The Portland Trail Blazers pulled off an entertaining 105-102 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, showcasing their resilience and clutch performance. Anfernee Simons led the charge with a game-high 28 points, including a crucial and-one layup in the final seconds that sealed the deal.
Portland won the game on the strength of the late Simons bucket (more on that below) and two defensive stops in the final 20 seconds. But they did an admirable job against Bucks all-world forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, namely keeping off the free throw line. The Greek Freak, who averages 11 free throw attempts per game, was limited to just four in this contest. This defensive effort was crucial in securing the win, as the Bucks only attempted nine free throws as a team, well shy of their season average of 21.5. Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara were crucial in the defensive effort against Antetokounmpo, and old friend Damian Lillard, who finished with a very pedestrian line of 16 points on 5-of-15 shooting.
Okay, let’s talk about the go-ahead bucket from Simons.
The game-winning sequence came with about 30 seconds left. After Giannis hit two free throws to give Milwaukee the lead, the Blazers had a chance to respond. They ran a play with multiple off-ball actions, engaging all players on the court. This created just enough distraction for Simons to blow past his defender and finish a tough left-handed layup while drawing the foul.
This play design was a refreshing change from the isolation-heavy offense we’ve seen at times this season, and the relentless matchup-hunting the Blazers tried for most of crunch time.
Portland spent much of the final three minutes trying to run screen actions up high to get Lillard isolated on Simons and let Simons attack his mentor, a celebrated poor defender, one-one-one. But it didn’t really lead to much success. It chewed some clock and lead to one decent shot at the rim and three jumpers without much advantage created.
So with the game on the line the Blazers ran a play that involved two off ball screens while Simons dribbled at the top of the key. As Deandre Ayton and Camara went to set screens for their teammates rising up from the opposite corners, Simons attacked the basket. The off-ball defenders were engaged enough to create a driving lane and the help defense was half a step late.
The play itself wasn’t just designed as eye-candy to let Simons attack. But just creating a situation where the help defenders had to pay attention to anything other than the ball gave Simons enough time and space to break off the play and get his. The concept worked even if the Blazers didn’t really run the action all the way through its design. More of that in the future would be a nice development.
