The Portland Trail Blazers' offense has taken a detour to Funkytown

Losers of their last four, the Blazers have struggled not on the end a fan might expect to see struggles: the offensive end.

There was the fourth quarter meltdown against Indiana, where Portland scored two points in the final 6:40 of the game, and Tuesday the Blazers didn’t score in the third quarter until the 7:19 mark.

Mix that in with a 22-8 hole to start the game Tuesday against Orlando, and head coach Chauncey Billups didn’t mince words when it came to why his team lost.

“We lost this game at the start of the game and the start of the third quarter,” Billups said. “The starters just didn’t play well enough. We shot it terribly, 6 for 35, you should never even be in a game when you shoot it that poorly, but we were. But we just couldn’t get enough stops when it mattered to get on top of them.”

That shooting performance followed a 117-105 loss at Toronto where Portland had a season-high 22 turnovers, an ongoing issue that’s existed for this team since game one.

The Blazers had 16 more against the Magic, 11 coming in the first half.

Jusuf Nurkic addressed those issues after the Magic loss, and perhaps took the first step in recovering from the funk: admitting there’s an issue.

“I gotta own it, it’s bugging me. I’m trying to do the best I can to facilitate it, but it’s not there and I’m hurting my team, my teammates, coaches and the coaching staff,” Nurkic said. “I don’t think we understand how much, especially with these turnovers and I start with myself, it puts us in a disadvantage every night.

“I promise I’ll be better.”

A 6 for 35 shooting performance feels like an anomaly, but the pattern in this four-game losing streak is becoming a little odd.

Billups said himself that this stretch has been odd, and it’s something that’s left him scratching his head.

“We're just in a little funk, man. I don't know what it is. I can't really pinpoint it,” Billups said. “Obviously, I'm watching the hell out of it .. Like in the fourth quarter (against Orlando), we were 1 for 10 from three but 11 for 11 at the rim. We're getting there. And we're getting kick outs that we just couldn't make.”

The drought has even reached star Damian Lillard, who missed a couple late 3-pointers and clapped his hands in frustration after the last one against Orlando didn’t find the net.

Portland’s offense has been stagnant with no real flow recently, as seen by the last four games having nearly equal assist numbers to turnovers, minus a 30-18 ratio against Indiana.

“When you’re not making shots as a team, it can be disruptive,” Lillard said. “We’ve defended pretty solid … Our issue has been scoring the ball and we’ve definitely been in a funk. Our rhythm, the turnovers, valuing possessions more, our execution, our pace: it's things that we could be doing better to create more rhythm for ourselves offensively that we’re just not doing consistent enough to have a consistent offense.”

Nurkic echoed the turnovers piece multiple times, and also agreed with Lillard on the execution recently on offense.

“I think the coach and coaching staff put us in a great position, but we’re not executing,” Nurkic said. “Lack of focus or whatever it is, it’s more on us, for me and my teammates than the coaching staff. They did everything right. They looked at the film, they studied there every day to put us in the best position possible, but at the end of the day we go out there and play. When we’re not performing how we should perform, you get back in the gym.

“We’re going to be better, we have to be better.”

The one positive is what Lillard hit on: the defense in the losing streak has actually been solid and given Portland a chance to win games despite the mental shot block.

The Blazers have shown what they can do on offense, and they’ve shown what they can do on defense. Now it’s all about putting those efforts together to create the winning formula.

That’s the challenge for Billups and crew for the next 42 games of the season. There’s certainly been highlights for Portland to hold on to, and now it’s time to grind them all together and figure out how to stack some wins in a tight Western Conference race.

“This is where you got to be mentally tough,” Lillard said. “You gotta be able to not like these moments, but you gotta be able to deal with them and keep pushing forward and I think that’s a big thing for our team right now is to not let it take us out.

“We have to understand there’s a lot of teams that are in the same space right now. There’s a lot of 20-21, 21-20, we’re all kind of in a bunch. We’re not taking advantage of that opportunity that we have, but we’re also not down and out like it feels, so we just got to keep fighting.”