Chauncey Billups had seen enough.
The Portland Trail Blazers trailed 13-3 not even three minutes into Monday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors at the Moda Center. Billups called a timeout.
“I just felt like we needed to wake up,” Billups said.
He told his team, which would go on to win 118-113, that lacking intensity against a hungry team that’s good on the road would lead to a loss. Granted, the Raptors were off Sunday, while the Blazers (7-8) lost 124-95 at Denver. But that excuse didn’t wash for Billups. If the subpar play continued, he would have to make early substitutions.
After the loss at the Nuggets, Billups said he would consider lineup changes if the team’s overall effort didn’t improve.
“That was one of those instances where I said we’ll see how it goes after this timeout and I’ll have to start subbing quick,” he said. “Because I do know the guys that are gonna give us the effort and energy every single night.”
CJ McCollum said the team got the message.
“He basically said they were playing harder than us,” McCollum said. “We weren’t matching their intensity. They were denying us. It was hard for us to get into stuff. They were the aggressors. They played with urgency and we didn’t.”
The Blazers’ play shifted from that point on. Portland ultimately led 61-60 at halftime and the score stood at 85-85 going into the fourth quarter. But incremental lineup changes played a large part. In fact, Billups credited the second unit players of Anfernee Simons, Nassir Little, Larry Nance Jr., Cody Zeller and Tony Snell for turning the game around.
“We went to them,” Billups said. “That second group really kept us alive in the half. We came in at halftime and I told them, ‘Let’s thank the second group. Kept us in it. Got us back on top.’”
Nance and Little went on to become major factors in the fourth quarter. Each played all 12 minutes of the quarter in place of starters Robert Covington and Jusuf Nurkic. Those two didn’t log a minute in the fourth.
Nance said he tries to leave a mark on the game by playing with force and aggression, and that the rest of the backups take the same approach.
“That’s where we hang our hat,” Nance said. “Basketball is a game of runs. Our job is, whether we come in 10 up, 10 down, or even, our job is to have the first run and maintain that.”
Damian Lillard said he liked how the Blazers’ reserves performed against a Raptors team playing a at a fast pace.
“I felt like our ability to switch and how we were able to change up our coverages on pick and rolls and matchup better with him, I thought it really played in our favor,” Lillard said.
Nance and Little possess more disruptive athleticism than Covington and Nurkic, and their ability to switch on defense paid off in the fourth quarter. Plus, Nance went 4 of 4 from the field in the fourth for eight points while Little made 2 of 3 shots for five points.
Billups said that the move to Nance and Little in the fourth didn’t reflect future lineup plans, but instead was done to counter the Raptors’ smaller, athletic lineup that didn’t feature a true center.
“When you are deep, you have to kind of play and make adjustments based on what the other team is doing,” Billups said. “They were playing small, they started small and I wanted to play small so we can switch everything. So, no, that had nothing to do with anything going forward and everything through today’s game.”
The starting lineup might not change but Monday’s rotational changes show that Billups is figuring which lineups work best in certain situations. He said he is still learning his team and that requires trial and error.
What he has learned is that he has bench players who bring high energy most nights and he hopes that rubs off on some of the starters.
“Sometimes that second group inspires that first group,” Billups said. “I’ve been on teams like that before. But they bring so much energy and effort that sometimes when they get out there and do that, the first group gets back in there, and it’s like, if you don’t, you look bad.”
-- Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook).
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