Blazers Can’t Hit in the Clutch, Lose Narrowly to Pistons
FILED UNDER:
Portland did all they could, but just couldn’t produce enough points.
The Portland Trail Blazers and Detroit Pistons played a barn-burner on Sunday evening. If barns were burned by missed threes, that is. After building an 18-point lead in the second half, the Pistons succumbed to a big offensive run by Anfernee Simons, aided somewhat by prior scoring from Jerami Grant that kept the game in reach. Portland cut the lead down to three in the final minute, but most of their non-Simons shots were coming from outside. They couldn’t hit the deep shot late, or for most of the game. The Blazers went 15-50, 30% behind the arc, the Pistons 9-28, 32.1%. The difference was, Detroit had enough inside scoring to make up for it in a 119-112 Pistons victory.
Simons finished the game with 34 points, Grant with 25.
With misgivings, it’s Anfernee Simons. The story with him, and the team really, was the same as it has been for the last couple weeks. Portland did not play good defense. Simons became a frequent target of opponent attacks. He didn’t have enough help around him to keep him from being exposed.
That put a ton of pressure on Portland’s offense. As usual, Ant was the guy who delivered. He shot 14-26 from the field on his way to those 34 points. He’s the only Blazer who can score enough to win a game with offense. By gum, he tried—and largely delivered—tonight.
The Blazers got destroyed in the paint tonight. With a minute left in the third quarter, they had tallied only 14 points inside against 40 for Detroit. Anfernee Simons went on a heater to add 4 to the total before the buzzer sounded on the period, but that still left Portland on the wrong side of a double-up in the lane. The Pistons decided to take away dribble penetration at all costs. The Blazers coughed up the ball, stalled on drives, and passed out for threes instead. They couldn’t hit enough of the latter to make up for the former.
Jimmy Butler likes beefing his way out of a bad team situation – bad for him, anyways. One legendary target of his beefing was the entire Minnesota Timberwolves organization. Butler is a force on the court, and a force as a person with a big ego and bigger expectations. That meshed well with Tom Thibodeau, but didn’t mesh well with his fresh faced teammates, Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. So, he did what any rational person would do – picked a fight with them and Minnesota’s entire front office during a scrimmage heard round’ the world (and by Rachel Nichols like an hour after it happened).
The final tally in the paint was 50 Detroit, 30 Portland.
Honorable Mention: Down three points in the last 90 seconds of the game, the Blazers missed three open threes in a row before the margin got out of reach.
Honestly? The holes in Portland’s roster. The Blazers miss Deni Avdija so bad on perimeter defense. All the Pistons had to do was stay away from Toumani Camara and they had a red-carpet walkway into the lane on penetration. Poor Donovan Clingan was left deciding whether to stay with his man or cover the suddenly-loose driver. When he did the former, Detroit scored unopposed. When he did the latter, Clingan’s man just scooped up the rebound on the miss and put it in unopposed. You can find the commonality between those two sentences fairly easily.
On offense, the lack of a real point guard showed up drastically in the starting lineup. Simons mustered mostly iso shots. Shaedon Sharpe stalled or turned over the ball when he tried to initiate. Whipping the rock around the perimeter became Portland’s only steady passing opportunity. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t enough.
Boxscore
The Blazers draw the New York Knicks Wednesday night with a 7:00 PM, Pacific start.
Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537). Hope is here. GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call (800) 327-5050 for 24/7 support (MA). Visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD). Call 877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). 21+ (18+ D.C.) and present in select states (for KS, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino). Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT) or visit FanDuel.com/RG.
Follow Blazer’s Edge online:
Site search
Blazer’s Edge main menu
Share this story
Blazer of the Game
Stat of the Night
Jimmy Butler beefed himself off the Timberwolves with one scrimmage and one interview
What We’ll Remember
Up Next
MORE FROM BLAZER’S EDGE
MOST READ
Loading comments…
Portland Trail Blazers vs. Detroit Pistons: March 9, 2025
Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, (updated 8/1/2024) and acknowledgement of our Privacy Policy, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/1/2025).
© 2025 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us).
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local.
Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site.
YouTube’s privacy policy is available here and YouTube’s terms of service is available here.
Ad Choices
54
by The Associated Press
TOPICS:
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Portland Trail Blazers host the Detroit Pistons in non-conference action. Sunday’s meeting is the first of the season between the two teams. Portland is 16-14 at home, and Detroit is 18-15 on the road.
Detroit Pistons (35-29, sixth in the Eastern Conference) vs. Portland Trail Blazers (28-36, 12th in the Western Conference)
Portland, Oregon; Sunday, 9 p.m. EDT
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Pistons -2.5; over/under is 231.5
BOTTOM LINE: Anfernee Simons and the Portland Trail Blazers host Cade Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons in non-conference action.
The Trail Blazers are 16-14 in home games. Portland is 6-3 in games decided by less than 4 points.
The Pistons have gone 18-15 away from home. Detroit has a 7-6 record in one-possession games.
The Trail Blazers are shooting 45.3% from the field this season, 0.9 percentage points lower than the 46.2% the Pistons allow to opponents. The Pistons are shooting 47.5% from the field, 0.5% higher than the 47.0% the Trail Blazers’ opponents have shot this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Shaedon Sharpe is scoring 17.7 points per game and averaging 4.0 rebounds for the Trail Blazers. Simons is averaging 22.2 points and 3.1 rebounds over the last 10 games.
Tobias Harris is scoring 13.8 points per game and averaging 6.0 rebounds for the Pistons. Cunningham is averaging 26.8 points and 4.8 rebounds over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Trail Blazers: 5-5, averaging 118.3 points, 46.7 rebounds, 26.0 assists, 8.7 steals and 4.8 blocks per game while shooting 46.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 113.5 points per game.
Pistons: 7-3, averaging 121.7 points, 44.0 rebounds, 29.0 assists, 10.2 steals and 6.0 blocks per game while shooting 51.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 112.9 points.
INJURIES: Trail Blazers: Deandre Ayton: out (calf), Jabari Walker: day to day (hand), Matisse Thybulle: out (ankle), Dalano Banton: day to day (personal), Deni Avdija: day to day (quad), Robert Williams III: out (knee).
Pistons: Jaden Ivey: out (leg).
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
