Blazers ‘Never Gave Themselves Chance to Win’ vs. Pelicans, Says Chauncey Billups

Playing without star point guard Damian Lillard, the Portland Trail Blazers were decimated by the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday in a 127-110 loss.

The final score does not indicate just how much of a blowout this was, with Portland trailing by nearly 40 points in the most dismal moments.

Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups was asked about the loss post-game and was candid with reporters about his frustrations.

Definitely disappointed. We’ve been preaching so much as a staff to our guys just the importance of just competing. Just, like, try to take whatever their superpower is, just try to take it away, make them do something different. We knew that this team played last night, took a tough loss, and to me what you just seen was you seen one team that was very desperate and you seen another team just really kind of get taken advantage of. And that was us. So, of course, me, as a competitor that I am, it burns me up for us to come out like that and just kind of cave in from the start of the game.

I thought in the second quarter our bench came in and played the right way but I had to get them out at some point. And the starters, they just got us off to such a bad start, you know, it’s tough to absorb that. So, it’s disappointing for sure. Both teams were very shorthanded so it’s not about just ‘Dame didn’t play,’ you know. We had enough people playing where this should have been – if we lose this game, I mean, it should have been a nail biter, in my opinion. You know, you’re on the road, it’s tough to win on the road, but we never gave ourselves a chance to win in this game, and that’s unfortunate.

Portland was outscored 25-42 in the first quarter, once again leaving the team in a hole to climb out of. But New Orleans continued to pile on until the game was completely out of reach.

The Trail Blazers now sit at No. 13 in the Western Conference standings, a full two games behind the Pelicans who lead the NBA Playoffs tiebreaker 2-1.