Gerald and the puppy dogs!
by Blazin' on Apr 8, 2011 10:03 PM PDT
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PrintThe L.A. game tonight was very telling. Not because Portland outplayed the Lakers. They did. Not because the Blazers seem to be coming together with a critical mass of toughness with Andre Miller, Wesley Matthews and Gerald Wallace on the squad now. They are. (Or so I hope)
No, what was telling about the game was the way Los Angeles attempted to intimidate the Blazers. It may seem to the Portland fans (who tend to spend all their energy and focus yelling about the refereeing) that Ron Artest was simply a little unhinged tonight. Or that Andrew Bynum is a dirty player. But these are not accidents. I think little that happens under Phil Jackson is an accident.
No, the Blazers have been throughout this era, and still are, SOFT! And the Lakers know that after being outplayed, outhustled and outshot, that they can still beat the Blazers with one simple tactic: intimidate them down the stretch. Elbows; pushes; bumps; etc. They will back down. They will start shying from the rim as they get near it. LMA will start missing his shots. Brandon will start whining more and more shrilly at the refs. Rudy and Nic will disappear.
Now the telling part. The Lakers, turning their tactic towards intimidation, had only one player on the Blazers to go after. Because they already owned the manhood of the rest of this team. And who was that player?
Well, obviously, Gerald Wallace. What that tells you, is that Phil Jackson, and the Lakers knew, that if they owned Gerald, they would own the whole team.
I don't know, but from where i sat, I think Gerald still has his. Will the rest of the puppies on this "high character" team take the cue and learn something tonight?
When they start pushing you around, Blazers, its because what you're doing on the court is working. IT MEANS YOU'VE GOT THEM!!
Man up, Portland.
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excellent observation
LOve and rec
"Knowledge will get you from A to B. Creativity will get you anywhere." Einstein
I'd like to see the Blazers mix it up a little more.
Kobe, Bynum, Artest all throwing elbows. Gasol running into players….what do the Blazers do? They take it. SO TOUGH.
The Lakers need to feel what an elbow feels like also when they swing one. Maybe theyll stop. If all you are going to be is a punching bag and feel like you have won something because you kept taking punches without running and hiding, I fail to see the victory in that. The bully who does not feel pain back does not quit hitting.
We won the game. That's what matters.
We don’t have to stoop to their level of cheap shots, we’ll just take the cheap shots AND the win.
Nicolas Batum; "The Smoothest Cat in the NBA"
by gtbassett on Apr 9, 2011 10:55 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
The cheap shots are a symptom of a frustrated team losing their self control.
Just the other week, Jason Terry made a fool of himself by shoving Steve Blake after the play.
let them bully
it takes a lot of focus to bully and spend all your energy on throwing elbows. If the blazers focus on playing basketball instead then there’s an instant advantage
And the Lakers will trade ejections of Blake and Terry
every day of the week. Again, it’s no accident.
by superfly05 on Apr 10, 2011 1:52 PM PDT up reply actions 2 recs
You're right.
Camby – totally soft
And don’t even get me started on Andre
I agree that it was nice to see Wallace not back down, but I’d rather the Blazers remain a “soft” team than start acting like jerks and getting suspended for key games down the stretch and in the playoffs.
you don't have to act like a jerk to be tough
the most important thing is to not let the jerks get in your head, then beat them with hard (legal) screens, interior defense and position rebounding
the Blazers have a way to go in those departments, but a lot of that is coaching and personnel
When reached 40 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!
by two4larue on Apr 9, 2011 10:56 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
Agreed
And Wallace is the definition of a tough player who isn’t a jerk.
Rumor has it that Dos Equis first approached Aldridge, but Aldridge turned thrm down because the real 'most interesting man in the world' would not have to prove it in a commercial. - Canis Hoopus 1/7/11
by jamon51 on Apr 10, 2011 7:57 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
That Wes Mathews is such a wimp too
Sorry, Blazin’. I’d have totally been with you a year ago. But the Blazers aren’t a soft team anymore. The Lakers just found that out. So will any playoff team that tries to bully this version of the Blazers.
