Game Thread Blazers at Raptors Game Thread 7/26/20 3pm PST NBCSNW & NBATV

[Eastoff]

Nurkic is so freaking good. Just refreshing watching him run around disrupting this on defense so actively after watching 6 months of Whiteside be lazy. I want Zach as full time PF. He opens up space on offense and is far more engaged defensively and on the boards than Hassan.

But all these games are highlighting our lack of shooting. Ant didn't step into Seth's role as we had hoped, and losing Hood/Ariza will hurt us. This should be our #1 goal for the offseason, whenever that is. Add shooting at every position and get a decent backup PG.

I noticed Whiteside looking lazy too. I want to see him with the second unit. Zach looks to always be trying to get in position. Nurkic shows up in the right spot except once when he got a block didn't run out to cover an open 3.

 

[James lamphear]

Well, I'm worried. Is there enough time left to fix these issues?

The problem this is same routine that they play in the regular season. For some reason they loose focus coming back out the locker room after half. It just seems they have one bad quarter in majority of there games that's includes this past season. That can be fix that about leadership and holding everybody accountable. Now the play been pretty good in the first half of the scrimmages especially the interior part but I believe the communication is bad for who going to stay with the 3 point shooters though. But a team with good ball movement will majority of the time will beat a defense I don't care how good defense you have. Luckily the raptors was missing there 3 in the 1st half but they wasn't missing in the 3rd quarter. Majority can be fixed but we got one more game to improve on it.

 

[blazerkor]

From Yahoo sports, after the game:

• Can the Trail Blazers close out well enough against three-point shooters to limit their ability to break games open?
  
  
• Can the Trail Blazers -- a better-than-average three-point shooting team in the NBA before the hiatus -- find their touch from long range?
  
  
• If the Trail Blazers can't hit a high-enough volume of threes, can they get enough high-percentage shots from two-point range to offset their three-point imbalance?
  
  
• Stotts was asked how he thought the Nurkic-Whiteside tandem did in its first game action.
  
  "I thought they played well," he said. "I thought the team played well when they were together. I think it's obviously something we'll continue to look at.
  
  "If you look at the first half, we were leading at the half. We played well in the first half and they were shooting threes."
  
  True. But they were getting several open ones and those are eventually going to go in.
  
  "There is room to improve," Stotts said. "We are who we are… I'm not going to downplay it, the three-point shot is a big concern in the league right now."
• Portland's defensive rotations often looked more like scrambles than set rotations. And at the offensive end, the Blazers didn't get as many open looks from long range as the Raptors did.
  "There is room to improve," Stotts said. "We are who we are… I'm not going to downplay it, the three-point shot is a big concern in the league right now.
  
  "We didn't shoot the three well. We're going to shoot it well eventually.
  
  "I want to get good shots. Dame is going to take his seven to ten threes. He's going to give us more threes. We will get the ball inside. I'm surprised we haven't offensive rebounded as well as I thought we would, to begin with.
  
  "My biggest thing is that we get good shots -- play to our strengths. Some nights it's going to be threes, some nights it's going to be inside.
  
  "I don't think you're going to see a steady diet of anything from us. We've got inside and outside. We've got penetrators, we've got three-point shooters. We're not strictly a three-point shooting team. We've got to score the points where we can get them."

My question is; was our success in first half just because they were missing shots? In the second half we had our starters back in, but Lowry and Gasol didn't play, yet we struggled. Do Stotts and the team have a sense of urgency, they have three practices left before games for real.
https://sports.yahoo.com/trail-blazers-outscored-30-3-014135587.html

Given the nature of these televised scrimmages, do you think we can get any sense of the team's and our individual players' actual urgency? We have a lot of vets who we wouldn't expect to get up for a preseason game, so why would they go all out for one of these glorified practices? Then you have the fact that these scrimmages are televised therefore they give the league footage on us, don't you think the team is gaming the system a little and not tipping their hand? Even if you don't think that is most likely what is going on, you must know that it's a possibility. I think what we have seen is elements of our offense and defense practiced against other teams but not even an attempt to put everything together. I think with the added intensity of games and Dame stretching and threatening opposing defenses, the three ball will begin to fall. The only question that was brought up that is troubling is closing out on the perimeter on D. It's not troubling because it doesn't look great in these scrimmages though because the scrimmages don't matter and are for different purposes than winning or showing perfect execution. Not closing out on the perimeter and giving up uncontested threes is concerning because this team has had that problem all season... hell this team has had that problem for a long ass time, like several seasons now, probably since Wes and Nic left. All of that said, I think with all of the options on offense that this team has, they are going to be incredibly dangerous, like super scary for anyone to face if we can just even hang in there a little on D.

