Preseason Game 2 Recap (Sort of)

by Dave on Oct 8, 2008 10:59 PM PDT Comment 31 comments

The Golden State-Portland game was not shown on DirecTV so I didn't get to see it tonight. We'll have to wait for Ben's recap in order to get the story. In the meantime, I thought you might be interested in some of the things I did manage to do today instead of watching the game.

1. Wrote John McCain and asked him to stop using my song in his campaign.

2. Brushed up my Sarah Palin impression in preparation for my guest spot on SNL.

3. Attempted to figure out how to repartition my hard drive without reformatting and erasing all the data thereon. Note to people who write online helps: It never fails that an otherwise great and wise instructor will trip up in exactly one line of his or her instructions. There will be several lines of precise and clear directions. Then on ONE line, which evidently the author feels is self-explanatory, they will leave out critical information. For instance the line will read, "You'll need to download a copy of File X here." A link will be provided but it will lead to a page with 16 versions of File X and no instructions as to which one, or where to unzip it to, or even if you have to unzip it at all. (Another favorite is the ubiquitous "Famboozle your springwhacker before you start" without any explanation of what famboozling is or where to find your springwhacker.) The instructions following this critically FUBARed line are always clear as day too...if you could just get that far in the process. It's like looking at the Promised Land across the Grand Canyon. Hey, tech-geeks, if you are going to be helpful do the world a favor and be precise and complete in EVERY line. Think like a novice! Thanks.

4. Taught Baby Point Guard how to pass through an opponent's legs.

5. Ate six too many of those little candied Halloween pumpkins.

6. Fretted like heck about missing a game that other people could see.

And that's about it.

Confidential to BlazerFan1...please stop sending the scantily-clad pictures. I am a married man, after all.

Confidential to Mortimer...PLEASE stop sending the scantily-clad pictures. For the love of God, PLEASE.

My poor eyes.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

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I still enjoyed the game...

First!

by Visionary1 on Oct 8, 2008 11:05 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

not a open thread silly

This was a good game to miss Dave. 27 turnovers. The thing that stood out to me was the play Nate called with 20 something seconds to go in the quarter. A ally oop to Rudy. Never seen anything like it before. He always plays it safe with a pick and roll.

by Sabonis4Ever on Oct 8, 2008 11:14 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Fretted like heck about missing a game that other people could see.

I gots a lil put out over this last night.

I gots over it tonight.

I’m just a PTB Fan, man

"You're really making me feel good about myself, little man," says Oden as he starts dancing after scoring a goal. "You better come harder than that."

by BlueBooYay on Oct 8, 2008 11:16 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

My take on the game

General observations:
This was very different from yesterday’s game. Our rookies and young players played like rookies and young players. We had way too many turnovers, and we gave up a lot of easy baskets (especially in the 3rd quarter, when our team defense was almost nonexistent).

Individual observations (best to worst):
Oden was excellent. He did struggle whenever he tried to score off anything except for dunks and free throws, but that was enough to get him 14 points in 20 minutes. He finally had a good rebounding game with 9 rebounds, (5 offensive) though some of those were just getting his own misses. He was clearly better than Przybilla.

Rudy was good. His 6 turnovers were more than you would like to see, but at least he was making plays. Hopefully as his teammates get more used to him they will be able to catch his crazy passes more easily, and I suspect that he won’t get those traveling calls in the regular season. He did step out of bounds once, right when he was shooting a 3 (which went in, but didn’t count because he was out of bounds). Several of his missed shots were just thrown up at the buzzer after broken plays. A few times he gambled on defense and gave the opponents some opportunities for easier shots, but considering that he got 6 steals it was clearly a worthwhile trade. I hope his ankle sprain isn’t too serious; he was definitely our best guard tonight.

Aldridge was descent with 14 points and 6 rebounds in 25 minutes.

Batum was surprisingly good. 6 points 5 rebounds and 3 assists in 18 minutes.

Przybilla did about what you expect him to do. 6 rebounds and 4 blocks, but he wasn’t a big part of the offense. At one point Rudy and Bayless passed to him and on successive plays, resulting in a turnover each time. I kept thinking, if only Oden were in he would have caught those passes.

Luke Jackson was pretty good. Not outstanding, but he looked like he belonged. 7 points 3 rebounds in 15 minutes.

Sergio made some things happen with 8 points and 10 assists. Unfortunately he also had 6 turnovers. If he wants to be an important player for the Blazers in the future, he is going to have to learn to protect the ball a little better.

Diogu was mediocre. 6 points 7 rebounds and 3 turnovers.

