Damian Lillard sat at the podium to exonerate himself after his poor shooting night contributed to the Trail Blazers Game 1 playoff loss to the Pelicans on Saturday. If Lillard was behind bars, it was because Jrue Holiday locked him up.
Jrue Holiday’s exceptional defense anchored the Pelicans late in Game 1
Holiday came up with multiple defensive stops to prevent New Orleans from collapsing late against Portland.
Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images
Holiday made defensive stand after defensive stand after defensive stand in the final minute of New Orleans’ nail-biting 97-95 win over Portland on Saturday. The Pelicans had blown a 14-point lead in the final 6:09 of the fourth quarter. Had it not been for Holiday’s defensive presence, the Pels may have thrown their victory away all together.
Lillard gets the step on Holiday and gets to the paint. He then attempts to draw contact and get a foul, potentially for a three-point play. The thing is: The contact never came. Holiday cut him off, somehow without touching him, and forced Lillard into an awful shot.
On the next Trail Blazers possession, Meyers Leonard screens Holiday off-the-ball, forcing the switch. Leonard then rolls, creating a bit of separation as he dashes unobstructed to the rim. This is 100 percent a dunk that would cut Portland’s lead to one if completed. Holiday gets his hands in the play and knocks the ball loose. He almost knocked it out of bounds off of Leonard.
And on the final play when the Trail Blazers (for some reason) opted for a quick two instead of going for three, Holiday tracked down Pat Conaughton and obliterated his layup off the glass as if he were Kevin Durant at a youth camp.
These are only three of Holiday’s defensive plays in New Orleans’ Saturday night win. They may have been the last three, but they weren’t his only stops. All told, Holiday was the driving force in holding Lillard to a 6-of-22 shooting night. This is what he does. He’s a competitor on both ends of then floor.
There’s a good chance Holiday gets consideration for one of the NBA’s All-Defense teams. This isn’t his first rodeo playing defense. He’s been locking down opposing guards for awhile now.
The Trail Blazers’ best two players are guards, and Holiday is capable of checking either one of them. That’s a problem, just not the Pelicans’.
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