Blazers Speak Up And Shut Up During Film Session After Loss

CHARLOTTE — The day after getting beaten 120-101 by the Washington Wizards at the Verizon Center in what could be described as one of their worst losses of the season, the Portland Trail Blazers held practice in Charlotte in preparation for their game against the Hornets Wednesday night at Spectrum Arena. But before they took to the court, the team went through an extended film review session to go over what exactly went wrong the day before versus the Wizards, a game in which the Trail Blazers were down 10-0 just minutes after tipoff and trailed by as many as 30 in the second half. But rather than the coaches running the meeting, as it usually the case during film sessions, Terry Stotts looked to the players to recognize and point out their own mistakes and those of their teammates, perhaps in an effort to drive home the importance of holding themselves accountable. “We played a bad game, we didn’t play well on either end of the floor,” said Damian Lillard. “Coach allowed us to kind of say what we had to say as a team when it comes to what we saw on the film. A lot of guys spoke up and said what they thought about certain situations.”While every player didn’t speak, roughly half of the roster had something to say during the film session, with coaches also interjecting on occasion to bring up issues they felt needed to be addressed.”I said some things, just speaking to the film, different things that I saw,” said Mason Plumlee. “And then just trying to encourage us to take ownership of the situation because it’s not the NBA’s fault, it’s not the other team. We’re the reason we’re in the situation we’re in so we’ve got to be the solution.””Just speak, however you felt, what you thought, whatever your opinion was on it,” said Ed Davis of the film session. “Just keep it all the way real.”One player who didn’t speak was Lillard. As one of the leaders of the team and an outspoken person in general, Lillard is already in the habit of speaking his mind. But this time, the starting point guard decided it was better to sit back and listen, for multiple reasons.”I didn’t say nothing because I always say something,” said Lillard. “My teammates know I’ll speak up about stuff, whether it’s good or bad. As a leader, sometimes you’ve got to just shut up and let other people say what they have to say because they might have an issue or want to address something that I didn’t do well. I’ve got to be quiet and be open to that and be ready to listen sometimes. It can’t come off as me trying to boss everybody around or I got all the answers so I just didn’t say anything.”Lillard didn’t elaborate on whether anyone brought up deficiencies in his performance versus the Wizards, though multiple players noted many of the critiques were delivered by players about themselves rather than their teammates. “Me and one of the guys were laughing, this is probably the only team I’ve been on where guys were like ‘Oh, my bad. My bad,'” said Plumlee. “Normally it’s ‘Hey man, you messed that up!’ so like this team is a little different were everybody is like ‘I messed this up,’ everybody is saying ‘My bad.’ But eventually it’s just too many mishaps, too many mistakes and we’ve got to hold each other accountable and be better.”Which seemed to be the main takeaway, one that seemed well-received by a team that is increasingly tired of making progress one day only to backslide the next. But while it might have been helpful to clear the air, both from an on and off court perspective, talk alone isn’t going to fix the issues the Trail Blazers have fallen victim to this season. They’ll need to prove they can apply what they’ve learn watching film while also holding each other accountable or face the prospect of more bad beats in the second half of the season. “We talked about what’s going on, but we need to translate it to the games,” said Davis. “I’m not really a big guy into talking and all that, I like to see the action. Hopefully it translates for tomorrow (versus Charlotte) and the rest of the season.”