Portland Trail Blazers' Second Quarter Sealed Their Fate

I refuse to write a column condemning Damian Lillard. That’s not to say that Lillard’s play hasn’t warranted a fair share of criticism. It just feels too reactionary. Sure, Mike Conley has toyed with Damian Lillard through the first two games of this first round series. And sure he’s shot the ball incomprehensibly poorly. But what’s the old cliche about NBA playoff series again?

A series doesn’t begin until a road team wins a game. That’s all well and good if you have home court advantage. The Portland Trail Blazers do not. But even though they lost Games 1 and 2 by a fairly large margin, and even though they lost all four meetings to the Memphis Grizzlies during the regular season, the Blazers return home on Saturday where they were 32-9 on the season (fourth best home record in the NBA).

The Blazers lost Game 2 by a large margin in the end (15 points to 14 in Game 1), but there were reasons for optimism. Game 1 was atrocious. The Blazers did not look ready for the playoffs. In Game 2, they played better, but they had one bad quarter that sealed their fate.

After Game 2, in his post game press conference, Terry Stotts said this:

"“It was good to get off to a good start. We came out with good energy, good focus, we made shots. Our defense was solid…and…The thing that Memphis does well is they sustain it. And for us to do it either offensively or defensively, they made a good run in the second quarter. Some of it was fueled by our offense, but the challenge that we have is to sustain it over 48 minutes.”"

Sustainability. That’s what the Blazers, and every team with high expectations this time of year, is striving for. Only the best teams in the league, and therefore the ones that advance, can sustain their great play for entire games. And the Blazers came just short of that in Game 2 due mostly because of only one poor quarter.

The Blazers were outscored 31-18 in the second quarter of Wednesday’s game. This wasn’t exactly a case of the Blazers bench failing them. LaMarcus Aldridge played all 12 minutes of the second quarter. The Grizzlies shot 50 percent from the field (to Portland’s 42 percent), took five more shots and knocked down three more three-pointers. But it was an even smaller time period that decided this game.

Take a look at the GameFlow from PopcornMachine.net. From the 11:41 mark in the second to the 4:56 mark, the Grizzlies went on a 20-4 run. The Blazers lost by 15. Take that seven-minute stretch away and the Blazers actually win by one.

So what went so terribly wrong in that seven minutes stretch to put this game out of hand so early?

The Blazers opened the quarter with a LaMarcus Aldridge post touch. Much like the first quarter, the Grizzlies doubled him and he dropped a turnaround in over the double team as Terry Stotts answered questions about defensive rotations.

aldridge_over_double_team /

At this point the Blazers looked to have the Grizzlies defense scrambling, all set up by the fact that Aldridge’s shot was falling. But this was probably the high point of the game for the Blazers.

The Grizzlies respond with a Horns set that gets Jeff Green a wide open 18-footer from the top of the key. Not ideal defense, but to be fair, Jeff Green shot 4-of-13 in Game 2. The Blazers would live with him taking jump shots.

Portland returned to Aldridge on the block. He was 4-of-5 at this point in the game and was due for the miss he produced. But that led to this poor transition defense by the Blazers, a play symbolic of the series in many ways for the Blazers.

For those Blazers fans clamoring for more Meyers Leonard minutes, this is exhibit A for why Terry Stotts may not oblige. He’s a little slow getting back on this play and it costs the Blazers. The Grizzlies only had 10 fast break points in this game, but it seemed like a lot more, which makes me wonder if that includes plays like the above which are pseudo-transition.

Meyers makes up for the poor defensive effort on the next possession. The Grizzlies are small at this point, playing Jeff Green at the four. The Blazers recognize this and Meyers knocks down a nice face up baseline jumper from 17 feet over Green.

On the other end, the Blazers force the Grizzlies into a missed Jeff Green three-pointer and then Leonard’s rim run draws a Jeff Green foul. Noticing a theme here? No wonder why Dave Joerger took Green out of the starting lineup for Game 2.

At this point Portland is hanging tough. The Grizzlies have erased the early lead the Blazers had, but the 20-4 run that killed them hasn’t really gotten rolling yet. We’re at the 10:00 mark.

Shortly after, the following exchange happens and it seems to ignite this run:

This clip begins with Steve Blake having the ball with five seconds left in the shot clock. That’s not an ideal situation, but they get some decent movement out of the LMA screen and roll, using Meyers Leonard as a secondary passer to improve the angle. He throws a hot pass though and bobbling the basketball in the vicinity of Tony Allen is just a losing proposition.

