Post-Game Reaction Thread

i think you know where i am going with this…

but then you notice that Zach “Black Hole” Randolph has over 30 points and Baron Davis hits everything (except the last shot in the 1st OT) in sight.

• Bonzi signed in China
• Miles is about to sign in Memphis

Happy venting :)

And that Orlando loss did so much to our psyche.

I really think we’ll be stronger in the end. We’ll be reading a sappy J Quick piece about the loss to the Clips, and how we did some soul-searching and found our spark again.

Book it.

There was nobody else the Clippers had to worry about on offense. Once they started jumping the pick and roll, he needed someone to step up.

That last Oden play was very, very encouraging.

He skied for the board, willed the ball in hoop. after 44 minutes of playing time.

I think he is regaining his superpowers.

I’m just going to cut and paste what I yesterday wrote in a fanpost by chrischa talking about Blazer Basketball.

More or less Nate ball. Make less mistakes than the other team and ride our superior outside shooting to victory. This works fabulous against undisciplined teams, all mediocre and bad teams are undisciplined. The good disciplined teams, well not so much. It’ll work sometimes, it depends highly on how the Blazers shoot the 3 ball and whether or not one of the Blazer PGs wake up on the right side of the bed.

With regards to defense. All about rebounding. The Blazers allow a high FG % in relation to their record and don’t force many turnovers. Blazers play a style of defense that puts a high emphasis on the other team to play one on one offense. They switch on pick and rolls like its rec league. Allow mismatches to occur and hope the opposition player goes into isolation mode thus hurting team ball. Notice how rarely the Blazers double and rotate. With Oden and Przybilla in the middle, perimeter defenders also usher dribblers into the paint for a block, tough shot, or foul. The ushering part being mostly unintentional.

This brings me to the larger theme of strategy vs execution. The Blazers execute well within their broader strategy. Here’s the dilemma for me. I don’t think the Blazers’ strategy to win right now is a winning strategy in the playoffs. Relying on ball reversals, isolations, and second chance points aren’t going to cut it. At some time the team needs, or should I say must, learn to score in transition and create opportunities near the basket. The current framework is fragile patchwork of spot up shooters. The base is wobbly and crooked. The notion of pursuing the current strategy further is the same as pushing on a string.

Well, looks like the strategy doesn’t work well against bad teams either.

Played great in the first and third quarters. But at the start of the second quarter and the start of the fourth quarter we shot horribly (I think 0-9 to start the second and 0-6 to start the fourth). You can tell that Aldridge and Roy are the only ones who are used to playing a lot of minutes as our legs were completely shot (as evidenced by our poor shooting). Roy once again carried us in the fourth and we should have had the win, but free throws cost us the game. Rudy and Blake were 1-6 from the line.

Other points of note, Zach abused anyone who tried to guard him and Baron Davis pretty much had his way offensively.

And really it does go to show that we need that third scorer. Travis was missed. No one else can create their own shot other than maybe Rudy (and he didn’t have it shooting tonight, loved his rebounding however).

Oden also had a nice game.

But all in all I thought we were going to struggle but we still should have pulled out the victory. Once it went to OT I knew we were done.

At least now we have a few games off. 15-10 is good. 22-13 will be even better after these next 10 games.

• Our transition defense again was no good. Guards don’t run back
• Our interior defense again was no good, but at least Greg managed to stay out of foul trouble through OT which is a big improvement
• Our perimeter defense is still lacking, though Nic made a good play on Baron to force OT (yes, Nate put him in)
• Brandon Roy is a full-on superstar. You know what is coming, the defense knows what’s coming, but you can’t stop it. He drained shot after shot after shot. And of course got a bit tired in the process.
• There is a rule that you can inbound the ball into the backcourt now. Apparently the Blazers don’t know about that rule, since it’s the second time Blake had to take a timeout in the final minute for not finding someone to pass the ball to
• And – obviously – execution at the free throw line

Next time someone goes over the top with homerism that what I’m going to say.

