The Bandwagon suddenly has more room...

by The Cactus Leaguer on Feb 26, 2009 2:14 PM PST Comment 31 comments

When I looked at the Blazers' schedule this month, I saw four brutal road games - New Orleans, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. I thought they would win one of those three games at best (which is what happened thanks to CP3 going down). Anyone who thought they would go 2-2 or better on those four games needs needs to get a grip. The only teams that go .500 or better against playoff caliber teams on the road are the elite teams who are serious threats to win the NBA title. Did anyone honestly believe the Blazers were in that category this year? Me neither.

So please, all of you media hypesters (no I'm not talking about you Dave or Ben)... just calm down. I'm not one of those "moral victory" guys, sure I wish they would have won, but overall they competed and were in contention to win both games down the stretch. I'm feeling a lot better about this team now than I was before the all star break when they looked fried as they lost to Golden State and Oklahoma City... and now I feel pretty good about their ability to stay above water (the 8th seed or better) as they play down the stretch of the season.

When you consider the overall youth of this team, the plethora of rookies who aren't used to this long of a season, and the incredible depth in the Western Conference... that will be a great accomplishment.

Or do you buy into the media hype of the moment?

EDIT - just for fun, I thought I'd see how the Western Conference contenders stack up on the road against each other. Here's what I found:

LAL - 6 wins, 2 losses
San Antonio - 5-5
Denver - 2-7
Houston - 2-5
Portland - 1-11
New Orleans - 5-7
Utah - 0-8
Dallas - 3-8
Phoenix - 1-6

All the Texas teams benefited from beating up on each other at their opposing arenas (short travel probably helps... remember the Blazers have much farther to travel than any other team).

4 recs | Comment 31 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Agreed.Wanted to win, but not that upset at the big picture.

I think most people are still on the bandwagon though . For those jumping ship, who cares? They’ll be back. There’s nothing that annoys me more than fairweather fans.—

It’s rather entertaining to follow the emotional rollercoaster of some of the discussion on this site.

"Every time Troutlaw touches the ball, I pop an anti-anxiety pill."

by DaNoose on Feb 26, 2009 2:33 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I hurt inside

seriously, I have had an upset stomache for the last two days and I think the only prescription will be a victory in Minnesota. Come on Blazers, win one for my stomache!

"It's not who jumps the highest -- it's who wants it the most" Buck Williams

"and if EVERYONE confronted with a tough, disgusting situation pulled out, I don't think I would have been born." Mortimer

by Fund A Mental on Feb 26, 2009 5:31 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

your stomach might take a few more dips and dives before it's all said and done.

Minnie is gonna be tough at home and they have been ballin’ fairly decently of late.

In The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin uses the phrase "survival of the fittest" only twice. He uses the word "love," by contrast, over ninety times. Darwin never wrote about "selfish genes." For Darwin, the main force behind human evolution is survival of the most compassionate, not survival of the fittest. Human evolution is driven by moral sensitivity, or love.

by Love on Feb 26, 2009 7:51 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

What are you talking about?

The Blazers suck. Oden is a bust, Nate can’t coach and Travis Outlaw goes to a special ed basketball clinic. But if they win the next two games I think they have a good shot at the title.

It took my two years to come up with an avatar and sig
and this is the best I could come up with.

by einman77 on Feb 27, 2009 7:24 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Flagged for being a fickle fan!

I da man!

by Dragline on Feb 27, 2009 7:52 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Is it built low to the ground so

people don’t get hurt jumping on and off it?

