The Portland Trailblazers Finish November With a Top-4 Record In The West

Before the 2017-2018 season started, if someone told you that the Portland Trailblazers would only score 100.3 points per game in the month of November, which was good for 24th in the NBA, you’d have plenty of cause for worry. After all, this is the same team that finished the 2016-2017 season ranked 8th in the NBA, scoring 107.9 points per game, and featured a backcourt of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, who combined to average 50 points per game between just the two of them.

However, there’s a reason that at the end of November, the Trailblazers held a 13-9 record, which was good for fourth place in the ultra-competitive Western Conference. That’s because while their offensive output was down, their defensive prowess more than made up for it. After finishing last season ranked 25th in the league in points allowed per game (108.5), the Trailblazers allowed exactly 100 points per game through the month of November, which was the fifth-lowest average in the entire NBA in that span.

The fact that Portland has, rather surprisingly, been winning games a result of stopping other teams from scoring, as opposed to simply trying to outscore the other team, is a welcome development. That’s always been the perception of this team: their offense makes them fun to watch in the regular season, but ineffective in the postseason.

Yet, during the month of November, the 13 teams that the Trailblazers faced shot a collective 43.9% from the field, which was the third lowest total in the NBA. The 33.9% tree-point shooting allowed by Portland was the fourth best in the NBA. And the 46 rebounds per game that Portland pulls down is good for third in the NBA.

During their 14 games in November, in which they finished with a 9-4 record, teams playing the Trailblazers scored more than 100 points only five times. Between November 13th and November 20th, theTrailbalzers went 4-1 in the five games they played, and allowed only 88.8 points per game.

Those are the biggest reasons why the Blazers have remained so successful, even while their signature offensive prowess has stagnated. Through the first week of December, the 18.2 assists per game by Portland players is dead last in the NBA. Lilliard and McCollum’s scoring averages are down, though it should be noted that Lillard’s rebounds, blocks, and steals per game are up from last year’s average, while McCollum is one pace for career highs in three-point percentage (he shot 44.2% from three in November) and rebounds per game (he averaged just under 4.5 per game through the end of November).

But the Trailblazers have no time to sit back and revel in their early success this season. They’ve already played two ugly games (defensively) through the first week of December, and still have to play Houston and Golden State in back-to-back games on December 9th and 11th. Western Conference rivals like Minnesota (12/18), San Antonio (12/20), and Denver again (12/22) still loom on this month’s schedule. And on the second day of January, they have to travel to Cleveland and take on LeBron James and the Cavaliers.

In other words: the Trailblazers are off to a nice start. But, the NBA season is a marathon, and not a sprint.