So, here we are. 20 games in.

[Boise Blazer]

I think our Texas swing will say a lot about our team. SAS, NOP, HOU, OKC. 4 Games in 5 nights and 2 B2B's obviously. Going 3-1 on that trip would speak volumes. Lofty goals sure but that it the type of trip that would speak to where we really are. Also the SAS and OKC games could go a long way towards deciding season series tie breakers.

 

[magnifier661]

Still not sold on our offense. It'll be good enough to be a Top 5 seeded team, but I don't buy it as a contender.
And our defense just gave up 50% shooting to the Knicks. Defensive improvement is immense, but I think it's also a bit over-hyped.
Unfortunately, I think we're seeing the same thing we saw last year - a good W/L record to start the season, but I'm less and less impressed by it as the weeks go by.

I don't know why you would use just one game to make an observation for the entire season. Lets give you the true numbers. The numbers that have been accumulated throughout the season.

1.) The Blazers hold teams to a 43.4% shooting, which is 6th in the entire league.
2.) The more important advanced stat shows the Blazers holding opponents to eFG of 46.3%, which is third best in the entire league.
3.) We hold teams to 29.6% from 3, which is 2nd best in the league.
4.) We are 5th in allowing 2% FG at 46.8%
5.) We are second in the league at TS% at 100.2%
6.) We are tied for 8th in Block% at 6.3%
7.) We are 5th in the entire league for holding teams assists per game at 19.3
8.) We are #1 in the entire league in RPG

So I don't know why you suspect our defense? We are top 10 in every major category.

 

[e_blazer]

About a quarter of the way through the season and the Blazers have won 80% of their games, what's not to like? They're winning at about the rate they did last season despite predictions around here that they wouldn't be able to reproduce last season's hot start. Sure, their winning percentage will come down as they start playing more top-tier western teams the second half of the season, but they're on pace to duplicate or exceed last year's 54 wins, which is pretty darned impressive. Their offense hasn't been clicking the way it has in the past, but the perimeter shooting will come back and the defense is an order of magnitude better than last year at the same time. The Blazers are doing everything right to put themselves into contending status. Stay healthy and keep doing what they're doing.

 

[blue9]

I said I don't buy our offense, and that while our defense is vastly improved I think we're over-hyping it. Despite having a good OppFG% in the paint, we're 9th worst at allowing opponents TO shoot in the paint.

 

[illmatic99]

I think our Texas swing will say a lot about our team. SAS, NOP, HOU, OKC. 4 Games in 5 nights and 2 B2B's obviously. Going 3-1 on that trip would speak volumes. Lofty goals sure but that it the type of trip that would speak to where we really are. Also the SAS and OKC games could go a long way towards deciding season series tie breakers.

Had a similar trip last year, and we went 1-4.

I still don't think we're capable of beating all those team on the road. I haven't yet seen a game in a while where we put down a team from start to finish and play a complete game on both ends.

Our record is nice but I don't see it being sustainable based on the play so far. This tendency to flip a switch and letting bad teams hang with us is frustrating.

 

[Boise Blazer]

Had a similar trip last year, and we went 1-4.

I still don't think we're capable of beating all those team on the road. I haven't yet seen a game in a while where we put down a team from start to finish and play a complete game on both ends.

Our record is nice but I don't see it being sustainable based on the play so far. This tendency to flip a switch and letting bad teams hang with us is frustrating.

Agreed which is why I feel like personally I would be happy with 2-2 whereas 3-1 really feels "elite" if you will.

 

[rasheedfan2005]

This is the year. We win it all and paul allen opens the bank account. We keep the core pick up a vet maybe and put together a dynasty for lillards entire career

 

[magnifier661]

Had a similar trip last year, and we went 1-4.

I still don't think we're capable of beating all those team on the road. I haven't yet seen a game in a while where we put down a team from start to finish and play a complete game on both ends.

Our record is nice but I don't see it being sustainable based on the play so far. This tendency to flip a switch and letting bad teams hang with us is frustrating.

You can flip that around... We haven't see a team able to take us down either. In fact, I think we've only lost 1 game trailing in the 4th. The other 3 losses were when we had ties going into the 4th.

As much as I would love to blow out teams, I think these nail biters are good for the ball club. We need diversity style games to always keep us on our toes. Steam rolling through the competition may not help us for the real battles of the post season.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

Our starters are not as consistent as last year, but we're still winning through it.

 

[Kaydow]

You have to be pleased with 16-4 start. The thing that's frustrating is how ridiculous the Western Conf is. When have you ever seen the #7 seed (Dallas) on pace to win 60 games this far into the season? Nobody said it would be easy, but Memphis & GS playing this well just makes it absurd. And now OKC is about to join the party. If we run into injury problems or just hit a dry spell, it could mean slipping to the 8 spot within a week or 2. NBA dynamics just really strange right now - 8 teams on pace to win 60 games, 7 teams on pace to lose 60 games. Both would be records by far.

 

[Boise Blazer]

You have to be pleased with 16-4 start. The thing that's frustrating is how ridiculous the Western Conf is. When have you ever seen the #7 seed (Dallas) on pace to win 60 games this far into the season? Nobody said it would be easy, but Memphis & GS playing this well just makes it absurd. And now OKC is about to join the party. If we run into injury problems or just hit a dry spell, it could mean slipping to the 8 spot within a week or 2. NBA dynamics just really strange right now - 8 teams on pace to win 60 games, 7 teams on pace to lose 60 games. Both would be records by far.

Or the poor Pels, about to go to .500 when they beat the Knicks and they are in last place in their division and 5.5 games out of 4th place!!! Yikes.