Blazers: Trail Blazers zoned out in Sacramento, lose 117-100 to Kings

**Jodelo** · 10-16-2012

SACRAMENTO — The exhibition season is less about wins and losses and more about tinkering and experimenting. So with that in mind, TrailBlazers coach Terry Stotts delved into his bag of tricks Monday night and debuted one of his bread-and-butter defensive schemes:

The zone.

And it failed miserably.

From the first shot of the game until about five minutes before the first half ended, when Stotts finally punted on his experiment, the Sacramento Kings did what they wanted to against the Blazers’ new defensive wrinkle. The Kings coasted to an easy 117-100 victory over the Blazers, building a mammoth 20-point halftime lead as they dissected the zone at Power Balance Pavilion.

“They scored in a variety of ways,” Stotts said. “Inside, outside, (on) rebounds. So we’ll watch the film and get better at it.”

Stotts only started implementing the Blazers’ zone four or five days ago, mostly during game-day shootarounds, so he expected Monday night might be a bumpy road. At least he didn’t have to wait long to see the struggles.

On the first possession of the game, the Blazers left Kings guard Aaron Brooks wide open on the perimeter and he swished a wide-open three-pointer. Things only got worse from there.

Tyreke Evans gashed the heart of the Blazers’ zone for layups. DeMarcus Cousins scored from inside and out. Brooks licked his chops at the wide open shooting lanes, making 4 of 6 field goals en route to 12 first-half points. In the first half, the Kings outscored the Blazers 32-14 in the paint, shot 54 percent from the field and corralled six offensive rebounds — seemingly scoring after every one as the Blazers either were out of position or failed to box out.

“I’ve got to watch the tape to see specifically,” Stotts said, when asked what went wrong with the zone. “I think we were slow reacting, we were tight in the paint, we didn’t block out, we didn’t guard the ball in the zone — you still have to guard your man, you still have to block out. You have a lot of man-to-man principles in the zone. And we weren’t as alert as you need to be when you play zone.”

Stotts is a big proponent of using the zone defense and says the Blazers eventually will end up playing it in spurts every game. He first started using it regularly when he was in Milwaukee many years ago and credits it for helping the Dallas Mavericks win a World Championship with him as an assistant coach.

When Stotts arrived into Dallas, coach Rick Carlisle frowned on playing zone. But Stotts, with the help of fellow assistant coach Dwane Casey, eventually convinced Carlisle it would help.

“I think it’s important that it becomes part of our iden y,” Stotts said during training camp. “There are going to be some games where it works pretty well and some games it’s not working. I don’t know if we would have won a championship without it. You’ve got to have it in your package.”

Weeks ago, Stotts circled Monday night as the date he would debut the zone, figuring the Blazers would face an athletic, good-shooting team on the road. And because the Blazers have only worked on it a handful of times, he wasn’t expecting miracles.

The rookies especially struggled. Damian Lillard failed to rotate on the perimeter. Joel Freeland, making his first start as he competes for the starting center job, was whistled for goaltending and a three-second violation. But they were hardly alone as every player made a defensive blunder or two in the first half.

If nothing else, through all the discombobulated play, the Blazers learned just how much work lies ahead if they are going to showcase their zone opening night against the Los Angeles Lakers.

“It was what we expected it to be, a little rusty,” Wesley Matthews said. “But we just have to keep being active, keep talking. We have a lot of time to work it out.”

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