Shootaround Report: Avoiding A Sweep Isn’t Enough

 

 

 

MEMPHIS – The Portland Trail Blazers held shootaround Wednesday afternoon at FedExForum in preparation for Game 5 of their first round playoff series versus the Memphis Grizzlies (tipoff scheduled for 6:30 pm on KGW, TNT and 620 AM). Some notes from practice…

• After going down 3-0 in the series, the Trail Blazers finally broke through to beat the Grizzlies in Game 4, which was the first time in eight tries that Portland was able to best Memphis. The win assured that the Trail Blazers’ season would continue for at least one more game while also avoiding an embarrassing series sweep.

“It’s hard to think about beating a team four times in a row in the playoffs, but we’ve just got to take it one game at a time,” said  Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard. “Consider yourselves fighting for our lives each game. We got the first one and now tonight we’ve just got to try to keep it alive again. All we have is today, so that’s all that matters.”

But if you think the players are satisfied to simply avoid being swept, think again. While the Trail Blazers did say that they’re focusing soley on winning Game 5 rather than taking the series, they were also emphatic that their motivation goes far beyond securing what some have started calling a “Gentleman’s Sweep,” as in, losing the first three games and winning the fourth only to go on to lose the series 4-1.

“I’d be disappointed if anybody on our team felt that way,” said Lillard. “You play a series and it’s the first team to win four games and nobody has won four games yet. We stopped ourselves from being swept and now we’re taking it a game at a time just trying to keep our season alive.”

Some might assume that the Trail Blazers are resigned to being eliminated in the first round considering that no NBA team has ever come back to win a seven-game series after losing the first three games. And now that being swept is off the table, perhaps they’d be content to roll over and start their off-seasons rather than prolonging what most assume is inevitable. Not so, say the players.

“I can understand that but we’ve just got to keep playing,” said Nicolas Batum of the notion that Portland might be satisfied to end the series 4-1. “That’s it. We won Game 4, that’s good, but we’ve want to try to get this game tonight and get back home for Game  6. That’s what we all want to do. We don’t want to lose any game in the series so if we can extend it again, we’re going to try to do it.”

• The topic of which team is facing more pressure than the other always seems to increase during the playoffs, and that’s been no different in the first round series between the Blazers and Grizzlies. Is the pressure on the Grizzlies due to being the overwhelming favorite to advance? Was the pressure on Portland in Game 3 to avoid going down 3-0 on their home court? Did that pressure remain on Portland in Game 4 due to the potential of a sweep? These are the kind of debates which are potentially endless to do “pressure” being impossible to quantify, at least in the metaphorical sense.

“I don’t think the pressure was ever on us,” said Damian Lillard, prescribing to the “pressure resides with the favorites” school of thought. “We weren’t expected to win this series but now that we’ve won a game, we finally played somewhat of a good game, we’ve got an opportunity to send it back to Portland. We just need to worry about today. I don’t think it’s no pressure, we just need to show up and play.”

But one thing everyone seems to agree upon is that the pressure in Game 5 sits almost entirely on Memphis’ shoulders, as the series going back to Portland for a potentially series-tying Game 6 is something the Grizzlies want to avoid at all costs.

“We’re on the road with one win, so I don’t think there’s any pressure on us,” said LaMarcus Aldridge. “It’s just on us to go play basketball, go compete at a high level and try to do the things that we did last game.”

• The Trail Blazers got an enormous boost from their bench in Game 4 courtesy of Meyers Leonard and CJ McCollum. Leonard provided valuable scoring fro the perimeter in the first half, which pulled Memphis’ bigs away from the basket in the second half, while McCollum hit shots in the clutch to help Portland overcome a 10-point fourth quarter deficit.

“Last game was big because we got big games from a lot of guys that haven’t really been in that moment,” said LaMarcus Aldridge. “CJ played well down the stretch, which that was his first big time playoff game where he had big shots down the stretch. Meyers Leonard was big for us in the second quarter. He kind of carried us for that two or three minute stretch. I think last game was big for us because we’ve seen a lot of growth in guys.”

Both Leonard and McCollum had shown flashes of improved play throughout the regular season, but both were just inconsistent enough to end up on the fringes of Terry Stotts’ rotation. That’s also been the case in the series, as both have looked great at times and ineffective in others. McCollum in particular seemed like he might be a factor early in the series after playing the best basketball of his career late in the season, but going 4-of-21 in the first two games gave the impression that maybe he wasn’t ready to assume a larger role. But he’s turned around the rough start by going 16-of-26 from the field and 4-of-6 in the last two games.

“I was ready to play from the beginning, honestly, I just didn’t make shots,” said McCollum. “I had some good looks in the first game and the second game I had some really good looks and just didn’t make them. It was good to see the ball go in a little bit but nothing has really changed. The defense has been the same, everybody is running the game plays so it’s not like much has changed.”

Though that might not be the case Wednesday night in Memphis. Grizzlies head coach Dave Joeger made a point of singling out McCollum as a player they were having a tough time dealing with, so it’s very likely that they’ll change something with regard to checking the second-year shooting guard, though McCollum said he’s not sweating the extra attention.

“I’m not really worried about what they do, I just want to focus on what our team is doing,” said McCollum. “Stay aggressive and you’ll see the defense as the game goes on. You’ll be able to find your spots, there’s always going to be openings with our team. We’ve got two all-stars on the team so it’s kind of like pick your poison. I just try to take advantage of whatever I get and try to be efficient.”