Chauncey Billups calls Blazers’ loss to Grizzlies ‘f— embarrassing’

After a demoralizing 134-89 home loss to the injury-plagued Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday night, the Portland Trail Blazers face a serious soul-searching. According to Portland head coach Chauncey Billups, players will be in for at least a bad night’s sleep.

“I told them that anyone who sleeps well tonight is a loser,” Billups told reporters when asked about his message to the team after the game. “It’s that simple. …You sleep well afterwards, you’re a loser.”

If you think that’s harsh, Billups’ six-minute postgame press conference was peppered with several other fiery remarks as he accused his players of a lack of effort. When asked to describe his teams’ performance, the fourth-year head coach opened up to the press:

“It was just bloody embarrassing to be honest. We were really soft the whole game. Nobody really fought. It was just embarrassing for everyone. That’s just not who we are. It really isn’t. There is no excuse for this.”

Billups continued: “Obviously there are a lot of tough nights in this league, but I don’t care. It just wasn’t even that. It was like our guys just showed up because they had to be here but didn’t want to play, didn’t really want to work. And that’s embarrassing.”

The pressure and loss Sunday after the game raised concerns about where the Blazers’ season is headed. Even in a year where the Blazers are expected to be one of the worst teams in the NBA, losses like the ones Billups described shouldn’t happen. The Blazers largely avoided them early in the season and showed fight, even as they posted a 3-8 record. That wasn’t the case on Sunday. It was hard to see as boos erupted several times at the Moda Center.

From start to finish, the Grizzlies beat the Blazers on their home floor. Memphis was missing Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Marcus Smart and GG Jackson, while Portland was only missing reserve wing Matisse Thybulle. It didn’t matter. Seven Memphis players reached double figures as they got one run out after another.

The Blazers trailed by 14 after the first quarter, 20 at halftime, 38 after the third quarter and 45 when the final buzzer sounded.

The Blazers shot 34% from the field and a shocking 9.5% (4-42) on three-pointers. They turned the ball over 23 times. What was even more baffling was the way they spat it out – kicking the ball off their feet, forcing countless passes into non-existent windows, throwing a travel jump pass to themselves, stumbling and falling, etc.

For all the clatter and misses, the offense had no rhythm. The talented young backcourt players – Anfernee Simons, Shaedon Sharpe and Scoot Henderson – who will showcase the potential of this rebuilding franchise combined for just 16 points on 7-for-26 shooting. Simons scored four points, matching his number of turnovers, while Henderson had three turnovers of his own.

Jerami Grant led Portland with 20 points on 7-15 shooting, but backups Dalano Banton and Donovan Clingan were the only other Blazers to reach double figures. Billups appreciated some of the efforts from the guys on the deep bench that came a few minutes late, but he couldn’t say the same about the rest of the roster.

“I’m not going to single out just one or two guys, they were all terrible,” Billups said. “… [F]or mostly all of them – they were all shit.”

This was the second time in 11 games this season that Billups criticized his players for a lack of performance. The first time came after Portland’s season-opening 140-104 loss to the Golden State Warriors on October 23rd. Even after that loss, Billups smiled a few times in the postgame press conference; He offered a respite, “it’s just a game” and “it’s not the end of the world.”

On Sunday he offered no hope or reassuring smile as the mood in the room was decidedly tense. Typically, Billups doesn’t like to address the team after losses, but he said Sunday’s game was an exception to that rule.

“It was different and especially not because we lost,” Billups said. “We lost by more points, but that’s just how it is. It’s like. You just lie down and kind of give in.”

While Billups took his players to task, he said he also looks in the mirror and takes responsibility. As head coach, he said he needed to prepare his team better.

“Ultimately it’s up to me. I’m the leader of this thing,” Billups said. “This is our team, but I’m the head of it. For me this is very personal because I don’t have any of it, not a single bone of it in my body that I can just lay down, so it’s my fault. I have to get better.”

After the game, Simons said he couldn’t explain what went so wrong Sunday, but he said everyone needs to get better. A reporter asked Simons if he felt anything before the game that suggested something was wrong with the team. The seventh-year guard mentioned the team’s 127-102 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday and growing frustration with the team’s losing record after going 21-61 last season.

“After having a bad year last year and then coming into this year, things can slowly start to get better,” Simons said. “Frustration can definitely build from there.”

“I think we tried hard, but there was no structure,” Grant added. “I think there were a lot of mental mistakes.”

As a veteran and the only player on the roster who is at least 30 years old, Grant said the players needed to have a meeting to discuss what was going wrong and “figure it out.” You have to find answers quickly; The Blazers will face the title contender Timberwolves again on Tuesday and Wednesday.

At the end of Billups’ postgame press conference with reporters, he was asked if he planned to watch film of the loss. Once again he didn’t mince his words:

“No, I don’t want to see that. No, no, I’ve already seen enough.”