Game 55 Preview: Trail Blazers vs. Timberwolves
by Dave on Feb 13, 2011 11:00 PM PST
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PrintGame Time: 5:00 p.m. Pacific TV: CSNNW
Ahhhh...the Timberwolves. This will be the fourth time these two teams have met in the last two months. The other three were Portland victories. With Minnesota resting at 13-41, 9-17 at home, 0-11 against the Northwest Division, a sweep isn't a far-fetched prospect. Teams don't like to lose that fourth game. The Blazers played last night and have been running their starters heavy minutes. Those are the bright spot for the 'Wolves. For Portland this game is kind of like playing spin the bottle with the entire Dallas Cowboy cheerleader squad and Rosie O'Donnell. Chances are decent this will turn out well but if it doesn't, it's sort of a disaster for many reasons.
When fielding a bad roster some coaches like to go the Mike Fratello/Nate-McMillan-circa-2006 route, lowering the number of total shots in the game to keep the margin as low as possible, giving yourself a chance to get hot and win at the end. The Timberwolves go the opposite direction. They disguise their horrible field goal shooting, lack of interior play, and paucity of easy fast break buckets by simply chucking up as many shots as possible, rebounding, and doing it again. They're #1 in the league in pace, #1 in field goals attempted, and #1 in offensive rebounding percentage. But they're 28th in shooting percentage and 23rd in offensive efficiency. They turn the ball over more than anybody in the league. In short, they work hard for their 102.6 ppg, not in the traditional blue-collar, paint-ethic tradition but in the "YMCA League/my arms are sure tired from shooting this much" sense.
Alas, they don't expend that much energy on defense. They allow an astounding 108.4 ppg average. They allow teams to run. They're moderately better defending the paint but not much. They don't stop the three. They give up free throws. It's like a smorgasbord of scoring for the opponent. Only Golden State, Toronto, and Cleveland have worse defensive efficiency ratings.
A quick scan down the roster makes the stats nearly self-evident. Kevin Love? Scorer, extraordinary offensive rebounder, not scary on defense. Michael Beasley (ankle problems in tow and having missed the last three games)? Scorer, not scary on defense. Luke Ridnour? Passer, shooter, not scary on defense. Martell Webster? Could be scary on defense, always injured. Darko Milicic? Sebastian Telfair? Jonny Flynn? I mean, you have to turn your eyes away at some point. You could meld the defensive skills of all of those guys (outside of Webster maybe) and still not come up with an NBA-quality defender.
The Blazers have played plenty of teams like this recently. The M.O. has been to hang tight through three and punish in the fourth, using copious doses of LaMarcus Aldridge, Andre Miller, and whichever of Nicolas Batum or Wesley Matthews happens to be hot that night. It should work as long as Beasley doesn't play (or as long as the Blazers can contain him). The 'Wolves can't get away with anything less than multi-platinum performances from their two best scorers plus one heck of a lackadaisical Portland offensive attack. Neither of those things is likely to happen. If Portland plays any kind of coherent offense this game is in the bag. Failing that, if the Blazers play decent offense and halfway-decent defense this game is in the bag. Failing that, if the Blazers can just control the boards this game is in the bag. Only a complete collapse will lead to any other result.
Canis Hoopus will have a more hopeful look at the Timberwolves.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)
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Maybe tomorrow night's sports center will be asking........
Where’s the Love on Valentines Day?
I want this game bad for several reasons.
1. LMA’s big opportunity to show the commish he was wrong. K-Love is thinking the same thing. I’d love to see LMA drop another 40.
2. We have some toughies coming up. Would love to see us pick these low hanging fruit.
3. I used to live in the Twin Cities. I love the town, hate the basketball team. I relish victories over them whenever and wherever I can get them.
"These are dreams that we have." --Rudolfo Fernandez
I bet you I hate the team in the town I live in more
I live in Los Angeles.
"Coach said to always be careful around Greg, because Greg costs a lot and even the slightest amount of basketball can damage him." -- The Onion
According to LA he isn't playing with a chip on his shoulders for the ASG snub.
