Did Kevin Martin change his name to Dwyane Wade? Because it seems like the refs were all about putting him on the line whether or not he was fouled. Pitiful defense on him by several players, most disappointingly Rudy. This could be troubling. Blake was solid but unspectacular, Batum had his moments, but was also used up by Martin. Sergio looks like a different player with Rudy on the floor. Bayless won’t be happy if he only gets 5 minutes a game (S-Rod last year). Travis can’t spot up from anywhere. He’s a 1 skill guy, and he only scores at a 43% rate at that one thing. That isn’t good enough for this team. Joel is such a limited player on offense, it really hinders what we can do. Channing looked good on offense scoring that 3 ball is a great thing from a PF, but struggled staying with people on the defensive end. Oden looks like he needs to lose 15 lbs before we’ll know anything more about him. He simply never should have been that big to begin with. Steady changes… they let him put too much non-muscle weight on.

Its nice to win a game (even if it is just the Kings) comfortably when you play your C- game.

GO BLAZERS

and heres hoping that channing frye gets more minutes

1. He “seems” to still be a little stiff, and clearly has a lot to learn
2. He’s drawing constant double teams and is still putting up solid (if normalwhelming) games

Think about those two for a second, then remember he’s a 20 year old rookie. This dude is gonna be GOOD!

Is/Will be a star in the league. I don’t mind him getting those calls, but I just hope that we will as well. Oden seems to be headed that way. I’m really anxious to see what Bayless is going to do given his demeanor. This could really set him back, but welcome to the NBA.
Rudy wasn’t exactly spectacular on defense, but I think Martin came out with something to prove, especially with a lot of the Roy v. Martin talk going around lately. He was hot, and I don’t think much of anything would have cooled him down.
Speaking of defense, from what I saw on the ghetto-web-cam-tracking-muted deligth that was Justin tonight, Batum looked decently smooth with the offense, confident on defense (maybe he shouldn’t have been tonight) and didn’t cause any of the problems that Outlaw did. I still can’t believe how much it seems like he’s gone backwards. Outlaw made a nice pass on the break, and finished well a couple times, but overall, it just looks sloppy. Always did, I guess, but a few game winners makes up for it, at least last year it did.
The Big Three, were, Big.
Overall, an awesome game. I’m so desperate for blazers nowadays I don’t even mind the terrible video quality.

     Stuck in Medford with no TV, no Radio, but
fortunately BE & O-live to pick up the pieces.
     I posted on GO in another thread, but as
predicted, with minutes, everything goes up.
Especially, the foul trouble for the defenders.
GO will be fine (Sans IR), and this team is
on the way to 55 wins !

    GO BLAZERS ! Down with the Blackout !!

The Blazers had 20 assists to 39 made field goals… I’d love to see better efficiency in this area.

Hawes and Miller played 25 minutes, committing 7 fouls. Wow.

Rebounding edge, 41-25 Blazers. This is key.

Oden and Aldridge had 8 assists. That is key to future success. If they can pass out of the double team, our offense is much more effective.

Blake did exactly what he needed to do for us. 9 points, 3 steals, 2 TO’s, 2 assists and 1-2 from distance. He is a great role player to play with the black unit. He commands the offense so much better than the young point guards.

All in all, good effort and good game. Love the way that they shot from distance tonight.

—We saw a glimpse of the Blazer offense of the future, which consists of penetrating passes to big men followed by low post moves or return passes for open shots. It’s going to be just that simple. Yes, the attack will be peppered with slashes from the wing and mid-range jumpers, but that inside-outside game will be our bread and butter. This is going to lead to the major inside players getting a ton of foul shot opportunities, which is not a bad thing.

This is what you want from your offense. Good teams don’t win games shooting mid range J’s. They win first off scoring easy points inside, whether they be slashing layups, dunks, hook shots, bank shots etc. Obviously if you control the interior that is step #1 to winning in this league. The second most important shot is getting open 3 point looks for your good shooters. That is essentially what we tried to do tonight, and hopefully what Nate will continue to work on throughout the year. I can’t tell you how frustrated I got having Nate coach games to get open mid range shots. Those are IMO, the worst shots and least efficient way to puts points up in this league.

—We also saw a glimpse of one of the remaining weaknesses, which is wing perimeter defense. Lamarcus Aldridge may still be our best perimeter defender at the moment. That’s a credit to him but a worry otherwise. The Blazer wing players didn’t look hopeless, but there were too many moments of inattention or slow reaction.

Brandon Roy is the only player on this team that I trust to consistently keep his man in front of him. Good teams usually aren’t forced to have their best player matched up against the other teams best player, but it seems we might have to play that way, if we’re going to hold some of the better players in the league down. Batum is great, and creates turnovers, but the way he let Martin just abuse him wasn’t pretty. Rudy had that problem as well, but like Batum will usually try to negate that by forcing steals and gambling on the defensive end (more on this later). When Martell gets back and Travis hopefully is pushed back even further in the lineup, this should improve. Travis isn’t set up to defend guys on the perimeter. His best position sadly enough was the 4, and now we don’t really need him there.

—We saw a little different form of defense tonight: more pressure and attack. We allowed a much higher percentage than is comfortable but we also forced more turnovers. Then again Sacramento was shorthanded in the point guard department.

