Micah Nori pulls Damian Lillard, Ja Morant late vs. Kings

Two games into the season, the Blazers' first-year coach is already making the call most coaches with 2 All-Star guards would never dare make.

Jason Quick

@jwquick

During final stretch of a close game, Micah Nori pulled Damian Lillard and Ja Morant for defensive purposes. “Neither one of us, you know, are probably used to that,” Lillard said. The reaction of the 2 stars told the early story of Portland’s season. t.co/FNy1LaOcfG

Picture it. A close game on the road, crunch time, and your 2 guys with the most All-Star appearances are sitting while the other team has the ball. Nori ran it like hockey line changes. Lillard and Morant went in for offense and came out for defense, and Jrue Holiday came in as the stopper. In one sequence the swap barely lasted 2 seconds before the Kings fouled and the lineup flipped right back. It worked, too. Portland closed out a 128-120 win and moved to 2-0.

Look at Lillard's quote again, because it's honest without being a shot at anybody. "Neither one of us, you know, are probably used to that" is a guy who has closed every big game of his career saying out loud that this is new. Nobody is calling it a feud and nobody is demanding a trade. But it's real, and for a Portland team built around these 2 guards, how they handle it says plenty about what kind of season this is going to be.

None of this came out of nowhere. Portland got Morant from Memphis in June for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray, which put him next to Lillard in a backcourt that already had Holiday and Scoot Henderson. In the preseason Nori said starting Morant and Lillard together 'doesn't make sense' because of what it does to the defense, and he floated bringing one of them off the bench. They've both started anyway. What he's doing now is the compromise: both start, and he finishes with whoever can guard.

He's also making these calls as a first-year head coach on a 1-year contract, which is the wildest part. A coach with that little job security isn't supposed to be the one telling 2 stars to take a seat in the 4th quarter. In the 124-83 opener against Phoenix it was easy, since neither guard played in the 4th of a blowout. The Kings game was the first time it actually cost the stars something, and Nori didn't blink.

The box score backs the coach for now. Holiday put up 12 points and 8 assists off the bench, Lillard scored 19 and Morant had 12 as a starter. Deni Avdija led everybody with 26. Rookie Darius Acuff Jr. hung 33 on Portland and Domantas Sabonis had a 27-19-10 triple-double, so the defense still needs work. That's exactly why Nori wants his best defenders out there late.

What to watch is simple. Can this hold up once the Blazers lose a close one with Lillard and Morant on the bench for a defensive possession? Winning keeps everybody happy. The first time Holiday gets cooked with Dame sitting next to Nori, everyone is going to have a take, the stars included. For now Portland is 2-0, and its coach has already made the toughest rotation call in the building.