PORTLAND — While the Portland Trail Blazers play over the last month has garnered the attention of the league and made their chances of a playoff spot go from realistic to expected, what may go unnoticed is one thing they’ve been pretty good at all year.
No, we aren’t focusing on Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, although they’ve been part of this phenomenon.
Nobody would confuse them for Russell Westbrook, but the duo have been part of a team effort to be one of the best rebounding teams in the NBA since the season began.
The Blazers ascension has taken place in large part thanks to sustained excellence on the glass all season despite losing one of the NBA’s leading rebounders in LaMarcus Aldridge and box-out specialist Robin Lopez who always increased Portland’s rebounding when on the court.
And in some ways, the Blazers have been even better than past teams when it comes to attacking the glass.
Entering Sunday, the Blazers were fifth in the NBA with a total rebound percentage of 51.6 percent. Rebound percentage is a calculation determining the percentage of available rebounds teams grab and in this statistic, this year’s Blazers have matched and in some cases, surpassed their numbers with Aldridge and Lopez.
Of course, effort has a lot to do with it, but rebounding isn’t something that effort can always change.
Just ask head coach Terry Stotts.
“I was a terrible rebounder as a player, I worked at it and I was still a terrible rebounder,” Stotts said. “It’s a talent, it’s a skill to react to not only to the defenders but to react to the ball quickly and get it. I think it’s something that our guys are instinctively good rebounders.”
The Blazers employ a lot of players who happen to have that rebounding “je ne sais quoi.”
Perhaps nobody on the team has it like Ed Davis, who has been the most consistent player on the roster other than Lillard or McCollum, always bringing some combination of grabbing rebounds, moving the ball and flexing.
“It’s something that just has to be there, you can’t really teach it,” Davis said of rebounding. “You either got it or you don’t. I’m just glad I’m one of those guys who does rebound.”
“We got guys who are really good rebounders in general,” Allen Crabbe said. “You see guys like Ed Davis who get offensive rebounds. We just have guys who can get around the basket to where the ball comes off the rim.”
Their starting lineup added rebounding juice when Noah Vonleh became a starter, but almost every combination that the Blazers have played other than the starting lineup that started the season, has been an excellent rebounding unit.
Meyers Leonard and Davis work well together off the bench and the Blazers wing players are also strong on the glass with Moe Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu both having a knack for the offensive glass.
“I think we got a lot of guys who like to rebound,” Davis said. “Myself, Mason, our 3 mans rebound from Al-Farouq and Moe. Gerald likes to rebound. Noah, Meyers. We have guys that like to rebound and sometimes we’re fighting each other.”
Davis is a big reason why the Blazers are third in the NBA in offensive rebound percentage with Davis himself ranked third in the league in that category behind Detroit’s Andre Drummond and Enes Kanter of Oklahoma City.
“I think you go up and down, we have a lot of guys who understand the importance of rebounding,” Stotts said.
The Blazers are ninth in defensive rebounding, which is better than they were two years ago when they made it past the first round of the playoffs.
While the Blazers no longer have anybody even in the top-20 in rebounds per game in the NBA, they’ve consistently been one of the league’s best teams on the glass, which is just the latest example of the Blazers being greater than the sum of their parts this season.
