Game Thread 2024-25 GAME #21 - BLAZERS VS MAVERICKS - DECEMBER 1, 2024 - SUNDAY - 6:00 PM - CHARGE, BLAZERVISION

After a timeout, Chauncey giving Grant the ball with 1:15 (correction, about 1:24) left in the game was bizarre. I don't care if there was a play that was blown up, Grant should not have had the ball.

Not with how Avdija was pummeling the Mavs.

 

If Ant didn’t play, we would’ve won. Better D, more shots for Shaedon

 

Today was his first game back from injury. And he played well.

 

A little bit taller makes a difference.

 

Not really, it's still shite, if guys are constantly blowing by you doesn't matter how tall you are unless you can recover and block shots and he ain't doin that

 

Based on their defense in the 4th quarter without Ant, I am thinking that is not true. I will take his 80% from the field and 5 assists in 23 minutes.

 

Tough loss, but these kids play hard and it is pleasing to watch. They always give themselves a chance to win when they play hard like this.
On to the next one.

 

Competitive and solid tank game

 

Simons, Sharp, and Grant have a common problem on defense: They are skinny as a rail. No strength or gravity.
Donshits bowled over those tenpins when they guarded him.

 

There's no defense -- no pun intended -- for having Ant in in that situation. First, he's not a young player. He's a vet. He's not learning anything about playing with fouls.

Second, he's not learning about playing with fouls IN THE FIRST HALF.

If that was Chauncey's aim, it's so far off it's enough on its own to disqualify him from coaching. This might be something you do in the 4Q, but not the 2Q. All that does is put the entire team at a disadvantage for more than a full half of basketball. It also removes the lesson to anyone on the team NOT TO GET INTO FOUL TROUBLE RIGHT OFF THE BAT.

 

I'd like to think the play was blown up, but so much of Chauncey's offense is either iso or PnR that I can't disregard that they just cleared out a side for Grant and said "get going, guy, and carry us the rest of the way."

 

how does a team shoot 58% on FG's, 58% on three's, outrebound the opponent by 6, have 29 assists and still lose at home?

I guess the easy answer is too much bad defense and too many stupid turnovers

quality loss though

 

-8 in TOs
-10 in PF

 

Mehh Luka doesn’t play defense, dame never played defense, the list goes on

 

You really answered your own question, so I'm not saying anything you don't know. Sure our defense didn't look good but Luka makes a lot of defenses look bad. It was our turnovers and the Mavs ability to score off of them. They outscored us 33 to 21 when it came to points off of turnovers so even though we were very efficient shooting the ball they were more opportunistic when we weren't taking care of the ball.

 

Let's face it, both teams played shit defense. Score looks like an all star game.

 

Both teams also shot lights out, even wide open most players can't shoot over 50% on 3s like we did and many of those attempts were not wide open.

 

The Blazers offense has looked MUCH better with Ant and Ayton back. They have been hitting shots and it's opened up spacing for the whole team. They aren't going to continue to hit this many as last night but they also had a lot of misses at the start of the year they normally make so they will probably perform somewhere in the middle going forward. But when the Blazers previously had the 30th offense that should be a large step up. Also Avidija, Camara, Banton, and others are better figuring out how to best contribute. Also probably helps a lot that Scoot hasn't played the last few games - his lack of spacing hurts every Blazers offensive player on the court.

But now the defense has gone from above average to one of the bottom units in the league. People rip on Ant but I'd argue Aytons defense is actually worse at the moment and just being in the center position its more harmful to the defense of the team.

Really hope we get a trade soon but worry we won't see it until February at the earliest or possibly not until the offseason. The Ayton, Ant, Grant "big3" makes zero sense for this franchise. It makes the Blazers hard to watch and root for even if they are competitive or win some games.