Was at the game last night

And slightly off topic, while I have your attention. Did I do something wrong for paragraphs to not get separated in fan-shots? I went back to edit and the paragraph separation still existed in the source material …

He offered even more that the stats dont show. Very smart on both defense and offense. He seems to materialize into spots and disrupts opponent ball movement. Some of the rotations (and defensive stops) last night were simply beautiful to watch, the team showed sharpness. On offense his shooting was smooth and even the 12 footer (or thereabouts) went down smoothly.

Not enough at this game to tell how well he would do when he is seriously challenged on 1-on-1 defense, against the likes of Duncan, Odom/Gasol. But veteran savvy was very apparent.

But this was only the Kings, and it really felt like a summer league game. The Blazers didn’t even have to try hard. Brandon was in to get his rhythm back.

There were times last year when match-ups dictated Channing was the option. Juwan could probably take those minutes and be more effective than Channing was. But, Travis still played the bulk of the year.

Wow that would be sweet.

contrary to Outlaw. I remember vividly in the first game, at one point Outlaw caught the ball at high post, Oden was at low post, almost sealed his defender and got pretty good position. Outlaw, however, just lowered his head and started driving without even looking inside

No worrys about LMA’s stat line, for sure. He can score big as needed, especially when its a serious game. The replacement refs threw him off — called for a couple of offensive fouls on his favorite post moves (which also show up on his stat line as turnovers). At one stage he had more fouls than points. Whats hard to read — is whether LMA believes beastiness is necessary, that his rebounding is an area for improvement, and whether he really wants to dominate against small, scrappy defenders (even Corey Maggette gives him trouble). Oh well, hope you’re right and that nastiness will be his default when the season gets underway.

Bayless was mixed message. For the most part, I would gauge him as a competent sophomore — no more deer in the headlights, but not showing enough to contend for serious playing time during the season. The slash to the basket captured in the highlights was artistic, and he had a second similar great play. But, his fast break tunnel vision still offers sadness: 3-on-1 fast break, with LMA next to him, Bayless takes the ball himself, does not draw the foul and Blazers get no points. Even if he had scored — LMA was having a bad game, keep your bigs happy, reward them for running the break, get them jump started…

Note that the Kings were horribly undersized. Spencer Hawes, their only competent center was DNP/injury.

But it goes to show that Greg will dominate you, if you dont put someone good on him. Jason Thompson clearly couldn’t handle Greg and fouled out. The Kings fans around me were shaking their heads whenever he snagged an offensive rebound, muttering what are you going to do against a giant like that — he was exuding Shaqness. He had 8 points in 8 minutes, and 20 points in 24 minutes. Against a team like the Kings last night, he would have put up 30 points in 36 minutes.

Probably helped that Joel was hurt, and Nate let him play through the calls. For a moment, though it was touch and go, whether the refs were going to negatively influence Oden’s game. Glad that Greg pulled it off. Hopefully gives both Greg and Nate confidence that Greg can work his way through the calls. Replacement refs were calling the game tight. But Greg did real well after that early bit.

Greg’s been playing some contained defense. On one occasion, Tyreke Evans went around his defender and Greg showed for a quick instant, and caused Tyreke to reverse direction. Greg did not overreach, just a quick step out and then stepped back to cover his man.

[Tyreke though proceeded to curl past his defender on the other side and got to the basket. That kid is amazing – we hung out at almost courtside for some of the game – Tyreke plays much bigger than his height.]

Rebounding, Yes.
I’d also add punishing undersized PFs — Landry, Scola, even Magette bothered him a lot.

First, I’d say that Howard would be serviceable backup center in case of emergency. Certainly better than the minutes that Channing gave us when Oden went down last year (touch wood). Beyond that I would have no idea how management would make the decision between Udoka, Collins or neither.

Ime was Ime. Energy, hustle, defense. Ime’s shooting is rusty. We had our 3rd string in, but without their premier guards on the floor (Kevin Martin, Tyreke Evans) the Kings couldn’t close the gap. Was this Ime’s defense, or Kings incompetency? Still, with Nic, Martell and Travis; and the option of sliding Brandon over to SF for short stints — have no idea the basis of keeping Ime.

On Blazers, he felt completely outmatched, especially the lack of size. He said that the Blazers are a top team and on any given day could beat any team anywhere. He also danced around the refs (without actually saying the word), and the horrible flow.

The refs were VERY disruptive.

with just 7 guys.

Sure it was the Kings. But, still this is the NBA. To be in total control of the game when you rest 4 of Top7, with LMA coasting, and Brandon playing to get his rhythm, thats totally amazing. The depth is totally amazing. Also, like you said, we have tremendous offensive fire-power.

We can only have 5 players on the floor (dang rule change). Next step is to play shut down defense against the likes of Spurs, L@kers; and our nemesis teams like Nuggets and Mavericks. We get team defense down and we are an absolute elite team.