The Portland Trail Blazers lost to the New Orleans Pelicans, 111-97 on Tuesday night. Damian Lillard dropped 39 points and got ejected in the closing seconds during a frustrating and deflating loss to a bad team on the road. It continues a trend on the season in which the Blazers have bene one of the worst clutch teams in the league. Their calling card a season ago was winning an inordinate number of close games. Now they seem to wilt with the game on the line more often than not. And after a clutch win over Memphis, the Blazers were up to their old tricks in the final six minutes against New Orleans, getting outscored by 13 points in the final minutes with the game on the line.Plus, a look at the NBA's approach to the current COVID-19 surge. While nearly 20 percent of the league has entered health and safety protocols during December, commissioner Adam Silver made it clear on Tuesday that the league is going to press forward regardless. It's going to make for a rocky, strange and maybe gross next couple of weeks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices