Deni Avdija went 11 of 13 from the field, hit three threes, made all nine free throws, and finished with 34 points on a night Portland's own beat writers called "professional, if perfunctory." That phrase captures the game exactly: teams play that loose against opponents they've already beaten.
That's Sacramento right now. The Kings fell to 1-11 overall and 0-7 at home, their fifth straight loss, despite double-figure scoring from all five starters, including 24 points from De'Andre Hunter and a 21-point, 12-rebound night from Domantas Sabonis. A team can get a solid game from its best players and still lose by 13 at home when the other side shoots like Portland did. Blazer's Edge said it straight: Sacramento isn't a defensive team, and Friday it barely tried to be one. Portland hovered near 50 percent shooting most of the night and finished around 48 percent. That number says more about Sacramento's defense than about any hot streak from Portland.
The case for the Blazers being legitimate rests on the season as a whole. Portland is 9-3, 6-1 on the road with the only road loss coming against the Lakers in its NBA Cup opener, and this was a third straight win on a trip that's just getting started. Damian Lillard added 29 points and six assists, Toumani Camara scored 14, and Donovan Clingan kept stuffing the box score with 13 points and 11 rebounds. A team that wins comfortably on the road with that much production up and down the roster, even in stretches that weren't clean, is building a real resume. The margin shouldn't matter much on its own; nobody hands out a trophy for point differential. But a 13-point road win over a team shooting under 50 percent defensively doesn't prove anything beyond what the schedule already said: Portland is good enough to beat bad teams comfortably. The real test is Minnesota next.
Rating
RatingSacramento actually hung with Portland the first time these two played, an eight-point Blazers win in October that Blazer's Edge called a hard fight. That game complicates the idea that Sacramento is simply hopeless, except for what's happened since: a team that could scrap for a near-loss in October and now gets blown out at home in November has gotten worse. That falls on the coach whose job is to stop it.
Doug Christie is coaching a season his own franchise has already called make-or-break, on a contract that isn't guaranteed past this year. A roster with Sabonis, Hunter and Zach LaVine shouldn't be 0-7 at home. Vegas had Portland favored by double digits, and the Blazers covered it almost exactly, so nobody who follows this league closely was surprised by the final score. The surprise is that a team with this much individual talent keeps finding new ways to look stuck. That's on Doug Christie, sitting right there on the bench.
