Oden's a career 63% free throw shooter. Why was he even taking such crucial shots at the end anyways? You can't put people in a position to fail and then complain when they do.
I wonder if Nate is quickly turning into the Mike Schuler of this team. Anyone remember how the 87-88 team won 53 games, and was supposed to do decent the next year, only to suck shit the next year?
You speak of this as if it was by design. GO was in there to rebound the ball. Have the Blazers outgrown McMoron?
did you watch the game? roy went up and had nowhere to go and dumped it to oden it the middle. oden kicked it out to rudy for a shot but martin fouled him so he went to the line.
I actually don't know how the game ended, just tried to piece it together from posts in here and yahoo's play-by-play. My internet feed timed out in the last couple minutes. EDIT: I see what happened. My mistake.
I would've been happy with 1 of 2. I know Joel would've made one. Oden still looks so depressed out there. Has absolutely no confidence. I didn't expect him to hit them. HOWEVER, if we ran more plays for him during the game and IF he had the skills required to hold onto the ball and finish, he might've had more confidence at the end. Even after a whole season and then a full off season to improve his game, he is still a work in progress. I hope he punishes Hayes on Saturday.
Nope. Did anyone forget Turk's shot or Blake's missed FTs last season? We'll remember this one. Home loss to divisional foe. Oden chokes at line and costs us a win. Just what the doctor ordered for his already low confidence level.
I suppose so. But to revise my earlier statement into something more accurate, the Blazers never should have been a situation where they were relying on a 63% FT shooter at the end of the game. The earlier FT misses were far more egregious, IMO.
if oden attempts to punish hayes, he'll probably either end up with turnovers from trying to force things too much or end up on the bench with a couple of offensive fouls. oden just needs to worry about playing his game. he missed some big free throws tonight, but he doesn't need to try to make up for it by proving something next game. he just needs to consistently produce every night and not worry about it.
I don't like what I see from Aldridge so far. He seems to be very loosey-goosey, not at all serious, and content to just chuck up jump shots. If he doesn't watch it, he's going to turn into Rashweed Wallace.
I remember LaMarcus started out slow last season as well... but he settles way too much for fadeaway 18-foot jump shots. He needs to use those muscles he apparently worked on over the offseason.
Yep. Oden needs to not read the ridiculous blog posts/threads saying he should BE THE MAN on offense, and just concentrate on rebounding and defending. That is who he is. I feel bad for the people who don't appreciate his obvious strengths. He's an elite rebounder, right now.
We shot 34.6%. That won't win you a game against one of the league's best teams. This loss falls on the team, not on one player.
Not liking what I'm seeing from LMA at all! At the first of last season (very early on) LMA played with tenacity! I was shocked at how he built his upper body over the summer...and how aggressive he played. I'm not seeing any of the sort this year! You say "loosy goosy" - I say lazy...same thing, I suppose. LMA's game kept us from winning tonight and IMHO is one of the reasons we lost our 20 point lead on Tuesday night!
This game was lost with LMA settling for questionable jumpers all night. The refs established very early that they were calling any incidental contact inside. He should have been going at the rim but that doesn't seem to be part of his game.