Of course, Tony Allen gets the steal and another example of the Blazers suspect pseudo-transition defense ends with Beno Udrih knocking down a mid-range jumper. Beno Udrih is the midrange master.

Beno shoots over 50 percent from 10 feet to the three-point line, according to Basketball-Reference. It’s a big reason why he’s particularly problematic for the Blazers whose defense is built on forcing midrange shots. As we saw in Game 1, Udrih is a big wildcard in this series (at least at home).

Out of the timeout, Tony Allen gets another steal when doubling LaMarcus Aldridge, but the Grizzlies aren’t able to make the Blazers pay. McCollum misses an open jumper (also a theme) and Jeff Green can’t post up Steve Blake. That gets us to the 7:56 mark when Damian Lillard checks in.

At this point the Grizzlies are up 8-4 in the quarter, and 8-2 in this seven-minute stretch. The Blazers offense is stagnant, for sure, but they are only down two, they haven’t lost their grip on this game yet.

Next possession, Beno:

Oh, poor Steve Blake.

A tough Lillard miss follows from 16 feet on the baseline and then this:

There is definitely a theme here. This is the play in which Beno injures his ankle, but at this point, it’s too late. This put the Grizzlies up 31-25 and caps a 12-2 run that we know will continue. Beno may not have led the entire run, but he certainly was the spark plug that ignited it and the same could be said for Game 1.

Beno has been a huge thorn in the side of the Blazers. Neither Lillard nor Steve Blake can stay with him.

The bad news for Blazers fans is that he returned to the game on Wednesday night (although he wasn’t quite as effective) and will play in Game 3 on Saturday. Often in the NBA playoffs, role players play much better at home, the Blazers can only hope that holds true for Udrih, as he’s been the definition of an X-factor these first two games.

But the Grizzlies were not done with this run yet. Out of the timeout, they have the luxury of replacing the spark plug that just turned his ankle with Mike Conley.

The Blazers had their chances. They come out of this timeout with three or four straight empty offensive possessions. The Blazers had 21 points in the 1st quarter and here we are are the 6:00 mark of the second and the Blazers have scored only four points. It took a Robin Lopez midrange jumper to stop the bleeding.

To be fair, the Grizzlies were playing great team defense that was instrumental in this run like this possession where Jeff Green is fronting LaMarcus, but Marc Gasol and Tony Allen are shaded over covering the back side. Portland may have forced this a bit, but it shows you how difficult Memphis was making things:

By now Memphis is rolling. Even Jeff Green gets in on the action with a three-pointer (his only make from long range in the game) and Conley draws a foul on Lillard setting up two made free throws. Aldridge misses a tough shot (off the dribble) over Gasol and this Memphis score capped off the 20-4 run in truly deflating fashion for the Blazers:

That’s a tough exchange for C.J. McCollum. Not only does old man Vince Carter outhustle him to grab an offensive rebound (one of the Grizzlies’ 12 in the game), he then loses Carter on the wing and VC cranks it up one more time from downtown (adding three of the Grizzles’ 29 2nd chance points. The Blazers had only 12).

And just like that the Grizzlies had a 12-point lead, the rest was merely a formality when you look at it this way. The Blazers went a seven-minute stretch with LaMarcus Aldridge on the floor and could only muster four points.

If this Blazers’ second quarter and playoff history has taught us anything, it’s that role players matter in the postseason. Guys like Derek Fisher, Robert Horry, Mike Miller, Shane Battier, and Patty Mills have established their legacies not by being stars, but by performing in big playoff moments.

Home court may not have a huge impact over the course of 82 games, but in the playoffs, role players like this thrive in comfortable surroundings.

In Games 1 and 2, Beno Udrih has scored 30 points on 13-of-23 shooting. C.J. McCollum has scored eight on 4-of-21 shooting. That 22-point difference almost entirely covers the difference between these two teams after two. In Game 3, the Blazers will be in the safe confines of the

Rose Garden

Moda Center.

Maybe C.J. McCollum is the one igniting a 20-4 run in the second quarter. The Blazers would like to hope so.

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Portland Trail Blazers’ Second Quarter Sealed Their Fate

By Chris St. Jean | Apr 24, 2015

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