… but after viewing highlights it looks to me like LMA’s first half rebound jam shouldn’t have counted (looked like he jumped from out of bounds, never establishing himself in bounds before touching the ball).

If only he hadn’t have put up the poll question about when we are going to lose our first home game. Hopefully he will not repeat this mistake next year so we can go 41 and 0 at home.

Though Heartbreaking loss. Its good that its happening early this season, because in the Playoff, there’s so many of this kind of ballgame to be play. It will toughen thier mind and concentration on the game by goin into this kind of loss.

Fans should give them an standing Ovation after the ballgame rahter than a DEAFENING Silence after loss. They played a very good game.
It wouldnt stop Blazers to go high, it will make them great and earning wins.
Lets appreciate the Loss as we Appreciate the winnings..

[I can’t resist]

I can accept this kind of loss every time, than losing by Blowout.
Because Blowout loss means, your team never played a competitive ballgame.

Blazers just showed thier competitiveness and putting thier team as one hard to beat.
Im proud of your team (despite thier young age), i hope FANS will stop blaming and whinning in every loss because true FANS and followers accept Wins and Loss because its part of a game..

too much edge-livin’. Sux about Martell.
Sad recap at LO

This was the most entertaining game i’ve got to watch since the Rockets came to Portland. I think you make a lot of great points. Personally, I would have fouled Superman on the last play, or at least made him take the last shot by having his man double who ever he passes to. Yes, he might be able to get down the lane for a dunk, but with only 5 sec they would probably be scrambling. It was a tought loss to swallow, but the blame that people are dishing out left and right is silly. No one person lost this game. If you think about it, Orlando hit 3 shots in the last 5 seconds of the 1st, 2nd and 4th quarters, take one of those baskets away and we win.

I had a bad feeling about this game all day, and I just got done watching it on my DVR (it’s 3am). Us up 8 with a minute left, I told myself “Self, you were silly to have a bad feeling, and you shall say so if you write about the game on Blazers Edge”. And so I am, but unfortunately it’s in a loss :-(

Look… we’ve had a million last minute heroics go our way. To lose this game Orlando had to hit 3 straight 3’s, with one being a lucky bank shot at the buzzer. The Fates decided we were gonna lose this game and nothing we could do woulda’ stopped it.

We battled back and took a great lead, and it was awesome to see Roy and LMA be on offensively in the same game. That might be the first loss, EVER, when they both scored 20+. No one had a bad game aside from Oden and Blake, who couldn’t get out of foul trouble… and their backups did wonderful so it didn’t hurt us any.

The Magicals just got hot and lucky, and we eat a tough loss. That’s ok… it’s why we won the other games before this, so we can absorb a loss like this and still be okay.

Doesn’t make it any less lame, but Zeus decided we were gonna lose this game from the opening tip, and we deserve credit for trying to make a liar out of Zeus. But, Zeus is Zeus for a reason and if he ain’t impregnating babes disguised as a swan he’s making sure the outcome of basketball games adhere to his original vision… and he planned on us losing.

Ya can’t fight the Gods.

Mortimer

WTF people? Seriously…Orlando played a really good game, but in terms of how the season is going. We are kicking … I never thought we would be where we are at given this point in our schedule.

How many of these nailbiters have we won? They had a 2 minute drought against a tier one team. we are currently 15-8…15-8. Tell me one of you would have seriously predicted 15-8 at the beginning of this season.

The blazers rule and are a total blast to watch this season…

For being the voice of reason. That’s the one thing I think I appreciate more than anything about this blog. I was in the post game thread last night and while I was upset about the loss, I wasn’t upset about the game. I tried to play the voice of reason as best as I could but wasn’t having much luck. I may stay away from those threads especially after tough losses…..

I think I am going in reverse. You are supposed to like a team, therefore like the blog. I have become such a fan of this blog, that now I am beginning to watch the games. That was unbelievable watching that second half last night, it was really my first chance to watch Rudy and Sergio during that late third quarter run. At least you guys aren’t taking it for granted. I did make the mistake falling asleep with about 4 minutes left thinking the game was in hand (i’m on the east coast i need to get to work dammit!) and didnt believe that score when I woke up. Either way you guys are all lucky to have such a fun and exciting team to root for, im definitely not a blazer fan, but i am rooting now and i cant wait to watch them again, and it call comes from reading here. One question that i am sure you guys have talked about but I missed, why does Blake start over Sergio? From what i saw he completely out played him??? PPEAACCEEE

I’m not sure if I know what that is, except it felt like in the last two minutes the Blazers were trying to run the clock out instead of playing good ball. I realize using as much clock as possible has merit, but how about running some offense to see if a good shot might open up.

