Forensic Fan Game Thirteen, 11/23/14 @ BOS From the Top: W 94-88. Stop me when you’ve heard this before: low-scoring game, Blazers started slowly and were behind early, managed to tie it up at the end of the third, and relied on star power and new-found defensive presence to throttle the opponent and squeak ahead in the 4th. Player of the game: LaMarcus was really the only player on either squad to rise above the putrescence and lead his team to victory. He only shot 33% (7-21), but had timely hits when we needed them and added 14 boards and stiff defense. Monster Games ™: Aside from LMA’s 20 and 14 rebounds, Kaman put up 16 and 8 in 18 minutes and Dame overcame a bad (4-14) shooting night to have 12 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. Some “horrible” game, right? Points Per Shot: Stop me if you’ve heard this before: It wasn’t a particularly pretty game if you like to see the ball go into the hoop frequently. LMA had 20 on 21 shots, Dame needed 14 for his 12, Kaman had 16 on 13 shots. Blake came close with some very clutch shooting in the 3rd and 4th, but when the chips were all cashed in, it was Lopez’s 9 points on 6 shots (for a 1.50pps) that led the team. Coin Ratio: Portland continued its streak of 20-assist games, but took 86 shots to do so. Dame was down at “not great” Dame levels, with 5 dimes on 14 shots (for a 36-cent effort). Blake takes the cake today, with a solid 5-on-8 shots, 63-cent game. No other Blazer had more than 3 assists. Bench: What to say about the bench, other than they lived by the motto of: Bench was 13-27, 31 points and 15 rebounds. As previously stated, Kaman was “only” 6-13, and Blake had “only” 11 points, but he pulled out 5 assists and also blessed us with this gloriousness, courtesy of Evan Turner: [video]http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=steve+blake+breaking+ankles+boston&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=A02B63D8F2225B96E9D8A02B63D8F2225B96E9D8[/video] As SlyPokerDog deemed at the time, Shake-and-Blake was born! Questions for the Group: 1. What does Dame have to do to get on that Superstar, Best-PG-in-the-NBA tip? 2. Do you feel that adding a veteran wing scorer at the deadline would have a worse effect on team chemistry (and/or more importantly, team success) than doing so early in the season? See you tonight against PHI. Stay tuned here for more Blazers/NBA content, and stick around to chat awhile. Until then…
Solid work again Brian! To answer your questions... 1.) dame needs to do what he's doing. He's rebounding, defending, dishing and punishing teams from the perimeter. Also, he's finishing at the rim with much more efficiency. It may take getting to the WCF or finals to solidify his place. 2.) I don't think anything mid season is good for our chemistry. I think we already have the tools in place to get to the finals and adding someone could mess with the balance.