Preseason Closes With Another Loss To Nuggets - Trailblazers.com

erotoko.blogspot.com

The Portland Trail Blazers finished their 2020 preseason schedule with a 129-96 loss to the Nuggets in Dencer Friday night at Ball Arena.

With the loss, the Trail Blazers finish their four-game exhibition season with a 1-3 record. After getting a win in their first preseason contest, Portland lost their last three and by an average of 26.3 points while giving up 125.3 points per game.

“My general takeaway is we’re trying to implement things defensively that involves more pressure, more rotations and the fact that we’re playing an excellent offensive team that passes well, I think it’s a bad combination,” said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. “Certainly I’m not happy with the two results that we’ve played here. I think Denver picked us a part because they’re a very good offensive team, and excellent passing team with a lot of three point shooters.”

After giving up 41 points on 70 percent shooting in the first quarter of Wednesday’s blowout loss to the Nuggets, the hope was that the Trail Blazers could put together a far better effort in the rematch Friday night.

That would not be the case, as the Nuggets once again scored 41 points in the first quarter, albeit on 58 percent shooting, Friday night. And unlike in Wednesday’s game, Portland’s defense didn’t improve in the second and third quarters.

And with Damian Lillard (rest) sitting out and Derrick Jones Jr. leaving the game in the third quarter after suffering a back contusion after taking a hard fall, there wasn’t much to take from the second half other than that Portland has a lot of issues to address before the start of the regular season.

“Any way to get better, it’s going to be done on the practice court,” said Stotts. “We’ve got three days to prepare for Utah. The good thing is that we have a relatively veteran team and I think, as poorly as looked the last couple games, I think that we’re still a good enough team that we can turn things around pretty quickly.”

CJ McCollum led the Blazers with 26 points on 8-of-20 shooting from the field and 4-of-9 shooting from three, two assists and a rebound in 29 minutes. Gary Trent Jr. added 18 points on 7-of-18 shooting in 32 minutes. Enes Kanter finished with 20 points and nine rebounds before fouling out in 19 minutes.

Paul Millsap scored 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting in just 15 minutes Friday night. Michael Porter Jr. shot 50 percent from the field and 4-of-9 from three for 20 points. Bol Bol added 16 points off the bench.

After an off day Saturday, the Trail Blazers will return to practice on Sunday in preparation for their regular-season opener versus the Utah Jazz on December 23. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

"with" - Google News
December 19, 2020 at 12:35PM
https://ift.tt/34omZwI

Preseason Closes With Another Loss To Nuggets - Trailblazers.com
"with" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3d5QSDO
https://ift.tt/2ycZSIP

Bagikan Berita Ini