Amare - "We Might Not Have Taken Them as Seriously...

[BGrantFan]

as we should have."


Just heard him on NBATV.

 

[oldguy]

Yo, Amare, you might want to start that now.

Go Blazers

 

[ironcrotch]

haha ooops

 

[e_blazer]

Standard loser comment No. 1.

What he meant to say was, "We just got embarassed on national TV by a team that totally outplayed us."

 

[SheedSoNasty]

Isn't this the playoffs where you face a team that you've seen four times already this year? There are no excuses at this point.

 

[ehizzy3]

he looked pretty serious when nic was getting in his head

 

[BlazerBenner]

And, Rich Kamla followed with, "Shame on you Steve Nash for not respecting the TrailBlazers."

 

[illmatic99]

he looked pretty serious when nic was getting in his head

I loved that elbow by Jerryd right into Amar'e's side, and the play after, when Bayless drove right at him and scored.

 

[maxiep]

An interesting comment. Usually, when a team beats you 2-1--including one game without Brandon on your home court--you usually have some respect for them. Oh well, lesson learned.

 

[Nikolokolus]

I feel kinda sorry for whatever cap space team gets saddled with Amare' this offseason ... nah, just kidding.

 

[BrianFromWA]

a.k.a., "I'm not voting for Coach Gentry for CoY."

 

[The Professional Fan]

An interesting comment. Usually, when a team beats you 2-1--including one game without Brandon on your home court--you usually have some respect for them. Oh well, lesson learned.

.....again.

 

[alex42083]

Keep that overconfidence Amare!

 

[jlprk]

Standard loser comment No. 1. What he meant to say was, "We just got embarassed on national TV by a team that totally outplayed us."

A similar one is, "That was a good wakeup call for us."
That's to act like they're still better than the team which just beat them.
(They didn't say that, but I get tired of hearing it.)

 

[DeanMoriarty]

Honestly, we controlled the tempo for the majority of the game.

The Suns were playing at their best. We weren't. Now, if we were to play at our best, we'd easily rout the Suns.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Honestly, we controlled the tempo for the majority of the game.

The Suns were playing at their best. We weren't. Now, if we were to play at our best, we'd easily rout the Suns.

I thought the same thing. The Suns brought their A game. We were without Roy & Oden (leaving us with only 1 center), LA had a so-so game, Rudy was flat and we still beat them. That's not to say we're going to sweep ther series, but it does tell me that when a team isn't playing their best and even being on the road, and STILL beats the home team who's playing well, it does mean something.

 

[maxiep]

This incarnation of the Suns has been around for a few years, and they still haven't learned to play playoff basketball. When is that team going to learn you're not going to put up 120 points in the post season with regularity? Give some credit to Nate; he had this team ready.

 

[STOMP]

This incarnation of the Suns has been around for a few years, and they still haven't learned to play playoff basketball. When is that team going to learn you're not going to put up 120 points in the post season with regularity? Give some credit to Nate; he had this team ready.

Having Lopez out hurts them as he's their one true 5 with size. With things as they are injury wise, Portland is the bigger more physical team which generally wins in the playoffs. Of course if everyone from both squads is healthy this is even more true.

STOMP

 

[hasoos]

This incarnation of the Suns has been around for a few years, and they still haven't learned to play playoff basketball. When is that team going to learn you're not going to put up 120 points in the post season with regularity? Give some credit to Nate; he had this team ready.

You got it. I have been harping on this for years. You can't win in the playoffs with a team geared towards getting their scoring out of a running offense. A good team that control the pace will take them out of their game every time. In the playoffs, there are too many game stoppages for a running game to be effective more than a series or so before you run into a team which can handle it. The game is more physical, there are more fouls, TV timeouts, and in general, coaches are tighter on how long they let a run go on before they call a time out.

Portland is one of the best teams in the league at controlling pace of the game. We may not get many running points, but we are going to make you out execute the Blazers in the half court, which is the Blazers strong suit.

I think a lot of people are in denial. Portland team identity, is to make the game ugly (Like Early 90's NY Knick Ugly.)

 

[Ed O]

Honestly, we controlled the tempo for the majority of the game.

The Suns were playing at their best. We weren't. Now, if we were to play at our best, we'd easily rout the Suns.

The Suns shot 11 of 32 from three point range. They shot 41.2% from three point range on the season. That's "only" 13 of 32 from three point range, but those six points would have beaten us last night.

The Suns will shoot better from long distance. Amare and Hill will be better. There's no way that they were playing "at their best".

Portland will have to play better than they did last night to take the series. They can do it, but it will be difficult.

Ed O.

