Things aren’t exactly going as planned in Portland.
But it’s hard to argue that they aren’t going as expected considering the players taking the floor for the Trail Blazers.
Portland traveled to Utah on Wednesday where the Jazz delivered a 123-85 drubbing that was somehow more lopsided than the final score. The loss was the sixth straight for Portland. Five of those arrived by 30 points or more.
For much of the third quarter, Utah more than doubled Portland up. The deficit reached its nadir when Utah extended its lead to 51 points at 94-43 with 2:34 remaining in the third quarter. Only coach Quin Snyder’s merciful decision to pull Utah’s starters for the fourth quarter allowed the final margin to shrink.
If that sounds to you more like a first-round NCAA tournament score between a No. 1 seed and a No. 16 playing out of its depth, then you’re not far off. Consider Portland’s starting lineup on Wednesday: Drew Eubanks, Elijah Hughes, Brandon Williams, Josh Hart and CJ Elleby.
If you need help picturing them, here you go:
It’s a group that collectively averages 39.8 points per game — or roughly eight points per game per player. Josh Hart — the only player in the lineup resembling an NBA starter — tilts the math with his 13.7 scoring average.
On Wednesday, the Blazers shot 32.6% from the floor and 25% from 3-point distance while getting outrebounded 50-36. The Jazz, meanwhile, shot 51.9% from the floor and 37% from 3-point distance. It was an unfair fight rarely seen at the professional level yet has become the norm for the Blazers in recent weeks.
This is not to knock the guys on the floor. They’re just not NBA-caliber starters — except they’re starting in Portland. CJ McCollum is gone. Robert Covington is gone. Norman Powell is gone. Meanwhile Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic are injured. And the Blazers don’t appear to have any motivation to rush them back.
With Wednesday’s loss, the Blazers dropped to 25-40 — which somehow leaves them in striking distance of the play-in games at 1.5 games behind the 10th-place New Orleans Pelicans. Right now, nothing indicates the Blazers have any intention of getting there.
