Blazers vs. Kings game thread

I don't find that to be true. We can agree that Don Nelson typically goes for guys who can score the ball and doesn't put much focus in defense, but I have no way of seeing if the players themselves can play individual defense or not. There coach just chooses not to put focus on it. Look at all the D League players the Warriors have acquired lately. They are all contributing, not only on the offensive end, but the defensive as well.

 

Tue 3/2 atOklahoma City (35-23) L 107 - 113
Wed 3/3 at Houston (30-29) W 84 - 81
Fri 3/5 at Dallas (41-21) L 100 - 108
Sun 3/7 Oklahoma City (37-24) L 102 - 108
Tue 3/9 Portland Trail Blazers at Portland (37-28) L 81 - 88


Damn the Blazers for beating the Kings by more pts than the Thunder did...twice.

All those teams won in spite of their coaches as well.

 

The Kings have not been too bad in the last 5-6 games. Lost twice to OKC, each time by 6 points, lost to Dallas by 8 points, won against Houston, Clippers and Utah. They are not as bad a team as their record shows. Just a very young team with their best player a rookie.

 

You didn't, I'm saying he can't. You said players who can shoot and not play defense thrive on the Warriors. Monta is among the steals leaders. Stephen Jackson is a very good defensive player as well. Just because their system doesn't focus on defense, it doesn't mean they can't. If Nelly can get D League players to score the ball with such efficiency, why can't our coach with Olympic stars and lottery picks? Ask yourself.

 

Whether a coaches preaches an offensive philosophy more than defense, doesn't take away from the fact that those guys are horrible on defense. Could it influence it? Yes, but it doesn't take away the fact that they are horrible on that end.

 

All those teams have better records, outside of Houston. We amongst the most talented teams in the league, yet we manage to be mediocre. Thumbs up to you for being content with a 1st round and out team.

 

Ellis plays the passing lanes, more often than not getting burned, but occasionally getting the steal. The Warriors give up the most point in the league for a reason. His steals numbers don't impress me, Ellis simply isn't a good defender.

 

Stephen Jackson was horrible too? Biedrins and Turiaf? Monta Ellis is among the tops in steals per game as well. What are you talking about? If your coach wants to abandon any thought of playing defense, how would you know if the individual players can play it or not? Do you have magic?

 

He's better than you would think for being undersized, that's what I'm saying.

 

Being one of the most injured teams in the league has nothing to do with it I suppose.

 

Injured talent means very little on the outcome of games, unfortunately. The 2 teams with the worst injuries this year were the Blazers and the Warriors, the Blazers with 38 wins have more than twice the wins of the Warriors. If you actually look at injuries to the team's best 6 players - the Blazers lead the Warriors by quite a big chunk in the number of games lost to injuries.

Given that this team is pretty much a lock to make the playoffs while missing more games by critical members than any team in the league - the problem does not seem to be with our team being mediocre - but with your rather unrealistic expectations...

 

that was a pretty solid win. Whenever the Blazer starters were in they were pulling away and Nate was bright enough to play his top guys with the game on the line. So sorry that you didn't get your hoped for Blazer loss because then we could have been treated to even more bitter ranting... oh well, maybe next time?

STOMP

 

I'm not concerned about our record, I'm concerned with the present. We have a legitimate center now and we have all our other players outside of Greg and Joel. If we have a hard time beating the Kings, Bulls, Thunder, Hornets, Wizards, etc then you have real fucking problems. We arguably more talent than any other team in the NBA, that's why we are in 8th after having so many injuries, but we should be beating those teams I listed easily with what Pritchard has been able to do. If you don't see that, then you have issues.

 

People just need to have a little perspective and think big picture.

The Blazers didn't play their best tonight, but right now all that matters is getting the W so they can try and improve their position.

Yes, they'll have to improve their play if they want to do anything in the playoffs, but they have a whole month to figure everything out and will hopefully be playing their best basketball when the playoffs start. The main thing right now is to make sure you get the W while trying to continue to improve.

 

I stopped reading when you said that was a "pretty solid win." Yea, it was. If your definition of "solid" is "not solid" then yea, I agree. We repeatedly gave up leads and the offense predicated on Roy going 1 on 5 again, many times with little success. You need an optometrist.

 

Well, our star seems to be still at 80% only, at least to my eyes, Our new Center has been with the team for 8 games (that he actually played) and we went 5-3 in this time, despite the fact that he had to come from 2 sprains during this 8 game stretch - so overall, I think you are just a little unreasonable in your criticism... this team is not playing great, I agree, but given where Roy and to a degree Camby are - not too bad, either.

 

He (and Curry) are both PG sized. Going up against PGs both do pretty well but they have pretty obvious disadvantages against guys significantly stronger, longer, and heavier then they are.

STOMP

 

We got the W, that's good for playoff seeding, but I think the last thing we are doing right now is actually improving our play. We just aren't. We are doing the same things over and over again expecting a different result. The offense is garbage and our defense is pretty piss poor. We can get away with it against the Kings, but against a playoff team? Not a chance.

 

That's the problem though, IF Roy is 80%, why are we putting so much on his plate? We have very talented offensive players, why does Roy have to have it so much? Why can't we play as a team? When Roy doesn't play, we play as a team, when he's playing we don't. I don't think that has anything to do with Roy, but it has a lot to do with the coach not trusting his players and not seeing that we have a lot of premier offensive players. It is frustrating when the offense is 1 on 5.

 

Juwan couldn't have made the hustle plays Camby did. And I love me some Juwan.

Oh, and Diener>Blake.