Jaynes thinks things about to get grim for Blazers

lets just hope the blazers keep proving everyone wrong


They’ve done a marvelous job of compensating for all the injuries. But at a certain point, it’s almost impossible to consistently win games against teams that have better players than you do.

The Clippers put a lineup on the floor last night in Los Angeles that was more talented than Portland’s, quite frankly. With LaMarcus Aldridge out of action, the Trail Blazers are too small to battle teams with a big front line — such as tonight’s opponent, Memphis.

Even if Aldridge plays tonight, it’s going to be hard to win. The Blazers, on the second night of a back-to-back, are going to have to defend much better than they did last night against the Clippers. And you worry that with all the minutes the key players worked last night, a defensive improvement may be difficult. Fatigue is the enemy of good defense.

Brandon Roy played 40 minutes last night to score just six points. I can’t recall a team in the NBA so blatantly selling out to stop one man on another team — but it worked very well for the Clippers. Roy didn’t have a lot of room, got frustrated with the officials, himself and probably life in general. Rough night.

For Portland to keep those sorts of defenses from becoming commonplace, the Blazers are going to need to get their players moving a lot better. But it seems sometimes they’re so accustomed to just standing around watching Roy play that they don’t know how to go about helping him when he’s trapped.

Somebody has to come to the ball, other players must knife to the basket. Double-teams create offensive opportunities but you have to move if you want to take advantage.

As for tonight, it’s going to be an uphill battle. Zach Randolph loves to come in here and torture his former team and Marc Gasol was a tough matchup for Portland even when the team was healthy.

Until reinforcements begin to return to the lineup, things could get a little grim.

 

Yea I saw some bad signs last night as well. Roy getting more injured trying to carry the team. We had some guys stepping up (Martell, Miller, Howard) but we didn't have anybody to take pressure off of Brandon the way that Aldridge can. It just looked to me like the team is finally starting to get beat down. Too much perimeter play. Not enough rebounding muscle.

 

we do get aldridge back soon....

 

I think it will get grim as well. Every team coming in will see an opportunity to steal one on the road. (Lakers , Orlando, Cleveland) Tonight's game is huge in terms of staying afloat until they get a few more players back. They have to dig in tonight and play like the season depends on it.

 

The other thing Aldridge can bring a little bit of is shot blocking, or at least changing a few shots. We need that badly. Right now our guys can only position defend, and that isn't cutting it. Other teams are shooting over the top of the Blazers way too often. Leaving the Blazers with the only possibility being to outscore their opponents, and hope for turnovers.

 

so tonights our season????

 

Far from it. With Batum and Rudy coming back soon, this season is far from over. Batum will give us another lock down guy. If he has some offense in his game new from his summer experience, all the better.

 

Hasn't Jaynes been saying basically this same thing for over a month now?

 

Yea, and you know if he repeats it often enough sooner or later a losing streak will come so he can say I told you so. But the thing is, the schedule coming up is rough. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out we are going to take some lumps.

 

They did look tired and severely undermanned last night. But I thought the same thing last week against Philly.

I would guess most of us think Memphis is going to crush us tonight. But with what we've seen in the last several weeks, would you really be THAT surprised if we won tonight?

 

Ok, what is the deal with your need to define the season by individual games?

How in the world does a January game against Memphis = our season? WHO ARE YOU?

 

Doesn't take too much of a genius to predict things could get grim. A real tough January schedule + half of our best players missing = things could get tough

 

Yep that's what I noticed. All night long they were a step behind on defense. Couldn't get any stops. Couldn't keep up the efforts on the boards. That what happens when your guards are trying to hold PF and centers out of the paint. They get worn down.

 

which is failure on kpees part... hes throwing our players under the bus. hes a lousy non creative gm when it comes to trades

 

I said they had to play like it, not that it was their season. I think wins against against Memphis and Milwaukee are essential with the schedule they have coming up. (All with good big men)

 

Thanks MIXUM. You just guaranteed a playoffs berth!

I was hoping you would go there...!

 

For the record, the Blazers are 6-2 this season on 2NB2B games.

 

Nah, there are no essential games in January. Even if we go 3-10 the rest of the month, we'd start February 25-24 and maybe 2-4 games behind the #8 seed. We should start getting some guys back, and hopefully we don't have any more injuries - we might just make a run down the stretch. 45-37 could get you in the post season this year.

Don't give up if things get real rocky this month - there's a lot of ball left to be played.

 

What's their record on B2B with a 7 man rotation?