Blazers Vs. Suns 3/21/10 GAME THREAD!!!

[julius]

Time off doesn't seem to help our offense...

probably because the more they practice it, the more they realize just how crappy and easy it is to defend it.

Btw, I think this is the game we look back at as the turning point of the season (as far as playoff seeding goes). We lost an ample chance to gain a game on Phoenix, San Antonio and Oklahoma City tonight, and fucked it away.

 

[Tince]

Every new game just tells me that Aldridge is never going to be that consistent 2nd option. He'll be a nice role player on a good team but just isn't a go to player. He's a slightly better Joe Smith.

KP, the writing is on the wall. I don't care what you do, kill somebody I wont tell, just find a way to bring in Bosh.

He's way better than Joe Smith, that's a horrible comparison.

 

[Da_O]

Rudy not being there didn't help.

When Phoenix ran the zone we had no one that could break the zone.

 

[Da_O]

He's way better than Joe Smith, that's a horrible comparison.

Maybe I was exaggerating, a little, but their games are eerily similar. Both are big men that resort to jumpshooting and porous defense. They both disappear late in games and they're both not the answer as a 2nd option. Like people thought of Smith when he went to Minnesota.

I'm not talking about the Joe Smith now, but the Joe Smith BEFORE he was traded to the Timberwolves.

 

[illmatic99]

Btw, I think this is the game we look back at as the turning point of the season (as far as playoff seeding goes). We lost an ample chance to gain a game on Phoenix, San Antonio and Oklahoma City tonight, and fucked it away.

That's what hurts most.

 

[RoyToy]

Rudy not being there didn't help.

When Phoenix ran the zone we had no one that could break the zone.

Nicolas missed a lot of wide open 3's, and he's actually a better 3pt shooter than Rudy. Perhaps rudy could have been the hot one tonight, but pretty much everyone was cold.

Fuck this game was huge. OKC and SA play tomorrow and the Blazers would have moved another .5 up on one of them to add to game they could have moved up on them if they had won tonight. At least they'll still end up moving .5 on one of them, probably SA.

Still though, fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

 

[BlazerBeliever]

Martell going Martell on us hurt too.

I couldn't agree with you more. That three second Technical he was just sitting in the key with nobody around. Then a little while earlier he blows the lay up.
I also agree with you on Andre. As good as he was in the first half he was as bad in the 2nd half. The three he shot with 20 seconds on the clock was ridiculous and the ESPN guys even said so. They even said he is a 20% three point shooter. Then he was going to shoot that last three with no questions asked even if there was someone open.
It also didn't help that nobody else could make a shot.

 

[KingSpeed]

probably because the more they practice it, the more they realize just how crappy and easy it is to defend it.

Btw, I think this is the game we look back at as the turning point of the season (as far as playoff seeding goes). We lost an ample chance to gain a game on Phoenix, San Antonio and Oklahoma City tonight, and fucked it away.

It doesn't matter because the team we match up the best against (of the top 4) is L.A. I'm perfectly fine with the 8th seed.

 

[Da_O]

Nicolas missed a lot of wide open 3's, and he's actually a better 3pt shooter than Rudy. Perhaps rudy could have been the hot one tonight, but pretty much everyone was cold.

Fuck this game was huge. OKC and SA play tomorrow and the Blazers would have moved another .5 up on one of them to add to game they could have moved up on them if they had won tonight. At least they'll still end up moving .5 on one of them, probably SA.

Still though, fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

I disagreed with Jon Barry about when he was harping on Batum for taking that three with less than a minute to play, but damn another shooter wouldn't have hurt tonight.

 

[Da_O]

It doesn't matter because the team we match up the best against (of the top 4) is L.A. I'm perfectly fine with the 8th seed.

I would rather play Dallas if possible. I actually want a chance of making it past the 1st round.

 

[KingSpeed]

That's what hurts most.

Why does it hurt? I don't give a crap about seeding so long as we make the playoffs.

 

[KingSpeed]

I would rather play Dallas if possible. I actually want a chance of making it past the 1st round.

The Lakers are the best match up for us. We owned them in the game in which we had Brandon. And we owned them last year. The two games we played against Dallas don't mean much to me. They didn't have Haywood or Butler.

 

[KingSpeed]

LMA shoots over 49% from the field. He is much better than an in-his-prime Joe Smith.

