The best part about tonight's game (Greg Oden!)

[Wheels]

In the past two games, Oden has had our highest +/- score. Strangely, Przybilla has been a minus both times. Doesn't mean Joel is playing badly (I watched and he was tremendous) but Oden is certainly having a positive impact.

(Oh, and Durant continues to notch up high minuses. And not just because he plays big minutes on a crappy team - Green and Westbrook play equivalent minutes with lower minuses. Oh, and check out this quote from Sam Amico after watching Greg last night:



.)

That is an awesome quote! thanks for sharing that!

 

[Masbee]

OK, we lost to the Cavs which kind of sucked (but damn it was competitive), but how about our boy GO? not the rebounds, not the trips to the line, but the hard fouls and the willingness to give a little shoulder pop to Lebron; no backing down, kind of a mean streak and just hard nosed basketball with no 'stupid' chippy little fouls.

If this is going to be the new Greg, where he just doesn't give a damn then let me just say, "Bravo, more please."

I agree with these thoughts. I really liked the stuff on LeBron from the top down. Awesome.

I did have frustration that Oden had trouble grabbing hold and hanging on the ball last night. Butter fingers.

 

[crandc]

There is an important line between a hard foul and a dirty foul. What happened to Rudy was a dirty foul. Grabbing someone by the neck is a dirty foul. Refusing to cede your piece of the floor is not dirty. It's what we want from Greg. Anyone who wants to get to the basket has to go by him, or around him, or over him, and he'll do his damndest to stop that. Basically, LeBron vs. Greg was the classic irresistable force vs. immovable object.

 

[hasoos]

You know I actually don't look so much at Gregs stats, he was doing a great job rebounding and controlling the paint. But what I would like to point out is in the games where Oden has played on the 2nd unit, that while he is in, the Blazers have made positive runs to leads. That, is what is important.

 

[blazerboy30]

But what I would like to point out is in the games where Oden has played on the 2nd unit, that while he is in, the Blazers have made positive runs to leads. That, is what is important.

Exactly. The drop-off from 1st unit to 2nd unit when we have Greg available becomes much less. As you pointed out, we have actually increased our lead or reduced their lead with the 2nd unit and GO.

 

[mook]

I loved watching Oden knock people around last night. You can tell he got in the heads of everybody he was playing against. He was like the older version of Shaq, in that he may not score on you but you knew when you ran into him. He just had a real presence about him.

If we had Aldridge last night, we win that game.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Check it out.

 

[mgb]

I have to admit Go has played better in his first games back than I expected. I thought he'd be a lot more out of shape and while you could tell he was getting tired when he got his 5th foul, he got up and down and was a lot more active than I thought he wouuld.

I did see one time that I thought he'd get called a foul on and he'll have to watch out for. In the lane he tried to set a screen by just moving his hip into the player. That's going to get him a foul usually.

 

[mgb]

Check it out.

And look at the mins played by the two ahead of Oden.

 

[mgb]

In the past two games, Oden has had our highest +/- score. Strangely, Przybilla has been a minus both times. Doesn't mean Joel is playing badly (I watched and he was tremendous) but Oden is certainly having a positive impact.

(Oh, and Durant continues to notch up high minuses. And not just because he plays big minutes on a crappy team - Green and Westbrook play equivalent minutes with lower minuses. Oh, and check out this quote from Sam Amico after watching Greg last night:



.)

I believe Roy had the highest in the first game back. Though combined theirs are close.