Bayless had 13 points, 0 assists, and 5 turnovers. He was good at scoring but didn’t do much distributing and made some rookie mistakes. He will have to do better if he wants to be in the rotation when Blake gets back.

Outlaw stunk. 1-for-12 shooting and he kept attacking 1-on-5 without passing the ball. Batum and Jackson both looked significantly better than him.

by trk on Oct 8, 2008 11:19 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Blazin' Our Dynasty

(The Subject is my contribution to the 95.5 “Name the Marketing Slogan” that I never got
to enter while they were having it…)

I know some Blazer fans will be disappointed tonight. Disappointed that they lost, that they didn’t blow them out, that Martell is hurt. But I’d like to give BNation some perspective, and hope…

This is the beginning of a dynasty.

I grew up during the fantastic Bird years living in Boston, and I have to tell you: this Blazer team has the makings of a team that great. There are many reasons for this optimism, but among them are: Depth, Youth, Commitment to D, a Winning Attitude, and Fans…

Depth. Amazing! KP during the second half tonite said he was talking to Nate and they figured out they have FOUR guys that can play EACH of the FIVE positions! Just outstanding flexibility. Heck, the Blazers injured (LaFrenz at C, Frye at 4, Martell at 3, Blake at 1, and now if Rudy’s ankle is more sore than it looks like… at the 2…) would be a decent team!

Youth: Not only youth, but experienced youth! Rudy clearly knows what he’s doing out there, even if he did try too hard tonight. Oden is NO rookie. BRoy is a huge veteran presence on this team. But this team is young enough to deal with the back-to-backs, and still be able to play full court D and Run. Batum really impressed me tonight, and good thing, too, because he will part of the regular rotation until Martell gets back.

D: I love the D I see this team playing. Gambling, aggressive, offensive defense. When we get in shape, in mid-season form, with the entire Rose Garden yelling “D FENCE” all game… this team is going to make you earn every hoop. Again, Batum was a great surprise, a true pest in the lane on D. Rudy’s gambling style will also earn him a TON of steals (his challenge will be to make Steals > Turnovers… but he will be a stat sheet monster, in the Pippen mold.)

Attitude: It wasn’t until Rudy went down when I awoke from my stupor tonight and realized we were going to lose. Seriously. Until then, I had been whooping it up all night long. What an exciting team to watch we have! We have MANY guys on this team who would gladly run you over or draw a charge, more than get a hoop. And the passing and moving without the ball that I largely credit Rudy for instilling in this team is just a treat to watch.

I know I lose credibility by saying this, but Rudy’s court vision, basketball intelligence, and sheer guts to make a mistake remind me a lot of a young, albeit shorter Larry Bird. And believe me, I don’t give out such praise lightly… But his passes got me out of my chair more than once tonight, and he doesn’t even have a clue about his teammates or this league yet!

He’s amazing strictly on instinct. Sure, he has to tone it down just a tad during an 82 game season (like Bayless), but man, he does NOT give up, and he does NOT stop moving. He had some great plays tonight that didn’t get on the stat sheet, including a 3 at the end of the half.

I loved KP talking all second quarter long tonight. He also said “Oden gets it. He is a real student of the game.” Awesome… Russell-like… Just a mountain of force underneath. KP also said that Rudy “sees the game in slow motion”, which is the true description of incredible sports vision. He also said that Batum has a high basketball IQ, and he showed a lot of that tonight.

This team is just so incredibly talented, deep, and hard-working. Combined with a great ownership and GM management group, and hard core fans, this team is an absolute “Buy”…

by Visionary1 on Oct 8, 2008 11:29 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

You really didn't see the game?

In the future, if you don’t have the game feel free to swing on by my place, or any other place (a bar for example) that does have the game.

by as11osu on Oct 8, 2008 11:42 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Unless of course

You’re for some reason, trapped in your house. Which I’m guessing wasn’t the case.

by as11osu on Oct 8, 2008 11:44 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm in Idaho

so unless you live in Idaho or have a WHOLE LOT of Shakespeare Stout on hand, it’s unlikely I could make the trip. But I do appreciate the offer!

—Dave

by Dave on Oct 9, 2008 12:17 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

You could have watched it on the Internet like the rest of us Portland expatriates :)

Odenied: If you're given lemmings—make lemming-ade (Bow4Meow)

by Norsktroll on Oct 9, 2008 4:19 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Games on the internet?

I have been trying to find ways to watch or listen to games on the internet for a while now. Where can I find them? PLEASE!!!!!!!

by Blazer Boots on Oct 9, 2008 12:33 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Unfortunately I don't know of a regular (i.e. paid) solution right now. Only day to day/game to game

The NBA might be working on something, but so far no luck. And I would instantly pay for this.

