Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups on ‘disappointing start’ against Toronto Raptors

The Portland Trail Blazers dropped a challenging match against him Toronto Raptors Saturday, 123-105. They could have given themselves a good chance to win if not for an atrocious first quarter in which the team was outscored 37-14. The Raptors came out aggressive while the Trail Blazers struggled.

Head coach Chauncey Billups had this to say to reporters afterward, noting that, not for the first time, his team lacked aggression. Or, at least, that Toronto played with more.

Just a disappointing start, man, for us. And we knew the physicality they play with. We’ve talked about it before, obviously, you can imagine how much I’ve talked about it with my folks, and they came out and imposed their will against us. And we haven’t had enough resistance, to be honest with you. Every time we started to fight and come back, you know, you have to play perfect and it doesn’t really happen that way, so you have to give them credit. And I’ve always kind of believed that the more aggressive team will have the advantage. Like, it’s always going to work in the game, and that’s what happened. This is what happened to them.

There is some concern that these slow starts have become a trend. The Trail Blazers started their last game against the Utah Jazz with a 19-point first quarter that forced them to play out of a hole. Star point guard Damian Lillard can’t score 60 points every night to save the team.

Portland now sits at 23-26, a full game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder game and a half ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference standings. The team seems to have known the No. 12 spot it would prefer to lose in the second half of the season. But when will we see the necessary improvement?