I’m pretty sure LA is going to cut off a nice piece of humble pie for Love to shove down his throat in this game, just cause it sounds like a good idea. When it happens, and it will just realize this is the new LA everyone. No one is safe, not the commissioner, not the players, not the coaches, not the fans. Best hide your kids and hide your wife, cause he’s coming for everyone out there.
Hot sauce in my bag.
There is an L train loose in the target center
No one in the world can beat me at RBI baseball 3(nes).
jeez it's not even a contest
I mean, Aldridge is a remarkably athletic beast-in-the-paint with a sweet feathery midrange game, good handles and strong D.
Love is a slow pasty flabby dude with no beastishness whatsoever, weak handles and crappy D.
This ain’t even no freaking contest boyz I’m tellin’ ya. And the freakin all star game is rigged because the league just wants to showcase dudes like Love because they think it’ll garner more eyeballs based on their skewed dumbed-down version of hoops aesthetics. Really sad to me because it is obvious that Love’s rebound stats are totally padded and the dude is literally a fabrication, but still people buy into it. It’s enough to make a b’ball purist cry. Kind of like the Reagan hagiographies — total BS and totally phonied up but still the suckers buy it and the dude gets into the politician all star game even though he was a total failure. Sigh.
Really the commish ought to be fired for making such a craven move and snubbing LMA.
Both teams played hard and ball don't lie. Rasheed is the Yogi Berra of hoops. We should start calling him Yogi Sheed.
Your not excited about seeing some dazzling Love box outs in the all star game
No one in the world can beat me at RBI baseball 3(nes).
or some dazzling Love rebounds?
I can hardly wait! ooh! rebound in traffic! remarkable!
Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.
Ever consider that you may be biased?
Love is a terrific fundamental offensive player and the best rebounder in the league (even if his rebounds are inflated, the fact that a 6’10" wide-set white man can be a great rebounder is impressive). I have nothing against Love, and he has been good all season, while Aldridge started slow. I have no qualms with him being in the All-Star game.
I dispense B.S. and facts. It is up to you to figure out which is which.
LMA started slow
Because he had all these new moves that he was trying out, but his timing was off. Go back to the beginning of the season and you will see that it will just be a matter of time if LMA stays with it before he becomes a consistent inside scorer.
I do agree that KLOVE playing in the nationals gives him some rebounding fundamentals and he is as much All-Star material as LMA and Griffin. Nevertheless LMA has done more for his team over-all and should have went.
hg
Sure, there are reasons LMA started slow
There is also the fact that he deferred to Roy. But the fact of the matter is that he started slow, while Love posted a 30-30 game early in the season.
I dispense B.S. and facts. It is up to you to figure out which is which.
MY POST BELOW
“Love played in a lot of games when opponents were up by 20 or 30 points and had thier lower bench in to get some experience. That also gives you inflated stats. He doesn’t do nearly as good against starting PF that plays better BB”
Love is still a good BB player, but LMA is better :),
hg
The fact of the matter is that one player has a winning team;
the other does not.
Phase 1: Collect underpants
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Profit!
Thank you.
I’m getting tired of everyone giving Love the excuse that he has no one around. Don’t get me wrong, the wolves are terrible but do the banged up blazers really have that much more talent. We’re running with a six man skeleton crew and still going hard every night. If you swapped la and love right now, would the blazers be above .500?
No one in the world can beat me at RBI baseball 3(nes).
Love didn't even start at the beginning of the season
and is half the player LMA is (defense!)
Law of Logical Argument
Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.
by blacknoiseNW on Feb 14, 2011 9:28 AM PST up reply actions
You may be exaggerating a little
Love is a slow pasty flabby dude with no beastishness whatsoever, weak handles and crappy D.
I disagree with this. He is a very good player — the best player on a bad team, which does tend to inflate his stats. He gets a lot of rebounds partly because his team misses a lot of shots. But I don’t care how bad your team is, you don’t put up those numbers if you aren’t really good.
I think LMA — at least the current version — is definitely better than Love, but he needs to keep it up all season.
