Game 49 Recap - Blazers 93, "Thunder" 102

And we made Collison and Smith look like centers.

At six minutes, you know exactly who comes out and who comes in. On one hand that is a good thing since it brings consistency. On the other hand, even mediocre coaches can play quite well for that. We are not surprising nobody. If we reach the playoffs, when as Dave likes to point out good teams have the time to plan how to take away your scoring option A (Roy) and B (make LaMarcus into a jump shooter), God help us if we play as predictable as that plus continue to blow basic defensive principles.

The games are televized Man!

I do not want to be left out for another year. At least give me four games. I need this & I need it this year.

I think we need to just take the lumps that might come with letting players develop. Let them play an learn. i’d rather be more prepared and seasoned at the playoffs and be an 8 seed —then be a 4 (or even a 3) and get bounced by a lesser team easily in the 1st round because we haven’t addressed anything.

I really feel like we could have just kept trying to force it in to Greg or LMA. Seemed like the thing to plan for against an undersized team. Even if that faile, I don’t see how it is being any worse than being down 20pts whe nwe don’t do that.

I don’t mind losing as much as I mind losing the same way every time.

-on a side note— it seemed to be a little extra heated tonight during the game posts. Frustrations abound I guess.

to that list of “don’t trade”

I would trade a heck of a lot for him.

Then I put on my jammies and go to bed.

I want him around, but man he needs the minutes and action man. i’d rather him foul out than toss him on the bench for the rest of the game anyway. Same difference right?

If we aren’t gonna commit to that ,might as well trade him and let him be Jermaine O’Neal2. That would be really irratating.

thats truly awesome.

They love them some baseball and basketball (J-league and US)

I checked out the BE sitemeter during the game. Blazers Edge had on-line visitors from:

US, Spain, Japan, China, Philippines, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Mexico, Peru, Turkey, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Norway, Palau, Indonesia, Poland, and some unknown/misc. sites.

i would put it up but the game wasnt in hd so quality would be crap… it was pretty wild, he lost control and kind of superman’d it in like dwight howard did. he was way up there.

and Travis and Brandon both forced it. Did you see Rudy jumping up and down at on point.

It’s no wonder he chucked it with guys in his face when he finally got the ball, he probably thought he might not get another pass.

He watched this team completely collapse on itself in the 1st half. Roy tried to shoulder the load in the 2nd half and take over the game. His teammates failed him first before he failed his teammates. Once you lose confidence in your teammates, like Rudy going 0-5, you tend to stop giving them the ball.

rarely passes in the fourth quarter so it doesn’t really matter who else is on the court with him. He thinks the fourth quarter is his time, goes one on five, misses and while he’s complaining to the refs, his man is scoring a layup.

If he wants to be considered one of the best players in the league, he needs to work on his defense.

but after the last two years, he looks like a great pick

Not pulling someone who is hot offensively or defensively out of the game because of a scheduled rotation time

This drives me insane! I love your entire list, it should be posted in the locker room tomorrow.

to comments like these

great comment.

the Oklahoma City Blazers (their junior league hockey team)

76-77 Blazers.

A guy with experience, who can hit a shot. And wouldnt get rattled. Obviously, KP was wise not to resign him, since he’s been injured all year. But a guy like that sure would help this team, especially on the road.

some other posters have noted that jeff green and durant are looking like keepers, that is because last season the sonics force fed them for better or worse, and now during the next season the results are getting better.

force feed oden now, its a crying shame to bench him for a few fouls or a missed defensive assignment. he tries his best and goes after rebounds better than anyone on the team except joel, why not reward the guy? if next season he has a decent post game and can average about 12 points we are better off.

I’ve noticed that too. Instead of reacting he should put together a lineup that makes the other team react. He’s “on the defense” too much instead of going for the jugler with our talent.

Here’s what Dave just wrote:
just before the six minute mark it was tied at 14. While the team was definitely being outhustled on both ends of the court,
Roy and Aldridge were hitting enough to keep the Blazers even. Six minutes later, the quarter ended with the score 37 to 25.
For that six minute stretch, the team was outscored 23 to 11; that was the ball game. So what happened during those six minutes?

First: the Blazers rotated like usual, bringing in Bayless and Przybilla, followed by Outlaw and Fernandez.
The “Thunder” left Durant in the game. Problem one: Bayless played out of sorts and out of rhythm.
Problem two: no one on the second unit can check Kevin Durant.
Problem three: Kevin Durant realized this and absolutely caught fire.
What I got from that was, Nate’s standard subbing schedule bit us in the butt,
that we did what we ALWAYS do at the six-minute mark, but tonight it was the wrong thing.
I felt (after reading that) that Nate doesn’t react ENOUGH; he just does his thang, no matter what the game is,
how the flow is, who the opponent is, what specific needs are calling for attention.

