Losing Game 1 In San Antonio, Bouncing Back In Game 2 And Deni Name Finalist For Most Improved On The Brief Case, Episode 204

[Music] This is Damien Lillard and you're listening to the briefcase with Casey Holdahl. Greetings Blizzard fans and welcome to the briefcase presented by Spirit Mount Casino. Episode 204 of the briefcase presented by Spirit Mount Casino. I am Casey Holdahl and the Portland Trail Blazers got their first playoff series in the last four seasons off to a bit of a rough start losing to the Spurs in game one Sunday night in San Antonio in the two seven matchup. We'll talk about that game. We'll talk about what they need to do to bounce back in game two on Tuesday also in San Antonio and Danny Ovdia is named a finalist for the NBA's most approved player award on this edition of the briefcase presented by Spirit Mount Casino. Well it took a whole lot of work for the Trail Blazers to get back into the postseason after being away for the last four seasons. They had a second half rally to the season as we've seen from this Trail Blazer team throughout the years always seems like they they have a little something extra in the second half. They did that last season and they did it this season last season that it ended up with a better record this season they actually qualified for the postseason they get into eighth when the play inverse the Suns and then that gets them into seventh sets up a matchup versus the Spurs a team that is also missed the playoffs the last seven seasons their first playoff experience for most of the players on their team. First playoff experience for most of Trail Blazers as well unfortunately for the Trail Blazers that one did not go their way in a game that I felt like was a little closer than the final score would have indicated Trail Blazers lose 1198 to the two seed San Antonio Spurs in front of a sellout crowd of 19372 Sunday night at Frostbank Center. As I mentioned they haven't had to play off game in San Antonio for some time as well a very good crowd there in San Antonio looks like they really brought the energy and it really helped their team in that game something that I think Blazer fans can emulate in both games three and four as well despite shooting just 40% from the field and 25% from three in the first half the Blazers entered the intermission trailing by a very manageable 10 points and after an 11-0 run early in the third quarter that's cut San Antonio's lead to just two the Spurs unfortunately answered back within 11-2 run of their own the Trail Blazers managed to stay within striking distance for much of the third quarter but the Spurs would take a double digit lead at 76 66 with 323 to play in the third quarter and the Blazers after that never got the deficit down to less than single digits and would go on to Trail by as many as 21 points in the fourth quarter before coming away with the 13 point loss. Danny Avedia led the Trail Blazers with 30 points on 12-21 shooting from the field 10 rebounds, 5 assists, a block and a steel in 39 minutes with that performance. Danny joins LeBron James as the only players in NBA history to record at least 30 points at least 10 rebounds and at least 5 assists in their playoff debut as I talked about on the most recent edition of the Blazers balcony with Brooke. Danny Avedia and LeBron James a lot of Corey Larry's between those two games obviously not a one for one but a lot of similarities with the way that Danny plays that kind of bully ball getting downhill getting to the rim drawing fouls finishing through contact a lot of things that LeBron James has done so well in his career are things that Danny Avedia has done so well this season. Now he is on the cusp of potentially winning the most improved player award which we will talk about here later on in the show. The other thing about Danny's stat line versus the Spurs that was the first time that a Blazer period had ever put that stat line up in a playoff game so congratulations to Danny Avedia and that one Danny absolutely brought it in that game unfortunately was not able to get the trailblazers over the top. Scoot Henderson I thought had a really nice game in that one as we've talked about I feel like Scoot's really been on a nice little run as of late he goes seven of 11 from the field and two four from three for 18 points to go with three assists three rebounds and a steel in 27 minutes unfortunately Scoot had some turnovers that sparked that Spurs run but Scoot also scored a lot of the points in that 11 over run that got the Blazers back into that game unfortunately they were not able to do anything with it but I think you really saw some some good signs out of Scoot and I think for a player getting his first playoff experience and then a lot of ways for Scoot playing obviously the most important game of his career the biggest game of his career thus far I thought he looked really good in that one and I think something to really grow on for Scoot going into the rest of this series. Robert Williams III posted 11 points six rebounds for assists in 16 minutes a really nice game for Rob as well the only thing I would say about Rob's performance since it's not really about Rob it's about the rest of the team is that I believe that Rob was the second leading score going into the half and that's just not a very good recipe for success for the trailblazers you know any points you get from Rob are a bonus and you feel really good about it but if Rob is your second leading score that's putting a whole lot of pressure on whoever your leading score is and a whole lot of pressure on Rob as well that's not really his game he's out there to play defense get rebounds spark breaks get lobbs he's not necessarily out there to be your second leading scores so that was something where I was glad for Rob but in the back of my mind I thought to myself boy that's that's not a really good sign for the trailblazers for the rest of this game and it turned out that that would also be the case Rob ended up as their second leading or their third leading score I should say and again that's just something that that's not where I'm really out there to do so if that's the case that means that some other guys probably need to do a little bit more on the offensive end and just weren't able to get that done Sunday night. Shane Sharp with 10 points to assist in 22 minutes through holiday handed out 11 assists to go at 9 points 4 rebounds and a steal in 36 minutes. Spur center of Wicked or Women Yama who was also having his playoff to you. Bu led all scores with 35 points on 13 of 21 shooting from the field. Deer and Fox had 17 points in 8 assists. Steffen Castle also had 17 points though 7 assists. Devin Vassel added 15 points. Luke Cornett was the only San Antonio player in double figures off the bench with 10 points to go with 6 rebounds in 14 minutes. Both teams will hold practice on Monday in San Antonio before facing off Tuesday in game two in San Antonio tip off for that game is scheduled for 5 o'clock on NBC and peacock. So the travelers end up losing game one as I mentioned in the first playoff game for everyone on the team except for Drew Robb and Jeremy if I'm not mistaken granted not a whole lot of playoff experience for the Spurs either but one they won 60 games to they're playing at home so always a always easier to have your first playoff experience at home. And when you're the two seed going up against the seven seed and you've got Victor Wemanyama on your team a potential MVP it was also announced that Wembee was a finalist for both MVP and defensive player of the year Reggie Miller on the broadcast saying that Wembee had already run defensive player of the year and that he didn't care if it hadn't been announced officially yet that he was going to win it. I don't think that's Reggie necessarily saying that he knew that but I think Reggie kind of stating what everyone pretty much assumes which is that Wembee is going to win defensive player of the year so when you have a player like that on your team that's going to cover up a lot of the issues that a team might have when they also don't have a whole lot of playoff experience and I think that's what we saw Sunday night in San Antonio but even though the Blazers didn't get the win I thought they actually played well they didn't I wouldn't say they played well enough to win but I came away from that game feeling pretty good about their chances in the series and in game two you know the Blazers did some good things they didn't necessarily make a lot of the mistakes that they have made throughout the season but some of the best parts of their game they also weren't able to execute as well so some room for growth for the trailblazers but I also feel like a really good place to start for them in this playoff series for a couple reasons. One they only turn the ball over 11 times and just four times in the first half and that only resulted in nine points off a turnover for the Spurs. Turnovers have been a serious issue for the trailblazers all season long but the fact that they only turn the ball over 11 times if they're able to do anything close to that in game two they're going to give themselves a chance to win that one I've been saying over and over and over again this season that the Blazers have the talent it's just a lot of times they shoot themselves in the foot way too many times so if they're able to limit those turnover particularly those live ball turnovers they're going to have a chance in any game and the fact they only had four turnovers in the first half when I think they were probably playing a little jittery again I think that's a that's a pretty good sign and I think that that's something where if they're able to you know maybe play a little bit looser maybe have a few more turnovers but if you're only turn the ball over 11 times say you had 15 turnovers in game two that's still two and a half turnovers under their season average I'm not mistaken so that would still be an improvement for the trailblazers and even when they did turn the ball over the Spurs weren't really able to convert those turnovers into points and that has been again an issue for this team all season long so the fact that the Blazers did a very good job in terms of their turnovers I think makes you feel really good about their chances going into game two if they turn the ball over over and over and over again if they were sloppy as we've seen from this team this season then I think in game two you really wonder if that's something that's going to be an issue for the rest of the series at least in game one it was not an issue which I think again gives you reason for optimism going into game two the other thing they did well in that game is they defended without failing now granted the Spurs I believe shots like 45 or 46% from the field but the Blazers committed just 17 fouls in that game for 19 free throws for the Spurs and you know particularly when you're having to defend a guy like Wembee and a deer and Fox and a Devon Vassal and a Stefan Castle you know players who are really talented you know being able to do that without fouling it's going to be really important in this series particularly when it comes to defending Wembee I think we saw Tomahny Kamara spent a lot of time on Wimby, which probably kind of explains a little bit the fact that he didn't score her lot, which I talked about here in a second. But I thought generally they did a pretty good job with defending in that game. I didn't feel like there was really that many breakdowns. I didn't feel like there was a ton of open shots, particularly from three. I feel like sometimes his team has had an issue with giving up some open three point shots, particularly when they're trying to slow down a player like Victor, Wim and Yamaha. But that was not really the case in game one. So again, another reason for optimism in my opinion, something that they did fairly well in that game that I kind of questioned whether or not they would be able to do. Now granted, playoffs usually do get called a little bit tighter. So I think they've probably been benefiting from that a little bit. But also, again, Wimby is an MVP candidate. He's a guy who, you know, if he was just making a non-stop trip to the line, I don't think anyone would be surprised by that. And the fact that that was not the case, a good sign for the Trial Blasers for the rest of the series. One of the things they need to do better though, offensive rebounding and second chance points. Offensive rebounding second chance points have been the key for the Trial Blasers this season. The success they've had this season has largely been based on their ability to get offensive rebounds and second chance points. Their team that can struggle some time in the half court. Their team that I think finished the season 28th and three point shooting. So they got to get their looks other ways. Second chance points, one of the best ways to do that. And the Blazers just were not able to really get going in terms of second chance points in game one versus the Spurs. As I mentioned, just eight offensive rebounds for the Trial Blasers leading to just 13 second chance points. And that's the same number of second chance points as the Spurs have for the Blazers. If they're going to have any chance in this series, they need to win the battle of second chance points considerably. I wouldn't say they need to necessarily double the amount of second chance points that the Spurs get. But they need to score quite a few more second chance points than the Spurs. If they're going to have a chance in the series, they need those easy buckets. They need to be able to take advantage of their offensive rebounding Donovan Kling and the best offensive rebounder in the NBA this season. I think this is going to be a little bit of a difficult series for him with that matchup. So I think they're probably going to need to try to maybe figure out ways to get him on the court a little bit more than he was in game one because Donovan's offensive rebounding is so important to this team because it creates very high quality, efficient second chance opportunities. And that's something I think the Blazers are going to need versus a very good defensive team in the San Antonio Spurs. The other thing, Trail Blazers are not a good three point shooting team. As I mentioned, at least in terms of their average and even by their standards, a very poor shooting three point game for the Trail Blazers in that one. Blazers are again, they're not a very good three point shooting team. During the regular season, but they're better than 26%, which is what they shot on Sunday versus the Spurs. Blazers missed quite a few good looks. I thought from three in the first half, which you know, I think the possibility maybe kind of chalk that up to to be in a little bit hyped up for their first playoff experience. The one shot that I remember very clearly is to money airballing a wide open corner three in the first half. And that feels like something to me that is a product of nerves and just be in a little over enthusiastic in your first playoff series in the first minutes of your first playoff series. And that's something that I think, you know, in game two is not going to be as much of an issue. I think there's still some of those butterflies. I think there's still some of those jitters, particularly knowing that, you know, you're going to need to win a game on the Spurs home floor at some point in time if you're going to win the series. And usually it's kind of the first chance that is your best chance. So, you know, it's not like those nerves are going to go away completely, but it seemed to me also the Blazers did settle in in the second half. And so hopefully they're able to do that in game two. And hopefully that will lead to some better three point shooting because the Blazers, they have to make three pointers in order to have a chance just in the same way. They have to make second chance points. They have to make three pointers. They don't shoot a great percentage. And I've talked about this before. I know that, you know, sometimes when you're watching the game and they're missing three after three after three, you're thinking to yourself, man, why are they still shooting these threes? They basically have to in order to make the math work out if they're not going to score a lot in the half court. If they're going to have to rely on second chance points. And if they're not getting those second chance points, they have to generate points in another way. Three point shots is the best way to do that. It'd be nice if they shot a better percentage, but they need to take those threes, even if they're missing them, you just have to hope that at some point time those percentages are going to come back around to you. I was hopeful that that would happen in the second half of game one didn't ever really come around. Hopefully it will happen in game two because again, if the players are going to have any chance, they're going to have to shoot considerably better than 26% from three. And they're going to have to continue to take those threes, even if they're not necessarily making it one because they need the points. And two, because it's the best way to pull the spurs away from the ramp, particularly Wembee, who according to the stats, the Blazers were one of a zero of 11 when Wembee was contesting shots in game one. The