Portland Trail Blazers: Robin Lopez’s Return Halts 3-Game Skid

If you’re looking for a great statistical impact from Wednesday night’s return of center Robin Lopez to the Portland Trail Blazers, there’s really isn’t one.

Except on the scoreboard, where the Blazers snapped a three-game losing streak with a 103-102 win over the feisty Utah Jazz at the Moda Center.

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Lopez returned after missing 23 games with a broken hand.

Portland was 13-10 in his absence, but had gone just 2-8 in its last 10 games prior to his return to the lineup.

Lopez logged 25 minutes, scored 11 points, got six rebounds, blocked two shots and basically did Robin Lopez type things.

But what Lopez brings to the Blazers is a defensive presence inside that veteran backup Chris Kaman just can’t match.

The Blazers are six points better with Lopez on the floor than when he is off. They rebound better, block more shots and score more.

With Kaman, Portland’s net rating is a whopping minus-11.4 worse when he is in the game.

Lopez’s return is a big deal for Portland, which is just holding on to a top-four spot in the Western Conference race by virtual of leading the Northwest Division.

In the 23 games Lopez missed, Portland played to a plus-3.6 net rating, with an effective field goal percentage of .499 and a true shooting percentage of .535.

By comparison—discounting Wednesday night’s game—with Lopez available, Portland’s net rating was plus-6.7, with a TS% of .542 and an eFG% of .506.

While it’s hard to imagine a role player like Lopez being such a high-impact performer, the numbers are right there in front of us.

He cleans up the glass, protects the rim and scores when the ball falls into his hands when he’s at the rim—55 percent of his 209 shots are within three feet of the cup and he converts those at a 59.1 percent clip.

All-World? Hardly. But whatever he does works for Portland.

It could be a mere coincidence—small sample sizes, and all that—but Damian Lillard had his best shooting night on Wednesday in almost two months, scoring 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting.

During Portland’s 10-game stretch during which it was 2-8, Lillard shot just 33 percent—that’s overall, not from 3-point range—and a putrid 24.1 percent from deep.

The 3-point shot still wasn’t there for Lillard on Wednesday—he was 0-for-6 from distance—but otherwise he was much more efficient, with six assists and one turnover.

By contrast, Lillard had 20 dimes but 12 giveaways in his previous two games, losses at Atlanta and Milwaukee.

The 26-year-old twin brother of Brooklyn Nets’ center Brook Lopez isn’t even considered the best center in his own nuclear family.

But there’s no question that what he has brought to the Trail Blazers since he was acquired as part of a three-team, sign-and-trade deal that sent former Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans from Sacramento to New Orleans has made a difference.

In the season and a half since Lopez joined the Blazers, the team has a record of 87-45 after posting a 61-87 mark the previous two years.

Sometimes a situation just clicks—a certain player makes a certain team better without there being an obvious reason why.

Robin Lopez is one of those players—Portland is unmistakably a better team with him around than without him.

The numbers don’t lie.

Statistical date from Basketball-Reference.com.

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