The Portland Trail Blazers didn’t need Norman Powell to have a revenge game against his old team. And they didn’t have to worry about the newest Toronto Raptors causing them any problems.
Nope. Portland had too many weapons and the Raptors were outmanned and outgunned in the first game since the team teams connected on one of the highest-profile moves on Thursday’s trade deadline day, with Portland leaving Tampa Bay with a 122-117 win that was both hard-fought and seemingly never in doubt once the Trail Blazers took control midway through the third quarter.
Playing his first game against the team with whom he had played his entire six-year career, Powell finished with just 12 points and took six shots in 27 minutes, while Rodney Hood and Gary Trent Jr., who came the other way in the deal, chipped in with 17 points – 11 and six, respectively. Trent Jr. started and ended up guarding Powell, and vice versa, but the pre-game subplot never really materialized in any meaningful way.
Powell made some slow-footed fouls in the first half – a familiar theme – and never got rolling the way Toronto knows he can. He had a chance to seal the game at the line with 26 seconds left, but missed a free throw to keep Toronto’s hopes alive. Powell ripped his jersey in frustration. But after Fred VanVleet drove past Powell for a layup to make it a three-point game, Powell made his next two free throws and Toronto couldn’t pull off a minor miracle in the waning seconds.
Toronto did reasonably well against Portland’s Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, holding one of the league’s best backcourts to 43 points, or about 22 under their combined season average. But Portland had five other players in double figures, including their entire starting lineup.
The Raptors got 26 points and eight rebounds from Pascal Siakam while VanVleet finished with 20 points and eight rebounds, but were missing some offensive punch at times, not only with Powell playing for the other team but with Kyle Lowry out with a sore foot. Pat McCaw (knee) and DeAndre Bembry and Paul Watson (health and safety protocols) were also out.
The Raptors drop to 18-28 with the defeat, which is their 13th loss in their past 15 games and leaves them mired in 11th place.
The game unravelled in the third quarter when the Raptors’ offence fell off a cliff. After going up by seven midway through the period, the Raptors managed just one field goal in the next five minutes and found themselves down by 10 as Portland put together a 19-2 run that was more indicative of the team’s offensive woes on a night without Powell and Lowry than what the Trail Blazers were doing offensively themselves. Toronto held Portland to just 37 per cent shooting in the third, but shot just 4-of-22. Toronto did fine against Lillard, McCollum and Powell, but struggled to account for the activity of Derrick Jones and Robert Covington running around and generating additional possessions, or Enes Kanter bulling his way to the rim, and if it wasn’t him, it was Jusuf Nurkic taking advantage of the undersized Raptors frontcourt.
Powell didn’t exactly put on a show against his former team – he finished with 13 points – but it takes little imagination to see how his ability to score at a high rate with the kind of efficiency that meshes well with other high-usage scorers will make the Trail Blazers a tough out in the playoffs.
Powell built his game piece by piece in Toronto, and Portland should reap the rewards.
“I think he believes in his work that he’s put in,” said Nurse before the game. “He really is a super hard worker and I think that builds confidence to believe in yourself that all that work’s gonna come to fruition at the right time … he has had his ups and downs but he certainly was on a roll, there weren’t too many downs here lately. He certainly found a groove … I remember three, four years ago thinking about Norm’s potential and future, and I thought he could get to that point, and he did it this year.”
The Trail Blazers, having seen Powell put up 22 points in 13 shots in his debut Friday, see big things ahead and a chance to double down on one of the most guard-heavy attacks in the NBA
“I think the quality of shots, the quality of our three-point shots will improve,” said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. “Because of him, I think the one thing that he really adds in addition to shooting is he really moves well without the ball and when Dame and CJ are able to penetrate, he’ll find open spots. So I think from an offensive standpoint, it makes us even harder to guard.”
The first quarter couldn’t have worked out better for the Raptors, and, in particular, those with a vested interest in the trade working out in their favour.
With Powell likely to decline his player option and head into free agency, Toronto had to calculate what the market might be for someone who has averaged 21 points a game and shot 45 per cent from three over 58 starts going back to last season. The concern was that Powell would be shopping for a deal in the $18-million to $20-million range and Toronto didn’t want to have to go that high for a player it had deemed increasingly one-dimensional as his attention to detail on defence faded as his offensive game grew.
Better to replace his production with the younger Trent Jr. and maybe even a rehabilitated Hood, who averaged 13 points a game and provided solid, switchable defence in the previous six seasons in Utah, Cleveland and Portland before he tore his Achilles early in the 2019-20 season.
As if on cue, there was Powell picking up two quick fouls, one getting beaten to the spot by Trent Jr., who he started out guarding, and then an unwise reach in against his old pal Siakam that saw Powell head to the bench before the game was five minutes old. Any possibility that Powell would show up his old team with one of his trademark first-quarter explosions was out the window.
Meanwhile, Powell’s old team was able to find offence anywhere it looked, but notably got 11 points from the former Trail Blazers with three from Trent Jr., who also picked up two quick early fouls and struggled most of the night, and a very welcome eight on four shots off the bench by Hood, who seems to be determined to show that he’s more than simply an expiring contract included in the deal to offset Powell’s $10.9 million.
But two of the incumbent players who will have to pick up their offence in the absence of Powell – and for one night at least, Lowry – also came to play, as Siakam slithered into the paint at will for 11 points in 11 minutes and Anunoby barrelled his way to the rim for nine points in his nine minutes as the Raptors led 41-32 after the first quarter.
The Raptors kept it going in the second half in what became a shootout. Siakam and Anunoby kept finding chances, often by exploiting being switched on smaller Blazers guards or attacking Portland bigs off the dribble. But the Raptors bench got into the action too with Chris Boucher finally showing some life. After failing to crack double figures in the previous four games he went into the half with 11 and Hood was heard from once more as he made a great defensive play hounding Lillard into a miss at one end, before sprinting to the corner and knocking down a three at the buzzer – complete with a fist pump – that gave the Raptors a 74-68 lead after two quarters.
Unfortunately, the Raptors couldn’t keep up the pace offensively after that and fell short again, a familiar pattern in a season that is running short on bright spots.
