First Quarter Woes: Fatigue and other BS excuses

[Reep]

That travel will wear on you. They got in at 2:15 AM and weren't in there beds til 3:15! After a tight game. That can tire you out.

Fine. What about the rest of the season?

I'm not talking about just last night's game, but this disturbing trend of playing like a bottom-dweller in the first quarter, and then having to catch up the rest of the game.

 

[Nikolokolus]

Fine. What about the rest of the season?

I'm not talking about just last night's game, but this disturbing trend of playing like a bottom-dweller in the first quarter, and then having to catch up the rest of the game.

They've struggled at times in the past month or so, but it's hardly been any kind of season long trend.

Christ people, try to enjoy the fact that the team is fifteen games over .500

 

[STOMP]

Totally agree with this statement, but again, it doesn't excuse the trend of poor first quarter play for the rest of the season.

I'd guess youth/focus is the likely culprit. As you alluded, experience can help teach the athlete what they need to do to prepare. Learning how to be closer to "the zone" as the ball drops is part of this too.

btw... my buddy finished top 10 in the Hard Rock 100 this last year

STOMP

 

[bigbailes]

They've struggled at times in the past month or so, but it's hardly been any kind of season long trend.

Christ people, try to enjoy the fact that the team is fifteen games over .500

NO damnit, if they don't win each and every of their remaining games, get HCA and advance to the WCF's than this season is a bust, worthless, not even worth the time to watch them. ok, sarcasm off.

seriously, they struggle in the first quarter of quite a few games, but you know what, they play really well in the second half of games.

and can we change the name of this forum from ripcitytwo.com to blazerfansarebipolar.com? it seems like it would be much more fitting.

 

[Reep]

btw... my buddy finished top 10 in the Hard Rock 100 this last year

STOMP

Wow. I can't imagine doing that. I can go fast for about 26 miles, but my body shuts down after that.

Christ people, try to enjoy the fact that the team is fifteen games over .500

I do enjoy their record and am very proud of where they are. I just think there might be something they could do in game prep that would have netted them a couple more easy wins.

 

[Minstrel]

seriously, they struggle in the first quarter of quite a few games, but you know what, they play really well in the second half of games.

The amusing thing is that if the Blazers started games great, but lost games by fading in the second half, there would be threads demanding to know why this team chokes games away.

The moral of the story: You should be the best all the time. If you're not, there will be an inquiry into why you chose to let all yours fans down by struggling at times. And if you are the best, you'd better not lose any games...because losing to a worse team is clear evidence of being mentally/emotionally weak.

 

[andalusian]

seriously, they struggle in the first quarter of quite a few games, but you know what, they play really well in the second half of games.

Maybe the team can just appear to games in the 2nd half. Will also cut the laundry bills if they are only used 24 minutes each day, I suppose. A little bit like Formula 1's one engine for 2 races policy...

 

[Pinwheel1]

Most teams do not win all four quarters. So if you had to pick one of the four to play bad in, Which one do you pick? I pick the 1st. If you can pick one of the 4 qts to play well in, which one do you pick? I pick the 4th. (and statistically i think we do)

Of course some games we just plain suck. That happens too.

 

[STOMP]

Wow. I can't imagine doing that. I can go fast for about 26 miles, but my body shuts down after that.

The only running I really do is pickup hoops. I have done a few centuries bike riding and I'm with you... running 100 seems pretty insane. From your answer back I'm not sure you realize how outrageous this particular 100 mile race is. The first paragraph in this link starts to capture it.

STOMP

 

[DaRizzle]

One of my friend has illusions of doing this

http://www.badwater.com/

Its only 135 miles in the dead of summer in Death Valley...i dont see the big deal

Its so hot the runners have to change shoes during the race cause the pavement melted off the bottom of their shoes...no biggie

 

[Reep]

The only running I really do is pickup hoops. I have done a few centuries bike riding and I'm with you... running 100 seems pretty insane. From your answer back I'm not sure you realize how outrageous this particular 100 mile race is. The first paragraph in this link starts to capture it.

STOMP

Didn't realize it had that much elevation change. I've run half marathons with 3000' of climbing and I have done some training runs at 11,000-12,000 feet (no air up there), but can't imagine doing all that at the same time. I guess the standard old marathon is just too warm and fuzzy for them.

 

[STOMP]

One of my friend has illusions of doing this

http://www.badwater.com/

Its only 135 miles in the dead of summer in Death Valley...i dont see the big deal

Its so hot the runners have to change shoes during the race cause the pavement melted off the bottom of their shoes...no biggie

I'm sure you've heard your friend speak of Dean Karnazes. He won that Badwater race last year. For him that was truly no big deal.

STOMP

 

[Minstrel]

I'm sure you've heard your friend speak of Dean Karnazes. He won that Badwater race last year. For him that was truly no big deal.

Ha. Reading that, it includes "...and then went on to complete the 262-mile Saturn Relay all by yourself."

He did a race that twelve-person relay teams do, all by himself? Is he an alien?

 

[STOMP]

Didn't realize it had that much elevation change. I've run half marathons with 3000' of climbing and I have done some training runs at 11,000-12,000 feet (no air up there), but can't imagine doing all that at the same time. I guess the standard old marathon is just too warm and fuzzy for them.

pretty much. That and my friend grew up in Bishop CA (see photo-it's the dark green spot in the valley) and has a few beautiful trails around.

STOMP

 

[STOMP]

Ha. Reading that, it includes "...and then went on to complete the 262-mile Saturn Relay all by yourself."

He did a race that twelve-person relay teams do, all by himself? Is he an alien?

he lives a couple miles from me in SF with his wife and kids. I've seen him running a few times when I've been out on bike rides and heard him speak at REI when he was on a book tour. I recall an anecdote about that Saturn run... after running for a few days strait he fell asleep only to wake up in the middle of the road still running.

I guess he can trace his ancestry back to the original Greek marathoners.

STOMP

 

[gatorpops]

I didn't get to read this thread till this AM, but found that no one even mentioned that most teams do not play very strong defense in the first quarter. And no one mentioned that one of our weaknesses is that with Batum playing he is above average for a defender but most of the time he struggles with offense. If he does Nate takes him out and puts in Outlaw for offense. If we had Webster we would probablely had some more wins. He would/should be able to give that extra offense in the first quarter and hold his own on defense. This give us another 3 to 5 pts per game and gets a several more wins. Note Utah has won like 9 or 10 games recently because they have their team back together. If we had had oden and Webster we would be a very hard team to beat even on B2B games even at Denver.