Practice Report: Aldridge out vs. Kings
Terry Stotts told the media after Saturday’s practice that LaMarcus Aldridge will not play on Sunday against the Sacramento Kings at the Moda Center. He said that everybody else was “feeling better,” with the exception of Allen Crabbe who is still “feeling the effects,” of an illness.
The Trail Blazers committed 29 turnovers in last night’s game in Los Angeles in their win against the Clippers. While Terry Stotts was not happy with the turnover total or their -16 turnover differential, he thought that the fact they won was a sign that they did things right on the defensive end.
“If you can win a game having 29 turnovers and a minus-16 turnover differential, you have to be doing something right,” he said. “I liked our effort defensively, I liked the way we rebounded the ball. I liked the way we cut down their transition baskets in the second half, some of that had to do with our turnovers. On the whole, we did a lot of good things defensively that kept us in the game.”
Stotts attributed the turnover woes to “mostly poor passes” and “poor ball handling” but they did bring Batum back into the fold and were without Aldridge, as the team hasn’t been able to get the same group together on a consistent basis due to injuries to multiple players.
Without Aldridge, it will be interesting to see if Stotts turns to Joel Freeland again or goes with Thomas Robinson, who had a showing with seven points and 13 rebounds off the bench.
Erik Gundersen
Erik Gundersen is the Trail Blazers beat reporter for The Columbian. He's a graduate of the Allen School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon in addition earning a degree in Spanish. He's covered the NBA for four seasons. You can also occasionally find his work on ESPN.com's NBA section for their TrueCities series. He also fist-bumped with Kanye West once. Follow @BlazerBanter on twitter for more Blazers and NBA news.