Conference superpowers.
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