Better than Advertised

It's not often I get to sit down and watch an entire game uninterrupted.  To do it without having to get up in the middle of the night was really nice.

Overriding Impression

We are very good, as good as I thought we would be, but far earlier than I thought it would happen.  And we are going to get better, because some of the weaknesses are naturally going to go away over time.  The Pistons' announcer said, at the end of the first half, "These Portland Trailblazers are as good as advertised."  This was, in my opinion, our best win of the season.  We went into the house of a legit top 10 team and whipped them. 

Team Points that Impressed Me

1. Team defense was outstanding.  Guys get beat, but they are funneling the man with the ball into the help.  Except for the first half of the fourth, you always felt like we would stop these guys often enough to get the job done.  Their first half run was built on our offensive breakdowns -- our defense was always pretty solid. 
2. We're fighting through screens often enough.
3. Our off-the-ball defense is good.
4. The Detroit announcers were praising our ball movement at times.  We were finding the open man.
5. The bench tried to up the pace at times.  Limited success, but we saw some running out of them.  I really like seeing that -- if they can become an effective fastbreak unit, we'll be devastating.
6. Composure.  Our starters came out and gave them a whipping in the first quarter.  They upped their defense and came back at us, and we responded by re-establishing the lead.  Then, they ran at us again hard in the fourth.  We couldn't stop them AT ALL, and their defense was aggressive and forcing mistakes, and they took the lead.  Our starters came back in and slapped them down like little kids.  You simply don't do that to teams like Detroit in Detroit.  You fold.  It is only elite teams that have been through the fire that do that, teams like San Antonio, Boston, etc.  LA has the talent to respond in that way, but I don't know if they have the mentality to do it.
7. LMA was hot, but we weren't forcing it to him.
8. Roy was the man in the last six minutes, but everyone was involved.  I think all five starters scored in the last six minutes of the game.  That gets hard to defend when everyone can hurt you.
9. Big play -- Under 3 minutes left, Detroit down by about 10, and they need a quick score.  Instead, they got a 24 second violation.  Veteran teams do NOT do that, they get up a shot quickly -- you have to get a quick score.  Superb team defense, simply superb.  You might expect that to happen against OKC, or against a young team like the Warriors.  You do not do that to Detroit -- but we did.  You expect the Spurs to do that to Detroit occasionally.  You do not expect the Trailblazers to do it.
10. Few teams can hope to match up with our size.  Detroit proved for a couple minutes there that going ultra-small won't really help you much, either.  Sorry.

Individual Points that Impressed Me

1. Gregzilla's Interior Defense.  Our perimeter defenders get beat sometimes.  That's life in the NBA.  But I saw three things happen more than once: A) the penetrating player had his shot blocked B) a player beat his man, drove towards the hoop, and then changed direction AWAY from the hoop C) a shot's trajectory was changed to get over/around the big man, and missed.  When this happens repeatedly, you win games, lots of them.  Both Greg and Joel were doing this over and over again.
2. Greg's rebounding in the first was scary, big-time scary.  When he learns to own the boards like that all the time, we'll be sending three men on the break as soon as a shot goes up.
3. Detroit's announcers seemed impressed that our backup center is averaging 9 rebounds a game.  
4. Sergio scoring, both on a 3 and on the drive.  We want Sergio to be pass-first, but if they have to respect him as a scoring threat as well, he's going to be so very good.  He may never start for us, but he may be a devastating weapon off the bench.
5. Brandon Roy is unstoppable when he wants to be.  It really isn't fair to put someone like Herrmann on him.  I could not find it in my heart to feel sorry for Herrmann, though.  I may regret that some day, but I doubt it. 
6. LaMarcus had a monster game against Sheed.  That is worth more than a single win.  That's "changing of the guard" stuff there.  LMA's confidence will be sky-high.  That's a good thing when we're going to Boston soon. 
7. Travis had a poor game, but didn't put up a whole bunch of stupid shots, and knocked down two big 3s.  I can live with the poor games from Travis if he doesn't go 0-12.
8. Nic made some really rookie mistakes out there, but didn't get down, and came back and knocked in a big jumper in the clutch.  He's a gamer.
9. Steve Blake was very impressive to me tonight.  Two minutes left, we get the ball, he pushes it hard -- and then pulls out, because there was nothing there.  He killed some time, then passed it to Brandon, who did his thing.  I think we ran 20 seconds off and Greg got fouled.  Such an intelligent play by Steve when you've got the lead.  He didn't have a great shooting night like some that he's had, but he hurt them with the shots he made.

Some Things that Showed We'll Still Improve

1. On off-the-ball screens for Rudy, they were dedicating two men to watching Rudy.  One man was popping out to deny him the ball (the defender of the guy who set the pick, typically), and one was watching the back-door cut so Sergio couldn't throw an alley-oop.  You can do a pick and roll off the ball, too -- and if we do that, this defensive maneuver will be punished.  The man setting the screen needs to roll to the hoop or pop towards the ball for an open jumper.  Something like this will be implemented once Nate & co get a chance to look at the film and do some stuff in practice.  Long term, teams won't be able to deny Rudy the ball so effectively.
2. Batum will make fewer mistakes as time goes by.  I'd say to myself, "Get the rookie out, he's not ready for games at Detroit yet," and he'd come back with some superb play.  More and more, those mistakes will disappear.
3. Greg is just a shadow of what he'll be on offense by the playoffs.
4. As Greg's conditioning improves, the rebound rate we saw in the first quarter will happen more often.  It isn't fair to add him to a team with Roy and LMA.
5. We are going to get better second unit PF play.  Either Channing will find himself again, or Travis will take his minutes and play better.  I can foresee a fast-breaking second unit with Sergio, Rudy, Batum, Travis, and Joel doing a lot of damage.  We've seen some occasional trapping defense -- I can see a unit like that doing some of that.  The problem with traps is that you can get beat for layups and easy shots, but that unit would have three shot blockers to erase accidents.

I expect no trades during the season.  Last year, in December, we found chemistry, and went on a tear.  This year, we've found chemistry, and we have talent to go with it.  The future is now.  This team can beat anybody, any time, anywhere.  They may fold in the first round of the playoffs.  They may tear their first round opponent to shreds.  But whatever happens in the playoffs, in the regular season they are going to win a whole lot of games.  My 55 win prediction may be too low.

These Portland Trailblazers are better than advertised.