You can arrive at a handful of conclusions as to how the Portland Trail Blazers managed to upset the San Antonio Spurs, 106-103, to even their first-round series at one game apiece on Tuesday night.
Victor Wembanyama leaving in the second quarter with a concussion was obviously a major factor. The Spurs shooting 29% from deep didn’t help. Jrue Holiday was a rock. Robert Williams was +13 in 23 minutes off the bench. Toumani Camara hit two massive fourth-quarter 3s.
But in the end, the night belonged to Scoot Henderson.
Three years into an NBA career that has thus far fallen way short of expectations, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft finished with 31 points in 38 minutes as the Blazers erased a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit. With under three minutes to play, Henderson hit the biggest shot of his life to draw Portland within one.
That was one of Henderson’s five 3-pointers on Tuesday. He’s shot 7 of 13 from deep in the series. He made over 40% of his 3s over the final 20 games of the season. He had a 28-game stretch last season when he shot 42% from 3 on five attempts per game. This has been, by far, his biggest point of growth, from a bad shooter to one showing more and more signs that he might actually be a good one.
It opens up all kinds of things. If you go under screens (as De’Aaron Fox did in the clip above) or sag back to defend against his speed (as Devin Vassell does in the clip below), he can do this.
Henderson shot 11 for 17 overall in Game 2. On a night when Deni Avdija struggled to find any sort of rhythm, he was Portland’s lifeline. He scored from every level, and in every fashion. Off the dribble. Off the catch. Pull-ups. Spot-ups. All of them fluid. Not a single one forced.
Pay particular attention to Henderson’s pace in that reel. He’s not sped up once. He’s in control, feeling his way through traffic and into breathing room rather than defaulting to the muscle memory of thinking he can out-athlete whoever or whatever’s in front of him.
This has been a work in progress for Henderson, who still struggles to convert efficiently at the rim. You can imagine the adjustment of being the best athlete on the floor your whole life to suddenly not having that kind of physical advantage. Henderson is 6-foot-2. He only has 36 dunks in three NBA seasons. He’s not going to make his living above or even at the rim.
The 3s are great, but he’s also probably not destined to become a true knockdown shooter. His money spots can be in between; mastering the short midrange is almost a must for small guards these days. Floaters. Fades. Scoot has to feel his way through finishes, take the right angles, flow into the soft spots, and he’s becoming increasingly capable of implementing these necessary nuances.
Look at this clip from last year. Henderson gets downhill and runs directly into Rudy Gobert. Once the initial pump fake doesn’t get Gobert off the ground, it’s time to reverse pivot or pass out of the crowd, but Scoot thinks he can rush his way through to the rim and gets his shot blocked.
Now look at this play from Tuesday night. Henderson again gets into the paint, but this time instead of forcing an initial shot, he has the patience, poise and footwork to work his way into a much more efficient look on his terms.
You hear guys say all the time after a few years in the league how the game “starts to slow down,” and this is what it looks like. Give credit to the Blazers for sticking with him, and even more credit to Henderson for sticking with himself through some pretty turbulent times.
This is a guy who was so touted as a prospect coming straight out of the G-League (having skipped college to play pro right away) that the Blazers were comfortable trading away franchise icon Damian Lillard to give him the keys. That’s a ton of pressure to put on a teenager, and when it didn’t go well, when the same people who labeled him can’t-miss started throwing around the word bust, it could’ve broken him.
Quietly, it’s hard to imagine it didn’t to some degree. I remember Mark Price, one of the greatest shooters to ever live, telling me one time that the idea of “staying confident” all the time is a farce. Everyone’s confidence comes and goes depending on how things are going, but it’s the ones who stay committed, almost stubborn, to the process in the absence of confidence that eventually get it back.
What you are seeing in Henderson right now is a player who has gotten his confidence back. That wasn’t just some outlier game on Tuesday. He’s been moving toward that kind of performance for a while, improving this and that, waiting his turn, all while remaining by all accounts an ideal teammate. You can’t help but root for a guy like that, and hope that he continues to make the most of the biggest opportunity of his young and once again promising career.
