Game Thread Game #3:TRAIL BLAZERS @ LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS OCTOBER 25, 2021 - MONDAY, 7:30 PM, ROOT SPORTS, NBATV (2 Viewers)

[illmatic99]

When Billups and Nurk talked about us running the offense through him more did you think that was a good idea or a bad idea? Has your opinion changed?

dame is 2 for 24 from 3 this season. our offense is still going through him. and he's getting heavy emphasis on the O as usual while being worse so far this year than anfernee simons.

did you watch the game, or do you just troll these threads in losses?

nurk is shooting less than last season, and has less usage, but let's not let facts get in the wave of your playing victim while saber rattling.

 

[BBert]

Lillard was much better when he was not vaccinated.

The 5G must be interfering with his shot.

 

[Tince]

dame is 2 for 24 from 3 this season. our offense is still going through him. did you watch the game, or do you just troll these threads in losses?

I've been in the majority of threads for a long time and I've watched all the games.

I asked a question about how Nurk is being used, you didn't answer it at all, and pointed out that Dame is shooting poorly, which I believe we all agree on. I did not mean to upset you. If you don't want to talk about Nurk for whatever reason, that's fine.

Had Dame gone 8-8 from 3, that still doesn't make up the 30 point difference, so this isn't just Dame.

 

[royo]

What I saw was some ball moving around the arc instead of Dame, CJ and Melo passing the ball in a triangle on the top on 1m2. I like this change. When Dame comes back, we will be obviously in better plays.
One thing I had MUCH higher expectations for is Nurk. He is not better than Gortat at this point.

Billlups will have a lot of material to better the details. I'm still far from calling this team off.

 

[perkinsfor3]

Bullshit turnovers. Paul George has 8 steals? Fuck me. This is really hard to even watch. This is over, put in the scrubs.

Havent we been watching the scrubs so far? Do we currently have non-scrubs?

 

[Tince]

What I saw was some ball moving around the arc instead of Dame, CJ and Melo passing the ball in a triangle on the top on 1m2. I like this change. When Dame comes back, we will be obviously in better plays.
One thing I had MUCH higher expectations for is Nurk. He is not better than Gortat at this point.

Billlups will have a lot of material to better the details. I'm still far from calling this team off.

Not trying to pick on you, but doesn't it feel like a lot of this extra passing is resulting in more turnovers than assists? In general, our opponents will be happy if we swing the ball around the arc and it ends up in Nas, Cov, or Nurks hands vs Dame and CJ being the primary playmakers.

 

[calvin natt]

I take it you weren't part of the group who felt running more of the offense through Nurk was a good idea? I got blasted for suggesting it was a bad idea this off-season.

I'm not calling Nurk names, but he has a long track record of being inconsistent and lacking the maturity required to be the cog of the offense.

Awful idea

 

[AldoTrapani]

Yikes… I’m telling you. About 2 years from now we’re going to wonder why we didn’t start the rebuild about 2 years earlier

 

[blazerkor]

Yikes… I’m telling you. About 2 years from now we’re going to wonder why we didn’t start the rebuild about 2 years earlier

A player's three point shot is the last thing to go. Dude is in a slump and no he's not "feast or famine" he's a shooter and they all go through slumps. He'll end the season at better than 37% from three and at some point you'll be talking about how you feel sorry for Dame and that he could do better. Same old shit from you.

 

[wizenheimer]

Yikes… I’m telling you. About 2 years from now we’re going to wonder why we didn’t start the rebuild about 2 years earlier

you were saying the exact same shit last year after he had a 4 game stretch when he shot 25/72 on FG's (.347) and 7-38 on three's (18%). He worked his way out of that slump. Of course, he wasn't in a new offense that seems based upon taking the ball out of his hands

 

[THE HCP]

This is just bad. Can’t play so good one game, then next play like shit

Makes my 41-41 prediction look ok huh?

 

[THE HCP]

This is just... what the hell do you call this?

A .500 season.

 

[Labinot41]

Wtf happened to Dame

 

[blazerkor]

you were saying the exact same shit last year after he had a 4 game stretch when he shot 25/72 on FG's (.347) and 7-38 on three's (18%). He worked his way out of that slump. Of course, he wasn't in a new offense that seems based upon taking the ball out of his hands

If you listened to Chauncey's post game presser, he's going to make sure Dame starts playing like Dame going forward. He said it was always his intention for Dame to control the game and sometimes CJ but that Dame is such a good teammate that he's been trying to get other guys going too much and that he needs to start looking to get himself going first... or something like that.

 

[AldoTrapani]

A player's three point shot is the last thing to go. Dude is in a slump and no he's not "feast or famine" he's a shooter and they all go through slumps. He'll end the season at better than 37% from three and at some point you'll be talking about how you feel sorry for Dame and that he could do better. Same old shit from you.

