Opening night! 10/31/2012 Lakers @ Blazers - Game Thread!

there's free nba league pass for everyone!!!!!!

 

SLOW DOWN!!!! I like Damian too but cmon man!

 

I was out with people. Can't network when I'm on a computer.

 

He was definitely just as valuable as Lillard or Batum this evening. I love his game also.

 

I'm thinking they are already seeing it in practice. i don't think either (especially not Claver)has a chance to be an NBA starter, so i don't see the need to develop them. I do think Freeland will eventually see more time; as it seems a team always needs a lot of big guys, especially an undersized team.

 

SO nice to see 18 pages on Blazers basketball. Been a long time.

And in best of all worlds, Blazers win, Lakers lose.

Or, as Shaquille O'Neal famously put it:
"Hey Kobe! How does [Blazers] ass taste?"

 

Damn, if we had a good bench I'd be think playoffs no probs., and after last night, and I know it's only one game, but I'm thinking we have a better playoff
"chance" then I originally thought, the next 3 road games will tell us a decent bit

 

Loved the game, but people need to remember that Blaker exposed Lillard's big weakness that I commented on in summer league: ball handling. For as good as he is at everything else offensively, he has a very sloppy handle that is a magnet to a ball hawking defender. If he doesn't improve on that in a hurry, the scouts will figure him out and he's going to have some pretty rough nights this season.

As for Howard "shocking the world" with making his free throws, gimme a break... He's been like that throughout his career. Stone cold one night, then a natural shooter the next. Averages out to 50%... As an opponent, you have to recognize early what kind of night he's having and adjust your strategy as necessary.

 

Pretty stunning to see Howard completely destroy the Blazers (hitting 15-19 free throws!), Pau go for 16, and Kobe go for 30, and the Lakers still lose. For all the criticism of the Princeton offense, it's hard to see how those three score that well every night in any offensive scheme.

Nash going down hurt them, but not that much. It was Portland going off for 116 points that was crazy. A veteran squad like that with a DPOY guy at center should not allow our Blazers to rattle off 116 points. Nash would only have made the defense worse.

The takeaway for me as a Blazer fan is:

1. This team is going to put up some points this year. Stotts says he wants lots of three point shots and transition baskets, and I think he's going to get them.

2. The Blazers are the anti-Lakers. Lakers are big, veteran, great in the paint, rebounding, poor perimeter shooting, plodding. Portland is small, young, perimeter oriented, poor rebounding, great three point shooters, and fast.

3. Thank goodness there aren't a lot of dominant scoring centers in the league. Bynum and Howard are going to eat our lunch. Randolph and Griffin are going to be a struggle. But hopefully that's the extent of the damage. Batum and Matthews have to be an awesome first line of defense this year, because there isn't a second line.

4. Damian Fucking Lillard. Wow. Guy just went up against Kobe, Dwight, Pau and Nash in front of 20k screaming fans and looked like the most battle-tested player on our team. I don't know how he puts on those gym shorts, let alone zips end-to-end on the court, lugging around those enormous stones.

5. Batum's performance reminds me of Harden's first game with Houston. Sometimes you just need a new system and a new role to show what you can really do. I hope this Batum is Stotts' Batum, and not just a really good Thursday.

 

A couple of next-morning thoughts:

1. We got a great game from the Lakers. Yeah it was the second of a back-to-back, but that's countered by Howard hitting his FT's at his Superman percentage instead of his Clark Kent percentage. Emotionally, we should build on this win, because the Lakers tried out there.

2. Lillard's first game is now one of the best rookie guard debuts ever (in a room with only Oscar Robertson and Isaiah Thomas). And Lillard actually seemed a little annoyed by being told that in the postgame interviews. Not embarrassed or confused or surprised, but, "Man, shut up. I didn't even think I did all that great. Call me back in April." Lillard seems laser focused on the next game. That's maturity, and maturity that comes from being the leader of a team for four years before joining the Blazers.

3. The Lakers are old and tired. The Princeton Offense doesn't suit them at all. Brown needs to be fired tomorrow. If they go 0-3, he might be. These bad fits all around helped the Blazers when the Blazers weren't helping themselves. You could tell in the 4th that the kids on our team were tired and the adrenaline had worn off. The comfortable lead made the crowd quiet and confident. A Lakers team from five years ago would have destroyed us in that situation, but this year's model actually helped with Kobe's overreaching causing bad shots and turnovers. They needed to be about five years younger for the starters to support a bench that thin...

