HOUSTON -- Damian Lillard specifically passed the ball to Nassir Little during a play in the first half of the Portland Trail Blazers’ 104-92 victory Friday at Houston so the third-year forward could go hard to the rim and throw down a dunk.
Instead, Little lobbed a pass to Larry Nance Jr. on a play that resulted in a turnover.
An irritated Lillard said he cussed out Little while pointing out that throwing lob passes is not his job. Instead, on a play like that, Lillard wants Little to run full speed at a defender under the basket and dunk it.
“I got on him and he said, ‘I got you,’” Lillard said.
In the third quarter, Lillard got the ball in transition, dribbled past halfcourt and flipped a pass to a streaking Little in the middle of the floor. He caught the ball at about the three-point line, took one dribble and then launched toward the basket despite there being two defenders in his way and an open Cody Zeller to his right with his hands out ready for a pass.
The 6-foot-5 Little ignored Zeller and finished with a powerful dunk that gave the Blazers a 79-62 lead with 1:44 remaining in the quarter.
In the process, Little avoided getting a charging call by jumping slightly to his left in order to avoid smashing directly into Houston’s 6-10 center Alperen Sengun, who stood still and braced himself in hopes of drawing a foul. Instead, Little bumped Sengun’s right shoulder and he unconvincingly fell to the floor.
“The referee rewarded a good basketball play,” Lillard said of Little’s adjustment.
After the dunk, Lillard said Nassir found him and said: “I told you, I got you.”
Little said that during the play he didn’t think about what Lillard had told him earlier. Playing with no thought in a situation like that was best.
“The issue is me thinking when I passed it,” Little said of the previous play. “That’s the issue. So, when I got it, I didn’t think at all.”
After the play, however, Little sought approval from the team’s leader and received it.
“I’m coachable,” Little said.
It’s plays like that one, and Little’s coachability, that have earned him a role in the team’s rotation this season. On Friday, a night when most of the rest of the team didn’t play particularly well even in victory, Little provided 13 points and 14 rebounds off the bench.
Little first entered the game with 4:48 remaining in the first quarter and the Blazers down 19-15. By the end of the quarter, Little had seven points and the Blazers led 30-27.
“His first half was incredible,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said. “His energy. His will. Tenacity. He was incredible.”
On most nights, Little is the team’s jolt of energy. He has one job: Play hard.
Billups said he often tells Little that he can make mistakes as long as he gives maximum effort, especially on defense and rebounding, as he did Friday night.
“I’m living with that,” Billups said. “If you’re not playing hard and you’re just kind of getting through it and you make a mistake, I’ve got no patience for that.”
Little received that message during the summer and training camp and went about focusing on providing the energy the team needs off of the bench.
“If anybody has been watching all year, I think that’s been consistent,” he said of the energy he brings. “I think I come in every time, every single game, I bring the same thing. I may not score a lot every game, but I’m gonna play hard, I’m going to play defense and I’m going to try my best to do whatever I need to do in order to give us some kind of a lift.”
For the season, Little is averaging 7.5 points and 5.7 rebounds in 21 minutes per game.
There is no statistic for the athleticism and competitiveness Lillard said that Little brings to the court.
“It can be infectious, defensively,” Lillard said. “On the defensive glass, the offensive glass, his slashing. Nobody else has that ability to affect the game the way he can. Seeing him come out and do it at that level, I think that should excite everybody.”
Little can sense his impact on the team when he enters the game.
“When you see your teammate doing something so hard, it’s hard for you not to match it,” Little said.
Watching young players such as Little mature into contributors, Billups said, is one of the reasons he wanted to get into coaching.
“Most of them just need somebody to believe in them and give them confidence,” Billups said. “Still coach them hard, but don’t let up on them.”
Little, the team’s first-round pick in 2019, said one of the best things Billups did for him was being clear about what he needed to do to play more often after seeing just 13.3 minutes per game last season.
The next most important thing Billups did: “I think just giving me a chance and putting me out there on the court. But I earned it.”
-- Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook).
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