LOS ANGELES -- Call it cognitive dissonance, or an abiding faith in probabilities, but after losing Games 1 and 2 to the Clippers here by 20 and 21 points, the Trail Blazers feel like they’re making progress as they return to Portland in preparation for Game 3 on Saturday.

Point guard Damian Lillard described the two losses as a couple of stages in a longer learning process, as might befit one of the NBA’s youngest teams. The way Lillard characterized it, Game 1 on Sunday in Los Angeles was essentially a fact-finding mission.

“We got to see what kind of coverages they were coming out with defensively,” Lillard said. “See what type of game plan they had, and they blitzed us; they made it hard for me as far as even getting attempts up, getting to certain spots, running the sets we like to run. They made it hard.”

After sticking close to the Clippers for a half, the Trail Blazers faded against the pressure of those blitzes.

As the Blazers were scheming for the Clippers in Wednesday's Game 2, Lillard recommended that the smart adjustment was to find him shot opportunities off the ball. He mined his notes file for potential ideas. Film was watched, sets were implemented, team meals were consumed.

“Our coaching staff did a great job of watching film and putting myself and C.J. [McCollum] in different positions to where they couldn't really take a lot away from us,” Lillard said. “I just got to make the shots.”

Lillard has made comparatively few of them heading into Game 3, only 13 of 40 in Los Angeles with eight turnovers, and McCollum is 9-for-28. Both appear confident, but neither has been efficient. McCollum lamented a missed 3-pointer in transition, and Lillard went so far as to narrate the first three attempts he saw in Game 2 -- all high-percentage looks, none successful.

“I mean, my very first shot of the game, I got a clean pull-up jumper at the free throw line -- it rattled out,” Lillard said, before moving on to his next missed opportunity. “I got a back door and got right to the rim, and the ball kind of slipped out of my hand. I let it go a little sooner than I should have.

“I should have dunked the ball.”

Lillard has a way of being defiant without being defensive. He has readily conceded since last weekend that the Clippers’ traps have been effective at stifling his production, yet he blanched at a suggestion that the team’s confidence might be wavering after dropping two games. In his eyes, Game 2 represented steady growth from Game 1.

“Game 1 we were in the game and then they had a stretch where they got on a run, we couldn't score the ball, and we just couldn't close that gap for the rest of the game,” he said. “Tonight we took it a step further and the game was closer for a little bit longer than it was last game, and then the same thing happened. We went cold and they started to knock down shots.”

Portland coach Terry Stotts expressed a similar sentiment, going so far as to say he was “pretty pleased” with the selection of shots generated by the emphasis on moving Lillard off the ball. Later he cited Lillard’s first three shots as evidence, just as Lillard enumerated. Wingman Allen Crabbe sounded the same tone:

“I feel like we are doing all of the right things.”

“We are getting good looks.”

“We are moving the ball well.”

This is the low-tech version of the ascendent process-vs.-results debate that has been raging in recent years -- and the Blazers are reasonably happy with their process. The results, less so. Synergy Sports shows forward Al-Farouq Aminu, a competent, 36.1 percent shooter from 3-point range this season, with 13 spot-up opportunities since the series started. He has six points and two turnovers to show for them. Crabbe was a vital threat for Portland from the perimeter this season, but he has yet to drain a 3-pointer in 43 minutes of court time.

It isn’t entirely a case of a rosy process yielding lousy results because Portland still has a bevy of problems to contend with, from normalizing its pick-and-roll game against the Clippers’ trap, to DeAndre Jordan’s defensive presence at the rim. On his 13 drives to the basket during the first two games in Los Angeles, Lillard is 2-for-11 from the field with six points -- and Jordan has blocked four of those attempts. McCollum has four points on eight drives, shooting 1-for-6 from the field, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Buried somewhere in the process-vs.-results equation is the measure of opportunity, and that’s what the Blazers will have to address in order to claw back into this series. There was a glimpse of this during their third-quarter run on Wednesday. Forward Maurice Harkless drained two pretty 3-pointers during the Blazers’ best string of possessions in the series, but passed up a nice look just a moment later.

“The window to the basket kind of closed,” he said. “Looking back on it now, I should’ve shot it.”