Does that mean the Blazers roster is filled with tough guys top to bottom? Of course not, but that’s not necessary. You just need a critical mass of guys who won’t back down to bullies, and the Blazers have now reached that point thanks to the addition of one Gerald Wallace.
I still believe in Greg Oden. The Blazers' medical staff? Not so much.
I'd change my handle to "bringback'09," but I'm too lazy.
i hope so.
See the first paragraph. The game against the Lakers was a huge stride forward in this respect. Is there a critical mass of toughness? Remains to be seen. Matthews and Miller are no pushovers and i said so in the post. What Gerald’s play highlighted is how much we’ve been lacking in that department in the McMillen/Roy era. And I think the way the Lakers went after Wallace was no accident. Cut the main support, and the whole thing comes tumbling down. The fact that he didn’t buckle under that pressure, even though it felt like he was alone in not backing down to the Lakers tactic is a tribute to what a bad-a*s he is.
"The only 'Advanced Metric' that matters is what you see with your eyes." -Timbo, Nov., 2009.
there's always room for more
especially the kind who can play the 4-5
when your toughest players are the starting PG-SG-SF there’s room for improvement
LMA has improved in this area, but obviously a healthy Oden would make a huge difference
When reached 40 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!
Agreed
I still savor a couple of memories of GO in the toughness dept. One was in a game I attended in the Rose Garden vs the big, bad Celtics. GO got beat by Ray Allen down the left baseline. Apparently not wishing to waste a foul, GO sent a message with this one. GO unceremoniously dumped Allen into the photograher’s row like he was a sack of potatoes. An outraged and vicious-looking Kevin Garnett instantly got in GO’s face—veins bulging & fists balled up—and did…nothing. Message sent: these aren’t your kid-brother-Blazers anymore.
The other memory: when GO failed to get out of His Highness LeBron James’ way as he headed upcourt. Au contraire, GO gave His Worship a little pop as he tried to push his way thru this large impediment to his Royal progress. LeBron glared at GO in outrage, but GO just ignored him.
The next time down the court, GO flattened LeBron as he drove to the hoop—putting him right on his Royal butt. LeBron got to his feet, and if looks could kill, GO would have been a goner. But looks DON’T kill. In fact, GO’s reaction to LeBron’s outraged death stare was…a SHRUG!
Seriously, any Blazer fan who doesn’t love GO after those two incidents ain’t a fan in my book. GO brought absolutely everything to the Blazers in the toughness dept that they needed—-as Gerald Wallace is doing now. Neither is a bully—they just quietly let opponents know there’s a line they’d better not cross. If those two ever get to play together, look out.
I still believe in Greg Oden. The Blazers' medical staff? Not so much.
I'd change my handle to "bringback'09," but I'm too lazy.
It's called "playoff basketball"
Portland’s players haven’t felt enough of it, much less dished it out
Last month Bayno said that the team is looking for players who are tougher, which led to the Matthews signing and the Wallace deal. I sure hope this trend continues. But every time a Chris Johnson is added when a Jeff Adrien was available (or Sean Marks is signed instead of Erick Dampier, or Luke Babbitt is drafted instead of Kevin Seraphin?) I have to wonder if those old GM/scouting habits die hard
When reached 40 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!
Great point. The current team HASN't seen it.
Each round of the playoffs get tougher and tougher. Anyone see Steve Nash’s head busted in? Rajon and Rose? That was round 1!
The Lakers did not used to bully like they do now. The semi-current team has learned a lot of lessons over the years about toughness. They know what it takes(well, at least what it takes with fake officiating on your side).
You have a point
KP said he’d learned, after the Rockets series, that the Blazers needed more toughness. As if it should have taken that series to make that point clear! Yet even in subsequent drafts, there’s been too many finesse players taken (you didn’t even mention Clavier or whatever his name is). The playoffs are a different game altogether than the regular season. Yet teams like the Mavs and the Blazers never seem to get the message.
