Typically, going 2-5 on a road trip is nothing to boast about in the NBA.

But in the case of the Portland Trail Blazers, who played those seven games with the services of only one proven NBA veteran, going 2-5 had its merits.

“I thought we had a really good trip,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups told reporters Sunday at the TD Garden moments after losing 124-107 at the Celtics. “I really did. We were short-handed a lot of nights. Playing eight guys against some really good teams.”

During the trip, the Blazers used six rookies, two second-year pros, third-year pro Dalano Banton, and starting center Deandre Ayton, in his sixth season. Veterans Matisse Thybulle and Moses Brown also made appearances.

Juggling that group wasn’t easy. The players on the team’s injured list (Jerami Grant, Shaedon Sharpe, Anfernee Simons, Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams, etc.,) would likely sweep the available players in a four-game series.

Nevertheless, Billups kept the team motivated and focused while getting valuable minutes for several young players.

“I’m proud of the guys,” Billups said. “I think our youngins grew up a little bit on this trip. So, I got no complaints at all.”

Some positives that emerged

1. Handling adversity: Heading out on the road for seven games in 15 days near the end of a long season filled with many losses and numerous injuries could lead some teams to mail it in the rest of the way. Not the case for these Blazers.

They hung tough, for the most part, in every loss other than on March 29 when the Miami Heat blasted them 142-82.

Yet, the Blazers responded by playing very well during a 104-103 loss at the Orlando Magic and then earned wins at the Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards. Portland closed the trip with a solid performance at Boston, the best team in the NBA.

2. Deandre Ayton stepped up: Ayton grabbed hold of the leadership role to become the centerpiece younger players could revolve around. After missing the first two games with elbow tendinitis, Ayton averaged 23.6 points and 12.6 rebounds over the final five games of the trip while shooting 53.4% from the field. And it’s not as if opposing teams didn’t know he was the Blazers’ top option.

3. Scoot Henderson demonstrates growth: After going through a brutal stretch of games, the rookie elevated his play just prior to the trip and that continued on the road. Despite, admittedly, hitting the rookie wall, Henderson averaged 17.0 points and 7.1 assists while shooting 43.0% from the field and 38.8% on three-point attempts. Consider that he began the trip having shot 37.7% on the season and 30.7% on threes. The only major negative was the 5.3 turnovers he committed per game.

4. Is Dalano Banton a keeper?: Banton went off on the trip, averaging 22.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.9 assists. Next to Ayton, Banton was the team’s best player. His future with the team is cloudy, but the Blazers could certainly use a versatile, 6-foot-9 role player coming off the bench moving forward. They haven’t had many of those in recent history.

Lack of shooting was one of the knocks against Banton while playing in Toronto and Boston, which traded him to the Blazers at the trade deadline. That issue has all but disappeared in Portland.

5. Jabari Walker on the glass: The second-year forward got off to a slow start amassing just 15 points and 12 rebounds during the first three games of the trip. Over the final four, he averaged 14.3 points with 15.5 rebounds per outing. However, Walker shot just 33.8% for the seven games.

Still a work in progress at age 21, Walker continues to show signs of growth here and there but has yet to put everything together. For the season, his shooting percentage is 45.9%. Should he shoot at that level while also grabbing 15 rebounds, the Blazers could have a viable rotational power forward on their hands.