The Portland Trail Blazers had enough trouble keeping up with Luka Doncic on Friday night. Then the turnovers piled on and made a bad situation worse.
Portland dropped a 124-118 NBA Cup game to the Los Angeles Lakers, with Doncic torching them for 53 points and pushing his season average above 40. The Blazers hung around, but 24 turnovers kept dragging them back, and that kind of self-inflicted damage is hard to survive on the road even before factoring in how efficiently Doncic was scoring against defenders like Toumani Camara and Jrue Holiday.
For Portland, the ball security issues were familiar. They led the league last season with 17.3 turnovers per game, and while this year’s 16.8 mark is better, it still sits at 20th. Friday’s total will only make that number look uglier this early in the season, especially with Ja Morant’s injury already affecting the rotation.
That’s where Scoot Henderson was supposed to matter. With Morant, Shaedon Sharpe, and Vit Krejci all out, the Blazers needed their former No. 3 overall pick to help steady things. Instead, Henderson turned in one of the roughest stat lines of the night: two points, two rebounds, and five turnovers in 23 minutes.
The performance brought back uncomfortable reminders of the version of Henderson Portland saw as a rookie, when his nights could swing wildly and the plus-minus numbers could get ugly in a hurry. The turnovers weren’t all on him, though. Deni Avdija had eight of his own, and his mistakes came with a different kind of logic - the kind tied to aggression, downhill pressure, and trying to create something for himself or someone else.
Still, the Blazers need more from Henderson when the offense asks for another handler. Portland has built this roster with more backcourt pieces, which has pushed Henderson into a more off-ball role.
That’s part of the equation. But it’s also true that Damian Lillard has been operating more off the ball this season after returning from his torn Achilles, so the concept isn’t new in Portland.
Holiday helped cover for the missing creation once he came off the bench, finishing with seven assists and no turnovers against the Lakers. But when Morant is unavailable and Holiday isn’t starting, Henderson has to show more than he did Friday. The Blazers need him to give them something as a playmaker, even if it’s just flashes of control and initiative.
Instead, the loss looked a lot like last season’s version of Portland: stagnant, turnover-prone, and leaning too heavily on Avdija to carry the point-forward load. The early-season formula that had worked was clear enough - surround Avdija with ball handlers and decision-makers. Henderson should be part of that group, but he hasn’t played like it yet.
Through eight games, he’s averaging 7.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 2.8 turnovers while shooting 31.7 percent from the field and 19.4 percent from 3-point range. Those numbers are easy to gloss over when the team is still finding ways to win. They’re harder to ignore after a loss like this, when his offensive struggles were front and center.
There’s still time for Henderson to turn it around, and the Blazers have reason to hope that happens during a demanding November stretch with multiple backcourt injuries. But the patience that made sense during a rebuild is not the same as the patience Portland has now. Expectations are higher, and the inconsistency is becoming harder to shrug off.
That’s part of why the rookie scale extension never came together, with GM Joe Cronin acknowledging how difficult it is to settle on a deal for a player with Henderson’s kind of variance. He’s only 22, and point guards often take longer to settle in.
But at this stage, Portland isn’t even asking him to be a traditional lead guard. He’s being used more as an off-ball piece, and even that role has been a struggle because the shooting hasn’t been there.
His defense has been a brighter spot. Henderson has done a solid job harassing guards and taking away passing lanes. The problem is that the offense still swings too far in the wrong direction on too many nights, and Friday was one of them.
Now the question is whether this November stretch becomes a turning point or just another reminder of the gap between Henderson’s best and worst. Portland needs him to either become a steadier 3-and-D presence off the ball or help ease the playmaking load on Avdija while Morant is sidelined. Right now, he’s not doing either, and the turnovers are only making the issue louder.
His next chance comes Saturday against the San Antonio Spurs, a matchup that brings back plenty of high and low moments from last year’s first-round meeting. Portland will find out which version of Henderson shows up. The bigger issue is that there are still two versions to choose from.
In Other News...
Scoot Henderson Questions Are Growing As Blazers Old Problems Return
The Trail Blazers first road loss of the season in Los Angeles did more than snap a perfect start away from home. It also brought back a familiar set of problems that have shadowed Portland since last season, especially the kind of sloppiness with the ball and on the glass that can undo otherwise competitive nights.
Scoot Henderson sits at the center of some of the bigger questions now, because his play has not matched the expectations that followed him into this season. Portland has shown signs of improvement in a few areas, but the recurring issues around ball security and defensive rebounding, along with Hendersons uneven production, are making the rotation picture feel less settled than the Blazers would like. [Read more 🡒]
Blazers Loss To Lakers Exposed What Theyre Missing Without Ja Morant
The Trail Blazers 124-118 loss to the Lakers was a reminder that even a strong start can look a lot shakier when the offense gets loose. Portland coughed the ball up 24 times, double Los Angeles total, and the game exposed how much the Blazers lean on Ja Morant to steady the group and keep the attack organized.
Morant has been out with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and is expected to miss most or all of November, leaving Portland to patch together its playmaking in the meantime. Even with the defeat, the Blazers are still 6-2, a start that suggests they can survive the early stretch, but this one showed how much better they should look once Morant is back directing the offense. [Read more 🡒]
Blazers Suddenly Face A Bigger Scoot Henderson Decision Than Expected
Scoot Hendersons future in Portland has become a more complicated question than it looked a few months ago. The Trail Blazers are weighing the value of a young guard still trying to find his footing against the appeal of a more established piece in Nickeil Alexander-Walker, whose improved play and longer contract would give the roster a different kind of stability.
For Portland, the decision is less about talent in a vacuum than about timing, fit and the realities of restricted free agency down the road. Any move involving Henderson would carry real strategic weight, especially with Atlanta emerging as a possible trade partner, but for now it remains a matter of possibility rather than something that has actually been put in motion. [Read more 🡒]