Maybe I’m too shaped by Dave’s analysis, but after reading that,
I feel like Nate doesn’t “react” nearly enough.
He put the usual six-minute-mark subs in, despite the fact that they were totally wrong for tonight’s situation,
and what happened in the rest of the quarter shows it.

that have happened this year, things I have learned:

1) Love Sergio, but I think Bayless is now better
2) [very, very large gulp] I think Durant would have been better. I mean, we are starting Batum at SF, and could have Pryz starting at center.

I am ashamed to admit it…. but it’s true.

Not just because of the player but because of the overall team. Do you want a run-and-gun team or a defensive team? Blazers + Durant is high-scoring but smaller and very soft in the middle. Blazers + Oden is (should be) well balanced and strong in the middle.

I hate the switching like no other. Our guys don’t have enough hustle to do that the whole game.

crack the shits at the guards, quite a few of the fouls he commits are through bad defense by other players, and he cant stay on the court if he gets switched and has to foul, if it were me i would be very pissed off and start yelling.

gosh. I remember that is what we did last offseason and it sure was nice!

If i had suggested during the offseason that we would be humiliated by the Thunder no one would have believed me and everyone would have said I’m a troll

go to the www.oregonlive.com page

ditto and thankyou

also let oden learn in game, by no stretch of the imagination are we a championship caliber team this season, so force feed oden more, yanking him after 3 fouls in a half or 2 in a quarter just makes him tentative, which is not his nature.

Tired of coddling the big friggin baby. He’s getting paid millions. Play ball.

oh man, what was going on there? Our bigs couldn’t stop him? Unreal.

considering most people that read/post here are the most hardcore and passionate fans, who have a better idea of whats happening in game and inside the team.

I think without Blake, Roy hasn’t been half the superstar he was earlier in the season. The ball is now in Sergio’s and Bayless’s hands, and Roy has become secondary. The current lineup isn’t making the most of the team’s strengths. Bayless has often been thrilling, but he isn’t the guy who maximizes the existing strengths.

I wondered if his comments about being able to make moves and get calls rankled some refs. This is pure speculation, of course.

I like Blake, but now I realize how really important he is to this team – the “big glue”.

How can pointblank shots hurt you? He’s not going to miss many of them and will foul out the opponents’ big dudes. Most teams only have one quality big dude so if you can get to the Cheik Samb’s of the league, then you’re in great shape. Portland has the luxury of a high quality backup in Przy who would start for a lot of teams.

I think whoever made the chess analogy earlier was on to something. Nate seems to see all his players as fairly interchangeable or rather all SF are the same, all PG are the same, etc.. Rudy’s main strength is not bombing away from the three point line. He’s a good slasher and a better than average ball handler. Let him handle the ball more and find teammates. It can’t be any worse than Sergio dribbling down 3/4 of the shot clock or Bayless going 1 on 4.

I had long forgot the cleansing rush of killing a couple hobos.

As far as perspective, it wasn’t long ago that Boston hit that very rough patch. The team was confident that they would find the problem and fix it. After riding out the slump and making the necessary adjustments they win 12 in a row. Not bad.

i must have counted wrong… i will add one right now.

Oden hasn’t played a whole lot of high level basketball. He played one year in college and there he was hurt and missed some games. When he came back, he was still a heckuva lot bigger than everyone else so he could out-muscle them. He missed his rookie season so he really has only had this season to learn how to play. It seems like no one is really working with him on how to play defense in the NBA. Like you said, he’ll run out to the perimeter, but that usually just frees up his own dude for the easy shot. Every move on the court has to have a good purpose. I remember watching some Blazers games in person and wondering why the heck he was trying to set a pick and why it was soft.

Portland’s fourth quarter offense is predictable – if either Roy or Travis get the ball they’re going to shoot it. Neither one passes much towards crunch time which is ok if the shots are falling, but terrible if they aren’t because then you’ve got three other dudes twiddling their thumbs and losing confidence. What is really running through Rudy’s head at this point? He went from being the man who runs all over to the guy who puts down roots in the corner. Would you resign if you were him? Would you resign if you were any of the Blazers given their strange offensive philosophy? I really don’t understand why Portland doesn’t run more. Sergio, Bayless, LMA, Rudy and Nic can run, Oden and Przy can trail the play and Roy and Travis can learn to run.

The Blazers don’t have passion for defense because substitutions are no longer based on effort, but rather some mystical formulae that involve how much time is left in the quarter and the phases of the moon.

…knowing that no one will pass it to him.

What is going on there? At least some of the time he has pretty good position.

I feel like he should be screaming for the ball sometimes.

about Greg setting picks but I think he’s also not trying to pick up cheap fouls on moving picks, something the NBA seems to have cracked down a bit on this year (although the calls for that foul are so inconsistent they could call it on every pick). I would like to see the Blazer guards feed Greg off the pick and roll a little bit more often. I feel like he’s open a lot off Brandon’s drives and off pick and rolls but the guards are reluctant to pass to him for fear he might not be able to handle the pass. I know he doesn’t have the softest hands in the NBA but I think he’s better than we think.

2 fouls in 5 minutes, I figured we’d capitalize on the rest of the first. Sadly, Watson is apparently the next Chris Paul.