Blazers’ Chauncey Billups Explains Deandre Ayton’s Struggles

Soobum Im-USA TODAY SportsPortland Trail Blazers center Deandre Ayton did not look like a former No. 1 overall pick in the team’s 112-100 loss against the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday night at the Moda Center.

Ayton scored just six points on 3 of 9 shooing while grabbing 11 rebounds. After the game, coach Chauncey Billups added some context behind Ayton’s struggles.

“It just all kind of really depends on how a team is playing,” Billups said postgame. “You could tell that tonight they made a emphasis to collapse in the pocket a little bit on him especially because we weren’t making threes so they collapsed in the pocket.

“They’ll have some of these type of nights and they have some nights where…