Coming into this season much was made about how the Portland Trail Blazers were a committed defensive team after finishing 6th in defensive rating (105.5) the season prior. People weren’t relying on anecdotes from a week, or a month, even a quarter of the season to say Portland could project to be a solid defensive team. A season’s worth of film and stats showed that Portland could survive an 82-game campaign without breaking.
The beginning of this season it felt like that was still the case – Portland was holding opponents to a league-low 42 percent from the field and they were 10th in opponent 3-point percentage.