The Most Encouraging Aspect of 'Playoff Powell's' Return
In his most important game as a member of the Trail Blazers, Norman Powell more than rose to the challenge – hardly a surprise given the postseason moniker he earned with the Toronto Raptors.
But the breakout performance marking the return of "Playoff Powell" wasn't as prescribed as his aggression and decisiveness from the opening tip made it seem. Terry Stotts, in fact, revealed after his team's blowout Game 4 victory over the Denver Nuggets that Powell's 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting mostly came within flow of the Blazers' offense rather than set play calls.
"We ran a couple plays for him, but a lot of his three-point shots were in the flow of the game," Stotts said of Powell. "We made good reads in just our flow, making the right decisions and passing, he was the beneficiary of it."
The pointedness with which Powell caught the ball and attacked the rim on the opening possession of Portland's must-win on Saturday suggested otherwise.
Indeed, the Blazers' opening play was one of the few actually called for him – Powell confirmed it after the game.
But as he tells it, Powell didn't approach that possession differently than he did any other throughout the course of the Blazers' dominant victory. Powell was simply letting the game come to him.
"I just try to pick my spots, you know?" he said after Game 4. "The first play was called for me so I was looking to attack downhill, put pressure on their defense, read the rotations and make the right plays, whether it's a kickout or a shot for myself. I'm just trying to be aggressive and attack, make the right plays in the reads that I have."
Sometimes that meant pulling up for three as Nikola Jokic laid back in the paint or Aaron Gordon went under a ball screen. It meant quick-fire catch-and-shoot triples from the corner. It definitely meant making himself available in transition and attacking the rim with authority.
But even less random offensive possessions he finished weren't necessarily sets diagrammed for Powell, either.
The primary goal of this double ball screen for Damian Lillard is involving both Nikola Jokic and Michael Porter Jr., Denver's most exploitable defenders, in the initial offensive action. Porter hedges high to trap the ball and Jokic retreats as Lillard goes left, leaving Powell alone at the top of the key with a numbers advantage in front of him.
Powell praised Portland's offensive ethos after the game, alluding to the old NBA adage of the Blazers consistently going from "good to great" when Denver's defense was scrambing and open shots presented themselves.
"The ball movement and sharing and trusting one another offensively, I think we did a great job in that today," he said. "Finding the open guys and making the defense rotate one or two times, and finding the best shot possible."
The offensive churn Powell describes is readily available against the Nuggets. Jokic's limitations limit Denver's versatility on defense, forcing the Nuggets into a scheme that relies on point-of-attack pressure and back-line rotations.
It's telling the Blazers put up a 123.7 offensive rating against the Nuggets in a game Damian Lillard shot 1-of-10 and they were barely average from three. Portland, as Game 4 laid bare, has the goods to expose Denver's defense on a nightly basis.
And if "Playoff Powell" returns – no matter how he scores his points – for the last three games of this series, expect the Blazers to win it.
"I love these types of games, these types of moments," Powell said. "It's a moment where nothing else matters. You got caught up in the course of the season of stats sometimes, this, that and the other, road trips, but when you get in the playoffs the only thing that matters is winning. And for me as a player, that's all that mattered to me growing up is trying to win, and doing whatever it takes to win."