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The Portland Trail Blazers bench is having a fine start to the 2018-19 season. Once a weakness across the board, Portland reserves have shown signs of life and given their teammates a much-needed boost on the way to a 10-5 start.
Andy Bailey of sister site SLC Dunk took a look at the best and worst court pairings for all 30 NBA teams and found that the Blazers sported bench players on each end of the spectrum. Witness:
Best Duo: The TRAIL BLAZERS are +22.5 points per 100 possessions when Evan Turner and Jusuf Nurkic are on the floor.
— Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) November 17, 2018
Worst Duo: They're -2.5 points per 100 possessions when Evan Turner and Nik Stauskas are on the floor.
Evan Turner, much maligned prior to this season, has been well-acclaimed for his production and floor generalship this year. Nik Stauskas has also been considered a pleasant surprise off the bench. It’s a little odd to see the two of them paired as the least-productive duo. Turner and Jusuf Nurkic make a bit more sense. It’ll be interesting to see if the data continues in the same direction through the first half of the season.