My favorite teams are the Blazers and any team that is playing the Lakers.

by OCBlazerFan1 on Feb 26, 2009 2:44 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

yes

we think about things like knees and ankles hear in portland, wouldn’t want anyone getting hurt

Man, we should forfeit before roy’s hammy explodes, knocking him into LMA’s ear who loses his balance and hits Greg’s knee… - HurraKane212

http://www.nba.com/news/miles_10_080919.html

by maid tu rek on Feb 26, 2009 3:41 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs

haha

From the back of Travis Outlaw's Franz card: Travis leads the team in monstrous thunder dunks, wins awards for post game interviews, and often gets extra points for degree of difficulty.

by TheOdenator on Feb 26, 2009 4:04 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Bayless could probably jump over and back in the same leap

If only he could leap into the minutes his talent calls for. Let sergio feel the pine, maybe then he will practice more.

by lurtsman on Feb 26, 2009 6:52 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

This reminds me of an old cartoon

A little boy is walking home from the sandlot, his baseball bat over his shoulder, with a sad look on his face

His dad asks him “what’s the matter, son?”

The son answers “I had a no-hitter going until the big kids got out of school!”

The Blazers are that kid

by two4larue on Feb 26, 2009 2:44 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Great analogy !

A few years back, our local men’s hardball team went
to our National World Series event in Phoenix, AZ. My team
was stocked with mostly ex- college players and a couple
of ex-minor leaguers (one ex-AA pitcher -rotator cuff injury).
We played a team from Peoria, Ill and faced former major
League pitcher Mike Dunne (Pitts) and lost 5-3. Lost the
next two to good squads and then got pounded by the LA Greys
23-3. We talked to some of the guys after the game, and
found out every guy on the team played AA or up as a professional.
My point being, we had creamed everyone in our area during the
regular season and had won our fifth straight league championship,
but it’s all relative !

It's GO time !

by walkoff41 on Feb 26, 2009 5:46 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Expectations for this season were to Make the Playoffs...

Every time this young Blazers team has some success, there is a certain small faction of the fanbase that immediately RAISES THE BAR and begins holding this team to a higher and higher standard… rather than setting a standard for the season as a whole, these negative-nellies get dramatic at every small set-back.

Nate is really the only person in the organization who can raise the bar and change expections on the players throughout the season. The brass and the fan base need to fall in line and take this season for what it is…

This season is the “Baby-Blazers” first trip to the playoffs and first full-season together with the core of Roy, LMA, Oden, and Rudy. Expectations were that Portland would have a hard time making the playoffs, but ultimately would make it this season.

by Portland Dynasty on Feb 26, 2009 3:08 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Losing 2 or 3 games in a row in the West

Can be disastrous to their playoff chances.

Witty Unpredictable Talent and Natural Game

by iDea on Feb 26, 2009 3:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I like the butt room

Far more comfy on the ’wagon right now.

by PDynastyX on Feb 26, 2009 3:08 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

you know

they’re pnly 2.5 games ahead of the suns for no playoffs at all.as far as people’s expectations goes are you kidding me,90% of these people had this team in the w.c.f. this year and the beginning of a blazer dynasty the next.

by fatty on Feb 26, 2009 3:13 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Umm... no

Almost no one predicted Blazers to go to WCF this year. This is EXACTLY what 90% of people wanted.

“I want to make the playoffs, if we win a series that would be awesome.”

That’s it, those were the expectations this year. People’s emotions have gone up and down on this, but the expectations never changed.

by Zaig on Feb 26, 2009 3:29 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Total exaggeration !

I didn’t see anyone predicting WCF. Jscot & I both predicted
55-27, but I thought at BEST they would win the NW division and
might win a 1st round series. Of course, your history of having
7 or 8 favorite teams and picking the Rockets to win the Ring last
year is well know. In addition, no one on this board knows everything
about every poster, or else you wouldn’t have tried to label me _ _ _ _ !
Totally preposterous, as I’ve been a Blazermaniac since 1975,
actually live in Oregon and have been to many, many games. (Including
before, during and after the JB’s)

It's GO time !

by walkoff41 on Feb 26, 2009 5:56 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

It doesn't bother me that the Blazers...

lose games to elite teams. What bothers me is the attitude that they aren’t supposed to win to begin with. Houston, for example, is not head and shoulders above Portland. There is no reason the Blazers should not have gone into the Toyota Center with the attitude that they could very well come out of there with a win. Instead, what I heard was that it was acceptable for the Blazers to win one of three of these games on this road trip. That, the attitude, is not acceptable to me and I hope it isn’t one that the players themselves carry.

