Man, I hate when the Blazers play like this.

I hate when the Blazers play like this. It just takes all the fun out of being a Blazers fan.

Games like last night are just so boring. I mean, there's no drama, no second-guessing, and hardly any room to gripe and complain about what the team should have done differently. Where's the fun in that?

I mean, first of all, we haven't had any really good soap-opera issues lately. I mean, apart from a little Miller/Roy playing time/starting lineup drama that seems to be petering out, there's just no conflict on this squad. No squabbling to rip the team management for. No ammo to use for how badly Nate is managing the team in the locker room. How am I supposed to rip the coach when he actually manages to get the egos to work together? How can he do this to me? Is that fair?

Secondly, how can I complain about poor rebounding and lack of interior looks when we're shooting everything from inside? Take last night as an example. 57% shooting from the field with tons of high percentage tips and dunks makes it impossible to criticize the poor shot selection (which was already a problem with Travis being out. I mean, even when that guy is hitting everything from everywhere, his shot selection is always horrible, right?).

I can't even complain about our three-point shooting when we shoot 40% on those. I mean, come on guys, give me something to work with here.

How can I criticize Nate for not playing Cunningham when he goes to him first off the bench at the 4? Ditto Bayless at the 2. When you actually play the guys, I can't imagine how much better the team would be if Nate weren't such a horrible coach by leaving them on the pine all the time.

How can I call Brandon a ball hog when he's racking up assists, and ends up only being the third leading scorer in the game? I can't even rip him for lack of scoring when he's got 18 points at the same time! I mean, how can you take both those away from me at the same time? I gotta be able to gripe about one or the other no matter what, right?

I mean, if they keep this up, pretty soon I won't even be able to keep griping about how The Blazers always choke in the playoffs anymore, either.

Oh well. I guess I can always keep ripping on Blake and Webster. Just gotta hope Webster doesn't keep hitting threes and playing solid defense, and that Blake doesn't keep getting rebounds and assists like he did last night.