Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups left the American Airlines Center Wednesday night uncertain if practicing Thursday would be wise, despite how badly his team needed to put in some work following a miserable 126-97 loss at the Dallas Mavericks.
Various players dealing with with injuries and the team being two games into a seven-game trip with five games in eight days coming up gave him pause.
Then Billups rewatched the game. His mind changed.
The lack of energy and fight the Blazers displayed during arguably the team’s most apathetic performance of the season didn’t sit well with him. After re-watching the game back at the hotel, Billups determined that his team needed court time.
“I just felt like, after I went home and watched the game again, there was just not enough resistance for me,” Billups said. “And sometimes, you’ve got to get out here and practice and you’ve got to compete. You’ve got to challenge each other. It’s the only way out of it sometimes.”
The Blazers were dreadful in so many areas. They shot poorly, committed 22 turnovers and 34 personal fouls. Portland fell behind by as much as 31 in the first half and 38 in the final quarter.
It’s not as if the Blazers (9-24) haven’t lost often this season. But rarely after falling behind have they not shown some level of fight and mounted a comeback to make the game more interesting. Those things didn’t happen on Wednesday.
“I looked at my guys and said, ‘We got down 38 and I didn’t see nobody mad,’” Billups said. “That ain’t me. So, even if it’s that they gotta be mad at me to compete, they’re going to compete. So, we had a good day. It was fun.”
Teams have their ups and downs during a long season. But Monday at Phoenix and Wednesday at Dallas marked the first time this season that the Blazers have lost back-to-back points by more than 20 points. Even during the team’s 109-88 loss to the Suns, the Blazers didn’t demonstrate much heart after going down by as much as 25 in the third quarter.
“You have some lulls in this league,” Billups said. “And I think what I’ve seen, when we get close to our normal roster, roles start changing, now guys are thinking a little bit too much about minutes and shots and rotations. We’re thinking about the wrong thing.”
The players, Billups said, should focus on competing by playing well and that will allow everything else to take care of itself.
DALLAS, TEXAS - JANUARY 03: Luka Doncic #77 of the Dallas Mavericks controls the ball against Anfernee Simons #1 of the Portland Trail Blazers in the second half at American Airlines Center on January 03, 2024 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images)Getty Images
A lack of continuity could have caught up to the Blazers. They’d had several players out of the lineup. Then on Monday at the Suns, Sharpe returned, but on a minutes restriction. Anfernee Simons returned Wednesday also on a minutes restriction. Same with Duop Reath. Toumani Camara missed a game and then he returned against the Mavericks.
The chemistry simply wasn’t there.
“It was a lot,” Billups said. “It really was … I tried everything. I was playing lineups that I’ve never even seen. The truth of the matter is that because we haven’t had bodies, you can’t practice, so you end up practicing in the game. It’s tough circumstances.”
Anfernee Simons said the team’s turnovers were in part the result of poor communication and overthinking situations. Some of that, he said, was due to lineup inconsistencies.
“It’s hard to get a rhythm, for sure,” Simons said. “Players coming in and out and they have to kind of react and see how they play off the fly. So, that could be tough.”
On the plus side, Simons said he was glad that the Blazers were in a situation where they could shake off the loss, regroup and face the same team again on Friday.
“You do get to kind of settle in a little bit,” Billups said. “And get to kind of game plan versus what happened in the first game. You see them right away again, and think about what you can possibly do the next game differently on both ends of the floor.”
Last week, the Blazers lost 118-105 to the San Antonio Spurs only to come back the next night and win 134-128. Granted, Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama didn’t play in the second game. But the Blazers did play better overall in the second matchup.
“It’s kind of like the Spurs situation,” Jabari Walker said of playing the Mavericks again on Friday. “I think we will get a better look at who we’re playing against, some adjustments. I think we definitely have a chip on our shoulders after that one. We’ll how we come out this next one.”
-- Aaron Fentress reported from Dallas.
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