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

Given the nature of these televised scrimmages, do you think we can get any sense of the team's and our individual players' actual urgency? We have a lot of vets who we wouldn't expect to get up for a preseason game, so why would they go all out for one of these glorified practices? Then you have the fact that these scrimmages are televised therefore they give the league footage on us, don't you think the team is gaming the system a little and not tipping their hand? Even if you don't think that is most likely what is going on, you must know that it's a possibility. I think what we have seen is elements of our offense and defense practiced against other teams but not even an attempt to put everything together. I think with the added intensity of games and Dame stretching and threatening opposing defenses, the three ball will begin to fall. The only question that was brought up that is troubling is closing out on the perimeter on D. It's not troubling because it doesn't look great in these scrimmages though because the scrimmages don't matter and are for different purposes than winning or showing perfect execution. Not closing out on the perimeter and giving up uncontested threes is concerning because this team has had that problem all season... hell this team has had that problem for a long ass time, like several seasons now, probably since Wes and Nic left. All of that said, I think with all of the options on offense that this team has, they are going to be incredibly dangerous, like super scary for anyone to face if we can just even hang in there a little on D.

I guess that a couple weeks from now we will know.

 

[lawai'a]

 

[Hoopguru]

Any effects from Hurricane? Hope all is well....

 

[lawai'a]

Any effects from Hurricane? Hope all is well....

thanks for the check. nah, kona was cloudy and light showers. the entire state escaped mostly unscathed. some big waves on the north facing shores. some rain, i think the highest peak winds i saw recorded were under 40 knots.
the storms pack most of their whallop in the NE quadrant and all of the storms exposure was in the western quads. the worst and closest appeared to be a band of intense moisture about 12 miles off of oahu and maui.

 

[Hoopguru]

thanks for the check. nah, kona was cloudy and light showers. the entire state escaped mostly unscathed. some big waves on the north facing shores. some rain, i think the highest peak winds i saw recorded were under 40 knots.
the storms pack most of their whallop in the NE quadrant and all of the storms exposure was in the western quads. the worst and closest appeared to be a band of intense moisture about 12 miles off of oahu and maui.

I spent 3o days

thanks for the check. nah, kona was cloudy and light showers. the entire state escaped mostly unscathed. some big waves on the north facing shores. some rain, i think the highest peak winds i saw recorded were under 40 knots.
the storms pack most of their whallop in the NE quadrant and all of the storms exposure was in the western quads. the worst and closest appeared to be a band of intense moisture about 12 miles off of oahu and maui.

I spent 30 days in Kauai after Iniki as Part of a Storm team working on gen sets and emergency equipment.
It was unbelievable the destruction that they endured.

 

[lawai'a]

I spent 3o days

I spent 30 days in Kauai after Iniki as Part of a Storm team working on gen sets and emergency equipment.
It was unbelievable the destruction that they endured.

i think that 2 of the resorts there never reopened. Coco palms was 1.

 

[BonesJones]

I miss @hoopsjock and @BonesJones on these game threads and other threads. It seems kind of boring now and not so insightful.

Appreciate it! Its a bit different to hearing someone say they actually want us around. We'll be back to doing postgame streams after Fridays game! (I completely understand if that's not for you). It's just much easier to speak my mind on the channel and Twitter than it is in here.

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

Appreciate it! Its a bit different to hearing someone say they actually want us around. We'll be back to doing postgame streams after Fridays game! (I completely understand if that's not for you). It's just much easier to speak my mind on the channel and Twitter than it is in here.

You're right, I usually enjoy reading print more than podcasts cuz I can do it at my own speed and skip parts if I want; but I do occasionally watch your stuff. I always root for your success.