{"id":421342,"date":"2026-01-18T14:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T14:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/421342\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T14:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T14:20:07","slug":"the-trail-blazers-are-finally-starting-to-look-like-the-team-everyone-expected-them-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/421342\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trail Blazers are finally starting to look like the team everyone expected them to be"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you squint just long enough and use just a touch of imagination, you can see traces of what the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> were supposed to be.<\/p>\n

The long and rangy defense. The waves of athleticism. The depth and versatility.<\/p>\n

The tough out. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like we\u2019re starting to be the team that everyone thought we were going to be at the beginning of the year,\u201d Donovan Clingan<\/a> said, flashing a wide smile. \u201cHopefully, once we get everyone healthy, we\u2019re going to make a big jump and we\u2019re going to start winning a lot of games. This is just the start of it and it feels really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blazers dismissed the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> 132-116 on Saturday night, showcasing depth, dominance and maturity\u00a0before 19,335 at Moda Center. <\/p>\n

Jerami Grant<\/a> and Jrue Holiday<\/a> took one more positive step away from their extended injuries, Caleb Love<\/a> continued his surprising midseason surge, Shaedon Sharpe<\/a> had another solid performance and the Blazers (21-22) showed off their ever-improving health, earning their ninth win in the last 12 games. <\/p>\n

Before tipoff, the Blazers were consumed by flashbacks and the unsavory memories<\/a> of Nov. 3, 2025. On that day, the shorthanded Lakers visited Portland and \u2014 despite playing without Luka Doncic, LeBron James<\/a> and Austin Reaves \u2014 snuck away with an eight-point win that ended the Blazers\u2019 early-season three-game winning streak. <\/p>\n

Flash forward to Saturday and the Lakers (24-16) were playing shorthanded yet again. James was back. But there was no Doncic, no Reaves, and former Blazers center Deandre Ayton<\/a> sat on the bench with a salmon-colored hoodie draped over his head for 48 minutes. <\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like it was a dangerous game with all of their guys out \u2026 the same way we lost (last time) at home,\u201d Blazers acting coach Tiago Splitter<\/a> said. \u201cI think it was kind of like a trap game where we had to bring a sense of urgency and do the job right and be serious about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the trap never materialized. The Blazers lapped the Lakers early, reeling off a 40-point first quarter, and bludgeoned them late, building a 24-point fourth-quarter lead. It wasn\u2019t the prettiest game or the shortest \u2014 it lasted 2 hours, 21 minutes, featured 55 free throws and an uncanny number of official stoppages and reviews \u2014 but it was another impressive showing by a team that, finally, mercifully, is returning to health. <\/p>\n

The offense shot 53% from the field and enjoyed its second-highest scoring performance in a month. The defense suffocated everyone not named Marcus Smart (25 points, four three-pointers) and Drew Timme (21 points, 9 of 12 shooting). And the combination delivered the Blazers\u2019 second 16-point victory in three days. <\/p>\n

Toumani Camara<\/a> was quick to say the Blazers are \u201cnot close to being\u201d the team they want to be. But no one can argue that they\u2019re inching closer and closer to being the team they were before injuries and illnesses wrecked their mojo. <\/p>\n

The Blazers aren\u2019t playing a breakneck pace and applying relentless full-court pressure defense. They\u2019re not running and gunning and hunting fast-break opportunities. And Splitter isn\u2019t substituting in waves as if he was a hockey coach using line changes. <\/p>\n

But the return of Holiday (Sunday) and Grant (Thursday), the emergence of Sidy Cissoko<\/a> and Love, and the development of young players like Clingan and Sharpe have bolstered the Blazers\u2019 depth and versatility to heights it hasn\u2019t seen in years. One can only imagine the possibilities when Deni Avdija<\/a> \u2014 who missed his third consecutive game with a strained lower back \u2014 returns. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely got a lot of depth,\u201d Grant said. \u201cDo I know what it looks like? No. But we definitely have a lot of weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

The weapons attacked from all angles against the Lakers. Sharpe finished with 25 points, four assists and two steals. Clingan recorded 18 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. Love (22 points, seven assists) and Grant (22 points) provided firepower off the bench. <\/p>\n

Five Blazers reached double-figures in scoring and two more (Camara and Holiday) fell one point short. <\/p>\n

Holiday and Grant continue to play under strict minute-restrictions and it\u2019s unclear if either has been cleared to play in back-to-backs, leaving their availability for Sunday\u2019s visit to Sacramento in question. Before the game, Splitter said the Blazers needed to wait and \u201csee how they feel after the game\u201d before deciding. After the game, Grant said, \u201cI\u2019m not really sure\u201d when asked if he would play against the Kings. <\/p>\n

But after holding the Blazers\u2019 rotation together with duct tape and twine for the better part of two months, Splitter is, finally, starting to coach again with options.<\/p>\n

So with a long squint here and a little imagination there, it\u2019s not hard to see those October Blazers \u2014 before 12 players missed a combined 238 games with injuries and illnesses \u2014\u00a0and imagine the possibilities of what could be over the second half of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, slowly \u2014 slowly \u2014 we see that,\u201d Splitter said, when asked if he sees the team returning to its early-season ways. \u201cOf course, we know they\u2019re not 100%. Jrue has still got to get in shape. Jerami is still not there. Deni is still out. But slowly we are starting to see that picture again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up <\/p>\n

The Blazers play the Miami Heat<\/a> on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Moda Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you squint just long enough and use just a touch of imagination, you can see traces of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-421342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}