The winning magic of efficient 3 and D

Why I won’t shut up about Toumani Camara

BY HENRY ABBOTT

The Blazers’ second-year forward makes $1.9 million, has Jrue Holiday-like defensive statistics, and makes 3s better than Klay Thompson. HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES

With 37 seconds left in Saturday’s game, the Rockets and Blazers were tied. Playing on the road, the Blazers came in as underdogs and had lost to the Rockets by 28 the night before. But somehow, the Blazers would win this game by six. Many weird things made it so.

Two of the biggest were Toumani Camara. On one play, the second-year Blazers forward hounded Rockets star Fred VanVleet the length of the floor, decreasing the odds they would run some slick team action. To my eyes, VanVleet, as a $40-million star, determined that the referees would smile on him if there were contact with Camara, who makes $1.9 million. The result, though, was the piece-o-crappiest running 3-pointer you ever did see. There was a little contact but no foul call.