That’s fair man but he’s reaching that age

 

[THE HCP]

Wheels Up

 

[blazerkor]

That’s fair man but he’s reaching that age

He's not... plenty of guys older than him with actual injury histories are still in their prime and like I just said, there is no age for shooting the three. Guys who are shooters go out of the league still able to shoot they just get too slow to do everything else.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

POST GAME QUOTES – October 25th, 2021 LA Clippers vs. Portland Trail Blazers STAPLES Center; Los Angeles, CA

CLIPPERS HEAD COACH TYRONN LUE

RE: What he liked the most from the game

“I just liked our activity. I thought our activity was great. I thought Nico [Batum] came out, really set the tone of [hunting] the basketball and just being in passing lanes. [Paul George] having eight steals, I think [Terance Mann] having four steals. PG might have had eight deflections at halftime so just our activity being active. Understanding we had to know where [Damian Lillard] was on the floor at all times, which I thought we did a great job with that. And we just kind of kept flying around you know, we kind of cover for each other. We didn’t leave anyone out to dry and everyone just stayed the course defensively.”

CLIPPERS HEAD COACH TYRONN LUE

RE: Making the game harder for Damian Lillard

“I mean, we just try to, you know, blitz him, keep the ball out of his hands as much as possible. We know he’s a dangerous scorer and he can get going any time. We all know that the world knows that. We just tried to limit his shots as much as possible by blitzing him, and taking him out of pick and roll situations. Limiting him to fifteen shots was pretty good, try to keep him off balance. I thought our team defense did a great job. Like I said, there’s not one person, it’s all five guys and our guys did a good job of keying in on him.”

CLIPPERS GUARD LUKE KENNARD

RE: Trio off the bench

“I think for us [Isaiah Hartenstein and Terrance Mann] it’s the communication, especially on practice days we get together, we work on each action that we know we are going to get. We go through some sets that we want to run just based on our group that we have in that second unit. We go through that every single day in practice just what we need to work on. We get together and work on those things and we just communicate, Isaiah [Hartenstein], he sees the floor really well. He’s a really good passer, a strong finisher. It just opens up a lot for me, T-Mann [Terance Mann], just some of those guys handling the ball a little bit and coming off of those actions. But yeah, we’ve been working on it, communicating a lot. It’s been good for us.”

CLIPPERS GUARD LUKE KENNARD

RE: Being the leading scorer tonight

“I’m always having a good time. It’s always good when you're kind of getting in the rhythm, making some shots feels good, but that’s just part of it. For me, I said it before but staying aggressive and just having that mentality every night just working to get the shots that I know I’m going to get and hopefully they go in. Tonight, I was able to make a few.”

CLIPPERS FORWARD ISAIAH HARTENSTEIN

RE: Chemistry with Luke Kennard and Terance Mann

“I think the biggest thing is that we play really hard. We come in and try to bring energy. We move the ball. It’s not really stagnant. We push the pace; and communicate. That’s been the biggest thing for us so far. Even in practice, like Luke [Kennard] was saying. We all know how to play the game; and try to play winning basketball. Everyone on the team is trying to win games. I think that's helped the most.”

CLIPPERS FORWARD ISAIAH HARTENSTEIN

RE: Mindset of team coming into game and not being 0-3

“I think the biggest thing is right from the get-go, just come in and play hard. PG [Paul George] had eight steals. He was aggressive offensively and defensively. The whole team, especially the starting five, set the tone. We started off great and I think that’s what we didn’t do in the first couple of games. We had to try to come back later on.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

TRAIL BLAZERS HEAD COACH CHAUNCEY BILLUPS

RE: On the Trail Blazers effort

“It was embarrassing, it was really embarrassing. Just the effort. I didn’t think that we started the game out with the right mindset. We talked in the locker room about the Clippers. They hadn’t won a game yet, two tough losses, but they were desperate to get a win. [The Clippers] were at home and we tried to defend against that, but from the very first play of the game we turned the ball over, we couldn’t get the ball where we needed it to go. Their pressure really hurt us, and it just continued to snowball the rest of the way. It’s tough to compete in a game when you have thirty turnovers."

TRAIL BLAZERS HEAD COACH CHAUNCEY BILLUPS

RE: On the third quarter

“I just don’t see how you can have a hangover two days later. Guys had the day off on Sunday. We played like we were tired today, but there was no reason to be tired. So no, at the end of the day there’s no excuse and we came out and again we are in striking distance at halftime. We had turned it over a ton, we just weren’t playing very well. We talked about it at the half, we showed a few clips at the half, and we just didn’t respond. We never competed like we wanted to win the basketball game and that’s disappointing.”

 

[SlyPokerDog]

TRAIL BLAZERS GUARD CJ MCCOLLUM

RE: Potential victory “hangover” from previous win?

