Game Thread 2025-26 GAME #29 - BLAZERS VS PISTONS - DECEMBER 22, 2025 - MONDAY - 7:00 PM - KUNP - BLAZERVISION (6 Viewers)

[BassPlaya]

My two teams are Blazers and Colts. Not gearing up for a lot of Dub tonight.

Heck, if only my Beavers had been simultaneously playing a meaningless bowl game, I could have had enjoyed the complete trifecta....

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

Tough loss. They could have given up but they fought back like warriors. So much heart this team has. We just cant win when we have Love, Murray and Sidy all playing major minutes. Health (especially our pg’s) is killing our ability to manage end of games. We need to get healthy and get our players back on the court.
Our guys give it their all and are gassed by the fourth.

I'd substitute Reath for Sidy in your list we can't win with. Rupert is also a net negative, but i would keep him because he is still so young.

 

[AldoTrapani]

Don’t really watch blazers anymore as ya can notice. Is Toumani still trash this year? I been seeing a lot of this type of stuff about him today in twitter

 

[riverman]

I'm not sure about that. The opponents usually aren't converting 100% themselves. Two end of the floor stuff

for instance, last night the Blazers shot 67% on FT's. If they shoot their season average they score 4.7 more points in an 8 point game. So, 5 more points. But...Detroit shot 62%. If they shoot their season average they score 3 more points. Blazers only net 2 more points if both teams shoot their average. Not only that, the Blazers shot 14 more FT's than their average while Detroit shot 5 less FT's than their average. And this was in a game when Detroit had a 66-40 advantage in points-in-the-paint. I think context matters

* in Portland's case, more context: Blazers are only 20th in FT%. But they are 3rd in FT's and FTA's; they get to the line at a high rate. Trouble is Blazers are 27th in fouls; 28th in opponent FTA's; and 29th in opponent made FT's. The result of all that is they only outscore opponents by 0.3 points/game from the FT line

* more context, part two: say the Blazers ranked 10th in the NBA in FT%; that would be a conversion rate of 79.2%. Portland's current rate is 78.3%. The Blazers would only score 0.26 more points/game

* more context, part three: so then, if Portland had better FT shooters, would those better FT shooters be able to get to the line at the same rate the current ones do? That's seems pretty iffy. CJ and Simons are good FT shooters but they are terrible at getting to the line. Deandre Ayton shot 82.3% from the line his first season in Portland; but he only shot 1.6 FT's/36. Clingan is averaging 3.6

if the Blazers want the FT line to make a bigger difference they might want to foul less

Or simply make the one's that are at clutch time in the end game and miss them earlier in the game maybe when you have a cushion..not all free throws are created equally..they really matter in the 4th

 

[riverman]

I wasn't watching the game and just checked the box score.

View attachment 78767

The game tracks play by play showed Dame checking into the game as well even though he wasn't ....it was ghost Dame!