PORTLAND — It may have come a little late, but the Portland Trail Blazers made some adjustments to stay alive in their best-of-seven series against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies hold a 3-1 series lead heading into Wednesday’s Game 5 in Memphis.
Memphis is without their starting point guard. Mike Conley is out indefinitely while recovering from surgery to repair multiple facial fractures, which he suffered Saturday in Game 3.
But Monday, the biggest change from a Blazers perspective was a more consistent diet of Meyers Leonard.
Because of Leonard, the tables turned on Memphis. Now the Grizzlies are the ones forced to adjust.
After playing just five minutes in Game 3, the backup center logged 35 minutes Monday. He scored 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting, including 3-for-3 from 3-point range.
While Memphis head coach Dave Joerger didn’t address the issue that Leonard causes them — it was evident. Memphis had to eventually switch Zach Randolph on to Leonard. This allowed protecting center Marc Gasol to stay closer to the paint after being pulled away by Leonard’s 3-point shooting threat.
Leonard is 7-for-8 from long range so far in the playoffs.
Heading into Game 4, line-ups with Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge had the best point differential of any big man combination the Blazers had put out on the court in the first three games.
In Game 3, Leonard was passed over in favor of Chris Kaman, who labored with an ankle injury that forced him to miss Game 2.
And after Monday’s pivotal Game 4, the pairing of Aldridge and Leonard looks like not only the best solution for Portland, but a major issue for Memphis.
In 56 minutes on the court in the series, the Blazers have outscored the Grizzlies by 14 points per 100 possessions when Leonard and Aldridge play together, per NBA.com.
Portland made hay in Game 4 with a line-up of Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Nicolas Batum, Aldridge and Leonard.
McCollum and Lillard took best advantage of the space that Leonard provided in Game 4.
Both have been worlds better in the two home games in Portland after they combined to go 1-for-17 from 3-point range in the first two games of the series.
Lillard — who drew the ire of many for his no-show in the first two games — answered his critics in the two games in Portland.
He had 22 points and nine assists in Game 3 followed by a playoff career-high 32 points to go along with seven assists.
Lillard got his teammates more involved than he did in the first two games.
But while Joerger is concerned with Lillard, he’s more worried with the way Lillard and McCollum worked together.
“I thought the key tonight, as good as (Lillard) was and he’s a heck of a player, we’ve got serious problems with CJ McCollum,” Joerger said. “He’s getting to the rim, to the rim, to the rim on us over and over and over.”
McCollum got the start in Game 1 of the series but it would seem unlikely that Stotts would go back to that after starting Arron Afflalo in games 3 and 4.
McCollum averaged 22 points per game in the two games in Portland on 61.5 percent shooting.
