Game Thread 2024-25 - GAME #67 - BLAZERS VS KNICKS - MAR 12, 2025 - WED - 7:00 PM PST - CHARGE - BLAZERVISION

[illmatic99]

Yeah, he can't guard for shit on the perimeter or on the midrange.

part of it is the scheme, part of it his lead feet

 

[42N8Bounce]

Perfect game.
Got to see the youngins put in a lot of time in crunch time.

 

[blazerkor]

Lamar is being funny right now. Saying I know they didn't have their best player but...

 

[PCmor7]

Good loss. We saw a lot of development, played well against a very good team and still kept our chances alive to move up in the lottery.

This might be the game we look back on in a couple of years and say this was the night this became Scoot's team. I see more the potential for him to become a star player. He outwilled Josh Hart a couple of times in the 4Q tonight, and not many players do that to Hart. And I never get tired of watching a guy as thick as him with such great feet that he effortlessly navigates screens.

Not sure what else you can say about Deni. To get him essentially for a late lottery pick was a steal. He's really the heart of the Blazers now.

Shae ... work on the handle A LOT in the offseason. Tighten that up, and it'll unlock another level to his offense. He was having a good game and lost that one dribble coming in from the mid-wing in the 4Q and never seemed to trust himself again. His handle is going to decide what kind of player he is. I still remember that 10 turnover game he had last year or the year before and I still see the same issues. If he's going to be an asset at the 2, he needs to be a better dribbler in tight spaces. HOWEVER, I've seen his defense improve the last couple of games. He drew some tough assignments tonight and was pretty much up to it. Needs to become a lot better getting off or through picks, but he's looking more engaged guarding 1-on-1 or off the ball, and that's a promising development.

 

[wizenheimer]

We're 5 games out of the play-in. We have a ton of games against playoff or play-in bound teams. We have a worse record than the Spurs and are tied with the Bulls. We need to get under those two teams and stay in 8th for the lotto.

right now, the Blazers are 6 games out of 10th because Dallas owns the tie-breaker. They are 6.5 games behind the Kings but have 8 more losses

and there is no reason to think the Blazers will start tanking games at this stage

 

[blazerkor]

right now, the Blazers are 6 games out of 10th because Dallas owns the tie-breaker. They are 6.5 games behind the Kings but have 8 more losses

and there is no reason to think the Blazers will start tanking games at this stage

Have you seen our schedule???

The wins against those bad teams will only be bad for us. We will only have to really tank 5 of our remaining games. The rest we should lose naturally. Going 5 and 10 over the last 15 would be a disaster but we can't expect that our team can beat any good team. We should concentrate on the future and go 0-15 to end the season and get a better pick and better chance at a top 4 pick.

 

[blazerfan11]

his deficiencies were front and center tonight. he has to be in deep drop to be useful on defense. why i was so sour on him pre-draft.

he's proved me wrong a few times on his contests on the perimeter but this NY team with its heavy reliance on midrange is a terrible matchup.

Bridges was running across the court and has a high release point. I'm called BS if anyone thinks any Blazer could have made the shot more difficult than it was.

You also have to be very careful defending a game-ending shot when your team is ahead. A more aggressive move could easily end up with the defender's feet under the shooter's.

 

[KingSpeed]

Spurs passed us. We can let Bulls pass us.

 

[KingSpeed]

 

[blazerkor]

View attachment 72317

Getting Flagg would be transformative for our club. Getting Harper or Bailey would be pretty huge too.

 

[Chris Craig]

Getting Flagg would be transformative for our club. Getting Harper or Bailey would be pretty huge too.

We aren't getting Flagg. Probably not the other two either.

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

I wonder why he didn't pay Thybulle instead of Murray. Once when Murray started dribbling I yelled: "No, don't do it!"

 

[blazerkor]

We aren't getting Flagg. Probably not the other two either.

Yeah, probably not but with the lotto nothing is for sure. We'll likely land somewhere around pick 8-12.

 

[Chris Craig]

I wonder why he didn't pay Thybulle instead of Murray. Once when Murray started dribbling I yelled: "No, don't do it!"

Cause we would have won

 

[illmatic99]

Bridges was running across the court and has a high release point. I'm called BS if anyone thinks any Blazer could have made the shot more difficult than it was.

You also have to be very careful defending a game-ending shot when your team is ahead. A more aggressive move could easily end up with the defender's feet under the shooter's.

View attachment 72316

My comment was in reference to bridges dominating the midrange all game, not the last shot. The last one i partially put on Sharpe for not getting thru a screen and auto switching

 

[wizenheimer]

Have you seen our schedule???

The wins against those bad teams will only be bad for us. We will only have to really tank 5 of our remaining games. The rest we should lose naturally. Going 5 and 10 over the last 15 would be a disaster but we can't expect that our team can beat any good team. We should concentrate on the future and go 0-15 to end the season and get a better pick and better chance at a top 4 pick.

I've seen the schedule. They have 2 games against cupcakes then 7 straight games when they will be underdogs.

I'm not an advocate of the decisions the Blazers have made. I'm just saying that nothing I have seen shows they won't try to win every one of the 15 remaining games

 

[handiman]

what rock did these bandwagon NY cockroaches crawl out from under?

where were they when their team was in the toilet?

Not born yet?

 

[Sheldon Shape]

Absolutely the most pointless win ever man

Big games from all your young core. Yeah, totally pointless. Awful take.

 

[inconceivable]

Yes, taking more than two steps without dribbling the ball in basketball is considered a travel, and therefore, four steps is a travel.

 

[MrDraftGuy]

It's a good development game. Not just from a scoring perspective but also experience on what to do in crunch time and overtime.

Imo, that's the best outcome. Get better draft positioning but play the right way.

