Trail Blazers’ Shaedon Sharpe solid in season debut

Portland Trail Blazers guard Shaedon Sharpe said he felt nervous before his season debut during Thursday night’s 118-105 loss at the San Antonio Spurs.

But it didn’t last long.

“Two ups and downs and I was even,” Sharpe told reporters at the Frost Bank Center.

It certainly looked that way. Sharpe, who missed the preseason and the team’s first seven games with a left shoulder injury, entered Thursday’s contest at the 3:32 mark of the first quarter and scored his first basket with 1:32 on the clock.

By the end of the night, Sharpe had scored 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting with two rebounds and an assist.

“I thought Shaden played really well,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups told reporters. “He looked pleasant. He looked very normal.”

The Blazers, who are 25th in points per game (107.8), needs the offensive punch that the 6-foot-5 Sharpe provides. He adds three-point shooting, an ability to create his own shot and a fearlessness when attacking the basket.

Sharpe can also create teammates.

“My whole goal was to come in and help my teammates,” he said. “Get them involved and compete at the highest level.”

Billups said he appreciated how Sharpe, a key building block, didn’t get overzealous in his first game back from injury.

“I was worried he was going to be a little mad,” Billups said. “And kind of do some things just because he just had to get back, that would be uncharacteristic of him. But he never did. He looked good. I thought his shot selection was mostly good. Defensively, I thought that he was healthy.”