further you can get him away from the rim, the easier it's going to be for guys like Denny and Shaden and Scoot and Jeremy and Drew to get into the paint and hopefully get some higher percentage shots at the rim because his Wembee is down there. I mean, it's not impossible, but it's a whole lot more difficult. So hitting some three pointers would really go a long way towards pulling at least some of the guys out of the paint. Hopefully Wembee, Donovan Klingon went over three from three in that game. If Donovan is able to be a legitimate three point threat, which he has worked himself into the season, that is going to be very helpful in terms of pulling Wembee away from the basket. But he's got to hit some of those first. And I think at this point in time, the spurs are probably satisfied with him just taking those shots and not defending him until he's actually shown he's able to make them in this series. So that's something the Blazers are absolutely going to have to be better at is three point shooting is they're going to have any chance in game two. In terms of what did go well, Denny, Scoot, Rob, I thought all looked great. As I mentioned, Rob being your second leading score in the first half, not a great sign, but that's not on Rob. That's Rob doing what he needed to do in order to keep the team afloat. Rob, a guy who has championship experience has playoff experience. He knows what it takes. He knows what the team needs. And I'm guessing that Rob probably tried to do a little bit more in that game knowing that they were going to need a little bit extra because some of the other guys maybe again, a little to Keeda, maybe, you know, their shots not fallen. Whatever the case might have been. I think Rob probably knew that maybe he needed to do a little bit more in that game, at least offensively. And he did do that in the first half. It's incumbent upon everybody else to make sure that Rob is not in that position because that is not necessarily his game. Both Drew and Shaden shot four of 15 from the field and four of 13 from the field respectively. And combined to go one of 11 from three, both those guys have to do much better offensively in game two. Again, particularly the three point shooting if those guys go four of 11 combined from three Blazers give himself a chance to win that game. The Blazers shoot 33% from three instead of 26% from three, they give themselves a chance to win that game. But when they shoot as bad as they did from three in game one, everything else has to go right. Basically, everything else has to go right and then some. And that was just not the case in game one. So again, need to do much better job from the three point line in game two. Also probably need a bit more from Tomani. But as I mentioned, he's drawn the assignment of guarding women Yama. That is not an easy task. And that's probably going to limit what he can do offensively because that is so much work. Expand so much effort. But you'd like to see just a little bit more after my particular again, three point shooting. If Tomani is able to hit two or three or four, three pointers in that game, you really like Portland chances in game two a lot better than if he struggles from the field and from three as he did in that game. Same for both Donovan and Jeremy need a little bit more from both those guys offensively in order to have more success in game two. Jeremy had a fantastic game versus the suns. And this game looked like maybe it was the one where he, you know, Jeremy having not played a whole lot in the last couple of weeks comes off the bench after having not played in over two weeks and had as a great performance in the fourth quarter versus the suns. Need a little bit more of that what we saw in that suns game from Jeremy in game two versus the spurs. And Donovan as well, you know, he got off to a little bit of a tough start from the field, missed all three of his three pointers. If he's able to come out and have a little bit of a better start, I think it's easier to keep him on the floor. And I think if you are able to keep him on the floor, you open up the opportunity to get those offensive rebounds leading to those second chance points. And if he's able, as I mentioned, hit some three point shots that obviously is going to do so much in terms of drawing some of the post defenders of San Antonio away from the basket, which would be very helpful for the trailblazers. So again, Blazers lose by 13 in that game felt like, you know, if they could have just had another minute, minute and a half of better basketball after they made that run early in the third quarter. I think at that point in time, it becomes a game. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I had a couple turnovers right after they had that run, which kind of sunk that run. But again, I feel like the Blazers, you know, they could have played better in that game, but they still put themselves in a decent position. So I'm hopeful that if they're able to have a few fixes, do a few things a little bit better than they did on Sunday, then I think they put themselves in a much better position to be competitive and have a chance to get game two. And again, I think for the Blazers, they have shown that what they need to do, they seem to stick around. They have shown that they're a pretty tough team. And if they're able to just stay in the game into the fourth quarter, a lot of times they've been giving themselves a chance to win. We saw that verse. the Spurs, we saw that verse, the Clippers a couple times, we saw that verse that Tember Wolves, hopefully we'll see it in game two versus the Spurs. And finally prior to Sunday's game, it was announced that Denny Ovidia is one of three finalists for the 2026 NBA Most Improved Player Award along with Elana Guard, Forward Nicael, Alexander