Portland Trail Blazers: 3 takeaways from Game 1 vs. Pelicans

2. Blazers need better shooting

The Pelicans’ game plan to was to be aggressive with the Blazers guards and to get the ball out of their hands. New Orleans was allowing anyone else besides Lillard and McCollum to beat them, and it worked Saturday night.

The Blazers finished the game shooting 33.3 percent from the field and 30.8 percent from the 3-point line. Lillard finished with 18 points on 6-of-23 shooting, while McCollum got his 19 points on 7-of-18 shooting. The Blazers as a team had a hard time hitting a shot from anywhere on the court.

McCollum and Lillard ended the game strong and almost got the Blazers the win, but they were cold pretty much the entire game, and it threw the whole team off. Those two guys need to hit shots at a consistent rate early on. One of those guys has to have somewhat of a hot hand for the Blazers’ offense to be successful.

Evan Turner had a good game scoring 13, but he isn’t the best shooter from deep, and the Pelicans kept allowing him to take open looks. Aminu saw plenty of open looks from passes out of double-teams, but he could not convert, finishing the game 3-of-7. The Pelicans kept leaving him open, so Aminu kept shooting, and he never made them pay, going 1-for-5 from deep.

The Blazers missed the shooting from wing Maurice Harkless in this game. They need another guy on the court to hit shots if Lillard or McCollum are cold like they were tonight. Shabazz Napier and Pat Connaughton are solid shooters, but they have been inconsistent as of late and can’t be relied upon to hit big shots in a playoff game.

The Pelicans are going to send double-teams toward Lillard, McCollum and Nurkic all series long and are going to dare the other players on the court to hit shots. If the Blazers are going to win this series, they need more consistent shooting from their role players.