Last night's game vs. Atlanta is about the best the Blazers can play right now. Lillard was sizzling hot, played with speed and power, and his team splashed 19 threes with impressive 47% accuracy.
How on earth did Atlanta make it a close game?
Blazers got mauled on the boards, destroyed in the paint, similar to the previous Raptors game. While Lillard, Grant and Simons were busy hunting shots and pretending to play defense, Josh Hart did all the grunt work that helped the Blazers actually win.
Josh had 12 of of the Blazers 32 rebounds
Blazers were so busy playing super shooter offense, they only grabbed 3 offensive rebounds. Josh snagged 2 of them.
Maybe the Hawks are a dang good rebounding team? Nope, ranked middle of the pack at #15
I see Josh Hart as the leg of an unbalanced kitchen table. Trading Josh at the deadline just to save a few bucks might cause this entire setup to crash.