Game Thread GAME# 71: BLAZERS @ SUNS - MAY 13, 2021 - THURSDAY, 7:00, TNT & NBCSNW (1 Viewer)

[Strenuus]

This game proves we are bad against good teams? We lost by one point!

I'm interested in your thoughts on what I posted in the next game thread.

 

[BBert]

Regardless of what Melo did on defense with Booker previously, you put nurk in there up 1. It's literally a no Brainer. I still can't fathom what he was thinking there.

It was a zero-brainer. Apparently our coach is a negative-brainer.

 

[wizenheimer]

by the way, in 4th Q, Sun's first 10 possessions:

11:22 Jae Crowder makes 25-foot three point jumper (Cameron Payne assists)
10:49 Cameron Payne makes 26-foot step back jumpshot
10:10 Chris Paul makes 17-foot pullup jump shot
9:31 Jae Crowder misses 23-foot jumper
8:56 Cameron Payne makes 23-foot three point jumper (Chris Paul assists)
8:14 Cameron Payne makes driving layup (Torrey Craig assists)
7:32 Cameron Payne makes 29-foot three point jumper (Chris Paul assists)
6:52 Chris Paul makes 16-foot pullup jump shot
6:25 Dario Saric makes layup (Chris Paul assists)
5:55 Chris Paul makes 18-foot pullup jump shot

if you want a scapegoat for the loss, I'd wonder about a defense that allowed the Suns to score 22 points on it's first 10 possessions.

 

[DDolla]

So what happens if their is a triple tie? Who gets in and who gets to the play in games?

 

[blazerkor]

anybody know how many points Dame scored in the 4thQ?

He had 24 according to ESPN.com's play by play. I don't know where else to look that up besides adding them up from there.

 

[Strenuus]

by the way, in 4th Q, Sun's first 10 possessions:

11:22 Jae Crowder makes 25-foot three point jumper (Cameron Payne assists)
10:49 Cameron Payne makes 26-foot step back jumpshot
10:10 Chris Paul makes 17-foot pullup jump shot
9:31 Jae Crowder misses 23-foot jumper
8:56 Cameron Payne makes 23-foot three point jumper (Chris Paul assists)
8:14 Cameron Payne makes driving layup (Torrey Craig assists)
7:32 Cameron Payne makes 29-foot three point jumper (Chris Paul assists)
6:52 Chris Paul makes 16-foot pullup jump shot
6:25 Dario Saric makes layup (Chris Paul assists)
5:55 Chris Paul makes 18-foot pullup jump shot

if you want a scapegoat for the loss, I'd wonder about a defense that allowed the Suns to score 22 points on it's first 10 possessions.

We don't have a defense that can make stops consistently. That'll win us some games when we can make some late game stops... but in a series it doesn't bode well.

 

[BlazerBeav]

So what happens if their is a triple tie? Who gets in and who gets to the play in games?

Dallas 5
Portland 6
LA 7

 

[wizenheimer]

This game proves we are bad against good teams? We lost by one point!

Portland is 1-10 against the top-4 seeds in the west and the one win came when Utah was missing their starting back court

looks kind of bad to me

 

[wizenheimer]

So what happens if their is a triple tie? Who gets in and who gets to the play in games?

assuming you mean PDX, Dallas, and LA; Dallas is 5th seed by virtue of winning their division; Portland is 6th seed by virtue of a better head-to-head record among the 3 teams; Laker are 7th

 

[BlazerBeav]

Portland is 1-10 against the top-4 seeds in the west and the one win came when Utah was missing their starting back court

looks kind of bad to me

How many of those losses were with Portland being without both CJ and Nurk? 2 to the Clippers and 2 to the Suns and at least 1 to Denver and Utah just off the top of my head.

 

[Strenuus]

How many of those losses were with Portland being without both CJ and Nurk? 2 to the Clippers and 2 to the Suns and at least 1 to Denver and Utah just off the top of my head.

I'm honestly wondering what our record is with at least cj back in these games.

 

[Sheldon Shape]

Right? I could not fucking believe Stotts replaced Nurkic with Melo for defense in that situation. And I let my TV know how I felt about it.

How does a paid professional make that mistake over and over again? He always takes out Nurk late the in the fourth. It's like 40 to 50 percent of the time. What a waste of a roster.

 

[blazerkor]

I'm honestly wondering what our record is with at least cj back in these games.

Early season we only played the Clippers and Jazz once before CJ's injury and we lost both of those games. When CJ came back we lost to the Clippers, Jazz, Clippers, Nuggets, beat Utah and just lost to the Suns. So 1 and 7 for the whole season with CJ and 1 and 5 since CJ has returned... against the top 4 seeds in the West. So we went 0-2 without him losing to the Suns and Nuggets in a b2b Feb 22nd and 23rd.

 

[EGame]

I'm honestly wondering what our record is with at least cj back in these games.

CJ missed 2 of the Suns games, 1 of the Nuggets game, none of the Jazz or Clippers games. He could have been a difference maker potentially in our second matchup with the Suns but outside of that, not really sure we'd be much better against the top.

 

[KSF-ERIC]

Portland is 1-10 against the top-4 seeds in the west and the one win came when Utah was missing their starting back court

looks kind of bad to me

All of them came with us playing without our starting PF. But don’t forget 2018-19!! OKC 4-0 in regular season, Blazers 4-1 in playoffs.

 

[KSF-ERIC]

People are forgetting we didn’t have Powell for some of those losses.