In many ways this was a great game (LA for sure, season high for BRoy). Immaturity showed it’s ugly head a few times (there were some mental lapses), but even that wasn’t too bad – they’ve come a long way in 23 games.

We killed them on the boards 44 to 29, matched their shooting 51.9% to 50.6 , one could argue that we lost the game at the 3 point line, 26.3(5-19) to 51.9%(14-27). But we lost this game playing the clock.

We were not prepared for the double team on Roy. There is no way in the world that there is not a great play ready to happen when someone is double teamed that far away from the basket. One man breaks free to receive the pass and that leaves a 3 on 2 on the court. Except when your 3 are standing around letting the doubled up man do it all.
When that happens once, that’s OK. When it happens three times – shame on me.

I don’t mean to take away from the good things that took place but,
you can’t win playing prevent offense.

However..it stings a little bit less this morning. Why? Because it was a REALLY good game. Brandon and LMA had amazing nights, and it is really depressing that they will be overshadowed by the loss. Same with Sergio, Rudy and Joel. Are you kidding me with some of the moves they had? Anyways, I was there with Sophia and the most disheartening part about it was the fact that the crowd booed after the loss. I was pissed off certainly, but what is wrong with Blazer fans to where they booed? BOOED? And seeing Brandon fall to the floor with his jersey over his head was also sad. Blazer fans sure can suck sometimes.

IF….Your team is LA Lakers and Loss to Kings[Yesterday]?
IF…. Your Dallas Maverick loss to Spurs ( in double OT, knowing you control the entire ballgame)
IF….Your Detroit Piston Loss to Wizards?

Kings and Wizards are nothing to lose, they serve as a heartbreaker team right now [look at thier Standing]. So If your team is one of those Elite Team and loss game for non-winning team, what you gonna do? Tossed all your entire Roster?

Blazers are lucky to have this players, Show more LOVE and understanding than HATE.

but then they had two blocks for Oden the other night when he actually had 5 or 6.

Why is Travis out there on DEFENSE instead of Batum…

Dwight Howard is in the game on the final play and gets the inbound… All you have to do is when gets the ball from inbound… run into him and flop or hug him so you have Howard shooting FTs…

AND during the 3rd when Orlando was reigning threes, why not get out of the zone defense a lot earlier…

I said to my wife, I said, “Bleepin’ Turkey-Glue is going to shoot a three.” Then I said, “Bleepin’!”

…. I enjoyed this game.

And now that we have that first loss at home out of the way, we can concentrate on sweeping the remainder of this month’s home games. I sense another December streak coming on.

Man, I can’t count how many times over the last few games where Roy sets the tone for the team on it’s transition defence. When Brandon trots back on D, he sets the tone for the rest of the team, just like on offence.

Some dude once said that those who live by the sword will perish by the sword.

Nate put him in as the inbound defender in some games, for which he is well suited due to his long arms and quick reflexes. Most notably in the game against Houston. I don’t think he would/should have defended Turkoglu, but he could have done the same thing here, coming in for the final seconds after Orlando took time out to make the inbounding pass more difficult. Then the lineup could have looked something like Brandon, Nic, Travis, LMA, Joel. Are those not the best one on one defenders you could have out there on the floor?

—Nicolas Batum wasn’t defending Turkoglu on that play because Batum is 6’8" and skinny while Turkoglu is 6’10" and at least medium-sized. Plus Batum hasn’t been out there in critical situations with those other Portland defenders either. The first risk of defense is not getting out-leapt, it’s miscommunication and the defense collapsing. "Oh wait…you said SWITCH? I was waiting for ‘Simon Says’ first. We weren’t in the Red Simon formation? My bad."

Two more questions: Did we have a foul to give in the final five seconds? Some people claimed that yesterday, but I think I remember Barrett saying it ain’t so. But even if not, why not foul in that situation? I know some people will mock me for saying that (how can you foul with two points ahead). But e.g. Popovich of the Spurs (and European coaches) regularly would do it to give them the last possession. If you box out properly on the free throws (and an offensive rebound plus clean shot in that situation is rarer than a made three), the worst thing that can happen is the shooter makes both and ties the game, and you get the ball back with time still on the clock. If you miss your last shot, you go to overtime. Against a team that is coming from a game the previous night, I like our chances to win it there. Thoughts?

Rightly called a garbage shot by an objective 3rd party. He also points out we had no one to blame but ourselves.

