Game 52 Recap: Blazers 98, Warriors 105

Fouls: 32 to 18, turnovers 23 to 14.

Did the Warriors suddenly lock down their own turnovers? No

The Blazers suddenly decide to foul their opponents on half their trips down the court? No

Did the Blazers suddenly lose their ability to grip the basketball? No

This was was 70% zebra, 20% not being able to make layups, and 10% spacing

that 6 out of the last 10 is a mini-slump

You know you never can tell with him. At some points he sounded like he was going to cry.

…then, the refs were bad.

Now, I think we lost the game fair and square and we got no one to blame except ourselves for the loss. We played right into the Warriors gameplan and they deserved the victory.

But GOOD GOD refs, I can’t believe how completely awful they were at reffing the post play. They KNOW the smaller guy is going to flop, and right when our bigs made a normal back down move— no elbows flaring out, no big shove, no wrap around— and we get called for the foul after extremely obvious and pre-planned flops. It was completely ridiculous.

I’m not upset we lost, but I’m upset by that atrocious (and predictable) bad reffing. It happened time and time again, and since I don’t believe the refs are idiots, I have no answer to why they wouldn’t KNOW the Warriors were going to forcibly flop to take away the Blazer’s size advantage.

Just strange, strange decisions by those refs. They should have been much more prepared, and any adult who does not suffer from severe cranial trauma should not be so gullible with those flops.

Again, the Dubs deserved the victory, and were smart to flop. I ain’t mad at them, or think they robbed us.

Mortimer

At least a horrible first half. For the life of me I will never understand why Nate starts the people he does, but I guess he loves starting slow over and over and over and over.

And as bad as the refs were, they were NOT the reason the Blazers lost the game. That would be poor effort, lack of urgency, bad decisions with the ball, etc etc

Any word on Steve’s new one? Trusting all are well.

Can we expect Old man Blake to slip back into the driver’s seat of the Blazer tour bus when they next take to the hardwood? Please?

A six for ten mini slump. Boy have our expectations risen. Now stand by for furious playoff pushes by several veteran teams nipping at our heels. What a wonderful thing.

I can see a delicious looking cake through the little windowi in the oven door. Waiting is harder (and more fun) than ever!

Thank you Dave, you make being a Blazer fan even more fun.

Sergio Rogriguez cannot make a lay-up in the NBA because he can’t jump. Sergio had an awful game and it depresses the whole team when their point guard is so weak.

It does no good when Sergio dribbles around and then goes to the hole, because the other team knows that at the end he’s gonna put up a soft lay-up off the backboard like a high school player. Bayless may be inexperienced, but at least he can finish strong. Sergio might do OK on a team that plays Euro-style, where he can get unchallenged lay-ups. But that’s not the Blazers style.

I can’t help but wonder if the experiment with the Spanish players is having an effect on the team’s morale. How long are we supposed to wait for Rudy to start hitting some shots? Right now, when those guys are in there, they are a liability to the team.

the W’s didn’t do anything different, save the fact that we were out our only true center and only person on the team capable of rebound—you guys are rebounding machines, btw—blame the refs if you want, but c’mon. where’s the adjustments?
maggs 2 aldrige 0
GSW “bigs” 1 oden 0

the W’s turned the blazers strength into a liability. though pdx slowed the game down (uncomfortably so for us) we still played well. this W’s team is a better squad than i think you guys expected.

anyway, major props and and shouts to all in the rose city! PSU alum right here! GO VIKS!!

I disagree with your opening line… this game was horrible. For a game featuring the team that leads the league in scoring and the team with one of the most efficient offenses I thought we’d see a faster moving game that ended in the 100’s. Boy was I wrong.

This was the slowest, most plodding game I can remember watching in… well, maybe ever. Watching the Pistons vs. Spurs Finals matchup a few years ago was better for me. The clock never seemed to be moving… or at least remain moving for long. There was ZERO life in this game on either end from the 6 minute mark in the 1st (when the W’s ran out to a lead in attractive fashion) to the 6 minute mark in the 4th (when the TB’s made a game of it).

Ultimately though, I thought the refs decided the outcome. Whistles on Oden, Aldridge, and Przy early and often kept them out. Oden looked good when he was allowed to move. Even Aldridge was going at the rim. How many times did BRoy, Rudy, or JBay get bumped on their way to the rack with no call? I mean, 14 more fouls and 26 more free throws? C’mon, that’s ridiculous.

GW worked the iso all night (effectively) and played defense with a swarming vigor. They seemed to be in the right place at the right time. But man, those refs… ugh. I was amazed even in the 1st quarter at how lopsided the calls seemed to be going… like the refs just wanted to get on break and decided that the home team usually wins and so should. Butt ugly game by them, for sure.

