The Blazers kept the Hawks at arm’s length nearly all night, before finally dispatching them (Box score). Atlanta was Portland’s second consecutive cupcake road opponent since losing Jusuf Nurkic to a season-ending injury. So what did we learn about the Blazers from tonight’s game? Well....
- We didn’t learn very much. Again. For the second straight game, Portland played a clearly-inferior East team who is tanking for a draft pick. It’s hard to really learn much about how Portland would play a better team. However, there was one thing ominous about Portland’s performance:
- Defense optional.