The Blazers had no one even available to play tonight who could realistically stop Tristan Thompson. Here were their options:
-Skal Labissiere
-Anthony Tolliver
-Carmelo Anthony
-Nassir Little????
Labissiere is long, but doesn’t hold up well when confronted with excessive physicality like the kind Thompson possesses. Little is a midget small forward who plays like a big, but putting him on Thompson would be like putting me on any guy who has ever touched a weight in his life. Anthony just got done spending a whole year doing nothing but sitting on his couch and eating takeout Chinese food, and he was never a defender anyway.
Which leaves Tolliver. I will say this about Tolliver: he really tries super hard out there. There’s a reason he’s earned a minor reputation as a “Giannis-stopper”. But all the effort in the world can’t overcome the physical reality of the universe, the reality that more beef is going to move less beef out of the way every time. If that wasn’t clear: Thompson = more beef, Tolliver = less beef.
Thompson didn’t even need to bring out his trusty three-ball to dominate the Blazers. Why would he, when he could just go in the paint to either score or get fouled? Sometimes I feel like coaches don’t fully realize how much defenses get bailed out by players shooting threes, or how demoralizing (and often painful) it is to just get bullied in the paint with no recourse.