Take a look at that. That’s Damian Lillard walking to his spot near the right wing, where he will curl around a screen and await a possible pass from Nic Batum. There are 0.9 seconds left on the clock before the game ends in regulation. The score is Houston 98, Portland 96.
That’s what composure looks like, and that’s why there’s been a general consensus forming that his nickname can really only be one thing: Sub-Zero. It’s with that attitude that he curls off that screen and claps for the ball, gets it and drains a three to win Portland the series.
I said prior to the last game that what the Blazers needed to show above all was the same sort of composure they had in the last series. They showed up to this one with energy, but their movements looked frantic and desperate. The first two games of the series found them nervous and excitable. The third, to me, looked like their worst from this perspective: even though they made amazing efforts to fight back, this only increased their desperation and made them look even more scattered.
In Game 4, we saw the return of the Blazers of the Houston series. This was a team that didn’t care that Dwight Howard was testing the backboard’s structural integrity through an entire quarter, ferociously slamming dunk after dunk on them; this was the team that instead kept their cool, resting on defense and gathering strength to fight out the rest of the game, when things actually counted. This is the team that assigned defensive priorities skillfully, dedicated itself to stopping key players, and hacking-a-Howard when it was necessary. This is the team that underneath this professionalism—a quality they share with the Spurs—played with heart, not with energy. That played the long game, rather than the short one; that trusted their analytics, their game plan, and went efficiently, coolly, for the win.
Above all their composure showed in their control of the pacing of the game. They took care of the ball and went for simple pick and roll plays while the defense wasn't yet set. One or two passes, tops. Look for more of this in the next game:
San Antonio throughout the series has been taking Portland’s rebounding away from them and also capitalizing on turnovers, so both these things were essential. Making efficient, quick shooting at the first uncontested opportunity, allowed them to keep the floor spread, so those very opportunities could stay open. Their spacing looked like what it has been throughout the year.
But in order to make this possible they also worked hard at simply pushing the ball, getting many points in transition or just out of it, and took the ball into the paint to the rim. Of course transition points depended upon San Antonio missing shots, which they simply weren’t in the first few games. But Portland was also failing to finish on the opportunities they had when they did indeed get the defensive rebound. This game things looked different. They often pushed for the fast break, displaying more faith that their line of advance towards the basket nullified the presence of even several defenders, and so allowed for a pretty good run at the rim:
Generally they tried to pass from within the paint through Lillard, getting deeper and deeper inside to really collapse the defense and allow a kickout. The pick and roll with him was quick and deadly: San Antonio is so good at getting back to their man, but Lillard has a quickness that has been underutilized in favor of keeping the ball moving, which has allowed the Spurs defense simply to settle into itself and begin its work. With that taken away, there were open shots to be had for Lillard. Lopez and Batum also played their quick pick and roll, which is one of the deadliest in the sport currently, so well does Lopez use his body to produce clear paths to the hoop, and so good is Batum at passing in traffic.
Of course the story of the night was Will the Thrill coming through for the Blazers:
It was Barton’s role more at the point that was in fact most useful. He has a tendency to push the ball and upset defensive schemes, and this is exactly what is needed if the Blazers are going for quick shots, trying to keep the pace fast. As a 3-man wheeling he has no fear in taking it to the hoop:
Furthermore, his defense on Mills was excellent, and continually surprised the audience with how quick his movement is. Barton looks like he moves jerkily because of his length, but he was displaying an immense economy of effort and accuracy in predicting offensive moves.
C.J. McCollum also did good work on defense of this very same sort, and did great work getting open. Overall shifting the burden on to these two players, along with Thomas Robinson, and going small when the bench is in—interleaving them with Aldridge and other starters skillfully (in lineups I can’t quite remember seeing from the regular season—was the adjustment called for by Mo Williams’ absence which we should have seen last game. But it is better that it showed up here than not at all. Expect to see it again.
Whether this all comes too late though, is the real question. Portland, still has a shot at the series: as long as the door is open it is open, no matter what the history books say (namely that no team coming back from 0-3 can win it). But San Antonio is not looking forward to playing any more games. And they still operated efficiently enough in this game to make the next one scary for Blazers fans.
Their second string got much more playing time in the last game because Parker, Duncan, et. al. needed some rest (especially the first). And the Blazers even here proved to have problems. Lillard still didn’t quite get out on some threes by Green, giving him open looks. And Thomas Robinson was occasionally completely eaten up by Diaw’s weird combination of quickness and size. And the Blazers still have no answer for this:
Though in that respect they’re very much like most NBA teams. This is from Game 3: Kawhi beats Batum to get the tip, then takes it coast to coast. He has continued to punish them from the long 2: the Blazers give up long 2’s, but those are precisely what Kawhi’s game is all about. It is a wonderful thing to see him get back into doing, after his being relegated to moving along the three point line for so much of his time in the NBA: though he can hit them, his skillset is somewhat underutilized by the Spurs offense. He’s also been posting up against Matthews and killing him despite Wes’ best efforts.
It’s going to be a slog, this next game, as the Spurs make adjustments to what worked in Game 4. If the Blazers come out with a similar quickness, though, and some things start happening which should have happened in the last game—Lopez was strangely missing shots, which he never does, and Aldridge still was having a tougher time closer to the rim than far away, which is also odd, and Matthews works so hard on defense his three has often been off—they again have a very good shot at beating this killer Spurs team and bringing the series back to the Rose Garden. Above all, though, they now need to build upon the aggressiveness they showed in the last game. The three previous games they looked extremely hesitant on offense—it was a lot like watching the Rockets in the last series—and now they have gotten their focus back, if they continue to play like there’s nothing to lose, and go for quick shots with confidence and even a little daring, I think they can pull another off.
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