The ending was truly tragic, from the collapse in the final minute to that last second shot turkeyglue makes it was truly tragic. I could see it coming too, that is the bad part. We could see the train wreck as it happened and yet Im still stunned and in shock. So here i go w/ the grief process which seems irrational but Im not the only one that is emotionally tied to this team.

And yes, I did just compare the mid December loss to a non conference team to a train wreck. A 20,119 casualty train wreck.

I will be walking down Broadway in black today ringing the bell once for every shattered blazerfan soul , who wants to join me?

Sophia

- I got the sense that the Blazers got a little lax when they got up 8.

- Travis Outlaw shouldn’t be on the floor late in games.

- Brandon’s last possession was embarassing, and I don’t know who’s fault it was, but it sucked.

Maybe this is a small loss, maybe it’s a big one. I know this: if the Blazers miss the playoffs by a game, this is one of those ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda’ games.

There are always bumps on a road. The important thing is how we bounce back from bumps. Remember the Toronto game???

I think this loss can be blamed on BRoy.

He is the leader of the team so losses get blamed on him. That is part of his job, so that is a bit of a gimme.

He had a statistically awesome game, but had some uncharacteristic poor decision making. When was the last time you saw Brandon not know how much time was on the clock? He passed out to Outlaw in maybe the 2nd quarter for a shot clock violation. This really surprised me.

He dribbled into the corner while being doubled on our last possession. Dribbling to sidelines is a pretty big no no at any level of basketball. I was also surprised to see this. I get that there was a failure of movement from 4 other blazers, but this decision was weird.

5 missed free throws? That is tough to swallow on a night like this.

I imagine BRoy did not have a good night after that one, but he will bounce back for Thrusday.

Love you Brandon

He was right…If his player wasn’t the guy double teaming ROY, he should clear out and space. Rudy was open and should cut to the hoop or the middle.

LMA thought the ball was a hot potato the last 3 minutes. All he needs to do when Roy is double team is get to the free throw line area, catch and shoot it. 4 on 3, and the middle is always open on a double team. If they collapse, then the wings cut to the hoop. LMA was just as hot as Roy at the end, and we need to play 2 ball at the minimum and not always Roy isolations. In any case, Roy needs to tell his players to cut or move to an area instead of asking for the ball back while being still double-teamed.

So I don’t know why everyone is blaming Travis. His defense on Turk was superb. You can’t do anything else against a 6’10 hitting a fade-away bank shot 3.

Woulda-shoulda-etc…anyone can be blame for the loss…total team loss but please don’t make Travis the scapegoat.

this game is a summary of where we are at….nothing much more to it…..Orlando hit 3’s We didn’t….We have lived and died by the outside shot and it has, so far, been our signature…..Until we can develop a defensive state of mind, we will be at or near this level of play …….Remember we won in Orlando with pretty good defense….

determining half of them wouldn’t have been written if not for the 1 POINT LOSS. Makes me chuckle.

I’m going to break the mold here and actually place the Blame for this loss on:

get ready…

get ready for it…

here it comes…

-LUCKY 3 POINT BANK BY HEDO!!!-

Now that may be a difficult pill for some of you to swallow, i know. Because you have no control over luck. And as a pro-active fan, you will feel more productive by suggesting a trade and/or coaching strat. If this is the case – my i suggest trading the Greg and a $150 gift certificate for Subway to Orlando for Howard?

We have another candidate:

Remember when your eighth grade coach told you to follow your shot? And have you noticed that much of the time NBA players don’t? Ben Q. Rock of Third Quarter Collapse credits Keith Bogans with a game-saving play for Orlando: “… the Magic, a notoriously poor offensive rebounding team, got the biggest offensive rebound of the game, though, one that might have won it for them. Down 5 points with :33 to play, Keith Bogans spotted-up in the right corner, which is one of his favorite spots. The shot came up well short, but Bogans did the fundamentally sound thing and followed the shot, which allowed him to collect his own miss. Bogans found Rashard Lewis in the left corner—Lewis’ sweet spot is the left baseline—and Lewis drilled the three to bring Orlando within 2 with 0:29 to play. If Bogans doesn’t get that rebound, it’s hard to imagine the Magic would have found a way to win.”

Let’s find out who forgot to box out on Bogans and pin the donkey tail on them.

One of the root causes of the loss was that Roy was dominating the ball, and being successful, that the rest of the team got into just giving the ball to Brandon, and watch mode, shoot a 3 pointer if I have to.

So when the Magic took Brandon out the game with doubles teams on the last few possessions no one else on the team was ready to step up.

This is something the Blazers are going to have to solve. Because giving the ball to Brandon and getting out of the way will work a lot! But it won’t work in against good teams, and it won’t work in the playoffs.