for the first time I feel like the refs kind of stole the game from us down the stretch. There were some very questionable calls during some crucial moments. That said, you can't argue with 21 turnovers, absolutely dreadful. Also, one final note, I really hate Kevin Garnett after this game. I don't remember him being such an A Hole, but he really was a jerk tonight. Can't wait till we play them in our Garden, and the home crowd carries us to victory (without the prompts from the scoreboard to stand up, cheer, etc...)... Good effort guys!

Solid effort, just a few things we didn't do well enough to beat a top team on their court.

Miami has lost 11 in a row.  Its important that we make it 12 to keep us in position for 3 or 4 wins on this trip.  If we win that one, we'll still be in good shape.

on the massive tool list.  Finally, someone I get to hate almost as much as Kobe.

First off, were there acctually people at the game watching, or was it just filled with autofan's like the pilot in airplane.  The crowd was eerily quiet, with every time the crowd went above a light din Mike Barret noting that the scoreboard was telling them to make noise.  New Jersey was the same way, but all they have to look forward to is mediocrity, so I can understand that, but the Celtics have the best record in the league, and the average volume in the arena was polite discourse.  It creeps me out when the loudest thing in the arena is the rim.

Secondly, the Mikes had me in stitches tonight.  From Mike Barret's repeated telling of when the scoreboard said to make noise, to Mike Rice's "Of course Garnetts arguing that.  He doesn't know any of the rules."  For some reason, they said a lot of things that were extremely blunt that made me laugh a whole lot during the game.  Also, because of this game, my friend and I are sure Mike Rice is going to attack someone by the end of the season.  He seems to be getting violent in his commentary.

For the game, I think we did pretty well.  I want to watch this game again, except with a Rose Garden full of Blazer maniacs screaming for the Blazers.  It's not a stretch for us finishing ahead with 22000 Blazermaniacs cheering on the team with how we played.

Everything sounded uncharacteristic for this team. Poor team defense and lots of turnovers down the stretch. That is not the TrailBlazers I have been accustomed to.

I didnt hang my head after the Toronto loss as the Blazers did what they could and played well, but from what I heard they played awful in the 4th. I am downloading the game right now so maybe I will have a different opinion after I watch it, but I am pretty bummed out right now.

One thing you didn't mention: Allen scored 35 pts on 60% shooting last night.  In his previous five games, he'd averaged 10.2 points on 31% shooting.  Had Allen waited another game to find his touch, the outcome of tonight's game might have been different.  

That having been said, you're not often going to beat the best team in the league in their building while making 21 turnovers.

and we fell into the trap. I think we let 5 fouls go to waste on the bench....ala Raef Lafrentz. Those could have been put to use. I was happy to see JJones give a hard foul while everyone else was simply taking them.......we came out with zero energy, looking like we were on a long road trip.

that tell me our team is for real.  When you come close to pulling out two road wins against good teams when your own team is not firing on all cylinders, you know you can play with anybody and beat them.  

Besides, Toronto would have been a win if the refs had correctly call Calderon's shot as a 2.

Oh - I big thanks to tominhawaii for turning me on to channelsurfing.net.  I was able to watch the first half of the game.

But none of the Blazers really played a great game.  JJ was the closest thing to it.  I think there were a lot of things to be disappointed about honestly.  

Careless turnovers/not taking care of the ball probably tops the list.  Travis had 5 TO's, Brandon 4, and LMA 4.  Not counted in those turnover stats are the number of times the ball got poked away and it took seconds off the shot clock to get it re-controlled at which point the Blazers had to hurry a shot up.  That happened a bunch of times.  

Getting pushed around...again...is on there.  Seriously, where is Raef?  C'mon Nate, I get taht you want LMA to take his lumps and learn, but at least let Raef soften the other team up a little.  He has 6 fouls to give and he's the only guy on your team who will foul someone hard.  Travis and Martell in particular need to toughen up.  Freakin' deck somebody just one time to prevent a lay-up, PLEASE.

Allowing offensive rebounds...again...is on there.  Maybe it's time for a practice where all you work on is blocking out your man and grabbing a rebound.  This continues to haunt us.  13 offensive rebounds...  

Poor floor spacing, movement, and shot selection is on there.  Travis again with the fade-aways.  He actually hit a few of them and finished a respectable 6 for 8 but let's be honest - some of those weren't great shot attempts - and note the 3 free throw attempts in 31 minutes of play.  Go to the basket Travis.  The offense last night for the most part was pretty stagnant for the first 20 seconds of the shot clock, then hectic for the last 4.

I think you can take away from this that the Blazers can play a sub-par game and still hang with a good team but other than chalking it up to a learning experience I don't know what else there is to say because I don't think there were a ton of positives.

We still have a good team.   They lost against the best team in the NBA on the road.  Stuff happens.  Can still get 4 wins on this roadie.

but the stats for Travis don't look shabby: 6-8 shooting, 2-2 from deep, 3-3 free throws, 7 boards, 3 offensive and a block.  Of course there were his 5 turnovers.

