Rip City arguments with a box score pulse.
Holy Backboard tracks the Portland Trail Blazers through the lens of invested fans who care about every possession. Dustin and Sage move from box scores to playoff math, draft-pick stress, trade-deadline frustration, and the strange daily texture of following a young team.
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Holy Backboard is a Portland Trail Blazers podcast for fans who watch the standings, the rotations, and their own patience all at once. It moves fast. Dustin and Sage treat each game as evidence, not just entertainment, so a win can still sound alarming and a loss can become a full referendum on roster construction. The show is especially alive in the gray areas. Portland can be chasing the play-in, celebrating a Scoot return, worrying about Shady and Veet, and still arguing about whether the team has beaten anyone serious enough to trust. That tension gives the conversations their bite. The hosts talk through possessions, turnovers, shooting gravity, transition problems, injury returns, draft assets, tiebreakers, and future flexibility without sanding off the fan emotion underneath. Some episodes sound like a postgame hang that accidentally became a personnel meeting. Others detour through illness, pollen, kids, day baseball, local events, or the Portland Fire before snapping back to Blazers basketball. The looseness helps. It makes the analysis feel lived-in rather than packaged. Holy Backboard is not trying to sound like a national studio desk. It cares too specifically about Rip City for that. A bad loss is not just a number; it is the kind of embarrassment that changes what someone feels like wearing for days. A streaming-only playoff game is not just a media-rights issue; it is a reminder that older fans can get shut out of the moment. The show is also comfortable thinking beyond the next night. Trade-deadline moves, Neil Olshay-era fallout, Joe Cronin frustration, pick swaps, and trade-down scenarios all sit next to immediate questions about pace, rebounding, and whether a shooter can open the floor for Scoot, Shady, and Denny. It is blunt. It is detailed. It sounds like two people trying to decide, in real time, whether hope is justified.
Made for: Built for Portland Trail Blazers fans who want rapid, opinionated team talk with real game detail. It especially fits listeners who care about young-player development, playoff math, draft assets, and the emotional cost of following an uneven team.
What sets it apart: Holy Backboard mixes possession-level analysis with unfiltered local fandom, so roster logic and lived Rip City frustration stay in the same conversation. The show’s charm is the way practical basketball questions keep colliding with everyday Portland life.
A weekly Portland Trail Blazers centric NBA podcast, hosted by Dustin Hawes and Dillon Sage.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Dustin and Sage connect Blazers results to lineup mechanics, roster construction and the franchise decisions shaping Portland's next move.
Holy Backboard turns Portland Trail Blazers basketball into an ongoing argument about how the team should work. Dustin and Sage move from game results to the decisions underneath them, testing lineups against defensive matchups, shooting needs and ball-handling limitations.
A Blazers win still has to pass the "team with a pulse" test before you celebrate.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A playoff return opens into a grounded conversation about access, memory, and Portland's draft future.
Holy Backboard frames Portland's playoff return as more than a game preview, tying the moment to access, memory, and the franchise's unfinished business.
Portland's playoff push runs through returning players, lineup questions, and a wider roster debate.
Holy Backboard catches Dustin and Sage at a tense, hopeful point in Portland's season, where playoff math sits beside the relief of getting fun players back.
Portland's 27-29 play-in chase gets judged by a tougher standard: can the Blazers beat teams with something at stake?
Holy Backboard finds its tension in Portland's play-in picture, where a 27-29 record can suggest life while still leaving real doubt about what the Blazers have proved.
A candid Blazers check-in on Scoot's return, a six-game skid, and frustration with Portland's quiet deadline.
"Happy Scoot Day" finds Holy Backboard caught between the lift of Scoot's return and the drag of Portland's six-game losing streak. Dustin and Sage sort through the 127-97 loss to New York, the rebounding problems that keep stalling the push toward pace, and the mismatch between…
A relaxed, useful Portland preview about ball-handling pressure, roster gaps, and the versatile big the team could use.
Holy Backboard's 418th episode frames Portland's season as a roster stress test, with Dustin and Sage zeroing in on how vulnerable the team can look against opponents with several ball handlers.
A relaxed but pointed Blazers discussion on whether Cronin's stability can lead to real progress instead of another treadmill season.
Holy Backboard frames Cronin's added runway as a useful test for Portland: can a little stability turn into clearer evidence? The hosts work through what Scoot Henderson might show with a full-season runway, whether Shaden Sharp can carry more of the offense, and how Avdija,…
Cavaliers playoff detail, every day.
Fast takes, sharp turns, loud sports arguments.
Dustin and Dillon discuss the Portland Trail Blazers' late-season situation after Joe Cronin's contract extension.
Dustin and Sage discuss the Portland Trail Blazers' recent games and potential trade targets ahead of the February 6th trade deadline.
Hosts Dustin and Sage discuss the Portland Trailblazers' recent clutch losses, focusing on defensive and decision-making issues, while sharing personal Thanksgiving and holiday experiences.
Dustin Hawes and Dillon Sage return to preview the 2025 NBA Western Conference.
Portland's 114-110 win over Phoenix came on Amazon Prime, and Dustin calls it a game the Blazers had no business winning after a sloppy start.
Dustin and Sage preview the Portland Trail Blazers' play-in game against the Phoenix Suns, discussing recent wins and team performance.
Holy Backboard episode 438 focuses on Portland’s push for the eighth seed, with Dustin and Sage breaking down the Blazers’ 137-132 overtime loss in Denver and the road loss in San Antonio.
The hosts catch up on personal health issues and discuss recent Portland Trail Blazers games, baseball season, and the Portland Fire WNBA expansion draft.
The hosts review a Blazers week that included a 124-114 win over Utah, a 109-103 loss to a short-handed Philadelphia team and a 114-95 win over Brooklyn.
Dustin and Sage discuss the disappointing Portland Trail Blazers season while dealing with illness.
The host discusses a humiliating 54-point loss by the Portland Trailblazers to the Denver Nuggets and shares a personal anecdote about running sound at a Lunar New Year event.
Holy Backboard's 433rd episode tracks Portland's week of games, from the six-game losing streak ending against Memphis to the 135-119 win over Utah.
Portland's problem is not just talent; it's "low IQ brand of basketball" with rebounds, turnovers, and 52 threes.
Dustin and Sage preview the 2025 Western Conference NBA season after a summer break, discussing personal updates and baseball rivalries.