SI: Right now, Blazers look legit

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Quick question: has Durant ever had a really awesome game against the Blazers? I only remember a bunch of poor shooting games against us.
 
yuyuza1 said:
Not sure I like all this attention.
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Watch sportscenter then. The highlights last night were all about how the Thunder Lost, all of Durant's missed shots, and Perk fighting with LA. No credit given.
 
BlazerCaravan said:
Quick question: has Durant ever had a really awesome game against the Blazers? I only remember a bunch of poor shooting games against us.
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He averaged 29 and 8 against us last year ... so "yes."
 
Nikolokolus said:
He averaged 29 and 8 against us last year ... so "yes."
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Yeah I see that now; but shooting-wise, he's only had 5 games against us shooting better than 40.0%... (2008-03, 2010-11 x2, 2010-02, 2009-02, 5-0 in that situation). He's also 7-10 against us, and has had 12 games shooting 40% or worse (2-10 in that situation). So yeah, he's been decent, but hardly great against us overall. Just keep him shooting around 40% and Westbrook will lose confidence in him in the 4th. :D
 
I liked this part:

"The Blazers answered emphatically in a smart, efficient, fantastic win Tuesday at Oklahoma City, a team admittedly playing on the second end of a tough Dallas-Portland back-to-back. It was easily Portland’s slowest game of the season, featuring just 91 possessions, below the league’s average, let alone the average for a Portland team that ranks fourth in possessions per game even after last night"

I think it is imperative that we can play both ways. (Fast and slow) Especially on the road.
 
HailBlazers said:
LOVED GWall backing down Durant last night, even though he missed a couple, it was great to see him beastin.
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And it wears Durant down too. Didn't realize that he's that weak in the post. It's gonna have to force OKC to double Wallace if we see them again. That means we got a big open.
 
magnifier661 said:
Shit I meant to say KDs. My bad.
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It's all good, dude. Gotta give shit when there's an opportunity.

Nothing on you, just how I roll.

I do remember one of the first games last year we had G-Dub was against OKC. IIRC, G-Dub looked pretty good and made KD work extremely hard to get his. I feel like it's been that way every time we play OKC now. And after every game, it's "KD had an off-night". At some point, G-Dub will get his due.
 
BLAZINGGIANTS said:
It's all good, dude. Gotta give shit when there's an opportunity.

Nothing on you, just how I roll.

I do remember one of the first games last year we had G-Dub was against OKC. IIRC, G-Dub looked pretty good and made KD work extremely hard to get his. I feel like it's been that way every time we play OKC now. And after every game, it's "KD had an off-night". At some point, G-Dub will get his due.
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That's good that other people aren't giving him credit. It fuels his fire to keep coming at him strong. What other team has a player(s) that can keep 100% pressure on him the entire game?
 
As far as Portland's legitimacy.... I've long felt the talent was there to be better than their record indicated. But when every play consists of you walking the ball up the court, seeing if you can work the middle, there's a little pressure, so instead you work the perimeter and then settle for a jumpshot.... Well, you live and die by the jumpshot, and it's not hard for a defense to figure out what's coming.

This season, I've noticed Portland's pace has come naturally. One possession, there's a good opportunity to run, so they run. The next, nothing is going on, so they play within the halfcourt, work the ball around, and see what's available/develops. There's more of a tendency to push this year, but when it's not there, the team has been good with deciding that they need to pull the ball out and slow down. If nothing else, they have shown that they can play both slow and fast, and that makes them a more difficult team to defend.
 
HailBlazers said:
LOVED GWall backing down Durant last night, even though he missed a couple, it was great to see him beastin.
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Ya, it was like, play some defense bitch or I will torch you fuckers.


Another thing that is clear. The NBA has some great advanced scouts. Someone just watched Portland expose Durant.

My pizza delivery friend and I spoke last night and he said Portland took what the Mavs did the night before and improved on it. Marion and Carter just kept posting Durant and pushing him backwards.
 
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One thing that the national media seemed to keep harping on in predicting that the Blazers would drop to the bottom tier of the West was that they lost Roy to retirement and that Oden wasn't likely to play this season. They seem to have overlooked the fact that the Blazers lost the All-Star version of Roy at the end of the 2009-10 season. Except for cameo appearances last year, the guy who was in his uniform wasn't the same Brandon of old. Oden didn't play a game last year, so even if he doesn't play again this year, it's no different than what the Blazers dealt with last year. Despite all of that, the Blazers had a solid season in 2010-11, made the playoffs, and took the eventual champs to 6 games. The addition this year of Felton, Crawford and Thomas, coupled with a switch to an uptempo game plan, makes the Blazers better than last year's team. If they can stay healthy, and that's the same for every team, the Blazers can compete with anybody in the West.
 
Mediocre Man said:
Ya, it was ok, play some defense bitch or I will torch you fuckers.


Another thing that is clear. The NBA has some great advanced scouts. Someone just watched Portland expose Durant.

My pizza delivery friend and I spoke last night and he said Portland took what the Mavs did the night before and improved on it. Marion and Carter just kept posting Durant and pushing him backwards.
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You are Mediocre Man?!! Why didn't you say so?
 
Boise Blazer said:
I dont mean this in a bad way at all, Im just really curious, but what is it about the way the that LMA talks/speaks. Is it the changing tempo, the pauses?
Something always throws me off. Anybody ever heard anything about that?

http://www.nba.com/blazers/video/2012/01/03/044LApst20120103-1953654
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He has a speech impediment, actually pretty amazing he is improving to be as good of a speaker as he is. Sometimes people think he's arrogant with his demeanor and tone but actually he's just searching for the best way of explaining himself and he can get kind of nervous.
 
Draco said:
He has a speech impediment, actually pretty amazing he is improving to be as good of a speaker as he is. Sometimes people think he's arrogant with his demeanor and tone but actually he's just searching for the best way of explaining himself and he can get kind of nervous.
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I have actually noticed an improvement. He is clearly a lot more comfortable in interviews than he used to be. Thanks for the info.
 
Boise Blazer said:
I have actually noticed an improvement. He is clearly a lot more comfortable in interviews than he used to be. Thanks for the info.
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Yeah I was pretty pleased with how natural he sounded in that latest interview with MB compared to last season or two seasons ago. He's really taken his role as team leader seriously in that regard too.
 
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