On January 29, Beijing time, the Blazers defeated the Rockets 125-110 to end the losing streak. In this game, the Blazers gave the Rockets a 12-point lead in the first quarter, a 13-point lead at halftime, and the Rockets narrowed the gap of 7 points in the third quarter and was pulled open in the last quarter, and finally the Blazers won the third victory of the last five games. After this game, the Blazers ranked tenth in the West and the Lakers in the ninth place in the West by 3 wins.
Nurkic scored 25 points, 13 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block on 8-of-111; CJ 10-of-20, 4-of-9 three-pointers for 26 points, 5 assists and 3 rebounds; Anfine Simmons had 27 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds and 1 steal on 5-of-9 shooting, shooting 64.7% and 54.5% from three-point range.
After this campaign, Anfinni Simmons hit at least four three-pointers in six consecutive games to become the third person in Blazers history, the remaining two being Lillard and McCollum. After Lillard's injury, Anfenni Simmons's performance was getting better and better.
Lillard suffered a rectus injury after playing the Lakers on January 1, and has missed 13 games so far, in which Anfinnie Simmons averaged 24.4 points and 7.1 assists per game, shooting 48.5%, 44.4% from three-point range and 89.7% from the free throw line.
In 29 games this season, Lillard averaged 24 points, 7.3 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game, shooting 40.2 percent from the field and 30.2 percent from three-point range.
Lillard played in 29 games for the Blazers 12-17, and after his absence, Simmons led the team to 8-5 in 13 games, in other words, the record is much better than that of the Trail Blazers after Lillard.
Of the players who hit at least 40 three-pointers in January, the player with the highest three-point shooting percentage was Simmons (44.4 percent) and Duncan Robinson was second with 44 percent. (Simmons was 44% before this campaign, improved to 44.4% after beating the Rockets)
It's clear that Simmons in fourth grade has become a reliable scorer, organizer, and three-pointer, and there's no need for the Blazers to keep The Lillard + McCollum + Powell + Simmons 4-gun combination.
As early as January 7, Lillard agent Aaron Goodwin expressed his desire to reach an early renewal with the Blazers, Lillard has the right to reach a huge contract renewal contract with the Blazers for 2 years and 110 million this summer, and in the summer of 2019, Lillard and the Blazers reached a 4-year 176 million early renewal contract, which expires in 2025, which means that Lillard also wants to extend it for two years. But Simmons is getting better and better, and the Blazers can give up negotiating with Lillard in the offseason, or even trade Lillard.
Text/Yan Xiaobai