Lillard, McCollum Point to Defensive Lapses After Blazers’ Loss

The Trail Blazers suffered their second 20-point loss of the season on Wednesday after the Clippers claimed a 128-105 victory. Over the course of four quarters, the Clippers connected on a stellar 47.4 percent of their three-point attempts. After the game, The Oregonian’s Aaron Fentress highlighted the comments made by Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum in regards to the Blazers’ defensive lapses.

McCollum, who notched 25 points of his own in the loss, explained that Portland’s defense has to get better at putting together stops.

“It’s hard to come back, especially against talented teams,” McCollum said. “It takes a lot of energy, a lot of effort. You’ve got to get stops in a row and I don’t think we did that tonight.”

Moving forward, McCollum talked about the improvements that the Blazers must make moving forward.

“Credit them for getting what they wanted, but also, we just have to do a better job making it more difficult,” McCollum said.

Along with McCollum, Lillard acknowledged that the Clippers received too many easy looks on Wednesday.

“We allowed them to get clean looks because we were late,” Lillard said. “We weren’t as active on the defensive end.”

The Blazers return to action tomorrow in the first of a two-game series against the Warriors.

You can read the full story from Fentress at Oregon Live.