4-Game Road Trip.......

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Running the numbers, we're playing teams that are a combined 61-19 at home, for a .763 winning percentage. It will be a good test.

108-40 combined, IIRC. That's just stupid. lol.
 
I remember when I first started following the Blazers back in the early '90s, people always made a big deal about the "Texas Triangle". Now that OKC is in the fold, do we have an alliterative geometric name for visiting all four cities? Panhandle Parallelogram? Death-penalty Diamond? Tumbleweed Trapezoid? Redneck Rhombus? Quail-hunter Quadrilateral?
 
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I'm pretty sure at the league office they refer to this as the "FU, Paul Allen Road Trip".
 
2-6. Had to be said. (pours one out)
 
I just realized we are TWENTY games above .500!!!!! When was the last time that was the case?

I've been thinking recently that this is an odd stat. We have 20 more wins than losses (29-9, 38 games), but .500 isn't 9-9 (18 games), it's 19-19 (38 games). So really, we're 10 games over "true" .500...

</nerd>
 
I'm pretty sure at the league office they refer to this as the "FU, Paul Allen Road Trip".

This was supposed to be the road trip that dropped us out of the playoff race this year. You can just see it: we were probably supposed to be 20-18, clinging to hope, then BAM! 20-23 after the next five games in seven nights. Goodnight, Paul!
 
Sucks that OKC is the last game of the trip - that's the only game I really care about, as it could have implications for seeding (and I just really hate OKC). Sure, the others could too, but the Division aspect makes me place more weight on the OKC game. Wouldn't be surprised to beat SAS and HOU. Would be a little surprised to beat DAL and OKC. Wouldn't be terribly surprised if we lost all four. Would be quite surprised to win all four, but not floored since we typically play up (or down) to the competition.
 
I like our chances against San Antonio and OKC.

Houston is a team that we don't usually play well against, especially in Houston. Dallas always seems to give us fits.

Houston has depth and attacks the basket Harden causes fits getting to the line and if he is off Howard can dominate in the paint or Parsons could light it up from beyond the arc. They are a tough match up. The Spurs are a lot like Portland balanced scoring and not great defensively, Portland usually does well because LA matches up well with an aging Duncan and Thiago Splitter makes it 4 on 5 on offense. If the Spurs can make threes we could be in trouble if not we should be okay. Dallas hurts us because Dirk ruins all our defensive effort he pulls LA far from the basket and they murder us on pick and roll. Making life a lot easier for Ellis to get inside. OKC its all about Durant he can beat us all by himself but if we can slow him down at all without Westbrook the team should struggle to match our offense.
 
Getting a split on this road trip would be success. Sweeping it would be just inspiring!
 
Houston has depth and attacks the basket Harden causes fits getting to the line and if he is off Howard can dominate in the paint or Parsons could light it up from beyond the arc. They are a tough match up. The Spurs are a lot like Portland balanced scoring and not great defensively, Portland usually does well because LA matches up well with an aging Duncan and Thiago Splitter makes it 4 on 5 on offense. If the Spurs can make threes we could be in trouble if not we should be okay. Dallas hurts us because Dirk ruins all our defensive effort he pulls LA far from the basket and they murder us on pick and roll. Making life a lot easier for Ellis to get inside. OKC its all about Durant he can beat us all by himself but if we can slow him down at all without Westbrook the team should struggle to match our offense.

Also, don't discount that LA gets up for games against Duncan/Spurs, and Dame gets up to play Parker. It's funny though, because LA has been playing all season like he usually does against Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio.
 
What would really be amazing is that even with a sweep some people STILL wouldnt believe in this team.

to be fair to them, I think there's a difference. While the expectation that this team at this time will win almost every night is fun, for those who "still" don't believe in the team it seems as if the vast majority are saying "show me in the playoffs". Does it matter to most of us if the team goes 55-27 or 60-22 or 65-17 if they lose in the first round? Conversely, I don't hear many people moaning that the 1977 championship team "only" won 49 games.

It actually reminds me a lot of the 2001 Mariners. You never hear people talk about them as the "greatest team of all time", even though no team in history has won more regular-season games than they did. When you lose in the playoffs, you don't get that respect. And it's not as if Portland (again, like those M's) has a track record to build off of and a steady build to greatness (like, say, OKC or the Spurs). Even HOU, with little to nothing remaining since they were last relevant in the McGrady/Yao years, can point to Harden and Howard being big parts of Finals teams very recently. We don't have that--to the outside world, we didn't change any of the Top 4 of a team that won 33 games last year.

So it's not necessarily amazing if people don't hop on (or fall off) the bandwagon after this 4-game trip. It'll be fun to watch, but at least for me, I'm going to go with the Winston Wolfe approach--"let's not start sucking each..."
winston-wolf-foto.jpg
 
I remember when I first started following the Blazers back in the early '90s, people always made a big deal about the "Texas Triangle". Now that OKC is in the fold, do we have an alliterative geometric name for visiting all four cities? Panhandle Parallelogram? Death-penalty Diamond? Tumbleweed Trapezoid? Redneck Rhombus? Quail-hunter Quadrilateral?