Am I too patient? I find myself excusing their losses.

What should we expect from this team?

How come any time the game is on the line, our guys just give him the ball and watch? Rudy wasn’t even running in circles, just standing in the corner behind the three line. Blake was doing about the same, and Greg is just standing under the hoop.

I remember way way back, when the Blazers drafted Walter Berry out of St Johns, who was player of the year or something like that in college, but a major attitude. This was in the pre-Whitsitt days, and he lasted in Portland about a month before being traded for the late, great Duck.

His first game as a Spur, he sucked and got booed off the floor.

His second or so game back, he single-handedly spanked the Blazers… and soon his NBA career slid into oblivion.

This was Zach’s revenge game, now he’s done. :)

At any rate, it’s one game. There are 57 more to go, plus the playoffs.

Don’t panic, y’all.

All any other team has to do is double Roy, because if the game is on the line, thats who its going to.

’nough said.

- Ineffective PGs on both sides of the court
-LMA launching contested 20 footers and disappearing on the glass
-Over reliance on outside shooting
-Giving up transition points while not scoring any easy buckets
-Disappearance of SFs

Pretty much the same story, every loss. Death by jumpshot.

in overtime to tie it up.

47% overall
47% from 3
and 86% from the line just to show that apparently every team in the league shoots way above average from the line against us

and in contrast we’ve lost our ability to shoot
42% overall
30% from 3
and 4 crucial misses from the line

Shavlik Randolph didnt score in the 0 mintues he played.
Seriously though

Last I remeber seeing him was in Kansas City when he wen’t 9 for 9.

Can’t believe we lost.

The Clippers had a 14-2 fastbreak advantage at one point in the fourth quarter. The Clippers!

could anyone guess we’d go from 2nd in the West to 7th?

Every year, every good team loses a couple to teams that have no business beating them. Back when the Blazers were last a Good Team, it seemed the fracking T-Wolves owned them.

I’d rather lose to the Clippers then be the Clippers.

Where we Win when were supposed 2. Screw 20,000 miles in however many days. There proffesionals

I can’t believe it.

and Idaho. Thank god you are not living on that stupid compound in N. Idaho.

Gotta love Dave for living where the snow hit the fan like a Steve Blake free throw.

seriously?

Quarter one.

A whole lot of points with very little defense on either side.

Quarter two.

Al Thorton led a Clippers team outplaying a uninspired Blazer team that might not have been respecting the clips.

Quarter Three.

For a while it look like the Blazer were gonna break it open, but their defense never made enough stops.

Quarter 4

Rudy was invisible. See saw back & forth with Roy & Z bo leading each team. Rudy is fouled before the inbound. Earlier in the quarter Rudy had missed a techinical foul shot so Blake walks up to take the shot. While Blake is thinking don’t drive it into the lake just don’t miss it he does. He then proceeds to quadruple putt miss 3 out 4 any of which would have won the game.

OT 1 Brandon Roy Show with again no defensive stops. Batum in for Rudy on the last play to shut down Baron Davis.

OT 2 Starts off going to LMA who is soft and ineffective at the time. Clippers score and get up by 6 quick. Blazers are gassed and Rudy is still invisible.

The past few weeks have been brutal; no consecutive games in the same city, and no more than one day between games.

and neither will be easy. Sac’s playing well right now.

Ugh- we needed this one bad.

Not that he’s amazing or anything… but he’s usually solid down the stretch.

averaging 30 something points w/ 3 LOSSES

except NO. Phoenix needs to stop winning.

wow, I can’t believe it. I’m sort of glad I didn’t see it, but now I sort of blame myself, irrational as that is to say.

is that we didn’t see him toss a chair…that was definitely worthy of a chair tossing from the hot tempered Blake.

