A big game from the bench carried the Trail Blazers to a potential season-changing win against the Raptors on Friday, showing how special it can be.
The bench was a major reason the Trail Blazers were off to a blistering 10-3 start and sat atop the Western Conference standings as late as November 21 but it was also an Achilles’ heel that led to eight losses in 11 games before last night.
The bench was pivotal early in the season but eventually, each member regressed, as pointed out by Mike Tokito of Forbes:
At this point, the Blazers cannot afford subpar games from their main scorers.