I know his stats show he did alright, but I thought Sergio was AWFUL tonight. I’ve decided that he isn’t a good passer. He can’t make entry passes into the post. He’s incapable. He’ll have GO on the low block with his man sealed begging for the ball… Serg will look at him, and will think about how he wishes he could get him the ball, but he ends up moving the ball (usually by dribbling, not passing… this kid is a dribbler) to the other side of the court for something else. I think everyone thinks he’s a great passer because of the alley oops to Rudy. I don’t think he’s a good passer. For me, the Sergio experiment is over and needs to come to a close. I’d like him to be gone by the deadline.

One last thing… GIVE THE MAN HIS “M”!!! C’mon, Dave, “M” “M” “M”!!!

They looked rattled and seemed unable to adjust to what GS and the refs were doing. The blown layups and turnovers were proof of that. Blake’s precision passing and veteran calm would have helped tremendously. I hope he’s back in action next week.

As for the refs, they weren’t Lakers-Kings-2002-WC-Finals-Game-6 bad, but they sure seemed to be favoring the Dubs. Jim Barnett, commentating on the broadcast, mentioned a couple of times that the refs seemed confused out there and that he couldn’t figure out what it was they were trying to do. OTOH, he seemed to think most of the foul calls were correct, even expressing surprise at Nate for arguing a couple of calls. Whatever the case, I think the Blazers let the officiating get into their heads.

For 10 reasons besides just our bad play

1. Turnovers. We played right into Nellie’s hands by pushing the temp way too hard and forcing bad passes.

2. Lack of Aggression. Yeah, it’s hard to be aggressive when you’re getting fouls called on you left and right. But if you know that’s going to be the case, make the fouls count. Throw an elbow and put Maggot’s nose straight into his brain. He’s going to fall no matter how soft you touch him, so shove him into the upper deck and gain a little respect.

3. Terrible officiating. I’m tired of people saying “we lost this game fair and square” because that’s simply not the case. The officiating was completely one sided, there is zero debate about that. I don’t know if Maggot and Jackson threaten the refs family or carry guns in their duffel bags, but you do not make those calls. The icing on the cake was at the end of the game when LaMarcus was backing down Maggot and he just fell to the floor with no contact. Followed by Rudy being held on the inbounds play. We lost the game because of officiating, period.

4. Horrible officiating. When we try and slash to the basket, more often then not there’s at least three GS players hacking, poking and slapping our guys. Maybe the officials don’t make the call because there are too many people fouling and they don’t know who to call it on. When your players have to think about fouling out of the game and there’s really no rhyme or reason to any of the calls except that you know you’re not going to get any and the other team is, you can’t play basketball.

5. Nate. When you’re down by an average of thirteen for most of the game and it’s obvious something isn’t working, make some changes. Don’t stick with your regular formula. Put some guys in there, tell them to establish some hard fouls and aggression and take them out. Nate focuses way too much on what his team is doing and not how to get in the other teams head, throw them off their game and reestablish his own game plan.

6. Respect. We homers see the potential already coming to fruition. But no one in the national media respects how good we actually are. They know they can pick us apart on pick and roll. They know we have no interior defense, let alone much defense at all. We are at such a clockwork system right now that no one even needs to scout us. Remember last season when Nate decided to let his players play and have fun? That needs to happen again. It got us 13 in a row last season and with the All-Star break here, it’s time to throw a wrench in the way people scout us.

7. Same old, same old. Oh weird, we dug ourselves a hole and don’t even begin to climb out of it until late in the 4th. Doing this takes such a psychological toll on the team and with it’s frequency as of late ANY time we’re down by ten in the second the team is going to have even lower morale every time it happens.

8. We need Steve Blake so, so much. Who knows what our roster will look like next weekend. But I’m confident with Blake back at the helm we’ll see these early deficits not look so unmanageable. Sergio seems to react in the exact opposite manner as Blake in situations like last night. Steve will make a crisp inside pass, establish his perimeter shooting to draw the defense or make some other timely play to keep our heads above water. Sergio will haul his butt down the court and throw an ill-advised pass to the wrong guy trying to make a big play too quickly.

9. Keep Oden in. It’s the 4th. He’s got 4 fouls. Let the man foul out of the game. I have to believe that if he stayed in that one for a while longer we would have only been down five or six for a decent stretch. You could see he wanted to play, he wanted to win. He was doing good things for us and by the third it should have been obvious no matter what big man we had out there, fouls would be called. He and Roy could have had an excellent two man game for some uncontested inside points.

10. It’s trade time. I’m tired of all the speculation and trade machines. But there are missing pieces on this team. All I want is a defensive wingman while Batum develops and an offensive PF. I don’t care who they are, just make the deal.

The officiating was truly horrible, i was sitting 6 rows back from the court and Roy and Oden were just taking a beating inside and they wouldnt call a foul, the flops also really hurt, and the rudy call at the end of the game was just brutal.

Also I just want to say that Golden State is not a fun arena to go to as an opposing fan. As a Trailblazer fan I feel like we treat opposing fans pretty well and will say “Good Game” or “Player X is really good” things of that nature. As we were leaving last night I got a lot of “Portland Sucks”, or “Brandon Roy Sucks” and a lot of stuff about Oden. It was really disappointing to lose so maybe i was just bummed.