Blazers Pummel Pacers for Yet Another Victory

If the Portland Trail Blazers intend to stop winning any time soon, they’re showing no signs of it. On Tuesday night they welcomed the Indiana Pacers to the Moda Center, then proceeded to pummel them into submission in a 112-89 win. Indiana fielded defenders as energetic as the Blazers and were carrying their own four-game win streak coming into the evening. Portland played Bugs Bunny to their Elmer Fudd, looping around them, leaping over them, and generally misdirecting them into a series of mistakes and misses.

Indiana shot 42% from the floor. Their leading scorer, Andrew Nembhard, scored just 17. The Blazers were led by Anfernee Simons with 22 and Jerami Grant with 20. Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe each added 17 off the bench.

The Blazers have now won 5 in a row, 9 out of their last 10.

Here are some of the factors that stood out during the game.

Futilithree

If good shooting was a dessert this game would have been a Diabetics Convention. Both teams played active, adequate defense, helping and rotating on the interior. This resulted in multiple looks from beyond the arc. The sides combined for 6-30 shooting on threes during an eyesore of a first half. The Blazers recovered, finishing 14-37, 37.8% for the game. Indiana did not, shooting just 5-24, 20.8%. That left the Pacers hopelessly behind regardless of other developments.

Scoot Shoots

Scoot Henderson is looking quicker and more confident than ever on his three-point shooting. He went 3-5 from distance. The number isn’t the point, rather his willingness to take the shot (finally) and ability to hit it (mostly). He hit a clutch three from DEEP with 6:10 left to go in the game, a demoralizer reminiscent of the last point guard to make a splash in Portland. You may remember him.

The middle of the floor is so much harder to cover against the Blazers now than it was in the early months of the season. That’s at least partially due to Henderson.

Dribble to Dime

The normal routine for the Blazers—and approximately 29 other NBA teams—is to bend the defense via penetration, then pass to the perimeter for three-point shots. As we just chronicled, that wasn’t working very well tonight. But Portland showed another wrinkle in the offense against aggressive pursuit from Indiana. They drew doubles off of the dribble, then hit cutters for layups and dunks in the halfcourt. Nothing beats seeing Deandre Ayton’s eyes light up when he catches the ball clean 12 feet from the bucket and realizes there’s no defender between himself and the rim. Boom. Dunk. Yasss.

No Whistles? Nice.

The officials seemed content to let the teams play tonight. That helped Portland’s physical defenders immensely. The Blazers have suffered from reputation fouls for much of the season. When those free throws on light contact disappear, it’s down to hand-to-hand combat. Portland is pretty handy.

The Blazers attempted 17 free throws total in this one, the Pacers 21.

Turnovers

The turnover numbers don’t look that remarkable; each team committed 19, But TO’s sure swung the momentum. Every once in a while one team or the other would force them. That team inevitably went on a huge streak. In particular, the Blazers went on a 18-4 run in the third after Indiana had closed the lead to a single point. The stretch was sparked by a metric ton of steals and run-outs.

Though the teams were tied in total miscues, Portland generated a 28-12 advantage in points after turnovers. Their defense isn’t just getting solid. It’s getting solid while aggressively converting defense to offense. That’s been a big deal during this series of wins.

Iso Ball

Despite the ball movement and schemes, closing games often comes down to getting your best scorers the ball and letting them get buckets. Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons definitely filled that role for Portland tonight. Both scored from the perimeter in the fourth, smashing the Pacers’ hopes of a comeback. It almost wasn’t fair. The Blazers made them pay for not adjusting to the role players early, then made them pay by doing exactly that and leaving the stars single-covered late. When things are going right, they go right.

How Good???

Give or take an “L” (and remember, the Pacers took one tonight) Haliburton is a fine brand of briefcase. Inside that briefcase tonight for Tyrese Haliburton was exactly zero points on 0-3 shooting. This from a man who averages 14 attempts and over 18 points per game, his team’s second-leading scorer.

How good is Portland’s defense right now? Sick good.

RW3

Thanks to foul trouble for Deandre Ayton, Robert Williams III got 24 minutes tonight. He provided a team-leading 11 rebounds plus 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 turnovers. Donovan Clingan did not play, as Williams looked like he owned in that rotation slot.

Williams is often injured, of course, but if the Blazers keep all three centers and Ayton keeps playing well, they may have an interesting dilemma for the second half of the season.