How are we going to guard the top players in the league?

by Iwvelez on Oct 30, 2009 8:38 AM PDT

Last night against the Nuggets, Carmelo Anthony was unstopable he scored 41 giving his team the win. I never thought Batum was this important. I missed him big time last night. How are we going to compete against the LeBrons, Kobes, Wades, etc... of this league? Martell guarded Melo pretty well but he just had too much of an offensive repertoire for Martell to handle. Nicolas is out 4-6 months... How can we stop the best guards in the league? Is double teaming an option?

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I thought Marty did a passable job against Melo, but superstars will get their points regardless...

The problem was, Marty wasn’t out there for the whole 4th Q.

Nate needs to figure out who his finishers are and to get them out there.

We know for sure: they aren’t Blake or Oden.

"A bizarre and extremely rare hybrid Blazer/Laker fan, Timbo has always struggled to contain the Beast Within, like Dr. Jekyll, Bruce Banner, or Ted Kennedy." — Miled Animal

by timbo on Oct 30, 2009 8:43 AM PDT reply actions 2 recs

Not Oden?

I’m surprised to hear this as I would expect him to be the finisher.

I vote Rudy/Roy/Webster or Outlaw/Aldridge/oden.

"Fernandez, to my eyes, is the Blazer who walks that walk most comfortably. A lot of Portland's fans (egged on, dare I say, by their local broadcasters) lament things like how Ron Artest or Yao Ming get to hit Brandon Roy's arms.

But I suspect Fernandez sees all that and thinks: We get to hit arms! Cool!"

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-39-135/On-Playoff-Experience.html

"I told Pau the Lakers never win here in Portland; I think it's great." -- Rudy Fernandez

by ratbastird on Oct 30, 2009 9:06 AM PDT up reply actions

Oden had some big rebounds at the end

Lots of superstars have had blown games like that. You of all people should know about Shaq missing plenty of key FTs over the years. Doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have been out there at crunch time over his career.

Martell did as good a job on Melo as Nic would have done. It’s just that Melo was simply unstoppable tonight. When will people realize that as a pure scorer, Melo is just the best guy in the league right now when he’s on. Better than Kobe, better than LeBron. The guy is a force when he wants to be.

by Royster on Oct 30, 2009 9:11 AM PDT up reply actions

Are you joking? I can't tell if your sarcastic font is on.

Oden effects the entire game when he steps on the court. Had he not been in foul trouble I am certain we would have won. His rebounding alone would have helped those putback contests we kept losing in the 4th.
If you are referring specifically to the 2 missed FT’s, yeah. He ain’t clutch yet. But give him time. He will get there. He just needs more intense and physical games like last night.

by dario argento on Oct 30, 2009 9:36 AM PDT up reply actions

YES!

I thought Marty did a passable job against Melo, but superstars will get their points regardless…
The problem was, Marty wasn’t out there for the whole 4th Q.

nate = wack

I fight like a girl

by galacticlove on Oct 30, 2009 10:05 AM PDT up reply actions

i got an idea

don’t play three guards against two guards and prolific scorer at the 3

I fight like a girl

by galacticlove on Oct 30, 2009 10:06 AM PDT reply actions

Agreed. It was hard though with our bigs in so much foul trouble.

by dario argento on Oct 30, 2009 10:31 AM PDT up reply actions

Can be done

If Fernandez isn’t going to get the ball, you may as well have Martell out there to give you a bigger body to help Roy on Melo. As it was Melo got whatever he wanted without even trying all that hard from about the 6 minute mark.

by atomiccafe on Oct 30, 2009 11:20 AM PDT up reply actions

I thought webster did a superb job on melo

he bugged him all night and melo had to earn his points against webster. roy was underwhelming when guarding melo

"There are a few teams you have to watch out for in the fourth quarter."
"Yeah, but Portland definitely is not one of them."

-New Orleans Hornets broadcasters at the end of the third quarter with the Hornets leading 74-59. Portland later ends up winning 97-89.

"They don't mind him shooting that shot at all. Rudy Fernandez is not that great of a 3pt shooter."

-New Orleans Hornets broadcasters right after a Rudy Fernandez missed 3pter. Rudy Fernandez finished the game with three 3pters on six attempts.

by Tofu Anonymous on Oct 30, 2009 11:06 AM PDT reply actions

I agree with you and wrote this on a similar thread

I agree its frustrating when a guy goes off like Melo did and usually I’d be right there with you blaming our lack of defensive effort. In this case, I came away with admiration for Melo’s offensive skills and how disciplined he was. All night he repeatedly sought the ball 15 feet out between the baseline and the pinch post extended. Marty fought him hard to deny the ball there, but Melo is really strong and crafty. Once he caught the ball where he wanted it, we were in trouble, cause he is too skilled, with a deadly J and great jab step and one dribble drive to the basket.

By the way, I thought Marty did a better job denying Melo catches in his favorite spots than Brandon did, but Brandon may have been worried about fouls, and we all know he has other responsibilites in the 4th qtr. Maybe we could have doubled as soon as he caught it, but when he’s catching it so close to the basket on the wing, it makes those kind of rotations tricky. I suspect that’s one of the reasons Denver is trying to get him catches there.

Ultimately, I agree with other posts that place the blame on low shooting % and turnovers. With new personell and differing offensive emphasis it may be a while before that is sorted out.

by JMoon on Oct 30, 2009 11:25 AM PDT up reply actions

I thought we should have doubled him, too. He was just too on fire. It's almost impossible to stop a guy like that when he's on fire and being guarded one on one.

by dario argento on Oct 30, 2009 11:30 AM PDT up reply actions

yeah

Another thing I noticed was that most of Melo’s touches came on the right side of the floor. A team with good defensive pg’s might try to steer the ball to the other side of the floor. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s much of an option for us.

by JMoon on Oct 30, 2009 11:50 AM PDT up reply actions

Webster played about 5 minutes of the 4th

Melo scored 6 points while he was in, and two of those were the intentional foul after the Oden FT miss. In the other 5 minutes that Melo was on the court in the 4th, he scored 13 points. It wasn’t a case of Martell getting tired and not doing as good a job on Melo, it was Martell not having the opportunity.

by Royster on Oct 30, 2009 11:35 AM PDT up reply actions

Aldridge

So as I watched the game last night I wondered why we didn’t try putting Aldridge on Melo. Anyone think that would have been a good idea? Here’s my reasoning:

Melo was over powering Roy and Outlaw and while I agree Webster did a pretty good job when he wasn’t in or was tired Melo was destroying anyone else who tried to gaurd him.

Aldridge is strong enough, long enough and quick footed enough to stay with him and could’ve probably made things the toughest on melo with height, weight and possibly strength advantages. Typically I’d think a power forward wouldn’t be fast enough to gaurd Melo but Aldridge has done decently gaurding PG’s and SG’s on the perimeter when he’s been switched onto them, so I think his lateral quickness would be good enough.

We have enough bigs that if we’d moved Aldridge over we still had guys (Outlaw, Pryz, Howard) who could take Martin so….

Why not try it?

by BradBBlazer on Oct 30, 2009 11:25 AM PDT reply actions

Nice idea but I think there's no way LMA could do it. Marty had trouble staying in front of him.

I think Lamarcus could do a decent job of guarding some of the bigger 3’s, like Odom and Turkeyglue, but not Melo. He is just too quick and strong. Couldn’t hurt I guess to try it. No one else could stop him.

by dario argento on Oct 30, 2009 11:32 AM PDT up reply actions