:biglaugh:
 
to be fair to them, I think there's a difference. While the expectation that this team at this time will win almost every night is fun, for those who "still" don't believe in the team it seems as if the vast majority are saying "show me in the playoffs". Does it matter to most of us if the team goes 55-27 or 60-22 or 65-17 if they lose in the first round? Conversely, I don't hear many people moaning that the 1977 championship team "only" won 49 games.

It actually reminds me a lot of the 2001 Mariners. You never hear people talk about them as the "greatest team of all time", even though no team in history has won more regular-season games than they did. When you lose in the playoffs, you don't get that respect. And it's not as if Portland (again, like those M's) has a track record to build off of and a steady build to greatness (like, say, OKC or the Spurs). Even HOU, with little to nothing remaining since they were last relevant in the McGrady/Yao years, can point to Harden and Howard being big parts of Finals teams very recently. We don't have that--to the outside world, we didn't change any of the Top 4 of a team that won 33 games last year.

So it's not necessarily amazing if people don't hop on (or fall off) the bandwagon after this 4-game trip. It'll be fun to watch, but at least for me, I'm going to go with the Winston Wolfe approach--"let's not start sucking each..."
winston-wolf-foto.jpg

Bill Walton only played 65 games that season though.
 
I remember when I first started following the Blazers back in the early '90s, people always made a big deal about the "Texas Triangle". Now that OKC is in the fold, do we have an alliterative geometric name for visiting all four cities? Panhandle Parallelogram? Death-penalty Diamond? Tumbleweed Trapezoid? Redneck Rhombus? Quail-hunter Quadrilateral?

I would call it the "Quadrophobia" or "Quadrophrenia"
 
to be fair to them, I think there's a difference. While the expectation that this team at this time will win almost every night is fun, for those who "still" don't believe in the team it seems as if the vast majority are saying "show me in the playoffs". Does it matter to most of us if the team goes 55-27 or 60-22 or 65-17 if they lose in the first round? Conversely, I don't hear many people moaning that the 1977 championship team "only" won 49 games.

It actually reminds me a lot of the 2001 Mariners. You never hear people talk about them as the "greatest team of all time", even though no team in history has won more regular-season games than they did. When you lose in the playoffs, you don't get that respect. And it's not as if Portland (again, like those M's) has a track record to build off of and a steady build to greatness (like, say, OKC or the Spurs). Even HOU, with little to nothing remaining since they were last relevant in the McGrady/Yao years, can point to Harden and Howard being big parts of Finals teams very recently. We don't have that--to the outside world, we didn't change any of the Top 4 of a team that won 33 games last year.

So it's not necessarily amazing if people don't hop on (or fall off) the bandwagon after this 4-game trip. It'll be fun to watch, but at least for me, I'm going to go with the Winston Wolfe approach--"let's not start sucking each..."
winston-wolf-foto.jpg

A team like Miami can lose a string of games because they know that once they get to the playoffs they can just turn it on and win the whole thing. Our team back in the late 90's could make that claim too. Our team needs to win as many games as they can because HCA will help immensely in the playoffs, and hopefully we get a favorable matchup in the first round.

Right now the bottom three teams are Dallas, Phoenix, and Golden State. We don't play especially well against any one of those three. If I had to choose, I would probably take Phoenix because I hate playing against Dirk in the playoffs. I also think we matchup fairly well with Golden State, but who knows what Curry could do in the playoffs.
 
I think unfortunately the most likely outcome is us going 0-4. We will be underdogs in every game. The OKC game will be a near automatic loss being the 4th in 5 nights. I hadn't considered this before but that is a great poitn that the Spurs game is the most important because that will give us a 2-0 advantage on the season against them and its very possible we finish the year tied. I'll be happy with any win on this trip.

Outside of the 4th game in 5 days loss at Minnesota this Blazer team hasn't lost by more than 4 points since November! If we can be close on the first three games of this trip maybe we can get lucky and win two of them. Going 2-2 would be the most impressive road trip from this team in 5 years. I don't consider a 4-0 east coast trip against terrible teams impressive at all.
 
Safe travels, HCP! The Alamo is cool to see... I saw it at midnight and there was still 40 people out there taking pictures.
 
In light of this difficult road trip, here's how the remainder of the season looks

BeD8AK9CQAAx_Wr.png:large


Pray for the 4th seed so the Blazers get HCA. It's going to be tough.

And look at Indiana. God the east is fucking horrible.
 
In light of this difficult road trip, here's how the remainder of the season looks

BeD8AK9CQAAx_Wr.png:large


Pray for the 4th seed so the Blazers get HCA. It's going to be tough.

And look at Indiana. God the east is fucking horrible.

Indy can't play against themselves, so they literally have one decent opponent in their conference.
 
Ugh. OKC game is not automatic loss. We've owned them this year and we almost came all the way back to beat Minnesota which means we had a lot of energy at the end of the game at the end of the trip. We're an awesome road team. Why are people scared of this trip? SA, Dallas, Houston, and OKC should be scared of us!
 
King, you are the only person alive that isn't worried about playing on the road against the team with the BEST record in the NBA and has won 9 of their last 10 and 6 straight!
No, he isn't. Bring 'em on!
 

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