Odenied: If you're given lemmings—make lemming-ade (Bow4Meow)

by Norsktroll on Oct 9, 2008 2:33 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Did you figure out the re partition thing?

I have done it before and just made use of a free trial software called partition magic i think. Worked good. Let me know if you had trouble.

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life,(of the Blazers), (of KP's madness), of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity." - Albert Einstein

by BlazerandBeaverBELIEVER on Oct 9, 2008 12:04 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I looked up partition magic

but by that time I had already tried sixteen ways of figuring out the other guy’s instructions and wasn’t up to trying more. I’ll probably work on it again tomorrow.

—Dave

by Dave on Oct 9, 2008 12:16 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

PartitionMagic is 'teh bomb'

It’s never let me down… NEVER. I won’t look at any other options. As far as I’m concerned, there aren’t any. Believe me, the software speaks for itself.

by SubXero on Oct 9, 2008 1:21 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I use partition magic.. and it let me down once

I like it but last time I resized my partitions Windows crashed. Needless to say my hard disk was useless after that failed repartitioning attempt. My point is to back up before you go down this adventurous path. I ended up having to install a fresh version of windows on and old hard disk and use that to boot to look at what remained on my now dysfunctional HD. My dysfunctionall HD was set up so only windows was on the C drive while I kept all my data and applications on a D drive partition (windows does not like this method and does everythin in its power to subvert my plan). I had to reisntall windows over the C drive partition (Booting from spare HD). Once complete I was able to recover most of the data that was being moved while windows crashed while resizing. I lost a few files and apps but not too much. But that was a really annoying two weeks that it took to revive my stupid PC.

But more importantly, the Blazers and Rudy. Rudy is seriously the front runner for ROY this year. Sure his stats are not ungodly, but watch him play one game, any game (it won’t matter) and you’ll see that this guy is very very special. Oden will get better stats and be Rudy’s biggest competiton for ROY, but there is little question that the award is Rudy’s to lose. I can see why he won so many MVP awards in Europe.

I like all our euros on the squad, they play great together. Sergio needs to take the layin on 3-1 fastbreaks instead of always dishing the ball. Batum, wow after summer league I had little hope for you. After last night, now I know why San Antonio wanted you (and KP stole him in the draft). I’ll miss Martell but Batum if you play like last night every time, I’ll be content. As for Martell, he’ll be out six weeks minimum and eight if they play it safe. I had a stress fracture in my hip and it hurt immmensly. However it feels fine in 4 weeks, but the bone won’t completey heal for at least 6 weeks otherwise you risk rebreaking the bone. Eight weeks will ensure complete healing of the bone. Martell is young and will heal faster than say Lafrentz. He just needs to keep in shape during the down time (that’s the challengin thing).

I also think the back to back in presason was good for us. The team got some vaulable experience (which they’ll need in the first couple of months) on how to coenserve some enrgy for the second game. We also now know what the second unit needs to work on (hint: protect the ball- 27 TO’s = loss).

by NWfan on Oct 9, 2008 11:52 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Try this

Put a Windows XP in your optical drive and boot from CD (the damaged HD must be the first bootable HD in your BIOS). When asked pulse “R” to initiate recovery and execute the command “fixmbr” (this will try to fix the Master Boot Record of your hard disk). There was another command related to partition or checking the HD integrity, just type “help” and you’ll see the available commands.

There is also a CD in the eMule with utilities to solve problems with Hard Disks. Type “Hiren” in the eMule and download this CD. You could save your HD.

by Bend3r on Oct 9, 2008 3:37 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

You can use gParted Live CD

Burn this ISO image in a CD (it’s completely free, no trial, and it’s interface is similar to Partition Magic’s interface). With the CD in a drive of your computer reboot (if asked to push any key to boot form the CD, do it). You have a manual HERE (disregard all the howtos about installing, this is for linux users, not for those who use the liveCD). But you really don’t need a manual, just right click on a partition (in the bar which shows graphically the partition or in the list below it), click in resize/move and you will be able to drag the limits of your partition. To create a new partition you just have to right click on Free Space (you can create it by resizing partitions and it’s shown in gray in the graphical bar), you’ll be asked to determine the File System (ntfs is the best option for windows users), and the size of the new partition. And that’s all. If you have any problem email me to aitorherpub@gmail.com.

by Bend3r on Oct 9, 2008 9:32 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

beat me to it bend3r

Just to add, Gparted is free, unlike Partition Magic and works just as well. If you’re just trying to shrink a partition and add new ones at the end of the drive it’s really simple, but other operations can get more complicated, like using primary and extended partitions, or trying to make a partition bigger that has other partitions after it.