 

[Da_O]

The Lakers are the best match up for us. We owned them in the game in which we had Brandon. And we owned them last year. The two games we played against Dallas don't mean much to me. They didn't have Haywood or Butler.

Come playoff time, the Lakers will own us. I'll take Dallas any day of the week over L.A.

In my opinion, the finals are the Lakers and Cavs to lose.

 

[Da_O]

LMA shoots over 49% from the field. He is much better than an in-his-prime Joe Smith.

I said he was better, but much better is a stretch. At "in-his-prime" Joe Smith(LOL) shot 45 percent. That means that out of 100 shots Aldridge made 4 more buckets. Really not a huge margin.

The point is, they play mostly alike. While Aldridge is the better player, he still resorts to jumpshots for his points(much like Smith) and isn't a very good defender given his length and size.

 

[BlazerBeav]

I said he was better, but much better is a stretch. At "in-his-prime" Joe Smith(LOL) shot 45 percent. That means that out of 100 shots Aldridge made 4 more buckets. Really not a huge margin.

The point is, they play mostly alike. While Aldridge is the better player, he still resorts to jumpshots for his points(much like Smith) and isn't a very good defender given his length and size.

Out of 100, that would mean LA would make 8 more shots - which is significant.

 

[Da_O]

Out of 100, that would mean LA would make 8 more shots - which is significant.

8 more points? Still not really a huge difference. That means close to the end of the year Aldridge would have only like 60 more points

 

[Blue Magic]

Why didn't Andre pass to Roy for the last shot? Roy looked pissed...

 

[BlazerBeav]

8 more points? Still not really a huge difference. That means close to the end of the year Aldridge would have only like 60 more points

16 points - it's clearly too late for you to be arguing statistics.

 

[Da_O]

Why didn't Andre pass to Roy for the last shot? Roy looked pissed...

I think he was more pissed that we couldn't get the ball to him on the inbounds. Miller had to take the shot because we needed to have time on the clock to foul and to get another shot off.

 

[Da_O]

16 points - it's clearly too late for you to be arguing statistics.

Look I'm done arguing this, my point is, Aldridge isn't going to develop into a consistent 2nd option. We thought he was, much like Minnesota thought Smith would, but he's not. He can't create many points for himself, and he's not a good defender. He settle for jumpshots, also like Smith did, and given his size and athleticism its an extreme disappointment for him to be shooting jumpshots. Also he disappears in the 4th quarter.

I already admitted that Aldridge was a better player than Joe Smith, and that it was somewhat of an exaggeration.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

LMA was so invisible. Another ho-hum game from LaMarcus Al_ri_ge.

You can see Miller's eyes light up when he sees Nash guarding him.

 

[FeloniusThunk]

The end was disappointing, but overall I don't feel too bad about the game. The Blazers played very good defense, and the offense was only bad because of the complete lack of jumpshots falling (particularly Brandon). Even if they changed nothing else but hit a 1/3rd of their 3's, the game would've been a win. Against a good team playing very well, and playing on their court. Not bad for a preview of the playoffs. If Roy always/usually sucks like this, the Blazers will never amount to much, but I'm not worried about that being the case. Even he can see that the old me-on-5 thing isn't really going to get that far in a playoff like game. Good, if hard, lesson for him and everyone. If I'm Bayless, Cunningham, etc., I'd also start practicing extra jumpers, since it should be a little clearer now just how good you'd have to be to get burn without one.

 

[The Professional Fan]

For some reason my DVR cut the game short, not sure why. I got through 4.25 of the game. I see we lost, but from what I actually saw with my own eyes, the Blazers were the smarter, longer, and more disciplined team. I wasn't shocked that we lost, but over the course of a 7 game series I think we could fuck Phoenix up. There's just something about the Miller/Camby/Howard injection that I think is priceless for this team.

I think we're going to be ok. In fact, I believe any thing is possible for this team this year. Any thing.

 

[maxiep]

We could have used Rudy tonight to break their zone. Also, we led most of the game with Roy being pretty crappy.

A loss, but not a terrible one.

 

[MIXUM]

ive said since February of 2009.... WE NEED ANOTHER SCORER at the 3.

Batum is never gonna be that. We go through too many stretches without scoring.

 

[blue32]

the last two games were a complete snooze fest.

When Roy and LMA aren't doing anything, our offense is completely fucked and boring, oh and predictable..

if the effort in the last two games i dont see us going anywhere once playoffs start... hopefully the effort improves!