4. ...which, luckily, is exactly what our starters are, because our bench is equally thin. The starters scored 103 of the 116 points for Portland last night, and that is worrisome. We basically played a playoff rotation too, which might bite us in the butt when Lillard hits the rookie wall.

5. Batum's aggressiveness was a less pressing and more healthy sort; he knew that his outside shot was off a bit, so he got in there to grab garbage boards and shots to try and jump start his game. It worked, and it seems like the end result could motivate Batum to try harder at that portion of the game. Of course, it's the Lakers, and he loves being in those games where he doesn't snooze on defense or offense because the game "counts more." I'm hopeful on Nic's newfound ground game.

6. Meyers Leonard didn't foul out in extended minutes, and wasn't abused by Dwight Howard. This says two things: one, that Leonard kept his game within itself and didn't try too hard to impress and so didn't make a fool of himself. And two, Dwight Howard is not 100% by any stretch of the imagination. He looked tight and immobile most of the time, and let a rookie get under his skin a little bit in the second half. This performance is a good job for a project rookie, and bodes well for him in the future. It looks like he has the fundamentals down pretty well for such a young kid.

7. Matthews is back, aggressive, and happened to be on last night. I think that he'll always be streaky, but he seems to have a more varied presence in Stott's motion offense. In fact, everyone has something new to show us this season under the new offense. Yeah, LMA hung around the midrange doing his Channing Frye impression in the first half, but it served a prupose and he hit most of those shots. It helped him in the second half when he showed a new dribble drive move and some nice spin moves off the post.

8. How weird was it to have LMA be the fourth best player on the floor tonight? And despite Batum's huge game, it was Lillard's turn to be #1 tonight. And as long as all four of those players have good performances, you can pencil in an exciting game that probably ends in a win. Very exciting potential out of this group. Get us a solid sparkplug on the bench worth 8-12 a night (Heck, maybe Sasha is that guy?), and we'd be a lot closer to fully baked than unbaked.

All in all, the most excited I've been for the Blazers in YEARS. Keep it up, fellas!

 

I'm sure the game plan was to get Dwight in foul trouble. While Meyers was a bit graceless about it, he was trying. Plus, Dwight is fucking strong, and Meyers is light and top-heavy and inexperienced. I'm not really worried yet.

 

I didn't really notice it and I'm not worried about it, but my guess is it's the latter. He's already one of the biggest guys out there. I think the game was moving pretty fast for him, he couldn't control a few passes, etc. but I think he'll gradually get better during the season.

 

You know this son!

 

I had a slightly different take-away from Leonard's performance last night. At times he looked lost (especially early on) he looked outclassed and he looked a little clueless at times ... BUT!! (and I think this is really important) he was a total gamer, the more bumping and hitting he took the more I saw him smiling of all things.

At one point, Dwight got called for a loose ball foul against Leonard as they were battling for a board late in the game and Meyers got this huge, shit eating grin on his face. Put aside the stats for a second, it's that kind of attitude that will eventually give him a shot to stick and maybe, just maybe end up a pretty good pivot ... no guarantees, but after last night I'm way more confident about his future than at any point since we drafted him.

EDIT:
I bring this up in contrast to a certain mopey, oft-injured, big man we drafted a few years ago, who always looked like the weight of the world was on his shoulders and even when he was healthy always looked a little bit overwhelmed by the competition and the stage he was on.

 

Yeah, I've had the feeling since the summer league that Leonard isn't nearly as raw as I thought he'd be. He plays smart, he doesn't make as many mistakes as I thought he would, and I think he's going to be a solid starter. I don't really see an All-Star talent, but I think he could be a Joel Przybilla with better hands.

 

It seems like Leonard is more young than he is raw if that makes sense. Like he has the skills he just needs the experience to learn the little tricks of the game.

 

Is there anywhere to see extended highlights of the game? What I saw on ESPN was only about 20 seconds long. Shockingly they actually showed blazer highlights (unlike during preseason when we beat the Lakers and not one highlight was of the Blazers).

 

Brad Miller had that problem early in his career and turned out okay.

 

I loved that! He knew he was getting in Howard's head and couldn't believe it... just broke out in the goofiest grin.

I saw him more as gawky, like he hadn't quite grown into his height yet. I think he'll strengthen up, lower his center of gravity, and keep improving. The energy and fight was great!