Dec 7 AT Toronto

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We could use a better PG- but that will come later. I personally wouldn't mind signing Bibby in the off season. He's playing pretty decently this year.
 
number 10 said:
I know, but still... you can find similar excuses for every game, but it's still amazing how a PF can get so few defensive rebounds. It was a problem against Boston and it probably will still be one in the playoffs
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That's just LaMarcus though. He'll never put up Zach-type numbers on the boards, and it's a good thing we have Joel and Greg who swallow up everything in sight, and we have guards who really rebound well.
Aldridge outrebounded Bosh tonight, and had the same amount of boards as Jermaine... and those six offensive boards gave us six more offensive possessions.
 
I have to say I was also bitching about Blake in the first half and after the game winning shot I have to say I was wrong. Way to go Blake and prove me wrong again!!:clap:
 
I don't see a lot of whining. I see a lot of people pointing out things Portland can improve on. Personally, Portland should win beat Toronto. So you have to be happy with a win, but the good teams and good players take things from every game to improve on in the next game.
 
I don't think we need a better PG. I think Blake fits in perfectly for this team. His defense is inconsistent. One game, it looks solid, other times he looks like a matador. BUT his style of play is perfect for the guys we've got, and I really think Roy is going to be playing PG in the future for longer stints with Rudy as the SG, Webster at the 3. So we don't need another PG.
 
Man.. they had highlights of about four, five blocks by Greg, how did he only get credited for 2? Crazy Toronto stat keepers..
 
alex42083 said:
Man.. they had highlights of about four, five blocks by Greg, how did he only get credited for 2? Crazy Toronto stat keepers..
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As bad as the writer that picked Bargagme for ROY! I wonder if Toronto would rather have Roy or Aldridge?
 
Steve Blake is a total different player when he's hitting his shots. PG is slowly becoming a strength of this team.

We'd be a much improved team, IMO, if we were able to land a star SF. Travis is a lot like Zach in regards to bringing the offense to a screeching hault. Nicolas Batum would be better off coming off the bench - he only plays 15 min. a game anyways.

Greg's offense is still raw but I think when he slows down and lets the game come to him he'll be OK. He had officially 2 blocks but I counted at least 4.

The Raptors rebound like little girls. Seriously.
 
alex42083 said:
That's just LaMarcus though. He'll never put up Zach-type numbers on the boards, and it's a good thing we have Joel and Greg who swallow up everything in sight, and we have guards who really rebound well.
Aldridge outrebounded Bosh tonight, and had the same amount of boards as Jermaine... and those six offensive boards gave us six more offensive possessions.
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yep, Oden and Prz really do help. Didn't mean to complain about it, that was just the first thing I noticed looking at the boxscore. Nice win :) nice to end the road trip 4-1.
 
On another note, I was reading a Toronto game thread. They're even more bipolar than us!
 
BLAZINGGIANTS said:
I don't think we need a better PG. I think Blake fits in perfectly for this team. His defense is inconsistent. One game, it looks solid, other times he looks like a matador. BUT his style of play is perfect for the guys we've got, and I really think Roy is going to be playing PG in the future for longer stints with Rudy as the SG, Webster at the 3. So we don't need another PG.
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Couldn't agree more. Blake is what this team needs, and more importantly what this team HAS!

S. Blake G 32:56 7-14 5-8 0-0 +4 7 Boards 4 Assists 19 Points

Someone please tell me where he had a bad game, I know everyone talks about getting a better PG, but we have one! He is great. Thanks Blake for being a Blazer and hitting many shots like that last one!!!
 
8 of the next 10 at home will be really nice, one against Utah and two big games against Denver. We have a chance to separate ourselves from the division.
 
BLAZINGGIANTS said:
I don't see a lot of whining. I see a lot of people pointing out things Portland can improve on. Personally, Portland should win beat Toronto. So you have to be happy with a win, but the good teams and good players take things from every game to improve on in the next game.
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Why should Portland beat Toronto? There are very few games that we "should" beat anyone on the road. As well as we have played we are 1 game over 500 on the road. IMO any win on the road is huge. I am surprised we pulled this one out since this was a big game for the raptors. I know Toronto has struggled this year, but they were picked to do very well and they have some big time talent.

Having said that.....Blake was the player of the game. He is a great stop gap until Bayless is ready. If not next year, then the year after.
 
number 10 said:
yep, Oden and Prz really do help. Didn't mean to complain about it, that was just the first thing I noticed looking at the boxscore. Nice win :) nice to end the road trip 4-1.
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I didn't think you complained, it's a legitimate issue or question as to why LaMarcus doesn't get more defensive boards but we won, that's all that matters. :ghoti: :ghoti:
 
ptownblazer1 said:
Couldn't agree more. Blake is what this team needs, and more importantly what this team HAS!

S. Blake G 32:56 7-14 5-8 0-0 +4 7 Boards 4 Assists 19 Points

Someone please tell me where he had a bad game, I know everyone talks about getting a better PG, but we have one! He is great. Thanks Blake for being a Blazer and hitting many shots like that last one!!!
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He didn't have a bad game. Nowhere near a bad game. It is a far cry from meaning he's "great", though.

He hit five three pointers. If he shoots over 60% from 3's, then he can be considered "great".

As it is? He doesn't create offense for others. He doesn't get to the line. He's not a good defender.

That doesn't mean he's not good or useless... but there's a LOT more that we could get from the PG position in the long run.