The current LMA is playing better than just about anyone (including Love, Griffin, even Pau and Drik) but the coaches and Stern are not prophets— they didn’t know that LA would take his now ~25 game run to an even higher level after the reserves were selected. I don’t get why Blazer fans reserve their hate for Love— LA deserves to be in the ASG for sure, but ahead of Carmelo and to a lesser extent Duncan— but LA would have been a no-brainer selection if the game was 2 weeks later or he’d started this two weeks earlier.
long live the jd.
Though
Love played in a lot of games when opponents were up by 20 or 30 points and had thier lower bench in to get some experience. That also gives you inflated stats. He doesn’t do nearly as good against starting PF that plays better BB
hg
As others have pointed out above,
I think you’re overstating the case. Love is a good player. Love earned his All-Star spot. It just also happens to be the year of the Tim Duncan Memorial tour, the unveiling of the new NBA marketing promotion that is Blake Griffin, and the year Carmelo Anthony would never leave.
"The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason." - G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 1909
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I once again feel compelled to note that its not just hype— Griffin’s on court performance (at least as measured by stats) merits his inclusion in the game.
#blameLAsnubonduncanoranthonybutnotloveorgriffin
long live the jd.
True.
But the marketing has been out of this world. I think the truth is that I’m jealous that Oden didn’t get his shot at this.
"The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason." - G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 1909
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The argument putting love and griffin into the allstar game is the same that goes against putting Duncan and Gasol in it.
They need to go one way or another. Another bs selection is bosh over j smooth. The all star game is a club. Once your in, your numbers don’t matter anymore
No one in the world can beat me at RBI baseball 3(nes).
I agree Josh Smith got hosed, but in my opinion, the player that should have made way for Josh Smith is not Bosh (who would never have made it out West this year but deserved it out East) but Smith’s teammate Mr. Johnson (or, failing that, Ray Allen).
long live the jd.
I can't believe Joe Johnson is a five-time All-Star.
That’s a flippin’ joke. Just freakin’ insane in my book.
"They say it has no memory. That’s where I want to live the rest of my life. A warm place with no memory."
If LA should replace anyone it should've been Duncan
Love earned it with his year long performance, but the coaches (not Stern) voted in Duncan as some kinda of tribute or “keep the streak” thing….oh well, just keep doing your thing LA!!!!
Better not lose this one
Losing this game would be almost as embarrassing as losing to the Cavs. We can’t let them hang around either as our guys will probably fade a little near the end of the game.
Wes, Rudy, Nico, Dante and Patty all need to show up. Liked what I saw of Pryz in the Detroit game.
the real reason we attend Blazersedge
For Portland this game is kind of like playing spin the bottle with the entire Dallas Cowboy cheerleader squad and Rosie O’Donnell. Chances are decent this will turn out well but if it doesn’t, it’s sort of a disaster for many reasons.
Law of Logical Argument
Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.
by blacknoiseNW on Feb 14, 2011 1:11 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
Agree
This looks like a trap game to me. You’ve got a game Wednesday at home against NO, then the ASG break, followed by home games against LAL, Denver, and Atl. This is the second game of the Blazers 289th back-to-back this season.
I can easily see the Blazers looking past this one, and playing like they think they can win just by showing up, then getting caught by surprise and losing. The T-Wolves are going to be the Blazers eventually. I fear it could be tonight.
typo alert
I meant to say the T-Wolves are going to beat the Blazers eventually, not be the Blazers.
Exactly
it’s all about which Blazer team shows up. We’ve seen this many times. Our team faces an opponent we “should” beat, and then we don’t. No doubt LMA (“I’m not feeling snubbed about being left out of the ASG”) will show up. And we can expect that ‘Dre will atone for last night’s TO’s in a big way. But how about the others? If our team is to earn a sweep, which they are totally capable of doing, the Blazers have to jump on the Wolves early and snuff out any hope they might have of winning. Let’s not see another cliff-hanger deep into the 4th qtr. If that happens, we lose.
Win the day!
