Portland Trail Blazers Must Correct Offensive Woes to Reverse Chances of Upset

PORTLAND, Ore. — In a first round that has been heavy on blowouts and light on real drama, the Portland Trail Blazers were supposed to be the Western Conference’s one shot at an upset. So far, it hasn’t worked out that way.

The Blazers return home to the Moda Center trailing 2-0 in their series against the Los Angeles Clippers after suffering two losses that started off competitive and eventually grew lopsided. A return to form by Blake Griffin and unexpectedly strong play from the Clippers’ bench have prevailed.

That, and the Blazers simply haven’t been able to knock down shots.

By any measurement, Portland has been among the worst offensive teams in the playoffs so far. They’re scoring just 92.4 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com. In true-shooting percentage, they’re 14th out of 16 teams at 45.7 percent. Their effective field-goal percentage is 41.1 percent, also third-worst of the playoffs.

It wasn’t for a lack of looks that the Blazers fell behind in the first two games—they simply couldn’t get anything to go down. That’s not something that can be corrected with any particular adjustment, just better execution.

“I was pleased with the shots that we got,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said Friday following practice. “I was pleased with some of the changes going into Game 2. Listening to the Clippers, they felt like they could have defended better, so I would expect them to make some changes because of the looks that we did get. As series go on in general, there are fewer things to change.”

The biggest positive change the Blazers can hope for is a stronger performance from their normally high-scoring backcourt. During the regular season, Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum averaged a combined 45.9 points per game. So far in the playoffs, the two have yet to put together solid showings in the same contest.

In …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com