Now, I just want to see more mid-range shots from Sharpe. 47% is Sharpe's mid-range FG% and that is closer to the 50% that MJ averaged from that range in his final Bulls years. This is also KD, SGA, and Dirk type territory, too. The 47-50+ FG% from mid-range (KD was often 50-55%).

In contrast, a Kobe, Harden, Derozan, or Wade typically only hovered around 40% from mid-range.

You see what I'm getting at? There is MVP level mid-range potential from Sharpe and I guarantee his PPG will go up if he didn't emphasize shooting 3s to the point where he ends up 1/5 or 2/8. Tonight, he did fine but it could've been 3/5 from three and two or three more mid-range attempts that netted him 23-27 points (and the win).

 

[AldoTrapani]

I knew it felt like a road game.. Yeesh

 

[Mediocre Man]

Spurs passed us. We can let Bulls pass us.

Whoa!!! Are you coming to the dark side Eric?

 

[1 Eye Jack]

Looking at schedule I see us winning between 6-8 of the remaining games.

 

[illmatic99]

Trying to find Scoot comps. The force he plays with is insane. Just needs to control the chaos and bit but not too much. What really stands out to me is his defense. When he's allowed to be physical, he's just tenacious.

Baron Davis? Think Scoot is a better defender.

His crossover reminds me of Deron Williams'.

Maybe a stronger Tony Parker. TP was master of finishing around the rim.

I know people used to say Westbrook but Russ is just in another league athletically and Scoot is already a better shooter.

 

[Natebishop3]

Perfect game.

The new big three played perfectly. We were in it until the last second. Got the quality loss.

Deni with 27 points, 15 boards and 5 dimes
Scoot with 30 points, 3 boards, and 2 dimes (kinda surprised his assists are so low)
Sharpe with 21 points 9 boards, and 2 dimes.

Big three combined for 78 points, 27 rebounds, and 9 assists.

 

[wizenheimer]

Perfect game.

The new big three played perfectly. We were in it until the last second. Got the quality loss.

Deni with 27 points, 15 boards and 5 dimes
Scoot with 30 points, 3 boards, and 2 dimes (kinda surprised his assists are so low)
Sharpe with 21 points 9 boards, and 2 dimes.

Big three combined for 78 points, 27 rebounds, and 9 assists.

9 assists vs 14 turnovers. Kincks had a 15 point advantage in pts off turnovers. A couple of Deni's were pretty egregious; and Sharpe really needs to work on tightening his handle. As a trio, they average 11.3 assists vs 7 turnovers; a 1.6 assist/turnover ratio; which is too low. Scoot has improved quite a bit but he's still under a 2.0 assist/turnover ratio

if Deni is going to be the secondary facilitator, he absolutely needs to improve his 1.44 assist/turnover ratio

Jalen Williams 2.21 (5.3 ast)
Desmond Bane 2.20 (5.5 ast)
Jamal Murray 2.90 (6.1 ast)
Doncic 2.14 (7.9 ast)
Alperen Sengun 1.88 (4.9 ast)
Amen Thompson 1.71 (3.6 ast)
Draymond 2.46 (5.9 ast)
Jimmy Butler 4.07 (5.7 ast)
Julius Randle 1.68 (4.7 ast)
Malik Monk 2.52 (5.8 ast)
Demar Derozan 2.93 (4.1 ast)
Spenser Dinwiddie 3.17 (3.8 ast)

Deni Avdija 1.44 (3.6 ast)

he's younger than most of those guys so he's likely to improve. I looked but couldn't find stats on assists and turnovers in transition vs half-court. My hunch is that Deni needs a throttle on his turbo mode

 

[handiman]

I looked but couldn't find stats on assists and turnovers in transition vs half-court. My hunch is that Deni needs a throttle on his turbo mode

Agreed. He's pretty bad at throwing long passes out of reach of the target. And his half court passing is rarely in the shooting pocket. The biggest mystery is how Deni can play so fast while controlling the dribble and approach to the hoop. He's literally the only one in a league of the best basketball players on the planet who can do so consistently. As such, I'm not sure any of us can delve into what he needs to do to tone down the wild passes, and whether that is even possible. It's on Deni to solve that one-off riddle.

 

[blazerfan11]

It's a good development game. Not just from a scoring perspective but also experience on what to do in crunch time and overtime.

Imo, that's the best outcome. Get better draft positioning but play the right way.

Now, I just want to see more mid-range shots from Sharpe. 47% is Sharpe's mid-range FG% and that is closer to the 50% that MJ averaged from that range in his final Bulls years. This is also KD, SGA, and Dirk type territory, too. The 47-50+ FG% from mid-range (KD was often 50-55%).

In contrast, a Kobe, Harden, Derozan, or Wade typically only hovered around 40% from mid-range.

You see what I'm getting at? There is MVP level mid-range potential from Sharpe and I guarantee his PPG will go up if he didn't emphasize shooting 3s to the point where he ends up 1/5 or 2/8. Tonight, he did fine but it could've been 3/5 from three and two or three more mid-range attempts that netted him 23-27 points (and the win).

The tables are turned for what I expected, at least what we're seeing in 2025. Scoot higher on 3-pointers , and Sharpe is shooting better on the 2-pointers.
This is for the 7 games in March.

 

[THE HCP]

Fantastic game than can only help these young dudes. Scoot with the ball in his hands with the game on the line for the FIRST time in his career…..can’t teach that in practice. Great teaching moment.

 

[SwissBlazer]

Fantastic game than can only help these young dudes. Scoot with the ball in his hands with the game on the line for the FIRST time in his career…..can’t teach that in practice. Great teaching moment.

next step is to start the games I hope.