In the Scope: Golden State Warriors x Portland Trailblazers Preview

By: J.M.Poulard

On Saturday night, the Portland Trail Blazers (13-14) will be hosting the Golden State Warriors (9-16) in a showdown of sub .500 teams that could possibly put it together and make a run at the postseason. Portland won 50 games last season and it seems as though they will not be reproducing the feat this year. They are by all accounts a talented team but something seems to be lacking this year.

Their offense produces 94.1 points per game (25^th in the NBA) on 43.3% field goal shooting (27^th in the NBA) which initially seems surprising. At first glance, one would expect the team to be a more efficient scoring bunch given the presence of players such as Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge on the team. But after watching them play, what stands out is that they are a jump shooting team.

Brandon Roy is a phenomenal player in his own right, however it is obvious that the knee troubles have robbed him of some explosiveness and thus limit his ability to get to the rim. Indeed, according to Hoopdata, he is averaging a career low 2.8 field goal attempts at the rim. With that said, he is still able to at times get by his man (although he is a bit slower in doing so now) and then dish the ball out to open teammates but the Blazers have trouble knocking down open shots. Have a look at their shooting numbers from spots on the court:

Further exacerbating the problem, Portland does not get any easy baskets. They might fool you into believing so because of Andre Miller’s great alley oop passes but they struggle on offense. One would expect a team with athletes like Wes Matthews, Nicolas Batum and Rudy Fernandez to consistently push the pace and get out in transition for easy baskets, but the Blazers average a subpar 11.5 fast break points per game (27^th in the league).

Also, Portland has trouble finishing at the basket as evidenced by their 60.1% field goal shooting at the rim (27^th in the NBA). Consequently, they only score 40.2 points per game inside the paint (19^th in the NBA) and generate 22.6 free throw attempts per game (28^th in the league). Not all the blame should be directed at Roy though. LaMarcus Aldridge contributes to their issues as well because of his inability to get his team easy scores. He is for the most part a jump shooting big man that has trouble consistently converting at the basket. Put this into perspective: Steve Nash converts a higher percentage of his shots at the rim (77.8%) than LaMarcus Aldridge (57.5%). In a nutshell, those are the issues with their offense.

On defense, Portland limits opponents to 95.0 points per game (seventh in the NBA) but allows its opponents to shoot 46.6% from the field (20^th in the league). There is a bit of irony involved with the Trail Blazers as far as scoring goes. Indeed, as seen previously, they struggle to get easy baskets, but in the same breath they do not allow their opponents to get easy scores. Their perimeter players as well as their inside players do a great job of sealing the paint and forcing teams to shoot from the outside. Consequently, Portland allows opponents to shoot 42.4% from 16 to 23 feet (27^th in the NBA).

Mind you, they sacrifice the long range two point jumpers in favor of protecting the basket. Indeed, according to Team Rankings, they hold their opponents to 38.2 points per game in the paint (seventh in the association) and display some resistance at the basket in holding the opposition to 61.5% shooting at the rim (11^th in the NBA).

Part of the reason that the Trail Blazers are this good at defending the inside is because they have trouble guarding the perimeter at times; especially against the big shooting guards and small forwards. They usually lack the size at those positions to match up with the likes of Caron Butler, Kobe Bryant, Manu Ginobili, Vince Carter and Carmelo Anthony to name a few. As a result, they will often switch to a zone to protect the inside with lengthy players such as Aldridge, Camby and Batum. And although Portland does a good job of protecting the paint with their zone defense, unlike the Dallas Mavericks, they do a poor job of finding shooters when they are in the zone thus allowing teams to hit a few wide open shots against them every now and then.

With that said, the Portland Trail Blazers are still a tough team to beat at the Rose Garden (8-3 at home) and the Warriors will have their hands full when they travel to Portland tonight.