Lakers Further Expose Trail Blazers' Recent Third-Quarter Struggles
The Trail Blazers seemed well on their way to a crunch-time battle against the Los Angeles Lakers. Terry Stotts' team led 57-54 at intermission, propelled to a slim lead by Damian Lillard's 24 points and a defense that mostly kept LeBron James and his teammates out of transition.
Then the third quarter tipped off, and the factors driving Portland to success against another desperate team on a multi-game losing streak vanished entirely. Los Angeles turned its three-point deficit into a nine-point lead by the time it was over, completely ridding the Blazers of the momentum they needed for a fourth-quarter comeback.
"I think in the second half, they just kind of had us stuck," Lillard said. "When we did get opportunities we didn't make 'em. We didn't take care of the ball. I turned the ball over a few times and allowed them to get out in transition, and that's where they wanna be – transition."
The Blazers committed seven turnovers in the third quarter alone, miscues that accounted for 14 of the Lakers' 31 points. Just seven of those points officially came via fast break, but Los Angeles consistently played with a numbers advantage that made its transition impact loom much larger.
After miscommunicating in ball-screen coverage on several different occasions early, allowing Lillard to get hot, the Lakers dialed up their defensive intensity at the point of attack in the second half. With Lillard forced to give the ball up, Los Angeles' backline defenders – led by LeBron James – preyed on Portland's role players, disrupting passes, swiping at dribbles and aggressively contesting shots to create early-clock opportunities on the other end.
Their team's third-quarter struggles are familiar to Blazers fans by now. During its ongoing four-game losing streak, Portland has been outscored by a combined 53 points in the third quarter alone. Its net rating is -30.0, per NBA.com/stats, an ugly number accomplished by equal ineptitude on both sides of the ball.
The two-way feedback loops of stops and transition attacks that changed Friday's game reared their ugly head following intermission in losses to the Nuggets, Suns and Wizards, too. Teams just aren't as leery to sell out to stop Lillard in second halves after watching him carve them up in the first.
Lillard spoke at length earlier this week about the perils of playing without C.J. McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic when the defense makes limiting him its first, second and third priority. Gary Trent Jr., improved as he is, just can't come close to matching McCollum's wherewithal as a self-created scorer. The player on this roster best equipped to exploit a scrambling defense with the pass other than Lillard is Nurkic.
It should come as no surprise that deeper, more talented teams are making game-changing adjustments the Blazers haven't been able to match. Without McCollum and Nurkic, Portland has a finite amount of arrows in its quiver – and the opposition knows the others aren't nearly as sharp as Lillard's.