Am I retarded (please only use this post as an example)?

That clause proves you are the exact opposite of retarded.

How about Roy as a 6th man to give the 2nd unit a boost?

Only joking. I know someone would have thought I was serious.

We shot terribly. If we hit 4 more shots and 3 more free throws, it’s a tight game throughout. If.

The good news is there aren’t any first game jitters after the first game.

Things to practice: Easier points. Hit your open jumpers (Rudy can skip this one). Oh, and Travis got the 15+ attempts he wanted all summer. And made more than 50%.

It was nice of Brandon to start producing when it no longer mattered, but c’mon how many layups can you miss? I guess I’m just especially miffed about this game because I felt like they weren’t ready to play. Blame it on the coach, blame it on the “leaders,” they weren’t ready. GO looked scared, Blake gave nothing as the starter and our entire bench got outplayed by Lamar Odom. Forgive me, I’m not panicking, I just got back from watching my team get beat down from start to finish and had to sit next to an entire table of obnoxious laker fans who talked crap and tried to start fights with people all night. Sad thing is, every blazer fan in there had to shut up because we had nothing to say.

the show must go on. there’s no stoping it now. dig your heels in and give as well as we take.

………. I think the ride home is going to suck.

scared?…..(shaking my head)….maybe. in awe? most certainly.

We’re not ready. :(

Lakers are a better team. And there is a reason they went to the finals.

Maybe that will change as the season goes on and they gain experience, chemistry, a rotation, etc….

But for now, who really thought they’d WIN that game? Against the defending conference champs, with the reigning MVP, on the road….starting a rookie center. The second youngest team in the league, in the Staples Center on Nat’l Tv on opening night?

So they have a lot to improve on. I know they’ll bounce back from this. We have to protect our home court, and get some on the road, and we’ll be fine.

Meanwhile, I’m a lot less nervous about Oden having seen the post-game interviews, etc.

Have faith, Blazer fans.

i know we have athletic players, but we just don’t run too well.

That’s not going to work. I think this game just confirms a lot of what people saw durring summer league. Forget about Roy and Aldridge, they will be fine. The thing I’m concerned about is the lack of a strong perimeter defender.

Oh, we also need someone to punch Lamar Oden in the face.

They were nervous and tentative and settled for jump shots until the 4th quarter. The offense wasn’t flowing and shots weren’t falling. There was too much dribbling and one on one.

The L*kers knew exactly how to guard us and they have the personal to do it. Defend the screen and roll (I hate watching the Blazers use the screen and roll on 10 consecutive plays and have it fail every time), and clog the middle. They dared us to take the outside shot and they kept Oden from getting deep position.

We got some open jumpers that just didn’t go in the hole. Bad shooting night. But we were also frazzled and completely discombobulated at times. We had 3 or 4 shot clock violations or bad shots with 1 second left. We couldn’t any easy buckets and it seems like every time we got in transition we dribbled it away.

Outlaw played well on offense, but was just atrocious on defense. I know that the L*kers and Kobe in particular are very good offensively, but ouch anyway.

I can still chant for Rudy. He’s no rookie. Everyone else looked like a rookie. Rookies aren’t the sole member of their team to play a real game. Ru-dy! Ru-dy! Ru-dy!

Oden…….okay…..you couldn’t ask for more bad luck. He didn’t look good, but no one else did either. The injury…..if there is one positive thing you could say about it……well, it was a freak thing. Landing on a guy’s foot doesn’t mean that you’re fragile or injury prone. I think his lack of conditioning contributed to rolling that ankle. He just didn’t have good footwork or any quickness.

That all being said, it’s just one game and it was against one of the best teams in the league on their court. The team just needs to turn their nervous energy into Rudy like energy on both sides of the ball.

      Our offense & defense sucks !
     but most importantly, it’s only one game on the
road against the team I HATE the most in Sports !!!
We’ll be back.

COINCAST SUCKS !!!! GO BLAZERS !!!!

I’m not going to lie. Centers, foot injuries. I do not like those words together. The worst part is that Oden seemed so preoccupied about not getting injured. I feel for the guy.

Did you see that stuff Oden had on Bynum?

It is easy to point fingers…but Portland just wasn’t making any shots in the first quarter, and that other team that will go unnamed played great defense…(and had way too man y easy baskets) We were our own reason, we could never get over the hump. Hard to be successful when nobody can score…

I would have liked to see Roy get into a grove when it mattered.

Oh well.

At this moment the extent of Odens injury is unknown and certainly whatever the reality becomes will have impact. I’m hoping for the best as I would expect all Blazer fans. But beyond Oden, as ugly and painful as this loss was, perhaps it’s exactly what this team needed. Expectations were so high. Can we look at this loss like a dose of medicine? Assuming Oden is alright nothing has really changed for this team outside of we didn’t play a good game against the defending Western Conference Champions on opening night. Right out of the gate this really seems like a time when we need to pull together as a team and as a fanbase. This team got a hard dose of reality but it’s how we react that will matter.

im not worried

lets be real for a second. we were all hyped up that the blazers were going to be a great team this year without having really proven anything yet, last year was fun but we didnt make the playoffs. we were playing the reigning western conference champs who are favored to win it all this year. did u really expect a win? OF COURSE U DID THATS WHY WERE FANS. but realistically we saw what a championship team looks like tonight and were building towards that and hopefully we can get there someday. we dont have to play the lakers every game of the season so no need to panic, we can still make the playoffs and see waht happens then.

i just can’t put in finger on it…

and Wheels was sounding like it was the absolute end of the world, and there was no good left in man kind. Now THAT guy hits the panic button easily.