Although the Blazers had been winning, I really don't think they were playing great up until two games ago. Then, against the Spurs and Pels the Blazers stepped up their play to a new level. It's still early, but I'm trusting this current Blazers squad totally. I don't think there's a team in the league that could have beat the Blazers last night. It's a long season, with ups and down, but knowing the Blazers have this level in them makes me very optamistic this year.
The offense is catching up to the defense again. Good to see. Wes has said all season we're winning without playing great..now that's seemed to change.
The Pelicans win, while dominant, wasn't all that impressive. That team is so inconsistent. The Spurs win was very, very impressive
It wasn't that NOLA was inconsistent, it's that we got a huge lead and never gave them any hope... coming off the SA game, that's impressive and shows the mark of a great team.
To me it was very impressive to be up 32 pts after 3 qtrs following a triple OT win on a back to back. Even rested we haven't put away a team that early all season. This was the Blazers dominating, not the Pelicans tanking
It's not necessarily impressive in that a team as good as we are should do that with that type of opponent... But that we actually did that means we are that much closer to playing to our potential, which does impress me.
It's not so much who they beat, as much as it was about how they beat a team that many people predicted would make the playoffs on the second night of a back to back that went triple OT. That's what made that blowout so impressive. The Pels are/were in the 8th spot. That's legit in the west. They're also mostly healthy. They had their core with Davis/Evans/Holiday and we just crushed their souls.
I disagree. I think last night's game was even more impressive than the Spurs game, given the context of it being a back-to-back after the triple overtime game, the Pelicans being a solid and rested team playing at home, and the Blazers still shuffling the lineups because of injuries to two starters. To dominate the Pelicans in that situation was damned impressive, IMO.
I disagree. ANY win over ANY team in a back to back after a triple OT game and traveling to the next city and getting to the hotel at 2:30AM is an impressive win.
Especially when the win is by 26 points. But what I was impressed by, especially whil the top 8 of the rotation were playing, was that the Defense and offense were both stifling. Against a pretty good team too. I don't think many, if any teams, could have beat the Blazers last night.
There was something Mike Barrett said during last night's game. Something about teams that played a triple overtime only won 6-23 or something. I agree that the Spurs win was more impressive, but many thought we would be gassed. The fact that we looked like the team with a day off and the Pelicans looked like they were gassed impressed me the most
For the first 3 quarters last night, the Blazers looked like the Spurs did last season during rounds 2 - 4 of the playoffs. They were just totally clicking on both ends of the court. The ball movement and defense were both the best we've seen this season - and that was less than 20 hours after beating the Spurs in triple OT in a game where Lillard and Aldridge played over 52 minutes and Wes played nearly 50. BNM
I think we blew out NOP BECAUSE of the Spurs. We've been playing down to our opponents for a while now. The Spurs got us into playing Playoff basketball in December. NOP just got in the way of the chainsaw that is Blazer Playoff basketball. Let's just hope we continue in the this way instead of going back to playing down to our opponents.
I suspect this is the case. The spurs revved up the blazer saw. But it'll idle back down a little as the season goes on. I bet we go 4-0 this trip. We still got the choke fully open.