 

[Minstrel]

The Suns shot 11 of 32 from three point range. They shot 41.2% from three point range on the season. That's "only" 13 of 32 from three point range, but those six points would have beaten us last night.

The Suns will shoot better from long distance. Amare and Hill will be better. There's no way that they were playing "at their best".

Portland will have to play better than they did last night to take the series. They can do it, but it will be difficult.

Some of Phoenix's lesser offensive production should be credited to Portland. So it's not clear how much better Phoenix can play against Portland. Using straight season averages isn't exactly accurate. Phoenix didn't play Portland every game during the season.

I think both teams can play better...Phoenix missed some shots, but so did Portland. Aldridge was missing shots he often hits. I wouldn't expect a similar cavalcade of errors by Portland to close games again.

Will each team play better? Not appreciably, IMO. I think the two teams are pretty evenly matched and what we saw in Game 1 will probably play out all series long (though not necessarily with Portland wins each time, of course ).

 

[e_blazer]

The Suns shot 11 of 32 from three point range. They shot 41.2% from three point range on the season. That's "only" 13 of 32 from three point range, but those six points would have beaten us last night.

The Suns will shoot better from long distance. Amare and Hill will be better. There's no way that they were playing "at their best".

Portland will have to play better than they did last night to take the series. They can do it, but it will be difficult.

Ed O.

Clearly neither team was at their best. Aldridge couldn't hit from the perimeter. Rudy was missing wide open 3s. Camby blew an uncontested slam dunk. And as far as the Suns' 3 point shooting goes, the Blazers overall did a good job of closing on their perimeter players.

 

[illmatic99]

Outside of Miller, we were 13-21 at the FT line. That's not very characteristic of us either.

 

[Natebishop3]

A team cannot rely on the three to win games. It seems like Phoenix is hanging all of their hopes on being able to hit three pointers and that's why they lost game one. I'm surprised Barkley isn't ranting about how Phoenix is a jump shooting team, and jump shooting teams don't go anywhere.

 

[Natebishop3]

Outside of Miller, we were 13-21 at the FT line. That's not very characteristic of us either.

And all of those second-chance-points that Phoenix got. If we had actually boxed out and kept them from getting the 20+ second chance points, it would have been a blowout.

 

[Shooter]

In the playoffs, there are too many game stoppages for a running game to be effective more than a series or so before you run into a team which can handle it. The game is more physical, there are more fouls, TV timeouts, and in general, coaches are tighter on how long they let a run go on before they call a time out.

TV timeouts???? The only TV timeouts are the regular timeouts called by the teams, or the breaks between quarters and halves. Same as in the regular season. And game stoppages in general have nothing to do with preventing a running game. Once play resumes, the running team can go right back to running.

What stops a running game is good defense, which is the norm in the playoffs. There's more on the line in the post-season, so teams ramp up their intensity, and work extra hard to get rebounds or to get back and stop the fast break.

 

[hasoos]

A lot of folks here are mentioning both sides didn't look their best. In the NBA playoffs, when teams can game plan for each other, watch a lot of film, and break stuff down, you can do a lot of damage from knowing your opponent. You will note that last night the Suns only got 5 fast break points. Half of their effective 3 point shooting is from pushing the ball and getting open transition 3's. The reason they didn't shoot well, was Portland didn't allow them to be in their comfort zone. Their 3's were half court execution 3's instead of transition open look 3's.

I could tell the game was in Portland pace by the 2nd quarter. If Phoenix doesn't do anything to increase that pace, I expect the same results Tuesday.

 

[hasoos]

TV timeouts???? The only TV timeouts are the regular timeouts called by the teams, or the breaks between quarters and halves. Same as in the regular season. And game stoppages in general have nothing to do with preventing a running game. Once play resumes, the running team can go right back to running.

What stops a running game is good defense, which is the norm in the playoffs. There's more on the line in the post-season, so teams ramp up their intensity, and work extra hard to get rebounds or to get back and stop the fast break.

Wrong. There are TV timeouts during the playoffs that are set to happen at specific game stoppages during the game. I believe there is one per quarter.

 

[RR7]

Wrong. There are TV timeouts during the playoffs that are set to happen at specific game stoppages during the game. I believe there is one per quarter.

Well, there are official timeouts that shift a stoppage of play to a full timeout after the 6:00 mark of every quarter, but that is during the regular season as well. There are no "TV Timeouts" in the NBA.

 

[illmatic99]

I think they're called "officials' timeouts," and they exist throughout the season, not just the playoffs. The teams are charged with the timeout, but they're called by the refs at certain points in each quarter if there have been no stoppages in play.