Playing at home, the Celts played hard aggresive ball on both ends of the court, Allen's shot was working and so was KG's. Their defense was what caused all those turnovers and won the game for them.  Allen thought they played a hard smart game.  Still, we were close at the end.

I don't know if I can be as hard on KG as some of you others. He wanted to win that game very badly and was doing everything he could to psych out our young Blazers and affect their mental approach to the game. And I think it worked to a degree. I don't know that I can fault him much for doing whatever it took within the rules to exploit a mental advantage. After all, he wasn't throwing elbows to the face ala Karl Malone, smashing a basketball into a face ala Shaq, or slamming into the back of a hot shooting player ala Ellis. So he gets a pass in my book.    

 

We should know the reason why their pick and roll defense worked so well.  Every time they jumped out on the man with the ball, they hit him without worrying about a call going against them.  I could play 2nd-team all-defensive basketball if I could go up and hip-check any ball handler without worrying about repercussions.

Oh yeah, on the Celtics side, Ray Allen is just as great as I remembered him, and KG is like Rasheed Wallace's evil twin.  Whereas Rasheed is hilarious with his arguing, KG is just an a-hole.  Also Garnett usually makes his anger a positive, where Rasheed wilts with it a bit.

But losing this game the way we played is better than winning that game.  Now LMA sees how far he has to go to be amongst the ELITE, Roy sees how he has to adjust and manage his team when their nerves are twittering, the team remembers this feeling of AWE that makes them play like kids, and so on.

Plus, the Blazers always find the perfect games to lose because there is a bounce back game coming up next against the miserable Heat.  

Everything the Celtics did to us, we need to learn to do.  Experience, intensity, staying confident in your own game.  Some day the older Blazers will play some young whipper snapper team and they'll be in awe of us, and we'll be able to pull out a game with just our experience.  But for now, this lesson is underlined with a loss, and I'm not so sure they'd learn this as quickly with a tight win.

We didn't play very well and still almost won at the Boston Gahden (is it still the Garden?  Or some corpy-rate name), and that's a good sign.  I'm sure the type of players we got will absorb the lessons learned.

Mortimer  

     I drove to Eugene to "watch" this game due
to COINCAST's monopoly.
     OBSERVATIONS -

1. The Celts 2nd half defense on the pick and roll/pick and pop was aggressive and physical.
We got bullied !
2. Travis and the boys had some HORRIBLE turnovers. Several passes to nobody. Look,
then pass, please.
3. NBA referees: Having coached, played and
watched for 30 + years; that was HORRIBLE!!!
I normally don't complain about the officiating,
but the no call at the top of the key when
Glen Davis hip checked Roy almost to the ground
right in front of the referee, was emblematic
of the aggresive Celtics getting most of the
calls. The Blazers failing to match that aggression helped determine the outcome.
4. Giving up missed free throw rebounds and key
offensive boards in the 2nd half proved the Celts
wanted the game more.
5. When the Celtics showed the aggressive doubling of the dribbler on the high pick and
roll, the Blazers should have mixed it up
with working more double screens for Martell
and James Jones. Get the Celtic defenders moving
and exerting energy without the ability to double.
6. Too many easy drives baseline for Ray Ray and
others. Martell, Travis and others need to cut
off the baseline and force the slasher to the middle and our defense.
7. This was a tough game as you know the Celts
didn't want that three game losing streak. We
learned some valuable lessons and our guys will
be determined to make a better showing in Miami.
Unfortunatly, Miami will try to bully us as well.
They do watch tape after all. We better bring
our fight with our best game.
8. Jarrett Jack played hard. Blazermaniacs know
this guy is a winner and is willing to give up
his body to get to the rim. He will get better
when he improves his defense and cuts the TO's.

       COINCAST SUCKS ! BRING BACK OUR BLAZERS !

The rights to carry that channel are for sale as evidenced buy the fact that Verizon currently carries it....no provider is being excluded....bottom line. Right now none of the  other providers have CHOSEN to take the channel. To me it sounds like you have a gripe with your provider.

     I don't have a provider. I cancelled DirecTV
after having League Pass with them last year.
I watched every game as Fox Sports Northwest
had the rights to the additional games.
     Not only will Coincast not sign a deal with
either sattelite provider, they won't do a deal
with Charter Communications, our only cable
company. I would be happy to PAY to see the
games but they won't take my money. They prefer
to black out all of these providers until they
get their price. Any idiot can see they know
the Blazers will be great in the next year or
two with adding GO and Rudy / Big FA summer of
09. They are going to get their price or not
provide service.
     Coincast is well known around the country
as monopolistic, as evidenced by the multiple
investigations by the FCC. Please go back to your
desk at the corporate office and understand the
issues at hand.
     I don't particularily blame the team
management, other than they knew who they were
getting in bed with before the deal. The
horrible part for Southern Oregon is the
Blazers don't even have a radio affiliate here
in Medford and KXL dosen't come in well.
Should we just seceed from Oregon and 30 + years
of Blazermania ? Either way NO TV at all !