This is what I was talking about. Most of our players are set up to play essentially transition defense. I call it that because it sets up our transition offense. Players that are much better taking chances than playing sound defense are abundant on this team, especially on the perimeter. GO and Aldridge are also more than capable of playing in this style. The idea behind it is that you’ll give up better looks, but you’ll also score a couple automatic looks for yourself in transition. This was the philosophy most teams that run use. In PHX Shawn Marion was next to useless defending people in one on one situations, but was a master of creating turnovers via steals or blocks. Our second unit will almost certainly use this tactic more than ever considering all 3 of the perimeter guys are much more comfortable running and taking chances than sitting down and playing shadow D (S-Rod, Rudy, Trout).

—I loved the overall unselfishness. This is a trickier balance than people think. On the one hand you don’t want to force early, individual shots under most circumstances. On the other hand you can’t be passing up good shots. The Blazers looked good tonight with their ball movement and decision making on offense. I’d love to see a more professional break, but that will come in time.

Travis… calling Travis. Time to pick this up. When you’re wide open from 3, you shoot. You don’t dribble into the defense, and follow that up by taking a fade away deep 2 point shot. When you’re defended from anywhere outside of the paint, that by definition will be a less efficient shot than a wide open J worth 3 points. Its really simple. This is why eventually J-Bay will be playing. If nothing else, he understands this concept. When he enters the lane his first thought is finishing strong in the lane. He also is more than willing to pull the cord and take the open 3 point shot. I know they play entirely different positions, but so long as Trout can’t defend, you might as well have Bayless out there more.

—Nicolas Batum’s boxscore is a hodge-podge. He had 8 rebounds but only shot 2-9 for 5 points and Kevin Martin scored many of his 34 points while being guarded by Nic. What to make of it? To my eye, he had a good showing. He was active, the shots he took were mostly well set-up and well-timed (in fact I’d be mad if he didn’t take them), and he showed why the coach has confidence in his defense by the way he negotiated his way around the floor on that end. He did very well if you measure him against Nicolas Batum. If you’re looking for a guy who’s going to be a weapon and shut down guys like Martin or John Salmons, that’s not Nic right now and it’s not going to be for a while. For first steps these were good steps though.

He knows how to play smart winning basketball. Martin absolutely used him in one on one situations. Martin does that to everyone. Batum got caught with a couple veteran moves, that he’ll eventually understand how to defend. Tonight he was a little quick with his shot, which is okay, but if you’re not wide open, you better not be shooting. He’s not at that level yet. He is our best option starting at the 3 right now. You don’t want Outlaw in there ruining the flow of our first unit.

—I liked Rudy’s offensive outing and I think this is going to be typical of what you see out of him. He’s going to hit those deep shots our interior players create. He’s going to move himself and the ball around the court and not let the opponent off easy. He’s going to have one or two wicked plays that you remember. And he’s going to score somewhere between the low and high teens depending on how many minutes he gets. I’m quite comfortable with him being out there. His defense was exposed a little tonight. A big part of that was the concentrated Sacramento attack but there are still little decisions Rudy can make better…NBA decisions particular to this league and style of play, playing the right percentages and moving accordingly. This is another case of not expecting everything right away. Give him a couple trips through the league and he’ll be more polished defensively. My guess is we won’t have to worry about it after that.

Another player used by Martin. I don’t really care so long as he gets those points back on the offensive end, which he is more than capable of doing. He got over 30 minutes of action tonight, and for the rest of the season shouldn’t ever be stuck with less than that. I’ve started to think of him as part of the Big Four. In fact, right now, he’s easily ahead of Oden. I don’t see why I shouldn’t expect Manu-like things from him this year. He’s our 6th man, and should be the first player you put in the game off the bench. It shouldn’t be about putting your best 5 man starting unit on the floor, it should be about getting the most you can out of the 48 minutes every game. Rudy makes our second unit lethal. Tides of games will swing when he steps onto the court.

—I really like Sergio’s effort and body language. I think he played appropriately on both ends of the court when he was in and he’s giving great, controlled effort out there. The best way to put it maybe is that he’s developing but he’s not playing developmental minutes out there.

He’s playing good defense. Its a different world from last year. Also, offensively he’s a different player with Rudy on the floor. J-Bay is going to be a 2 this year because of the way Sergio is playing. If Rodriguez continues to hit that 3 point shot, we’ll eventually have our very own “Calderon”. His progression from the end of last year is probably the nicest surprise (along with Batum).

—Didn’t get much of a look at Bayless. Still fighting an uphill battle it seems. Give him the ball and let him score and he’ll be fine, but that’s not the Blazers’ plan right now, any more than it was their plan to put the ball in Sergio’s hands and let him control the offense the last couple of years.

With the way Nate likes to use 3 guard lineups, I’m betting most of Bayless’ minutes this year will be the direct result of our unresolved SF situation. He forces more attention than Outlaw, and will eventually steal some of those minutes away. For every one of those though, it’ll hurt whichever 2 has to defend a 3. Good thing most Western Conference 3’s aren’t high efficiency scorers. Bayless will get time, but it won’t come til later in the year, probably via injury. Eventually he should be on the first unit with Roy. Hopefully he’ll get that chance eventually.

and I have to work tomorrow morning. My boss is going to have to get used to the fact that on days I wear my Roy jersey lapel pin, I may be late the next morning. But I may need to move back to Portland.

Thanks all for the entertaining and ENORMOUS threads, and for the great analysis, Dave.

It is a exciting but also scary to think that I am writing off 82 nights a year for the next 10 years or so, not including playoff games,

had only 50 comments on their game thread. just thought I’d point that out.