Same here
Too many minutes last night and we’ve actually seen the crappy version of the Blazers two games in a row now. I’m thinking if we win this it will be a fight and close. Then the guys go off on NO at home.
Would be nice if he'd throw in 20 rebounds
just to make a statement
In 2005-2006, Mike Fratello led the Memphis Grizzlies to a 50-32 record whilst having the league's second ...
best defensive rating of 101.6 points allowed per 100 possessions. In 2005-2006, Nate McMillan watched from his seat on the bench as the Portland Trail Blazers posted a 21-61 record whilst having the league’s third worst defensive rating of 111.9 points allowed per 100 possessions.
So, even though McMillan and Fratello are both slow-paced coaches — although the Czar is more down-tempo than Sarge — let’s note that only one of them coaches principled man-to-man defense, with that being the man who’s currently employed at TNT.
"They say it has no memory. That’s where I want to live the rest of my life. A warm place with no memory."
haha! YOU SHOWED HIM BRO!
High five, he got Iced.
dinasour type of guys choir boys
by mittsabishy on Feb 14, 2011 8:38 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
it would be nice if somehow the blazers could stop k-love's double/double streak...
Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.
I don't think there's a chance to do this unless Camby returns
Love’s getting his doub doub so let’s just contain the rest of the team…We almost let Bayless put us away on this road trip, we need to make sure Marty (as much as i loved him when he was a Blazer) doesn’t go off on us too.
Darko is a decent defender.
He is sadly one of the better defenders on the team.
I loved when Bush came out and said, "We are losing the war against drugs." You know what that implies? There's a war being fought, and the people on drugs are winning it. --- William Melvin "Bill" Hicks
Jeeze, Dave
I hope you didn’t totally curse us with that last paragraph. Talk about pride cometh before a fall. ;-)
"My shoulder is OK. And away we go." -- Nic Batum
"wang-dang diddly wubba SPROING wow-wow" -- Dave
re-read the preview - and noticed that in all the talk about the Wolves, their best defender wasn't mentioned at all
Corey Brewer is still on the roster, last I checked.
Law of Logical Argument
Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.
I thought the same thing.
Brewer can play defense. He slowed Matthews down that game where Matthews started the first half hot and Brewer got little time on the floor. The second half, you heard almost nothing out of Matthews as Brewer got a ton of minutes defending him.
However, the defense as a whole is swiss cheese. Sometimes you hit something solid, sometimes you find all the holes. One good defensive player is not enough to stop a team. As we have seen in Blazer seasons past.
"The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason." - G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 1909
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Actions -> Rec and Flag. Blazersedge works right when you use these two things.
Eh, I've watched Brewer since he was drafted
The next time he leads to a win will be the first time. On this team he’s kind of like that kid with his finger in the dam in the Hans Christian Andersen story.
—Dave
"Anything for you, Dave." --Roybot
After the win we get tonight.....
Portland will have the same record as last year at this point of the season. Blazers deserve some love, no other team could go through what they have and still be where they are….that’s right 1/2 a game out of 6th. You here that NBA?
Go Blazers!
30-24??
Not too shabby! Remember when we were 8-11?
#7
by collectiveshane on Feb 14, 2011 10:52 AM PST reply actions
Wonder if LA will get some boos for some of the quotes from him and his teammates after the Love selection.
I kind of hope so because I want to see how he reacts. The better he gets, the more boos from other arenas
No one in the world can beat me at RBI baseball 3(nes).
He'll probably get boo'd...
as he breaks 50 points at the free throw line to steal any hope of winning away from Kevin Love.
Canis hoops claiming that Aldridge is a bad player
For some good laughs read their game preview. They also claim that their ugly backup center who likes like a mob enforcer is a future multiple all star and all nba player. Has to be the most Dilusional fan base in sports. The beat writer makes clipper darell like like a neutral fan
No one in the world can beat me at RBI baseball 3(nes).
I was just over there.
Made for a good laugh. Basically there whole team is better than us, he’s about a dumb as the guy from bright side.
Who knew nikola pekovic was the next big thing in the nba. haha!
#52
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