Dude, wheres my team?

First of all, I do go up and down with my feelings when we win and when we lose. Im not hating on us right now, I just feel like something is wrong. Something is rotten in Portland. I was feeling great when we won all those games with the three guard lineup, but now I feel like something has went wrong behind closed doors, and we all still havent found out about it yet.

By the way, I dont undestand this whole jump thing, but like that 70s show--whatever, thats cool.  Anyways, cuz im crazy, I looked over the game stats and a few things immediately jumped out at me. Now, by the way, I must note that I in no way want to fire Nate or make a trade. I also must say, that I have a normal fans amount of knowledge about the game, im not overly educated in every single rule of the game, but I do have a decent grasp on what calls are being made. Now looking at the UTAH GAME :

1. Greg Oden- 9 pts 0 blocks!!! 3 rebounds! 3....3.....3!!! 3rebs(thats unacceptable)(WEAKSAUCE!)

2. LMA- 6-16! 14 pts 4 rebs(WEAK SAUCE!) 

3.ROY-19points(WEAK-time to buck up kiddo and go for 30 a night!!) plus 3 TOs (WEAKESTSAUCE!!)

4. Blake- 6pts 4 ast 1 reb (WEAKSAUCE!)

5. Webster 9 points 5 rebs (WEAKSAUCE!)

Ladies and Gentlemen, need I remind you, this is our starting line up. Together they combined for just 57points, 17rebs and 11 ast. They also got 7 turnovers and not a single starter was on the positive side of the +/- scale. Brandon Jennings, a rookie scored 55 in a game the other night, Dwght get 17 rebs all the time and Nash easily gets 11 ast in any given game. Hell Deron Williams got 15 ast on us tonite. More ast than most of our player scored points! WEAKSAUCE on our part!! Props to UTAH, they played great, but only because we didnt even put up a fight.

6.Miller- 6minutes played????? 0 points????2 AST but erased by 2 TOs?????? 0-2 on 3s?????? This gets me burnt!!!!

7. The Rest of them- Bayless was cool but a nonfactor. Joel again was a non factor. Rudy is ok but nothing like last year. We havent even seen a single lob dunk to Rudy yet, not that I can remember anyways. Actually, Dante was a minor bright spot in the game. He ended with a decent statline even though he was a non factor. No one expects him to be a game changer just a role player and he has been great at it. He actually had a +/- of +7 so good for him.

8. Team total stats- Wow, we got out assisted like crazy 36-19! We lost rebounds 37-34. They out stole us 7-6. My favorite stat to harp fg%, we lost big time 60.6% to 45.3%!! And of course the MOST important stat of all, they outscored us 108-92!! They beat us in basically every major category.

Everyone seems to be playing like they expect to win, and not like they have to fight to win. Right now our guys arent getting calls they normally would because we are complaing at every little thing. We also keep falling back on the jump shooting instead of continuing to drive to the hoop. Every time Brandon R oy drove tonite, he dished to another player. When shot arent falling, we can become discombobulated pretty quickly. And since we seem to run the same plays over and over, our game plan is obvious from the get go to the final buzzer.

I hope ARBY reads this. He was right and I was wrong. I did kid myself. The Blazers arent playing like they should be, and in fact they have been playing under par over the last few games. We had a tough time with the Nets, lost to the Griz, and then lost tonite to UTAH. He saw it coming and I didnt- so props to ARBY.

Weve tried everything BUT using Andre Miller as the lone PG in the starting unit. Miller has started but only in the 3 guard lineup with Blake. For Miller, a vet PG to get 6 minutes, is unheard of. He deserves a chance to run with the starting unit. Blake is familiar withall of the players in our 2nd unit and then the 2nd unit will have a "starting" calibur PG to run them. Thats just one little idea I had. Another is, to start all of our scrubbiest players just to shame our real starters into playing better.(sarcasm).

Okay, it sucks that were losing suddenly, but have confidence my fellow Blazer Fans and Blazers Edge Amigos, we have a badass team. They just need to wake up and smell the Roses. Some adjustments definitely need to be made. What those are, im sure we will see soon. Something happened over the last week that has every body not focusing on the game. All of our players look a little dazed, like they just woke up, and suddenly, its game time! We seem like alot different team than last year, thats for sure.

Anyways, adjustments will be made. Mark my words. Cuz we need a kickstart or something.

Peace,

Cave Junction Blazer

PS- I am stating clearly that I dont want to fire Nate, and I would be cool with a reasonable trade, but I find a trade highly unlikely this early. More likely closer to the deadline though.