On February 17, Beijing time, the Blazers away to meet the Grizzlies, facing this third-ranked team in the West, the Blazers who thought that the lack of major generals would suffer a big defeat, and as a result, they did not think that the Blazers were 11 points ahead of the opponent at the end of the first half, even after the Grizzlies began to blow the counterattack horn, but the Blazers finally relied on the lead laid in the first half, and finally won the opponent 123-119 without any danger, ushering in a wave of 4 consecutive wins in the near future.
Not long ago, the Blazers successively rotated several main players in the lineup powell and Covington to trade out, and even the second-in-command CJ McCollum changed the court before the trade deadline, plus Lillard was also indefinitely absent due to an injury and an abdominal injury, just when everyone thought that the Blazers would be ruined, they unexpectedly exploded a wave of winning streaks in the near future. If the previous victories over the Lakers, Knicks and other teams of mediocre strength are not too gold-rich, but on February 15, with a 15-point advantage to cut the defending champion Bucks, and today to pull down the top three Grizzlies in the West, the Blazers' "extraordinary rise" in these games is indeed unexpected.
It is true that after the Blazers management made it clear that the team will not be rebuilt and will still build a team around Lillard, but everyone has not taken this "flattery" to heart, after all, the strength of these role players is indeed limited, and as a result, in the recent wave of 4 consecutive wins, the Blazers management can also be regarded as using practical actions to question the face. After several main rotations all left the team, the newly recruited Hart and Winslow have played well, and in the 3 games after joining the Blazers, Hart averaged 24 points, 5 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game, shooting percentage and three-point shooting rate to 60% and 52.4%, respectively, and Winslow also ushered in the spring of the Blazers, averaging 11.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.8 steals and 1 block.
As the team's record ushered in a recovery, veteran Nurkic also simply ended his paddling state, in these games in a row of two double-double data, today facing the Grizzlies by Jalen Jr. and Adams two people to guard the penalty area, Nurkic is a high next season 32 points with 8 rebounds. But the real carrying of the team, or the young Manny Simmons, in the recent double gun due to injury fell in succession, Simmons in the full trust of coach Billups, but also opened their own offensive mode, as of now, Simmons can average career-best 17 points, 2.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game, three-point shooting rate of up to 40%, after completely sitting on the team's starting position, Simmons has become the Blazers' team scoring champion (single game) more than once.
This wave of 4 consecutive wins also allowed the Blazers to temporarily sit in the tenth position in the West with a record of 25 wins and 34 losses, and behind them is the Pelicans who joined the CJ McCollum not long ago, and the Blazers are 1.5 wins away, if the Blazers can maintain this momentum, it is not without a chance to lock in a playoff place, according to the team's current hot state of cutting off the Bucks and Grizzlies, it is really possible to stand out in the playoffs and win a ticket to the last train of the playoffs.
No one could have imagined that under the gloom, the Portland generals would be so tenacious to survive and quickly complete the reconstruction, and next season in the case of the return of The Lillard King, the Blazers may really continue to maintain the super competitiveness of the previous seasons and become a strong team in the West that cannot be ignored.