“No - I think it was just a bad night, a lot of turnovers, first time travelling for a regular season game. They brought it and we didn’t."

TRAIL BLAZERS GUARD CJ MCCOLLUM

RE: On Damian Lillard’s performance

“He’s getting some quality looks. He’s a tough shot-maker. We’re used to him making shots and I think, obviously, he hasn’t shot the ball the way he normally shoots it, but it’s an 82-game season and when you don’t shoot the ball particularly well you know that it’s only a matter of time before it turns around and he’s hitting 30-footers again."

 

[royo]

Not trying to pick on you, but doesn't it feel like a lot of this extra passing is resulting in more turnovers than assists? In general, our opponents will be happy if we swing the ball around the arc and it ends up in Nas, Cov, or Nurks hands vs Dame and CJ being the primary playmakers.

In my eyes, that is exactly how learning process looks like.

(Little c/o here: some of you, guys, were telling me, that you don't get my parallels. It appeared I'm in the process of diagnosing asparger. So.. They say I may see things differently)

To the point. When you learn riding a bike, on the begining you fall. At that point you will be slower from A to B, than your friend walking.

When you try to walk after stroke, you will be struggling a lot. You can go thru the struggles or give up after three sessions (like Stotts and Lillars did last season).

If you want to talk to Japanese people you can learn Japanese or just stick to you English.

It is learning process, that, after all, will result with much better outcome.

I believe Blazers are just there.

 

[handiman]

Lillard starting the year 2-24 from 3pt. A whopping 8%. I know this will balance out, but dang that’s tough right now.

Well, with a little luck he'll still make the top-75 list of 2021-22.

 

[royo]

TRAIL BLAZERS GUARD CJ MCCOLLUM

RE: Potential victory “hangover” from previous win?

“No - I think it was just a bad night, a lot of turnovers, first time travelling for a regular season game. They brought it and we didn’t."

TRAIL BLAZERS GUARD CJ MCCOLLUM

RE: On Damian Lillard’s performance

“He’s getting some quality looks. He’s a tough shot-maker. We’re used to him making shots and I think, obviously, he hasn’t shot the ball the way he normally shoots it, but it’s an 82-game season and when you don’t shoot the ball particularly well you know that it’s only a matter of time before it turns around and he’s hitting 30-footers again."

You sure it wasn't Stotts' quotes?

 

[AldoTrapani]

He's not... plenty of guys older than him with actual injury histories are still in their prime and like I just said, there is no age for shooting the three. Guys who are shooters go out of the league still able to shoot they just get too slow to do everything else.

I respect that. Fair point

 

[stampedehero]

Trail Blazers vs. Clippers - Box Score - October 25, 2021 - ESPN<

 

[Orion Bailey]

Not my fault…

 

[James lamphear]

Not trying to pick on you, but doesn't it feel like a lot of this extra passing is resulting in more turnovers than assists? In general, our opponents will be happy if we swing the ball around the arc and it ends up in Nas, Cov, or Nurks hands vs Dame and CJ being the primary playmakers.

If you don't move the defense your going have to make tuff passes. Player's just can't stand in one spot and have the move around the arc your not accomplished a damn thing. You move the defense by players also moving while the ball moves.

 

[julius]

Clearly the Blazers waited too long to trade Damian. He's done!

I'm glad that Chauncy is calling the out for the embarrassing effort last night. They should be embarrassed by it. And it's not necessarily about them learning a new system, it was about effort or the lack thereof.

3 games isn't enough to figure out anything, but they've looked like a team that will have a decent record at home, and an abysmal record on the road. 2 out of 3 games they've were outworked, out played and showed meh effort.

Though, the team under Stotts had a lot of stretches were this was evident too, so, maybe it starts with the players who are the leaders. I swear the amount of times that Nurk goes up soft is beyond frustrating. And CJ being MeJ again, and Dame...wtf is with Dame? He's invisible.

 

[Chris Craig]

Clearly the Blazers waited too long to trade Damian. He's done!

I'm glad that Chauncy is calling the out for the embarrassing effort last night. They should be embarrassed by it. And it's not necessarily about them learning a new system, it was about effort or the lack thereof.

3 games isn't enough to figure out anything, but they've looked like a team that will have a decent record at home, and an abysmal record on the road. 2 out of 3 games they've were outworked, out played and showed meh effort.

Though, the team under Stotts had a lot of stretches were this was evident too, so, maybe it starts with the players who are the leaders. I swear the amount of times that Nurk goes up soft is beyond frustrating. And CJ being MeJ again, and Dame...wtf is with Dame? He's invisible.

The bench is fine. The starters need to get their shit together

 

[julius]

The bench is fine. The starters need to get their shit together

It is a little ironic that the bench has been much better (which SHOULD bode well for the whole season). Simons and Little (esp Simons) has been about the only real positive to take from the season so far. Thank god it's early.