Trail Blazers coach Micah Nori had a private talk with Scoot Henderson before Saturday night’s game against San Antonio, according to Jason Quick of The Athletic (free link). Henderson became the starting point guard last week after Ja Morant was sidelined with a left hamstring injury, but he has struggled since taking over that role.

“I believe in Scoot, we believe in Scoot,’’ Nori said in a pre-game meeting with the media. “Had a good conversation before I came down here. Over the course of 82 games, everybody is going to struggle … they just are. Right now, his struggle is coming early on. So my job as a coach is to help him, to put him in position to shorten those struggles, because we do know he is very, very capable.’’

Portland has a 3-1 record in Henderson’s starts, but he hasn’t done much to contribute to that mark. He has four assists and 11 turnovers in those four games while shooting 28.6% from the field. In Friday’s loss to the Lakers, he finished with two points, no assists and five turnovers in 23 minutes.

“I still feel like he might be putting a little too much on himself,’’ Nori said. “Basically just getting back to keeping it simple, buy into the defense, get yourself more involved on the offensive glass, the defensive glass, and then when you get out — run. Then make the easy play.’’

There’s more from Portland:

• Morant received encouraging news regarding his hamstring during an examination Friday in Los Angeles, Quick states in a separate story. “It sounds like he will be able to — not putting a timeline on it — but it might not be as extensive as what we thought it was, which would be a positive,’’’ Nori said. “But again, I don’t know if that is four weeks, six weeks, whatever it may be. But I’m hoping it will be on the shorter end of the prognosis.’’
• Robert Williams made an unsuccessful attempt to take Friday’s game ball for Jrue Holiday, who moved into the top 100 in career scoring, Quick adds in another piece. However, a Lakers staff member intervened and said the ball has to be turned in to the NBA. Williams admitted a strategy mistake, saying, “I was taught that as soon as you get the ball, just run into the locker room.”
• Nori believes having “selfless guys” has contributed to the team’s surprising start, per Joe Freeman of The Oregonian (subscriber link). Sharing the ball has been a point of emphasis since training camp opened. “I just told them,” Nori said, “that every single person, some way, somehow this year, if we’re going to be a successful basketball team, is going to have to sacrifice, whether it be shots, whether it be minutes, whatever. Because we’ve got a lot of depth and a lot of talent and it’s the only way this is going to work. Sacrifice is not a bad thing. And in fact, usually, when you sacrifice and it leads to winning, everybody gets repaid tenfold at the end. Because, in this league, they pay winners and they want winners on their team.”