Another late-season surge Baker Mayfield Jersey Browns , another first-round exit.
The Portland Trail Blazers head into the offseason with plenty of questions, with speculation that big changes could be ahead. Minutes after the Blazers were swept by the New Orleans Pelicans in the opening round, Blazers coach Terry Stotts was already addressing how Portland gets better going forward.
Stotts said he has confidence that Portland President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey will keep the team pointed in the right direction.
”It’s tough to evaluate after a playoff loss,” Stotts said. ”We had a good regular season. We did a lot of positive things in the regular season, but ultimately you’re defined by the postseason. I think it’s still a little early right now to say what direction we’re going to go and what needs to be done moving forward, but one thing is that Neil is really good.”
Portland made it to the playoffs for the fifth straight year after finishing the season 49-33 and winning the Northwest Division title for the seventh time in franchise history.
The Blazers were boosted by a 13-game winning streak that started with a victory over the Golden State Warriors just before the All-Star break, and secured the third seed in the Western Conference. The team’s streak matched the franchise record.
Damian Lillard drove the team’s success during that span. In March he averaged 27.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 6.5 assists. He also set a franchise record by making 64 straight free throws. He was named the West’s player of the week twice.
But New Orleans was able to contain him in the playoffs. He averaged 18.5 points during the series, after scoring 26.9 per game during the regular season.
”We had ups and downs early in the season, but we were really solid. We had a great group. We played together for the entire season. We stuck together for the entire season. You work so hard to give yourself the opportunity to play in the playoffs and it’s disappointing to lose it,” Lillard said.
The Blazers have lost 10 straight playoff games. They were understandably stunned when the Pelicans took the first two games at the Moda Center. While they fought in Game 4 Darius Leonard Color Rush Jersey , it was too late. New Orleans had the momentum.
No sixth seed had ever swept a No. 3 in a best-of-seven series.
But the cracks were already there, when the Blazers lost four of their last five to end the regular season. Perhaps that late-season surge had caught up with the team.
”We had a very successful regular season, but kind of faltered down the stretch,” CJ McCollum said. ”We lost games that we felt like that we should have won, but put ourselves in a position to have home court, but lost home court as well. Losing in the first round is never ideal and never something that you want to experience, but it is what happened and we have to learn from it.”
Already there were rumors regarding Stotts’ future with the team, not to mention the status of several players. Olshey emphasized on Sunday that there would be no hasty decisions, especially in light of what the team accomplished during the regular season.
”It’s our job to be measured and not overreact,” Olshey said.
But like many of the players who faced reporters following exit interviews, Lillard was unsure of the solution.
”I’m not sure. I’m not the guy making decisions Richard Rodgers Color Rush Jersey ,” he said. ”It’s a great organization. I think everyone has done a great job. Coach Stotts has done a great job since Day 1. We’ve been in the playoffs five years straight.”
Donte DiVincenzo’s plan was to come out and test the NBA draft waters this spring, with the expectation that he would be returning to Villanova for another season.
And then the national championship game happened.
The hero of Villanova’s win over Michigan picked the perfect moment to play the game of his life – 31 points on 10 for 15 shooting, five 3-pointers, five rebounds, one epic wink as the Wildcats put the game away. That’s what probably got him an invite to the Draft Combine, the event where DiVincenzo saw how he might fit at the NBA level.
His name will likely be called in the first round on Thursday night, guaranteed millions set to come his way. Not bad for a kid who came off the bench for most of his college career and wasn’t even picked as a Big East first-teamer, second-teamer or even honorable mention this past season. He did get recognized by the league as its top sixth man after a season where he averaged 13.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.
”When I get into a system, I’m so worried about the team,” DiVincenzo said. ”I’m not worried about the numbers. I’m just worried about one www.cardinalsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-mason-cole-jersey , winning and two, the impact I have on a team whether it’s in the locker room or on the court. If I can do anything to help the team, then I’ll do that. That’s what I tried to do at Villanova this past year.”
His numbers at the combine were probably as eye-popping as what he did in the national title game. No one at the combine in Chicago last month had a higher vertical leap than DiVincenzo – 42 inches with a running start, 34 1/2 inches when standing. He also impressed scouts with his shooting ability, and didn’t need long to decide that his best move was to stay in the draft.
Some may have been surprised by his numbers in Chicago. Nova Nation was not.
”He works his butt off and he deserves all this,” said now-former Villanova guard Jalen Brunson, The Associated Press’ national player of the year this past season who’s also in this draft. ”And just to see where he’s come from since us rooming together freshman year to seeing how his work ethic has gotten better every day … he just goes at everybody. He just has that mindset that he’s a killer. And that’s what makes him special.”
There’s a price of fame, in that it also comes with a much higher level of scrutiny – which put DiVincenzo in a tough spot after the national championship game. While the Wildcats were celebrating and he was being named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, some of his old tweets were creating headlines as well.
Those posts, mostly from between 2011 through 2013, included racially insensitive and homophobic comments. DiVincenzo’s account www.billsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-phillip-gaines-jersey , which had been dormant since 2016, was shut down not long afterward.
”It’s crazy, good and bad,” DiVincenzo said when asked if he was surprised how much more attention he’s gotten since the national championship game. ”Everything with the Twitter thing that came out, that was bad. But people who know me, people who know who I am, they understand that’s not me. I just try to carry myself as more than just a basketball player.”
If teams had reservations about his tweeting choices from years ago, their concerns seem to be satisfied. DiVincenzo came away from the combine process convinced that he’ll be a first-rounder.
”Donte has handled this process intelligently and received very positive feedback from the NBA teams about his prospects in this year’s draft,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said last month when DiVincenzo opted to stay in the draft. ”We fully support this decision.”
He has some interesting nicknames.
For a while teammates called him Buddy Hield, because when the Wildcats were getting ready to play Oklahoma in the 2016 Final Four – a 44-point national semifinal romp for Villanova – DiVincenzo’s role in practice was to mimic the game of the Sooners’ star. And once in practice, where DiVincenzo was apparently showboating Martinas Rankin Color Rush Jersey , Wright dubbed him ”the Michael Jordan of Delaware.”
Truth be told, Wright doesn’t remember that exchange with the Delaware native.
”He said I said it to him facetiously in his freshman year when he was acting like a superstar and I said to him: `You act like you’re the Michael Jordan of Delaware,”’ Wright said.
Those days are gone, regardless.
DiVincenzo might be going to Jordan’s league, but he knows that he still has plenty to prove – to others, and himself.
”Even if I work out by myself, I try to always prove something and not try to prove that I’m good or not trying to prove that I’m athletic,” DiVincenzo said. ”I try to prove that there’s something deeper in me and that I’m just scratching the surface right now. I try to get better every single day and that’s what I’m trying to prove – that I’m getting better, that nothing will stop me from getting better.”
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