Much like an unfortunate encounter with a large jellyfish, the sting will wear off in a few hours.

on Z- Bag

6 minutes, hit a three, nothing too exciting.

unbelievable. I know he’s not a lock down defender but is he really that bad. Ugh.

Without Raef . Are we not the youngest team in the league? They showed the break down of our scheduel so far and it’s the toughest in 20 years. What are the odds that we started to lose at the end of it? I mean HELLO? Is their anybody out there that has figured out that we are not only tired but have’nt had any time to practice and learn from our mistakes. The biggest problem with young teams seems to be mental? And fatigue is our biggest problem. Just my opinion!!!!

this was his campaign

at Z-bo’s hotel?

It would be something if he followed up tonights game by finally managing to get arrested.

Makes me feel a lot better about him.
http://www.nba.com/video/games/suns/2008/12/12/nba_orl_phx_0020800333_recap.nba/?player=whatsnew

shouldn’t they be the ones fresh? Nate didn’t have any trust in them tonight by bringing BRoy and LMA in back early in the 2nd and 3rd quarters…

We were down maybe 3 points and it didn’t seem like the game was getting away from us. I thought the same thing last night about giving our bench more run so Broy can have some legs for this crucial home game.

I can see how important this game was to everyone…but I think Utah wore us down more than we expected…

… but we really ought to be 17-8. It hurts right now. Dang. Need to win the next two.

Some guy named Tom, won the Second Christmas gift. He had ZBO with 33. And Dave with 22, but I think this means 22 Oreo’s so he may be disqualified.

That’s some pretty decent news. They’ve been pretty good lately, but hopefully that will help us out.

I looked at the sky tonight after the game.

And I noticed that it still was there.

But people keep telling me that the sky is falling. I don’t know whether or not to believe my own eyes.

They had 3 days of rest and were pretty much operating on all cylinders tonight. With Baron and Randolph shooting the way they were, doubling one is pretty much fools gold. Especially down the stretch. Since the Blazers have been sucking on their perimeter defense and their transition defense and switching off screens and pretty much everything else on the defensive end i cant really see how double teaming anyone would help since they would inevitably leave the wrong person w/o a defender (Davis in this instance) .

The rebounding and the stupid missed outside shots that we all perceive as “bad outside shooting” nights are I think more often than not shots taken after a broken play or unexpected double team. There seems to be much more of these “broken plays” down the stretch lately and I have to think this is fatigue , lack of communication and in this game as well as against Orlando the timeout issue. The problem is, this causes everyone to follow the ball and not set up shop on the defensive end leaving the other team open to run all over us .

Lastly, I think playing Oden down the stretch was a mistake. He played tons of minutes and was tired as heck , more so visibly than anyone else.

Sophia

Her lipstick was oddly super red…I don’t know if that is a lipstick color but she had her full “going out” makeup on with the party blouse unbutton.

Her super red lipstick was a major distraction.

-1 for RH.

Tired legs. Get some rest Rudy, and come back strong against the Kings.

Go Blazers.

They said that the moon would be special tonight,
And fill the night sky with moonbeams so bright,
But the clouds said “no thanks” and blocked out the light.

They said that the Blazers would win one tonight,
And fill Rip City’s air with cheers of delight,
But the Clips said “no thanks” and our threes sailed wide right.

They say that the snow will be falling on Sunday,
From the sky to the ground, in the usual way,
Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet.

And now, I’m afraid, the rhymes have run out,
Like the last drips of water from a frozen-shut spout,
So let’s cut to the chase and no bush beat about.

For the witching hour is here,
Yet the clouds have not cleared,
And it’s just as I’ve feared,
The werewolves are near ……

I really like their announcers. They were stoked every time Oden, Roy, or Rudy made a play and in overtime they were ripping Coach McMillan for keeping Oden in the game. They kept saying they could see that he was tired and Joel was more active on the boards. In one rebound, Oden didn’t even get his hands up and they went off on him and Nate.

Man, those were great announcers.