Walker, and Piston Center, Jalen Durin. Denny is averaging 24.2 points. That's a seven point improvement over the last season on 46% shooting from the field and 32% shooting from three and 80% shooting from the line, 6.9 rebounds, 6.7 assists, which is nearly three assists more than average last season in 33.3 minutes per game. He's also getting four more free throws per game than he did last season. Nicael, Alexander Walker, who I imagine is the favorite to win Most Improved Player, saw a scoring average jump to 28.8 points, excuse me, per game in his ninth season in the league and his first with the Atlanta Hawks, average averaging 9.2 points last season. He started 71 out of 78 games this season, which is by far the most he's ever started. The most he ever started prior to this season was 21 games and that was in the 21-22 season. Jalen Durin, his average, has jumped nearly eight points and he had an over seven percentage point improvement in free throw shooting. But other than that, his numbers are actually pretty flat from last season, at least his counting stats. I didn't actually delve too deep into the advanced stats, but rebounds, assists, blocks, all about the same in a few more minutes per game and some of those actually went down slightly. So, I would imagine that it's Denny or Alexander Walker, who are the most likely favorites. I believe the actual votes have already been cast. They just started doing this thing in the last couple seasons where they announced finalists. One thing I would say, both Alexander Walker and Jalen Durin have had really good seasons, but neither one of those guys has been the best player on their team this year. That is not the case for Denny Ovidia. Denny Ovidia has absolutely been the best player on the Portland Trial Blasers this season. So, I mean, it's not like, I mean, both Jalen Durin and Achille Alexander Walker are having very good seasons. They're very good players. But they're not necessarily carrying the load that the number one carries every single night, particularly for Jalen Durin. I mean, when you've got Kade McNow and like, he is drawing all the attention. The Hawks, you know, they've got kind of a rotating cast. They, I mean, I guess you could argue that he has been at Lant's best player this season. That's possible. I really, again, I'm not going to talk too much about what Atlanta Hawks have done this season because Truth be told, I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to Atlanta Hawks. Outside of what CJ McCall has been doing there. But I don't know that anyone would say that either one of those guys was the best player on either of their teams this year. You would absolutely say that about Denny Ovidia. The other thing I would say, and that's this really doesn't matter because as I said, I'm quite certain that the votes have already been tallied. But all three of those players played in their first playoff, or maybe not their first playoff games, but played in playoff games this weekend. Jalen Durin posts eight points, seven rebounds, one assist, and one block on three of four shooting in 33 minutes in the Pistons 112, 101 loss to the Orlando Magic, the eight seed Orlando Magic, the one seed Pistons losing game one to the eight seed magic. Jalen Durin putting up eight points and seven rebounds in 33 minutes in that game. I don't really know that that's necessarily most improved player worthy. And then the Keele Alexander Walker, 17 points, four assists, one rebound, and one block in 39 minutes as the Atlanta Hawks lost to the New York Knicks, 113, 102 at MSG also on Sunday. So all three of those players playing on Sunday, all three of those players on the losing team, but none of those players, neither Jalen Durin nor Nikkeel Alexander Walker getting anywhere close to the numbers that Danny Ofty put up in his playoff debut. Again, I just want to state for the record, all three of those players great, all three deserving. There's so many great players in the NBA. There's so many improved players in the NBA this season. I'm actually surprised there were a few other players that didn't actually get most improved player. I thought for sure the Jalen Johnson would be one of the most improved players, but obviously you can probably only take one guy from from a team. So I was a little surprised that he wasn't the one, but Nikkeel Alexander Walker came on really strong in the second half of the season. But either way, I think, and again, it's most improved player. It's not most valuable player of the most improved player finalists. So I don't know if it's necessarily even fair or it makes sense to say this, but of those three players, Danny Ofty is the best player of those three players this season. Does that make it the most improved? We'll have to find out when they announce it, but he's definitely deserving. All of them are deserving. I just think that he's probably the most deserving. And that's the good for this edition of the briefcase. Thank you so much for joining me as always. Another edition after game two, which is Tuesday, five o'clock on NBC and Pika, Kofi Littrelberg is able to bounce back to tie the series at one one. If not, either way, they'll be heading back to Portland for games three and four game three being on Friday at seven thirty. A few tickets probably still available for that one. I definitely would implore you to get out to the motor center for game three. It'll be a great time. First playoff game in Portland in the last four seasons should be exciting. Can't wait for that one. Hopefully coming back to Portland tied at one one, which would make game three super exciting. But if they come back down to oh, they're going to need your help at motor center for that one. Thank you to the folks at Spirit Mount Casino. I'm Casey Holdahl, Go Blazers.