Run laps? (poll)

by The Penguin on Apr 25, 2009 8:52 AM PDT

First of all, I am more optimistic than ever that the Blazers can get homecourt back in this series. Absent the first 12 minutes of last night's game, we outplayed a Houston team that was defending tougher than any other game in this series.

However, I am going to set myself on fire if I continue to see Wafer/Lowry/Brooks drive and dunk/lay it in on us! For some reason, the Rockets figured out (after "where 42 happens") that collapsing onto penetration might be a good idea, and the Blazers managed very few shots at the rim last night. Why then do our defenders continue to escort these slashers to the hole, waking up only to pull the ball out of the net.

I know I am generalizing, and that ours is a team defensive effort. I have the feeling that Blake/Brandon/Catfish are working within the sceme to not reach and allow the bigs to switch over, but IT'S NOT WORKING. In fact it's killing us with foul trouble when we actually do rotate, and the Rockets are passing out of doubles to their bigs for equally easy shots.

I would love to see some man-to-man accountability, and hereby suggest that any time one of these guys gets one of these (in the Rocket lingo) Highly Efficient Shots, Nate goes old school and demands 10 laps around the gym from the burned defender.

Also, does anyone else think that our beloved Trout might be playing his way either out of town, or to third on the small forward depth chart? I love me some Travis, but he looks lost on both ends of the floor, and obviously he is struggling with the big stage.

I am scratching my head as to why Nic's minutes have not increased (10 minutes to Outlaw's 31 last night), at least for the time being. If Travis can get a rhythm going, we need his scoring, but I say adjust to what has developed in these first three games, and let's see more of the Roy/Rudy/Batum at 1-2-3 in the next game. I say this knowing that Batum basically has NO stats last night, but I htink we all know that his contributions generally don't translate to box score stats.

Poll

What would YOU do differently on defense?

Stick with the current team defensive scheme. It got us 54 wins.

7 votes

Go straight man to man (except with Yao)- Foul if we have to, but don't leave 'em.

6 votes

Throw some crazy zone at them.

6 votes

More Batum, less Trout!

20 votes

More Twin Towers.

8 votes

Other, with comment.

1 votes

48 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 12 comments | 0 recs |

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Comments

We can't defend Brooks man on man.

They could just isolate him at the top and have him beat our PGs for a layup on every play.

by baduk on Apr 25, 2009 9:54 AM PDT reply actions

we got 3 pg's....foul him...HARD...and he'll break sooner than later.

The Faith don't panic, the faith freaks out burns out farms and torchs small villages in the name of The Faith.

by faith on Apr 25, 2009 11:37 AM PDT up reply actions

I don't think you get to change up the defense to

do a better job on the perimeter and still control Yao the way they have the last two game.

Controlling Yao has lead to close games, not controlling Yao has lead to blowouts. While watching a Rockets layup drill is frustrating, the blazers help the Rockets to a manageable point total. The net defensive effort was sound.

by raoulduke on Apr 25, 2009 10:10 AM PDT reply actions

I don't really like the "twin towers" lineup

Basically, when the Blazers go with that lineup they are intentionally creating mismatches. Unfortunately, those are mismatches that the Blazers are unable to exploit on offense (since Przybilla is very limited on offense and Oden is only a little bit better). Creating mismatches on defense that you can’t exploit on offense is almost always a bad idea.

by trk on Apr 25, 2009 11:13 AM PDT reply actions

I was more excited by the idea of the twin towers than the actual performance.

It has been pretty underwhelming the last 2 times..

It's spelled "PRZYBILLA."
vanillathrillagorillaprzybilla

by RenoBlazerFan on Apr 25, 2009 11:27 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

Ditto

You end up with two big men not touching the ball and three perimiter players hoisting jump shots or failing to utilise a roller correctly.

Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit.

by The Pirate on Apr 25, 2009 4:16 PM PDT up reply actions

I'm all about a team playing tough, hard-nosed basketball, but it's not practical to play two guys who ...

are strictly back-to-the-basket pivotmen at the same time. A frontline of Joel Przybilla and Greg Oden bogs down the offense and makes the interior defense way too slow when it comes to bringing weakside help.

by AK1984 on Apr 25, 2009 12:19 PM PDT up reply actions

Scola open jumpers are my peeve....

I’m gonna break my television if I see him take another OPEN jumper from less than 20 feet.

The Faith don't panic, the faith freaks out burns out farms and torchs small villages in the name of The Faith.

by faith on Apr 25, 2009 11:36 AM PDT reply actions

Aldridge just could not hustle back last night from helping on Yao.

It was embaressing watching him hoist jumper after jumper, whether he made them or not.

Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit.

by The Pirate on Apr 25, 2009 4:10 PM PDT up reply actions

We seem to have employed quite a lot of zone (1-2-2 and others). Not to much effect I have to say.

Seeing Von Wafer waltz through the lane for open dunks made me want to throw something as well.

That stop and go by Roy is straight sick. I'm calling him "The Flu" from now on. - Wendell Maxey

by Norsktroll on Apr 25, 2009 11:53 AM PDT reply actions

scola was holding lamarcus on one of those

so he couldn’t help, the prob. is if he wasn’t, LMA would have caused wafer to pass it easily to scola for a dunk, you never know, maybe trav would have blocked scola by then instead of stargazing or whatever he was doing.

by appel82 on Apr 25, 2009 12:56 PM PDT up reply actions