NEW ORLEANS -- When the Trail Blazers were the third team to clinch a playoff spot in the Western Conference with a few weeks remaining in the 2017-18 regular season, there was optimism that perhaps they might be able to advance to the second round for the third time in the last five seasons. Now, the question is whether they can even win a game before being eliminated. After losing the first three games to the Pelicans in the three-six first round Western Conference matchup, the Trail Blazers now find themselves with no room for error as they face an elimination game Saturday afternoon in New Orleans. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. It didn’t seem like things could get much worse for the Trail Blazers after they dropped the first two games at the Moda Center in their best-of-seven series versus the Pelicans, but at least those contests were relatively competitive. That was not the case in Game 3 Thursday night in New Orleans, which saw the Pelicans absolutely dominate the Trail Blazers from start to finish before coming away with a 119-102 victory that, truth be told, wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate.“There were a lot of problems (Thursday night),” said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. "I thought New Orleans played extremely well. They shot the ball well, they shared the ball well. They got out in transition. They defended us well, and we arguably had one of our worst games of the year. So it was a bad combination."
Portland trailed by as many as 33 points in the second half of Game 3, resulting in Stotts putting in the deep bench with well over half of the fourth quarter yet to be played. While CJ McCollum was able to get going after two lackluster performances in Portland, Damian Lillard continued to struggle dealing with the Pelicans' near constant double teams and traps, which resulted in the 6-3 guard out of Weber State going just 5-of-14 from the field for 20 points while also eight turnovers in 35 minutes. “I think we tried to adjust, we talked about a lot of things we could do to attack them," said Lillard, who is averaging 18.3 points on 33 percent shooting from the field, 4.3 rebounds. 4.3 assists and 5.0 turnovers per game in the 2018 postseason. "Having two or three guys on our pick-and-rolls and stuff and that is basically to hit the open man and making them pay on the deep side, and trying to keep the ball moving, it just has not worked out for us. It is one thing to say, ‘This is what we need to do to be successful against them,’ and it is another thing to go out there execute it. When things are not going well and are hitting shots and they crowd gets into it, the game just gets harder."To make matters worse, the Pelicans have gotten an uncommon performance from at least one player in all three of their wins. Thursday night in New Orleans, that honor went to power forward Nikola Mirotic, who went 12-of-15 from the field and 4-of-6 from three for 30 points in 30 minutes. Trying to stop the likes of all-stars Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday and Rajon Rondo is hard enough, but when a player like Mirotic performs like he did Thursday night, the Pelicans become a much more difficult team to beat. "His presence on the court really opens things up for them," said Stotts of Mirotic. "It opens up the middle for penetration, it opens up the middle for (Anthony) Davis. You know and he’s a smart basketball player. He knows how to get shots. He knows how to space, cut. So I think going into the series, those four guys were our biggest concern, and four of those guys have played extremely well. This is the third different guy who’s had a 30-point night. He’s very efficient, and he made a lot of smart basketball plays as well."
Which is something the Trail Blazer have struggled to do for much of the last three weeks and in all of their first three playoff games. Now, facing a deficit that no team has ever come back from in a best-of-seven series, they'll have to play markedly better Saturday afternoon to move the series back to Portland for a Game 5. "We need to win a game," said Lillard. "We just need to win a game. Obviously it's frustrating for us, we haven't played nearly as well as we would have like to as a team or individually, for me. But like I've been saying, you've got to give credit to them for executing their gameplan. They've been the more physical team, the more aggressive team. The first two games we had our opportunities late in the game. They made the plays, they won them and then we come (to New Orleans) and dig ourselves a hole early. We just haven't played well enough."To make matters more difficult, both Evan Turner (right toe contusion) and Moe Harkless (left knee soreness) are listed as questions for Game 4. Turner sat out Game 3, while Harkless started in his place and finished with five points, four assists and three rebounds in 26 minutes. Saturday afternoon's game can be seen locally on NBC Sports Northwest with Kevin Calabro, Lamar Hurd and Brooke Olzendam. Scott Lynn will have the call on Rip City Radio 620 AM.