Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups chewed out Matisse Thybulle and Jerami Grant for smiling while they were losing against the Utah Jazz back on Dec. 2.
“I went crazy,” Billups said.
Billups felt that it was an inappropriate time for Thybulle and Grant to be laughing.
“What the f— we laughing at?” he recalled shouting. “I don’t see nothing funny right now! We are getting our a—- kicked…”
The Trail Blazers went on to lose that matchup against the Jazz in overtime by a final score of 118-113.
Point guard Malcolm Brogdon — who the team acquired from the Boston Celtics before the start of the season in exchange for Jrue Holiday — arguably put together the best offensive performance of any player on the team in the loss. He recorded 25 points and six assists while shooting 8-of-17 from the field and 5-of-9 from behind the 3-point arc across 38 minutes of playing time.
Guard Shaedon Sharpe — who is in his second season in the NBA and averaging 17.7 points per game so far this season — played great basketball for the Trail Blazers too. He recorded 25 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals while shooting 9-of-20 from the floor.
Conversely, Collin Sexton led the Jazz in scoring off the bench. In 30 minutes of action, he scored 25 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field. Plus, he grabbed four rebounds and dished out five assists.
Portland’s loss against the Jazz dropped its record to 6-13, which is the third-worst record in the Western Conference at the moment. Only the Memphis Grizzlies — who have been without star floor general Ja Morant since the start of the season — and San Antonio Spurs — who have lost 14 games in a row — are below the Trail Blazers in the Western Conference standings.
Portland owns a 2-5 home record and 4-8 road record thus far.
The Trail Blazers will take on Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Chris Paul, Draymond Green and the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday with the hope of getting back in the win column. The Warriors have gotten off to a shaky start to the season, as the team owns a subpar 9-11 record and 3-7 record over its last 10 games.