 

[BlazerBeav]

Yeah, the only relevant games are the ones with our current starters - with whom we are clearly a better team than we had been with only Dame and Roco. Sucks, LAC is just the worst matchup.

 

[EGame]

Yeah, the only relevant games are the ones with our current starters - with whom we are clearly a better team than we had been with only Dame and Roco. Sucks, LAC is just the worst matchup.

To be fair we still haven't been better in limited sample sizes if we are just going with our current rotation. We are 0-1 against Denver (whom were without Murray), 0-2 against Clippers (we were without Dame for 1 game, but they were without Kawahi that same game so its a wash), 1-1 against Utah and now 0-1 against Phoenix. So 1-5.

 

[KSF-ERIC]

So what happens if their is a triple tie? Who gets in and who gets to the play in games?

Dallas 5
Blazers 6
Lakers 7

 

[AldoTrapani]

Portland is 1-10 against the top-4 seeds in the west and the one win came when Utah was missing their starting back court

looks kind of bad to me

Its all good. Changes are coming soon. Major ones at that.

 

[KSF-ERIC]

To be fair we still haven't been better in limited sample sizes if we are just going with our current rotation. We are 0-1 against Denver (whom were without Murray), 0-2 against Clippers (we were without Dame for 1 game, but they were without Kawahi that same game so its a wash), 1-1 against Utah and now 0-1 against Phoenix. So 1-5.

All that shit won’t matter when playoffs start. Everything goes to 0-0.

 

[Strenuus]

All that shit won’t matter when playoffs start. Everything goes to 0-0.

The irony hurts so bad.

 

[PCmor7]

This is a tough one for me to take. I thought the foul call at the end was garbage, not because it wasn't a foul but because I don't think the Blazers get that call if the roles were reversed and we were at home.

Of course, it never should have come to that. How we can't get the ball to Dame on that inbound (or for the final shot of the game) is beyond me ... if you can't get the ball to him, it has to be because they've sold out on defense so much that someone is running all alone and going to get the ball and take at least 2 seconds off the clock before he's fouled. And RoCo ... geez, talk about unclutch. But, like I said about Nurk, there's a reason why you can acquire these guys; they're good or specialists but not great. He missed both of those FTs badly, though.

We aren't in that position at all if not for that stretch in the third quarter where we reverted to our old style of individual-oriented play. We've a talented group of players, but not one so talented that we can throw away possessions because we lose our composure, and we threw a lot of possessions away there. If we get two good shots in that sequence where we were taking lazy shots or forcing up unnecessary tough shots, we almost certainly make one and win the game.

I guess that's the one silver lining for me: If we'd have won it might have been counter-productive because we'd have won in spite of doing the same dumb things that cost us so many games earlier this season, and that might have let complacency set in and make guys think it wasn't the change in style that had us playing better lately, it was just our talent rising to the mean. Now, at least, this can be an example to the players that even reverting to that one-on-five approach for five minutes of game time is enough for us to lose, that we have to be totally committed and totally bought in to the style and intensity that we'd been playing with the last 10 games. If we'd have pulled that game out after playing so intelligently for such a significant stretch when the game was tight, it still would have felt a bit like a loss to me.

 

[PCmor7]

BTW, I don't put this one on the defense. I know it's easy to do that, especially how we let them score at will for a while there, but the Suns are a very, very good offensive team. The Blazers aren't a great defensive team. The Blazers' defense is at its best when the offense is cooking, because it doesn't turn the ball over or miss shots badly leading to fast breaks, and it makes opponents get out of their system as they are forced to try to match the Blazers shot for shot; their poise usually breaks and we open up a multi-possession lead.

Our defense is worse when our offense is predictable.

 

[stampedehero]

Trail Blazers vs. Suns - Box Score - May 13, 2021 - ESPN<<<<

 

[beast blazer]

touching someone's elbow can really affect their shot. Powell shouldn't have been reaching in

 

[crandc]

Anyone else have trouble sleeping?

 

[Fairly-Hard]

by the way, in 4th Q, Sun's first 10 possessions:

11:22 Jae Crowder makes 25-foot three point jumper (Cameron Payne assists)
10:49 Cameron Payne makes 26-foot step back jumpshot
10:10 Chris Paul makes 17-foot pullup jump shot
9:31 Jae Crowder misses 23-foot jumper
8:56 Cameron Payne makes 23-foot three point jumper (Chris Paul assists)
8:14 Cameron Payne makes driving layup (Torrey Craig assists)
7:32 Cameron Payne makes 29-foot three point jumper (Chris Paul assists)
6:52 Chris Paul makes 16-foot pullup jump shot
6:25 Dario Saric makes layup (Chris Paul assists)
5:55 Chris Paul makes 18-foot pullup jump shot

if you want a scapegoat for the loss, I'd wonder about a defense that allowed the Suns to score 22 points on it's first 10 possessions.

Nurk entered the game with about 7 and a half minutes left. Look at where the shots came from before and after he entered the game? They were cooking the Blazers with the mid range with Nurk on the floor.

 

[Fairly-Hard]

BTW, I don't put this one on the defense. I know it's easy to do that, especially how we let them score at will for a while there, but the Suns are a very, very good offensive team.

In the end a great offensive player is very tough to guard. Great Offense usually beats Good Defense. There were some plays last night by both Paul and Lillard that nobody could have guarded.

 

[Phatguysrule]

If there was an elbow touched or a hand on hip the wrong ref called it. The rear ref who had the angle didn't call anything.

If that's a foul Dame should be shooting 20 free throws per game. Absolute BS call at that point in the game.