Having said that, Miller, Mathews, Camby, and Wallace are a good start. None of them is a center, true. But it ain’t the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. I’m old enough to remember little Calvin Murphy decking 7-footers who assumed they could shove this diminutive guard around with impunity. The new addition Blazers all have similar toughness (if a little more restraint; the league frowns on fisticuffs these days).
I still believe in Greg Oden. The Blazers' medical staff? Not so much.
I'd change my handle to "bringback'09," but I'm too lazy.
This whole "soft" label is a load of it
If the Blazers play aggressively and make shots, they’ll win.
If you win, it’s fine for people to call you whatever they want.
Playoffs=War
And that is the way the winners will approach it. You use whatever tactic is necessary to win the day.
If you want to win a championship, yes you have to acquire the good players, but you also have to prepare for the tactics that your opponents are going to throw at you.
After 3 slogful years of one dimensional offensive basketball, the Blazers seem to finally have realized the power of having multiple weapons and a world class playmaker in Andre Miller.
It only took us 2 years to have an answer to the Houston series of ’09!
Now, with Gerald Wallace on the team, we are addressing another tactical weakness, the little brother syndrome.
What I saw last night was a complete sea-change in a Blazer mentality. Wallace doesn’t wonder how it would seem if he backs down. He simply doesn’t know to back down. Can that be taught? Maybe to younger players, like Batum and maybe Aldridge, it can be.
I’m sure there’s others, but in addressing these two weaknesses, this team is way more prepared for the playoffs than either of the teams the last two years.
"The only 'Advanced Metric' that matters is what you see with your eyes." -Timbo, Nov., 2009.
Wallace is a tough player
but I don’t think he is the only player that still has “his”. The Blazers have shown mental toughness against bullies in the past and have been able to play through Phil’s intimidation tactics at the Rose Garden. The Lakers definitely gave it their best last night and Wallace was a big reason they failed.
"Sasha? That's a sissy name." -Mike Rice
by koyote on Apr 9, 2011 10:40 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Gerald and the puppy dogs reminds me of Josie and the Pussycats
old school
When reached 40 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!
and there's no bass player
Josie is one mean guitarist to get all of that funk out of her axe (with no strings attached)
When reached 40 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!
the more I consider it
the more I think it would be greatly powerful to litteraly laugh in the faces of lakers acting tough. Get them just pissed enough to totally lose focus
by blazerblaze on Apr 9, 2011 12:14 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
This post sure makes me miss Pryzbilla!
The Dude abides.
by BrewDude on Apr 9, 2011 4:56 PM PDT reply actions 3 recs
Pryz was great but
Wallace is far tougher. What a great trade! Kudos to Cho for getting that right. THE most one-sided trade of the season.
Pryz and Wallace are equally tough
Wallace just has the talent to make you pay when you test his toughness
Red means run, son, numbers add up to nothin
by Biph on Apr 10, 2011 7:41 PM PDT up reply actions 2 recs
I'm a big Przy fan, but there's a difference
Przy, like Wallace, wouldn’t back down to anybody. But Wallace, would-be bullies realize, is quite capable of punching their lights out. One look at him and you know that.
Having played vs Wallace many times before, I’m thinking Artest must have known he couldn’t intimidate Wallace. My guess: his hope was that he could bait Wallace into throwing a punch and getting ejected & suspended.
Thankfully, Wallace is as savvy and in control of his emotions as he is tough and talented. All Artest accomplished was to hand points to the Blazers on a silver platter at the time when their offense was sputtering.
I still believe in Greg Oden. The Blazers' medical staff? Not so much.
I'd change my handle to "bringback'09," but I'm too lazy.
Pryz would drop a fool
but Pryz could never get 6 points 3 rebounds 2 steals 2 assists and a block in the 12 minutes after he was tested Wallace can
Red means run, son, numbers add up to nothin
Miller is no puppy. Ask Blake Griffin. But he's only a point guard.
