The answer is Andre Miller and Wesley Matthews. Roy was almost a non-factor. This is a pretty amazing development, if you ask me. If we can beat the Orlando Magic with almost no contributions from Roy, maybe there's some hope after all. The next question is, when do you finally sit Roy and let someone else take his place?
It was great win, Andre-Wes-Nic had very good games. I think this is part of the process of "convincing" and making it obvious to Roy (and allows Nate to do it) that he eventually comes off the bench. While it is and has been obvious to some of us already with a player like Roy I guess you have to take enough time until it becomes so obvious pretty much anyone with common sense has to agree.
B4 the game Nate had a talk with Andre Miller and told him that from now on the offense runs thru him. Brandon probably didn't like it, but we all saw what a difference it made.
Roy more and more resembles Steve Smith toward the end. Sad to watch. I think that 6 game skid was basically the growing pains of our team coming to terms with life without a superstar. Hopefully last night is the blueprint for how this team plays going forward. I'm glad to see Nate starting to shake things up. Going without a backup PG for most of the game was great. It put the ball in Roy's, Matthews' and Fernandez' hand quicker, which somehow seemed to quicken the tempo. I love me some Przybilla. Such a massive upgrade over all the other options. Going forward, my one complaint is that Nate can't be playing Roy 37 mpg. That just can't happen anymore. Especially with Batum doing well and only logging 27 minutes.
IMO Orlando as currently configured is a good team but has issues and will likely never win it all - they need a retool IMO. Problem is the huge salaries they pay to unproductive guys like Rashard, Vince has flashes but is far from the Vince of old, Reddick is not playing at nearly the level of last yr and Pietus is meh and Jameer is okay. Frankly who besides Howard is anything better than average?
You still start Roy. But you do run the offense through Miller. Roy never had PG skils when he was completely healthy. Yes the ISO worked great down the strethes of 4th quarters, but he never has had true PG handles. Moving him to the 2nd unit so he can now handle the ball does little to help this team. He is a SG and needs to shoot when ever he is open. In the first quarter last night he passed up open 10-12 footers to make the extra pass. He needs to shoot those type of shots every time he is open. There should be No hesitation. Let Miller make the extra pass. On the flip side he needs to shoot less of the ones where he drives to the basket. He still needs to do it enough to keep the D honest, but IMO he needs to mentally convince himself that he still is the best shooter on the team, so "shoot it" when he is open. But I now think Batum is the perfect 6th man. You can plug him into 4 different positions. (on D) I was hoping to see him get more minutes at the PF spot this year as half the PF's these days don't play under the basket. I loved the line up last night of LMA, Batum, Wes, Roy, and Miller.
Roy wasn't much of a factor on defense and he didn't have a very good night, but he was a big part of the game because of the way Orlando (foolishly?) doubled him on almost every possession down the stretch, at that point he became a decoy which freed up another Blazers wing on a majority of the possessions in the second half. So not to take anything away from Wes, Nic and Andre -- who were all brilliant in their own way -- but I am curious to see what happens moving forward with defenses if they choose to only single cover him; will those guys continue to put up really good numbers and will the offense continue to click like it did last night. Hopefully the answer is yes to those questions.
Well, one thing is clear: without Matthews, this team would be an utter train wreck. What an amazing pick-up he's been--he's literally saved this team from a 4-15 start.
There was a stretch in the second half he went with Roy at PG and we immediately stunk. I feel badly for Roy, I really do, but this is a business.
For a good reason. This was one of the few games I got to see this year - as I was actually there in person - and the guys did a very nice job of sticking a hand in the face of the guys shooting the 3. Our perimeter defense has seen a major up-tick with Wes and Nic - and the rest of the team (I liked how quick Aldridge was able to rotate from the interior to put a hand at the face of people shooting the 3) was also doing a good job of getting to them.
And Howard hit alot of free throws. Give Nate some credit on this one. He played Howard honest and did not let the rest of the Magic get involved. Vince Carter did little and still only got two points for his retro dunk. I think playing Rashard Lewis at PF has run its course and a move back to SF would be beneficial. Nelson did not look like an All-Star. There is a big gap between Orlando and Boston IMO.
There was a play where Orlando had the ball, it was knocked back into the back court, and it was a foot race between Brandon and one of their forwards. Brandon had a bead on the ball and should have been able to beat the other man to the ball, or at a minimum get there first and get on the floor for it. About half way there, he hitched up and just stopped going -- he simply could not do it. Very shocking and very sad. Otherwise, great win for the Blazers. They only had really a few lapses. A few bad decisions by an otherwise stellar Matthews and too many tough outside misses by LaMarcus, but otherwise, I kept looking at the score in the second half and couldn't believe we were pulling away. And how about Nico? He had a few lapses in judgement too, but 15 points and 10 rebounds (or something like that) off the bench? Nice. It seems like he's been getting a ton of rebounds lately. This is no way to justify sending off the old timers, playing for a draft pick, and retooling! LOL It is not a coincidence that the Blazers getting back to winning ways coincides with Joel coming back. He did a good job on Howard, too. What Joel gives the team in his minutes on the floor is huge. The man is a warrior. Joel's contributions are generally underrated IMO, as are Miller's.
That was the key of the game to me. I actually found myself agreeing with Charles Barkley, who basically said that doubling Howard isn't the way to beat the Magic. Nate played him straight up, even after the monster first half, so kudos to Nate for not making a panic move at halftime.
Did Charles barkley say anything noteworthy on the blazers or did he say the basic line like always? (Portland is a jump shooting team).
If I recall, Roy initiated the steal. Pietrus had better position and an angle to get to the ball first. We all know regardless of health, Roy does not have speed. It is easy to correlate his health to this play, but realistically, Roy would not have beat Pietrus to that ball at 100%. Roy was avoiding fouling at most as Pietrus had position from the get go. Back to the original topic. As others have already stated, I believe Nate's gamplan on defending Howard straight up and not giving a lot of outside looks was the main contribution to the win.