"You are never (fanatically) dedicated to something you have complete confidence in." Robert Pirsig

by -ken on Feb 26, 2009 3:14 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

ken

like j.quick said 2 weeks ago,teams are very tired of the blazers hype machine.to a lot of these players this franchise was the joke of the nba just 3 years ago.especially w.c.teams get up to play portland because of playoff positioning.

by fatty on Feb 26, 2009 3:21 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

doesnt meant the Blazers

gotta come out looking defeated before the tip. You gotta earn that hype and sometimes they dont seem to care to even try

It was "mascot night" at the Rose Garden, which apparently translates to a dozen inflatable versions of various NBA mascots being chased around the arena by Portland's "Blaze", which is some breed of rapist dog. -PostingandToasting

by GreatOden'sRaven on Feb 26, 2009 7:03 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

well said

1-11 on the road against WC playoff contenders (with the 1 being the CP3 injury game) is unacceptable. Its not at all surprising we have a bad record in those games, but 1-11? Yeesh.

Boomshakalaka

by jksnake99 on Feb 26, 2009 4:08 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Partly bad play and partly a fluke

If we played those same 12 games again we’d probably go 3-9 or 4-8. This isn’t good obviously, but the 1-11 is an outlier IMO.

Sometimes outliers are positive and we love them. (An arguably sub .500 ballclub winning 13 in a row, or Blake dropping 14 dimes in a quarter.) However, other times the outliers are against us, like here.

by Zaig on Feb 26, 2009 4:45 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Now, Now

1-11 is something we can build on. There’s a definite upward trajectory in there somewhere.

Note to world: Maybe it’s unkind to be so snarky but the apologists are starting to annoy me.

by oregonslee on Feb 26, 2009 7:52 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

this is really funny

Every game is so much more emotional than last year. I feel it also, but I am just hoping to make the playoffs, and if we do it will be a big acompishment, even 8th seed. It’s crazy, this cycle. We win, everyone is psyched, every player is a star. We lose, and everyone goes nuts. Anyone’s favorite player didn’t play much? Thats why we lost. Oh no , we will never make the playoffs. Then a lot of post come up, half saying blazzers are horrible and lost, the other half taking the first half down and reminding everyone all the reasons that we shouldn’t expect so much. Again, I cannot wait until next year! And I am loving this one!

by twggyy on Feb 26, 2009 3:15 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

these people

really really need to get a damn grip,i said they’ll be a serious title contender by 2012-13,
and a lot of these people were jumping down my throat.my only problem with this team is that they’re too damn soft.they really need a serious infusion of kick a** guys on this roster.the sooner roy gets that,the sooner the blazer can dream title.

by fatty on Feb 26, 2009 3:18 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

fatty, you are being consistent on the 2012 prediction.

I remember that from last year.

However you were also the biggest buster on “goof’s” and :bandwagonfans". Although your current statements are not completely inconsistent with your earlier positions, you did sound like an Oden believer who didn’t like like all the new fans wanting to become fans now that things were looking rosey.

So maybe things aren’t quite as rosey. The good news – the bandwagon fans show they’re true colors and you gain some justification. The bad news – you are wearing colors that look alarmingly close to the folks you despised not so long ago.

How about a little patience with Oden? Are you really that rock solid confident, know in your bones you are right, willing to bet your nephew’s college tuition money on it, sure that Greg Oden is a bust and will only be a marginal NBA player?

hakkaa päälle !

by timg56 on Feb 26, 2009 5:16 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Agree about the tought guys

Thought we should have traded at least for a backup PF that can bang on guys and put some muscle on them. I think we need just one “bad guy” to get our backs. Joel is kinda like that but important. We need an ML Carr that talks trash and fouls but doesnt play much

by GreatOden'sRaven on Feb 26, 2009 7:05 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs