Game Thread GAME# 39: THUNDER @ BLAZERS - JANUARY 4, 2019 - FRIDAY, 7:30 PM, ESPN & NBCSNW

Best part of the game was the announcer proclaiming Meyers Leonard to be a fan favorite.

 

This made my night better.

 

Why do we go away from running the plays through Nurk at the top of the key in the 4th?

If we're going to feed him in the post why not have him start on the opposite block and set a screen for him so he can seal lower and get a better shot? This is the cross screen action @BonesJones has been calling for.

It's stupid basketball. The defense gets aggressive and we lose our minds and don't know how to react. Then we get down and have to play fast and with urgency and we go on a run. Why not play with that tempo earlier so the defense can't get set every fucking time while we walk the ball up the court?

It's fucking frustrating.

 

He just scored 4 straight points to force OT in Sacramento and hit a three in Oakland to beat Warriors. Jesus you have a short memory.

 

If MeJ did anything else well it wouldn't be so bad. He did get 5 assists tonight but it seems like ages since he's done that so it's certainly an outlier. Bad defense, stagnating offense, almost abject refusal to pass the ball to wide-open teammates on most nights.

I just don't see how someone who balances out this roster more doesn't improve the team.

 

And it's been this way for as long as we've had Stotts. And everyone in the league has known it for years. And we keep at it hoping Dame does something amazing. I want to smash my head through my keyboard watching this shit game after game, year after year.

 

We need to have a couple sets to deal with exactly this. Invite the trap, have outlets in specific places where Dame can actually get the ball out of the trap, then have those outlets take the ball downhill. Their teammates should be in strategic spots to take advantage of the rotating defense, and if they're in the same spots, then it's an easy read for Moe or Aminu when they're attacking the rim.

But instead, we just run Dame into a trap, and then guys don't know what the hell to do, or where to be. And Stotts is like "Uhhh, more pick n roll?"

 

Perfectly said. It's simple stuff, things that should be automatic for a head coach to be able to adjust to. This was a carbon copy of the Sacremento game down the stretch but OKC is better, so we didn't complete the comeback.

 

We JUST won 2 overtime games on the road!!

 

Yes there needs to be sets for it, but has Dame ever thought of just trying to split the trap once in a while, everytime they come he gets on his heels like he's never seen it before...

 

Yeah if you read the read the rest of the post they won two overtime games when their guards started hitting shots...

 

Nurk and Layman were shooting well, so he took the ball out of their hands and made sure CJ (who was shooting poorly) got his contractually guaranted number of shots.

Hell, it makes as much sense as anything at this point. The Blazers had to work really hard to blow this game.

 

Dame fucked up. He had Nurk diving to the hoop for an easy 2 at the end.

 

For all the shit I give CJ, I hate stotts even more for enabling him.

 

This happens literally every game. No matter how bad CJ is shooting it feels like Stotts has it in his brain that they have no chance to win unless he gets going. Hell sacrifice everyone not named Lillard to force feed him. It’s a joke.

 

I was quite encouraged in the first half. We weren't pulling away from them but, hey, they are a damn good team. Harkless continued his good play, we were using Nurk and he was doing great; we were making good passes. Then we went away from that in the second half These are things that have happened a lot this season and previous seasons. Coaches need to talk about it and set up situations in practice to replicate this pressure, maybe six defenders? They need to call timeout or take Nurk out when he gets too excited and slow him down and remind he needs to stick to the simple stuff, stick to facing the basket. I think this team can still be fixed.

 

Maybe that's something Stotts could mention to him. He needs to figure out something.

 

Two pts from a lob or curl or layup would have had the same result.even with a foul..we needed 4pts..the miracle ending would be making a 3 with the and 1 from a foul on the shot...it was the only option to force OT....of course we didn't run a play in the paint with 4 seconds on the clock

 

Shouldn't have came to that. Its hard to make the right read in such high intensity situations like that. They were swarming.