They were definitely going after Wallace. I saw multiple Lakers go at him. Logically, Wallace would be the last player you’d pick on our team to go after, but I’m sure it was part of the game plan. I don’t think it worked, though.
Dre ain't got no love for these pros
that was the point of the post,
you go after Wallace, because he’s the only one who won’t back down.
I agree about Miller. And Matthews shows toughness. But neither is strong enough to contend in the paint like Gerald.
"The only 'Advanced Metric' that matters is what you see with your eyes." -Timbo, Nov., 2009.
The soft thing is way overplayed
Collison has tried to intimidate them. Garnett has tried. Ariza, Odem, Artest ave all tried. Aldridge, Roy, and even Rudy have stepped up in tough games at the Rose Garden and shed the soft label. I agree that they still need to take that toughness on the road on a regular basis but calling this team soft is from two seasons ago. Saying Wallace is the only one that won’t back down is forgetting a lot of basketball over the past two seasons.
PTB Liberation Day - 2/10/04
Hell it doesn't even take into account the fact that it was Roy who first got into Artest's face
after he shoved Crash outta bounds during that mini fracas
Me: "I heard the BCS just bought March Madness.......the vote should be out tomorrow and we will see Duke and Kansas in the championship game"
by 92wastheyear on Apr 11, 2011 8:17 AM PDT up reply actions
Brandon Roy has never been "soft"
He’s no intimidator or enforcer, but I’ve never seen him show fear, either.
I still believe in Greg Oden. The Blazers' medical staff? Not so much.
I'd change my handle to "bringback'09," but I'm too lazy.
Three types of toughness, two good, one bad
1) There is toughness as in initiating hard physical play mostly within the rules of the game. We have gotten better in this aspect, we could stand more improvement.
2) There is toughness as in mental and competitive toughness, as in not getting distracted or cowed by physical play or thuggish behavior, also never letting up with a big lead or conversely never giving up when a win seems unlikely. The San Antonio and LA wins prove we are pretty tough in this respect.
3) There is reactive hot-headedness, squaring off and bumping chests that sometimes passes for toughness with some fans. This type of temperament is exploited by chaos artists like Artest with sometimes disastrous results. It’s smarter to take it to the offensive end of the court and turn it into a dunk with an and-one. That surge of testosterone provided by watching a Blazer thrown down against Artest, though lovely as it may be in the moment, is usually not equal to, or as long lasting as, the complete and enveloping sense of well-being that accompanies a win against the Lakers. ….On second thought, maybe it is to some fans. Who am I to say what floats your boat but if that is your favorite flavor then perhaps hockey would be a more satisfying spectating experience.
Who am I to say what floats your boat but if that is your favorite flavor then perhaps hockey would be a more satisfying spectating experience.
There’s a reason why the NFL (and football in general) is America’s #1 spectator sport, by a wide margin
The NBA has become less and less physical over the years, due to rules changes. What Artest gets away with now used to be commonplace, 20-30 years ago
When reached 40 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!
True however
Yes football is fairly violent and also fun to watch. Boxing is probably more violent but it has lost ground to football in those same 20 to 30 years while the NBA has gained ground. MMA is probably even more violent and growing like crazy but I don’t think it’s challenging football in terms of market share anytime soon. Fights that disrupt football games are generally laughably ineffectual because of pads. Football’s popularity isn’t based on that type of behavior. I’m not saying violence isn’t fun to watch. All I’m saying is that in the NBA as presently governed you will win more games by controlling and channeling aggressiveness to the offensive end of the court. Throwing down against another professional athlete is definitely a type of toughness but it is not one that will win you many basketball games.
Hmm: I may have to change my BE handle
…to “Used to be able to dunk on an 8’ basketball using a volley ball.”
I still believe in Greg Oden. The Blazers' medical staff? Not so much.
I'd change my handle to "bringback'09," but I'm too lazy.
"on a good day"
I still believe in Greg Oden. The Blazers' medical staff? Not so much.
I'd change my handle to "bringback'09," but I'm too lazy.
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