HOUSTON -- After debuting their all-rookie starting lineup in Saturday’s loss to Clippers, Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups decided to run it back with his first-year five Monday night in Houston.
While such a starting lineup is a rarity in the NBA -- Portland was just the second team since the NBA started collecting starting stats to begin a game with five rookies -- it has its merits, especially for a team prioritizing development.
“I think the only difference is me having to be a little more vocal than usual,” said Scoot Henderson. “But I like that. I think it helps me in learning the plays, learning certain things that I need to focus on during the game. I think it makes me focus in a lot more rather than having Ant (Simons), makes me figure out how to be me strategic in certain ways. I think it’s a great opportunity for me to learn more.”
And with Henderson leading the way, the rookie quintuple got the Trail Blazers off to one of their better starts as of late against the NBA’s hottest team. But it would be a poor end to the third quarter, rather than a good start to the first, that would decide the game, with the Trail Blazers going on to lose 110-92 to the Rockets in front of a crowd of 16,537 Monday night at Toyota Center in Houston.
Portland is now 16-53 overall and 8-26 on the road this season. The Trail Blazers have now lost seven-straight and eight of their last 10.
Portland jumped out to a 13-4 lead versus a Houston team that entered the game having won eight-straight, and while the Rockets would respond, the visitors still managed to take a 51-47 lead into the intermission.
“We had so many good moments of, we had multiple paint touches on a single possession,” said Billups. “I think at halftime we had like 11 possessions where we had multiple paint touches... But that’s hard hard. It’s hard to do that, it’s hard to maintain that.”
But after starting the second half by going up 64-55, matching their largest lead of the game, on a Henderson, the Rockets would close the third on a 20-2 to take an 80-71 lead into the fourth.
“Game kinda turned, (Houston) picked up their defensive pressure and we didn’t respond very well to it,” said Billups. “(Houston) turned it up when they needed to defensively against a young, inexperienced group and got us sped up a little bit, lost our composure some. So some good, teachable moments for our young guys.”
Portland was never able to get the stops in the fourth quarter to mount a serious challenge and would go down by as many as 20 before the final buzzer sounded.
Dalano Banton led Portland with 28 points and a career-high 11 rebounds for the first double-double of his career.
Henderson went 6-of-14 from the field for 15 points, four assists and three rebounds in 24 minutes. Toumani Camara finished with 12 points, five rebounds, two blocks and two steals in 35 minutes. Rayan Rupert went 3-of-4 from three for nine points to go with four rebounds in 23 minutes.
Jalen Green led the Rockets with 27 points on 26 attempts.
Next up, the Trail Blazers head east to face the Atlanta Hawks in the second game of a seven-game trip. Tipoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.