Ed O.
 
B-Roy said:
On another note, I was reading a Toronto game thread. They're even more bipolar than us!
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they have a reason to be. they're a limbo team not bad enough to get high lottery picks but not good enough to contend, and their best player is gonna leave in less than 2 years because of it. on the plus side they'll probably have about 50 million in cap space in 2010 : )
 
Pinwheel1 said:
Why should Portland beat Toronto? There are very few games that we "should" beat anyone on the road. As well as we have played we are 1 game over 500 on the road. IMO any win on the road is huge. I am surprised we pulled this one out since this was a big game for the raptors. I know Toronto has struggled this year, but they were picked to do very well and they have some big time talent.

Having said that.....Blake was the player of the game. He is a great stop gap until Bayless is ready. If not next year, then the year after.
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Maybe I have higher expectations than you. There are very few games on the calendar that I don't expect Portland to win. Now, I realize there's going to be a lot of games that I expect Portland to win that they'll lose. That's how the NBA is. I mean, how many teams have won 70 games? Even the best teams lose to far weaker teams. Though Portland is young, let's not use that excuse. Let's look at our roster, and I think most would say from #1 through #12, there are few teams with more talent. And our team is just going to keep growing together, gain experience, and when they learn how to step up for big games, watch out, because that's when the rebirth of Rip City is really going to take off. Maybe it's just the era of Blazer basketball I grew up in. The late 80's and into the early 90's, every night, the team was in good position to win. I haven't felt that away about our roster since, until now.

That being said, I have a lot of confidence in these young guys. They're hard workers with a lot of pride, and I expected them to bounce back from Boston and beat on a team in transition (Toronto just got a new coach).
 
Blake seems to come through when we need him to. There's a lot to be said about that. I don't think I've ever been more confident in a non-star's clutch abilities. Blake isn't a master creator on offense, but he plays within the offense, and I have seen him create more this year than in the past. He's no Nash, and I don't ever expect him to compare to Nash. But Nash wasn't a great point guard until he was 27-28 or so. If Blake can continue to work and improve, he's more than adequate for our roster.
 
Weird hearing Greg looked up to Jermaine growing up and watching him play when I just remember Jermaine being 'The Kid' here, and still being that teenager looking for his shot.
 
Nikolokolus said:
First time I've ever seen an offensive player get called for a foul when the defender is pulling his jersey down.
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I once saw Kobe hit Blake in the throat with his elbow (on purpose) and Blake got called for the foul.
 
We outrebounded them by 17 so the only way they stayed in the game was by holding our % down with defense, and shooting 49% which they did via Calderon's 13 assists.

A 4-1 road trip is great, and what I expected realistically (although I predicted 5-0), and Blake went from a member of the goatherd to hero with a perfectly executed shot, but that's obvious. He's becoming quite consistent at that, and I never doubted at any point that we'd win the game. I predicted 99-98.

And as I've stated before, I want them to stand pat with this roster through the season. The talent is there, the rhythm is forming, the confidence growing. This is a title team. Whether it takes exceptional coaching, or just another year or 2 of maturing together, this is a title team.

But I'd rather keep focused on what the players can each do to make the team stronger, and perimeter defense and guard defense especially needs drastic improvement. Nate's supposed to be the man in that area so I wonder why there seems to be no special effort to teach these guys 1 on 1 defense? Sergio has improved but he had to go home to Spain's playgrounds to learn. A boost in these guys' defensive success would put us one more step closer to being Title-ready this spring.

The other weakness, which I don't understand, is Channing Frye. He said this season he was going to make a statement, or something like that. Nobody has heard it yet. I believe he's sincere, and has the physical skills needed, so maybe there's another area the coaches could focus on. When he lost that ball and then weakly fouled at the other end letting the guy get the layup too...I cringed. I fully expected him to slam his opponent to the hardwood and then have to be separated by the refs, but instead he sheepishly fouls the guy and backs off. Some coach needs to tell Channing "if you need to deliver a message to someone, deliver it PERSONALLY.
 
BLAZINGGIANTS said:
Maybe I have higher expectations than you. There are very few games on the calendar that I don't expect Portland to win. Now, I realize there's going to be a lot of games that I expect Portland to win that they'll lose. That's how the NBA is. I mean, how many teams have won 70 games? Even the best teams lose to far weaker teams. Though Portland is young, let's not use that excuse. Let's look at our roster, and I think most would say from #1 through #12, there are few teams with more talent. And our team is just going to keep growing together, gain experience, and when they learn how to step up for big games, watch out, because that's when the rebirth of Rip City is really going to take off. Maybe it's just the era of Blazer basketball I grew up in. The late 80's and into the early 90's, every night, the team was in good position to win. I haven't felt that away about our roster since, until now.

That being said, I have a lot of confidence in these young guys. They're hard workers with a lot of pride, and I expected them to bounce back from Boston and beat on a team in transition (Toronto just got a new coach).
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Do you have the NBA league pass? Maybe you do and still feel the same way and I respect that. But having watched a lot of games this year, almost every team has 6-8 guys who are very talented. The difference is our 6-12 guys are very good and also very young. That bodes well for the future, but also means they will go through stretches that they look bad. Right now I think you are being unrealistic. I do hope you are right, but from past experience the fans with unrealistic expectations tend to bitch and moan more when things go bad. Not saying you will, just saying that's how it usually turns out.
 
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