Goodbye blue Monday

by isaacjoe on Oct 9, 2008 11:43 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

When we start getting killed inside the 10ft range

against Golden State, then you know somethings wrong.

Oden or Przybilla need to be on the court at all times.

Resident Smartass.

by Devyn on Oct 9, 2008 1:59 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Mmm

When you get a chance, can you forward me some of those Mortimer photos.

Blazers Edge has an alarmist vision

by tominhawaii on Oct 9, 2008 3:48 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Here

by tweener on Oct 9, 2008 10:03 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't wear that much

Who is he supposed to be? I gather it is a costume of some sort, but who and/or what?

If I wasn’t Mortimer himself, I’d bet Mortimer looked like that red haired nerd who got that pic with Oden on the airplane and Oden looked unhappy about it (even though I’m sure it was just the pic).

Mortimer is annoying.

Mortimer

by Mortimer on Oct 10, 2008 1:24 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Box Score

link

I can’t say I’m happy about 26 turnovers, then it’s just a preseason game and Roy didn’t play.

Blazers Edge has an alarmist vision

by tominhawaii on Oct 9, 2008 4:18 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Famboozle your springwhacker before you start" without any explanation

of what famboozling is or where to find your springwhacker.

That line of instruction assumes you have already experienced a certain level of frustration and is an instruction for releasing tension and helping you to relax before continuing. It’s a common assumption that everyone knows where their springwacker is.

PS – it’s not true that excessive famboozling leads to issues with unsightly hair or vision problems.

hakkaa päälle !

by timg56 on Oct 9, 2008 6:51 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Looking at the boxscore

it appears that;

1) they were in the game until the 4th quarter, when it looks like they fell apart

and

2) they didn’t play very good defense, as GS shot almost 50% from the field.

hakkaa päälle !

by timg56 on Oct 9, 2008 6:57 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

HaHA Phone call from dad in three... two... one

“he was kidding dad…SERIOUSLY”!

=-)

You didnt miss much Dave.

Sophia

"Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcreaft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians. [speech at GOP Presidential Convention 1992] Rev. Pat Robertson

by BlazerFan1 on Oct 9, 2008 9:51 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Your dad reads Blazers Edge?

That’s almost as cool as Kevin Pritchard’s mom reading this!

Yeah seriously Dave, If this is going to happen to us everytime you “dont” watch a game you better be sure you never miss another one!

# 10 Top Charles Barkley Quote: On the Portland Trail Blazers (back when they were known as the Jail Blazers) serving Thanksgiving meals: "In between arrests they do community service."

by BlazermaniacAndy on Oct 9, 2008 10:34 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm really her dad

I’ve got to be old enough, after all.

She just thinks he only reads the front page. It will all catch up with her.

The most amazing thing about my amazing ego is I have amazingly little about which to be egotistical.
The pick and roll this year will emphasize "roll" followed by "dunk", followed by the wailings and lamentations of your women.

by jscot on Oct 9, 2008 3:01 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I thought you were the ruler of the free world

Not the ruler of Sophia’s world, did you know she has to ask permission to have friends over? and she has to excuse herself to cheer!

# 10 Top Charles Barkley Quote: On the Portland Trail Blazers (back when they were known as the Jail Blazers) serving Thanksgiving meals: "In between arrests they do community service."

by BlazermaniacAndy on Oct 9, 2008 4:01 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Was this or was this not........

Oden’s 1st home loss of all time? If so, it’s a sad day indeed…….

2-4 the who

by 24thewho on Oct 9, 2008 10:18 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

You know you wanted it

Man, I get a shout out on the front page, am gone a day or so and it’s already like 10 stories ago!

When will Mortimer ever get his day in the sun?

You know you wanted those pics, Dave, you CRAVED them. Just me in nothing but my lucky headband, an 831 part photo essay on Mortisexuality. It took a long time to make, because I would bounce a basketball and time the camera to take the photo right when it was over my face, so it looked like I was a human basketball-head man or sumthin’. YOU CAN’T FILE A RESTRAINING ORDER IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT MY FACE LOOKS LIKE. Unfortunately for me, I have a series of moles in the shape of the Blazers pinwheel, so I’m easily identifiable should this go to court…

I have a feeling, you’ll publicly denounce my work but secretly it shall live on in a special place in your heart and soul. And really, that’s how I want it to be anyways.

Mortimer

by Mortimer on Oct 10, 2008 1:33 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs