It’s Dame Time! Oh no, not this time. That night in Indianapolis, we were rather on a Choke Time for Blazers. After a rather… odd game, Portland completely cracked in the final minutes of the game, leaving the Pacers to take the win at home.
Zero. Zero like the number of Damian Lillard, hero of the Blazers in desperate situations? No. Zero as the number of shots returned by the band of Oregon in the last six minutes of the game. Nada, that tchi, nothing, not a poor shoot. Only two throws returned by Lady in the middle of a 15 to 2 run by the Pacers. So no, the word cracking is not too much. Zero points, like the game note of the leader of the Blazers.
Moneytime atrocity from the Blazers, not even wanting to talk about Lillard it was sad as can be. https://t.co/MQzfNOrHAj
— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) January 7, 2023
Oh yes, here we are going to talk about it. 19 points for the Sub Zero, all to one abominable 7/24 shooting including 1/8 from the parking lot. Add to that a target the size of the West Coast on the head as soon as the farmers Pacers had the ball (very targeted on offense), and you’ll get an amazing cocktail of mediocrity. Well, now that we’ve emptied the magazine, let’s still distribute the good points to the few who deserve them. First, to Jusuf Nurkic, who will tomorrow be the subject of a complaint filed by Myles Turner for harassment in the paint and aggravated racketeering under the circles (19 rebounds from the Bosnian). We would have liked him to take his shots, but we can’t have everything. Next, Josh Hart, his first (and only) accomplice. 12 points at 4/4 shooting, 10 rebounds and 8 assists, with the added bonus of a poster on poor Chris Duarte. Very nice match despite the loss. Etpicétout.
Even on the Pacers side, no immense pride except for the comeback at the end of the match. As previously mentioned, Myles Turner has been bully for 42 minutes under the basket, and if Thérèse la Bretonne was able to wake up in the last moments with a good management of clutch time and pucks (Breton suddenly) distributed to friends, the 5/15 shooting including 3/10 to 3-pointers is blah blah. Still a good intensity on the other hand from the side of Bennedict Mathurin. The rookie continues to impress off the bench.
In short, an end to the game to forget for the Blazers before going to knock on the door of the Raptors Sunday night. Because unless the League has planned a snowball fight to decide between the two franchises, this kind of spectacle – if repeated – is likely to annoy Coach Billups.