The Portland Trail Blazers couldn’t capitalize on three golden opportunities in crunch time Sunday night during a 19-112 loss to the Detroit Pistons at the Moda Center.
The home crowd rallied behind the surging Blazers as they crawled back from an 18-point second-half deficit. The fans also rebelled against a struggling officiating crew that pleased neither bench all night with its slow, inaccurate whistle. A heater from Anfernee Simons at the end of the third quarter ignited the comeback, and the tide of momentum continued to swell Portland’s way as the Blazers pieced together late stops and cut the deficit to just three points. That’s when three different Blazers players released three separate 3-point shots to potentially tie the game with under 90 seconds remaining.
“Man, we had some great opportunities in that fourth quarter,” Portland head coach Chauncey Billups said. “We really did.”
The first shooter was backup center Duop Reath. The floor-spacing big had just bucked a rough shooting slump by knocking down a top-of-the-key 3-pointer two possessions earlier, his first make in eight attempts from the field, including six misses from deep. Now Reath found himself open at the top of the key again, ready to give his in-game odyssey of shooting perseverance a cinematic ending by hitting two in a row in the clutch. The attempt careened off the front end and out with 1:16 remaining.
After a defensive stop, the ball got to Blazers forward Toumani Camara in the right corner with 50 seconds left. A swish would’ve been a fitting touch on another impactful performance from Camara. He frustrated Pistons All-Star Cade Cunningham all game and sent a jolt through the arena in the second quarter with a vicious slam over the top of Detroit enforcer Isaiah Stewart. The dunk was the kind you’re legally obligated to watch at least twice if it pops up on your feed.
“I was like, ‘Oh sh—,” said Simons, who scored a team-high 34 points in the loss. “ ... Tou’s [dunk] was contact, body to body. He dunked right through him.”
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Photo by Soobum Im/NBAE via Getty Images
Photo by Cameron Browne/NBAE via Getty Images
After that highlight and another game of that trademark grit, fate felt correct when the ball found the fan favorite open to tie it ... until Camara’s attempt missed off the back iron. A scramble off that miss ended with the ball in the opposite corner in the hands of the third shooter, Blazers guard Shaedon Sharpe. He was just as open as Camara and Reath, but Sharpe’s quick trigger also didn’t drop and Detroit grabbed the rebound with 40 seconds remaining.
The Moda Center crowd — with many fans donning tie-dye in honor of Bill Walton Tribute Night — rose with anticipation for each of those 3-point attempts and met each miss with a disappointing exhale.
The three misses closed the door on Portland’s third consecutive loss. All three of those losses — a tight overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, a loss to a severely undermanned OKC team, and this late submission to the Pistons — felt like missed opportunities during a pivotal stretch of Portland’s push for the play-in. With 17 games left, the Blazers are four games back of the No. 10 seed Dallas Mavericks and 2.5 games behind the No. 11 seed Phoenix Suns. The Blazers still have a chance to jump into that 10th spot, but these three losses stung and Portland can’t afford many more missed opportunities — or losses at all, for that matter.
Simons said he “for sure” has been checking in on the recent results of the teams near Portland in that play-in race. He noted Phoenix’s upcoming schedule is tough, while Dallas star Kyrie Irving’s season-ending injury may cause the Mavs to lose some games and present an opening for the Blazers. Simons even paused from his answer to ask if the No. 9 seed Sacramento Kings had won Sunday, providing more evidence of his play-in research. (Perhaps, Simons has found theBlazer’s Edge play-in standings tracker that Timmay has been regularly updating, and if not, maybe we should send him the link).
“We gotta really string some wins together just to give ourselves a chance,” Simons said. “Like I said, we’re gonna fight.”
In total contrast from his player, Billups said he isn’t focused on the standings — a message he has reiterated all season. He’s just focused on how the Blazers perform.
“We keep playing as hard as we did tonight, get some of those 3s to go in, get some of those finishes to go in,” Billups said. “And we look up in two or three weeks and see where we’re at.”