What Philly did that other teams are learning to do against Portland is simple: playing aggressive, heads-up man defense, double-teaming Roy almost every time he touches the ball, and making the Blazers rotate the ball to the open man, which they seem to have a very hard time doing. The last several games, I've seen athletic teams make the Blazers damn-near ineffective on offense, simply by almost over-playing on defense. The Blazers usually have a big size advantage, with Oden/Pryz and Aldridge, yet they very rarely run plays to get the ball down low to exploit it. LaMarcus seems to have gone back away from his dominating low-post play and seems content to hoist 20-foot jump shots from the top of the key.
A very frustrating game to watch, because <b>I KNOW</b> the Blazers are a better team than the 76ers. But the 76ers played a better game, shot the lights out, and wanted it more. That's the bottom line.
It is a playoff race again, though. I think this isn't an awful thing. It'll keep us on our toes. I was hoping for a win, but Philly has some strong-ass guards (ripped arms man... all those dudes are cut), and they successfully placed our skinny butts where they wanted us on the court. Nothing to be done for it now, of course. We will bounce back. We will dig out more wins. We will make the playoffs.
