It seemed like the perfect “gap-year” plan. Portland could imitate the 2019-20 Warriors or the 1996-97 Spurs by sitting out an injured Damian Lillard for the rest of the season, trading a couple of vets on expiring contracts and starting fresh a year from now with a high lottery pick and a healthy Lillard.
Maybe it wasn’t the best way to play their hand (more on that in a second), but it was definitely one of the more promising options. It turns out, however, there was a fly in the ointment … or an Ant, as it were. Out of nowhere, the Blazers’ young guys have been good enough to screw it all up.
Lillard went out of the lineup to have abdominal surgery following an embarrassing 139-106 New Year’s Eve loss to the Lakers that dropped the Blazers to 13-22, with secondary stats to match. Surely, without their big star, the bottom would fall out.
Not so much. Since then, the Blazers have gone 7-4, including tough road wins this weekend in Boston and Toronto. And in a Western Conference where nobody seems to really want to claim the last Play-In spot, Portland shockingly finds itself in relatively clear command of that 10th spot, with a two-and-a-half game advantage on 11th-place New Orleans.
Moreover, the Blazers are likely to have it much easier from here.
