The Portland Trail Blazers are winners of five out of their last six as they roll into Beantown on Wednesday to take on the Boston Celtics. On Sunday, they took out the Philadelphia 76ers 119-102. Anfernee Simons led all scores with 34, while Shaedon Sharpe contributed 20 points and 11 rebounds.
On paper, a contest against the Celtics looks to be a losing proposition for the Blazers, but there are a few factors that might even the odds a bit. Boston lists all five starters on the injury list as of this writing, and even at full strength it’s not uncommon for the Celtics to sleepwalk for significant stretches. One way or another, the odds are pretty good that the Blazers won’t be getting the best version of the Celtics for at least significant stretches of the game. Portland has also shown a youthful fearlessness recently, notably against the Cavaliers in a narrow overtime loss. If the Celtics show up and put the hammer down from the opening tip this might not be pleasant watching for Blazers fans, but odds are pretty good that the conditions might be there for this to be a close contest.
Portland Trail Blazers (28-34) at Boston Celtics (43-18) – Wed. Mar. 5 – 4:00pm Pacific
How to watch via antenna or cable: See your options on the Rip City Television Network
How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; League Pass everywhere else
Trail Blazers injuries: Matisse Thybulle, Deandre Ayton, Robert Williams III (out), Jerami Grant (questionable)
Celtics injuries: Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis (doubtful), Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown (questionable), Payton Pritchard, Derrick White (probable)
SB Nation Affiliate: Celtics Blog
Blazer’s Edge Reader Questions
EarlyThompson:
At what point — assuming there is one — would those who are vehemently anti-Billups (and for good reason, I’d say) have a change of heart? A win in Boston to improve their road trip to 4 and 5 and make us winners of 16 of our last 21 games? Is that enough evidence of growth for this very young team? Or to make the play-in? Playoffs? Or is it irreversible for many of the Blazer fans here?
I doubt there will be a positive consensus on Billups unless something truly miraculous transpires. As it is currently, there is certainly no meeting of the minds amongst Blazer’s Edge staff on what to make of Billups’ performance, both in terms of what these recent wins mean and in the bigger picture of how good of a job he is doing developing the younger players. For every argument there seems to be an equally good counter-argument. Unexpectedly winning 4 out of 5 on the road? Well, look at the quality of the opponents and the injury lists of the better foes. Shaedon Sharpe’s play improving after being benched? Why would you bench a superstar of the future in the first place? These guys really look to be clicking? Of course, it’s only after injuries forced his hand that Billups started playing his best lineups. And on and on. It’s my read that at least a third of Blazers fans have irreversibly made up their mind, and only something truly miraculous like making the playoffs and pulling off a staggering upset of the likes of Denver or Oklahoma City in a series would make a difference.
TheZink1:
The crazy scenario is “injuries,” and it’s in play. The entire starting rotation for the Celtics is on the injury report, plus another rotation player to boot. If two sit out you’d probably still pick the Celtics to win, but any more than that and the equation changes. Even if some or all of their “injured” players play, it’s not far-fetched to imagine these guys sleepwalking for three quarters or so. On paper this should be no contest, but that’s kind of what we thought against Cleveland so we’ll see.
desertboy96:
Squint a bit, and I can see a poor man’s version of the Celtics rejuvenation between the Paul Pierce era and the current Tatum Celtics with the Blazers rebuild. Aging starters (Pierce, Garnett/Dame, Nurk) dumped on desperate win-now teams for picks and prospects. Celtics took 11 years for it to come to full fruition, with a slew of complimentary moves (Horford, Holiday, etc) and internal growth (look at Jaylen Browns rookie stats, and it looks more like Scoot bust profile than future foundation star). What are odds Blazers can replicate Celtics rebuild in 6-7 years (prime age Scoot, Cling, Shae)? One in 5? One in ten? One in 28?
One thing I think people are sleeping on a bit is how the recent CBA changes are impacting the trade market. The Celtics under Danny Ainge traded away stars and began an incredible stretch of hoarding draft picks. While there is a lot of room for criticism over how long the club waited to finally start doing something with those picks, you can draw a pretty straight line between that pile of picks and Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, among other current Celtics. Today with hard caps and salary-matching rules, it’s hard to amass such a barrel full of picks if you don’t have top-tier talent to trade or gobs of cap space to take back salary. That means the Blazers have much less room to maneuver than the Celtics had. It’s not impossible that a team led by Scoot, Shaedon and Clingan become world beaters, but it seems like a pretty huge longshot without at least one new superstar and other key additions. Owning the Bucks’ draft for three years could possibly provide a missing ingredient, but the Blazers are going to need some pretty massive luck. Put it all together and I regrettably have to say that the odds of the Blazers pulling off a rebuild on the level of the Celtics is far longer than the 1 in 28 you’ve mentioned over the next 6-7 years. Keep in mind that the Celtics are in the running for dynasty status, so you’ve set the bar extremely high. If we change the terms to being a threat to make the finals, I think 1 in 15 or 1 in 20 is at least in play with a promising core and future additions, but without somehow getting a massive pile of assets, 1 in 5 or 1 in 10 is probably pretty far from reality.
What to Watch For
Final injury report. It’s not impossible that every Celtics starter sits this one out. It’s also possible that the Celtics put a very strong lineup on the court. Reading the tea leaves, I’m guessing that at least two of the six Celtics rotation players will not suit up, and more likely three. If the Blazers can pull off an upset surely injuries will have played a roll.
What Others Are Saying
Bill Sy of Celtics Blog argues that being without Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday has been a primary reason for losses to the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Detroit Pistons.
As much as the second unit came through, the strength of Holiday and Porzingis — on both sides of the ball — is their versatility. Queta’s energy around the rim on offensive rebounds and as a target in the dunker spot brings something different to the front court, but he’s not as reliable as a post-up threat or three-point shooter as Porzingis. Few are matchup nightmares like KP. Pritchard and Hauser got hot, but neither can take defensive stretches on either Jamal Murray or Jokic like Holiday can. There are no defensive mismatches for the All-Defense First Teamer.
Are we in for a Nuggets-Celtics final? Zach Harper of The Athletic (subscription required) is rooting for it.
To be honest, I’m with this idea. I hate parity when it comes to the NBA. It’s the ugly, creepy cousin of “everybody gets a trophy.” Winning an NBA title is supposed to be difficult, and the idea that a system would be set up to decrease hardships for a team trying to win the Larry O’Brien trophy angers me. The NBA is at its best when dynasties are built and then torn down by the scrambling competition. It’s what we thought the Nuggets were going to do a year ago, and it’s what we assume the Celtics are in position to accomplish now.
See what the ESPN crew thinks after the Celtics big win over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.