After watching that shit, I can't believe people get on Love for his poor defense. It's not like he's a good defender, but after Brewer, and perhaps Darko, Love may be the 3rd best defender on that team. Beasley doesn't even pretend to try to play defense. Ridnour and Johnson get beat off the dribble AND constantly leave their man wide open. Shit, if you can't do both, either back off and cut off the penetration, OR get a hand up on your man when he's shooting. Outside of Brewer, Minnesota has NO perimeter defense. I don't ever recall the Blazers getting so many wide open shots all season. It was hard to tell when the pregame shoot around ended and the game started. Love's poor lateral quickness and lack of length limit what he can do on defense, but at least he establishes position and boxes out. He just doesn't have the length to guard someone like Aldridge - who has been destroying everyone lately. BNM
Very true. Many around here thought that Webster was just as good defensively as Matthews. Not even close to being true. Webster tried real hard last year on D, but simply just wasn't effective. That Minny team is just not that good defensively from top to bottom. Rambis is a rotten coach as well.
agree with the assessment of what happened there. The refs swallowed their whistles the 2nd half trying to give the home team a shot of getting back into the game. Minni was aloud to be very aggressive/physical on D and Toliver was a out of control in that instance crashing over Miller and Batum. Dre snapped as a cumulative reaction to the play that went on. Nic left the game at that point sort of favoring a knee... he's okay right? STOMP
I didn't notice any real defense being played in the first half actually. I'm not taking anything away from Wesley for shooting the lights out, but I am taking something away from the Pups. Wesley was WIIIDE open and completely relaxed on every one of those threes in the first half. In the second half, the Pups were holding, hitting and grabbing. I guess when you have no talent, you do what you can.
It looked like Nic might have hurt his ankle on the play. It was a stupid play by Tolliver. I understand playing all out and going after rebounds, but there was less than 30 seconds left in the game and the Blazers were up by 10. Putting other players at risk of injury by playing out of control is just stupid in that situation. But, Tolliver is a guy who likes to pad his own stats. So, he aggressively went after a rebound he had no chance of getting. Plus, I couldn't hear it at the time but I believe the whistle had blown (on Camby for fouling Love on the shot) long before Tolliver took down Batum and Miller. Yet another reason why the refs need to call ALL the fouls ALL the time. When they swallow their whistles, it just encourages this kind of shit it causes tempers to flare and puts players at risk for injury. BNM
Yep, agreed. Like I said in my earlier post, Minnesota's perimeter defense was so bad in the first half, you couldn't tell when the shoot around ended and the game started. In the second half, they put their best defender (Brewer) on Matthews, and were a lot more aggressive on defense. Because the refs swallowed their whistles, it worked pretty well for them. I wouldn't call what I saw "good" defense, but because they were getting away with a lot of fouls, it was reasonably effective (at least compared to the total lack of defense they played in the first half). BNM
I can't stand Love - but give the b*stard his due. The kid is turning into a real force. Thankfully, the big games from LMA and Matthews tipped the scales.
I thought it was a great game, but I have one problem. Will Nic Batum finally grow some gnards, and learn how to throw it down when he gets close to the rim? These weak finishes near the rim are really hard to watch. Please for once in his life, when this season ends, stay in Portland and work with Bill Bayno for a summer instead of a the french team. Please. Every team we face uses their weakest defender on Batum so they can defend one of our other players with their best. It is time to remedy that, because it is really getting old to see the same problem pop up every damn game. It didn't matter too much in this one. But in close games it does.
One thing about Mathews shooting last night I like to point out. The reason he was so wide open was because Minnesota was doubling Aldridge and cheating a 3rd player baseline for help. They kept doing it over and over. Then you notice in the 2nd half where Wesley slowed down in shot pace. Why? Because they finally started guarding him and quit cheating. Result? Aldridge goes to work and gets his 25, and Wesley is less active in the 2nd half. Portland's offense was doing exactly what it needed to do. It was taking what Minnesota gave them.
Yup, obviously your gnads come from the other part(s) of your ancestry. You must have some Hispanic in you - if not, HCP would love to volunteer
I'd bet dollars to donuts that Nic's been instructed not to do too much slamming and rim-swinging because of his shoulder.
I'll tell you what: Say that to a Legionnaire, to his face, in a bar. If you survive, I'll give you a dollar.
The trouble with that logic is that the French foreign legion is composed entirely of foreigners (minus French officers) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Foreign_Legion
