That was a great disappointment! After a superb first half with excellent offense and defense that was good early, scoring 68 points and looking good, what should have been a win was a loss.
What is evident is that the Clippers won the second half, scoring more that 70 points in the second half! Where was the defense?
To bring defensive intensity, the Blazers need to use the fresh guys on the bench and keep the intensity up. The lack of defense might be due to not paying enough attention to using strategic resources. Why not use the talent that can bring defensive energy. LA had 20 points in the first half, and might have had more in the second if ML had been in for minutes in the second half to provide some defensive energy, a few 3 pointers, and rebounds while LA rested. In fact, I would like to see ML stay in there when LA returns as a tall guard (with RL, NB, and DL), which would be a tall and active Blazer grouping.
The referee performance in the second half was appalling. The inconsistent calls (e.g., DL fouled with no call followed by a touch call at the other end, the groin hit of Chris yet called against him, obvious fouls of LA, RL, AA not called, and the outrageous foul of NB by Riddick that should have been called a flagrant) are reasons for the Blazer coaches to be making noise, as the Clippers coaches were again overbearingly doing. The Blazers need to stand firm against uneven calls by the referees if this to be entertaining. Such shoddy work by referees is a strong reason for not watching these games.
For these reasons, I call on the coaches to improve their efforts, which appear to be the weakness leading to the poor performance of the second half Blazers. Let's see 4 quarters of strategy that includes defense!
What is evident is that the Clippers won the second half, scoring more that 70 points in the second half! Where was the defense?
To bring defensive intensity, the Blazers need to use the fresh guys on the bench and keep the intensity up. The lack of defense might be due to not paying enough attention to using strategic resources. Why not use the talent that can bring defensive energy. LA had 20 points in the first half, and might have had more in the second if ML had been in for minutes in the second half to provide some defensive energy, a few 3 pointers, and rebounds while LA rested. In fact, I would like to see ML stay in there when LA returns as a tall guard (with RL, NB, and DL), which would be a tall and active Blazer grouping.
The referee performance in the second half was appalling. The inconsistent calls (e.g., DL fouled with no call followed by a touch call at the other end, the groin hit of Chris yet called against him, obvious fouls of LA, RL, AA not called, and the outrageous foul of NB by Riddick that should have been called a flagrant) are reasons for the Blazer coaches to be making noise, as the Clippers coaches were again overbearingly doing. The Blazers need to stand firm against uneven calls by the referees if this to be entertaining. Such shoddy work by referees is a strong reason for not watching these games.
For these reasons, I call on the coaches to improve their efforts, which appear to be the weakness leading to the poor performance of the second half Blazers. Let's see 4 quarters of strategy that includes defense!
