LOS ANGELES — You can’t take your eyes off the Portland Trail Blazers to start the season.

It’s not just that Damian Lillard barely looks like he missed a beat after being out all of last season recovering from a torn Achilles. Or that Ja Morant, rather than struggling to fit next to Lillard, is thriving and looking like his vintage self, but with a more mature game. It’s that in a league where every team is trying to find dribble/pass/shoot players, the Trail Blazers have a plethora of them, including Deni Avdija, Jrue Holiday and Scoot Henderson. It seems everyone can make a play.

The Trail Blazers came into the season with chemistry questions:
How would all those ball handlers and all that talent fit? Specifically, how would Morant and Lillard mesh as a backcourt, two guys used to having the ball in their hands?

It couldn’t be working much better. It’s just three games, but Morant and Lillard have combined to average 38 points and 10.3 assists per game, shooting 51.3% from the field. Why is the Morant-and-Lillard backcourt working?

“It’s because they both want to win, number one. They’re both very selfless players,” coach Micah Nori said. “They both have been there, done that... they just want to win basketball games. They just want to win, and I think they’re both trying to play the right way, both playing very selfless. They love to share the ball, and I think that’s the reason it’s working.”

“I think the key for us so far has just been we’re not trying too hard to get somebody the ball or play that game in our heads. We’re just doing the right thing,” Lillard said. “I think the way our offense is set up, if you do the right thing, the ball is going to get where it’s supposed to go. And I just think we’ve been executing well and just trusting...

“Tonight [against the Lakers], we didn’t have any play where it was like, “All right, Dame, I want you to take it’ or ‘Ja, I want you to take it.’ Like I said, it was a matter of if we attack and the defense does one thing, we just trust to make the next play.”

Making adjustments

Making this all work has meant sacrifice for everyone. Maybe nobody more than Lillard, who said he hasn’t played off the ball this much since his rookie season.

“Dame has been a guy in his career, and rightfully so, who has always had the ball in his hands quite a bit,” Nori said. “And now, in coming back, he’s really accepted a role as more of an off-ball and maybe getting it as a second handler. But the one thing that Dame does is he just draws so much gravity, not only for Ja when he’s in pick and roll, but even for Deni because nobody wants to leave Dame, so you’re able to do a lot more stuff with him off ball.”

And if teams do leave Lillard, as the Lakers did in the clutch, it’s still Dame Time.

Morant also had to adjust, moving to a team with a lot of ball handlers on this roster, but he said it was easy.

“I feel like a lot of people think like I’m just supposed to score 25 or score 30 every time, and I’m really a point guard. You know what I’m saying?” Morant said. “So coming into it, I know I could make their jobs easier, release some pressure on them. Obviously, adding Dame back as well takes a lot of pressure from Deni having to handle a lot. We can get him, you know, way easier looks, and you know, vice versa. I don’t have to handle. Dame don’t have to handle. We still can get in a lot of stuff to get the job done.”

Morant’s other adjustment has been to show off a deadly midrange game. He is winding his way into his spots, but rather than being young Ja who drove right into the teeth of shot blockers, when he saw the Lakers’ Walker Kessler in a deep drop, he put up a floater over him. So far this season, Morant has shot 13-of-18 in the paint, but outside the restricted area (floater range).

Maybe the biggest adjustment was for Deni Avdija, who was the engine of the Trail Blazers offense last season, had the ball in his hands a lot and led the league in drives to the paint. Nori said that when the Trail Blazers traded for Morant, and they already knew Lillard was coming back, he sat down with Avdija to talk about how things would be different — and better — for him.

“Last year — and a lot of it was out of necessity with the injuries — he was like bringing it up and basically battling people for 94 feet and then having to create something,” Nori said of Avdija. “And now, because of the gravity of Dame, and also because of Ja’s ability to play pick-and-roll, we can get Deni in space downhill to his right hand against closeouts, as opposed to him handling it and everybody building up.”

It’s one of the things that stands out about Portland early, how they are getting Avdija the ball going downhill off dribble handoffs, or in transition, or sometimes just off cuts. When one of the best drivers in the league is getting the ball, he already has a head of steam.

“The reason why it works so much is because Deni himself, but also Ja and Dame, are willing passers, so they’re not ball-dominant, shoot-all-the-balls type of guys,” Nori said. “And basically, I think what you’ve seen with Deni, and thankfully it’s broken this way, is that he’s playing a lot against closeouts. He’s getting the ball in space, and he’s getting himself downhill. And I think that we’re seeing about as efficient as Deni is as he’s ever been.”

Portland’s buy-in

All this doesn’t work if everyone is not bought in. Nori is going to get a lot of credit for that, but he’s not sure he should.

“The buy-in has been super, and I really didn’t have to do a whole lot,” Nori said. “I wish I could tell you that there was some secret sauce where I was coaching my ass off as far as getting them to buy in. But just as human beings, they’re just really good people. They want to win. They know they’re going to play. They know their roles, and so far... the buy-in has been wonderful for all.”

As long as that buy-in remains, the Portland Trail Blazers are going to be must-watch.