“Travis has had some open shots he normally would knock down,” Portland coach Nate McMillan said. “But also, we’ve gone with the big lineup, so he’s not playing (power forward) as much. We’ve gone with Joel (Przybilla) and Greg (Oden) as opposed to Travis at the 4. “If we go with Travis (at the 4), we get pounded on the boards. If we go with the big group, Travis is playing the 3 and not getting the same looks he does against a (Carl) Landry, (Chuck) Hayes or (Luis) Scola.” Przybilla and Oden have played together for little more than six minutes in the series – not at all in the opener, for 4:28 in Game 2 and for 1:56 in Game 3. Most of Outlaw’s minutes, however, have come at small forward alongside LaMarcus Aldridge and one of the Blazer centers. Might McMillan use Outlaw more at power forward Sunday night? “To try and get him off (offensively), we may have to look at it a little bit,” McMillan said. “But he has to defend and rebound at that position.” Portland – the No. 1 rebounding team in the NBA during the regular season – has been outboarded 120-98 in the series, including 99-68 on the defensive glass. In the Blazers’ Game 2 victory, they won the backboard battle 36-35. and... “I told Sergio, if we go with the two bigs (Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla), I’m going to use a guard rotation of (Steve) Blake, Rudy (Fernandez) and Brandon (Roy),” McMillan said. “If we go with Travis (Outlaw) at the 4, then I’ll use Sergio, because he is better with a running group than a big group.” The quite obvious flaw in Nate's thinking is neither Steve nor Brandon are even average at running the pick and roll, so we're wasting our bigs by having them in there with 2 guys who don't feed them. Rudy plays well with either center. Blake and Roy freeze them out. A lineup of Joel, Greg, Travis, Rudy and Sergio is a squad who will not let Houston get set on offense and one which can score from anywhere on the court, from the rim on out to halfcourt.
Because he knows it will get people riled up enough to argue with him, normally I would respond because I like arguing, but lately I've just been enjoying sitting back and watching him post his drivel over and over and over ...
I've stopped posting here as often since the roller coaster/trophy riding fan traffic has increased on here in the last month or so. It's become very frustrating to sift through pages of nonsense over and over and over again.
