Jokic is bad at threes huh. Career 34% from that range. Sure he shot 30% this year, but he nearly shot 40% last year. I wouldn't say that's bad.
Sure, but like I said there were numerous plays where we turned the ball over or they got a long rebound and they ended up with Harkless or Lillard or someone else having to pick him up just because we didn't get back quick enough. Plus we could mix in an occasional double team but you know our coach doesn't like that.
They did show double a number of times. But only flashes. Jokic is a good passer. He sees double as well as any center in the league. But I agree they need to pressure him. Also seemed like Harkless was getting called as soon as he put any body on Jokic. Kind of tough to watch that.
People need to stop looking at this game like it's the same as OKC. It's not the same. If we played the way we did last night against OKC, we would have blown them out. The problem wasn't offense - We shot 52% from the floor and 38% from three. Those are very good numbers. We were hitting our shots. We put up 113 points. The problem wasn't the refs - We shot 27 FTA to their 31. Dame was getting very favorable calls in this game. Much better than any game against OKC. Yes, we missed some free throws, but honestly it wouldn't have made a huge difference. We never would have made 100% of our free throws, so at best we maybe get an extra 4 points? We lost by 8. The problem was unforced turnovers. 18 in this game compared to only 12 for them. The problem was defense. When we shoot that well, we need to make it so that they DON'T shoot that well. This was basically a shootout, and in the end we lost because of the turnovers and the missed foul shots. They had 12 steals, we had 6. They had 12 turnovers, we had 18. They made 27 free throws, we made 20. If you even up those made free throws, play some better defense, and cut down on your turnovers, this is a win. I like starting Hood though. If they're going to try to hide Murray on our small forward, I want a small forward that can take advantage of him, and Hood abused the hell out of that guy last night. 17 points off 5-10 shooting. Look at the symmetry though..... almost identical numbers right down the board.
Dame said postgame the problem was the players not executing the game plan and missing coverages they had prepared for. I wonder what the strategy was.
There has to be a sort of emotional let down following the long break, but what I saw last night was unacceptable. Almost as if they're satisfied about winning Round 1. The defensive effort was appalling. I really think the coaching dropped the ball. Terry needed to tear into the guys at halftime after the sloppy finish to the 2nd quarter.
So when they say "points off turnovers" is that points that Denver scored off our turnovers or is that points that we scored off turnovers? If you look at the graphic I posted, it says 18 total turnovers and then below that it says "points off turnovers - 23"
That's what I figured. So there's the ballgame right there. They scored 23 points off our 18 turnovers. That's huge.
No, you're being reactionary. I get it. That loss sucked and it's easy to overreact as a fan in these instances. Aminu and Harkless have played consistent basketball throughout the stretch run and the first playoff series. I think it's safe to say that they won't play that badly again. Jokic is going to get his points, but Lillard is most likely going to offset him. The Blazers need to get the turnovers under control, get back to hitting their free throws, and do a better job on the Nuggets' role players. Do those things tomorrow night and they come home with a 1-1 record and homecourt advantage.
Game 1 was self inflicted. Bad defense. Poor passing. 23 Denver points off of 18 Blazers Turnovers. Blazers jawing too much with refs instead of focusing on the game. Blazers need to clean it up and get used to the Altitude. They will be fine game 2.
I really don't even think the refs were that big of a factor. For all of the touch fouls and flopping that Jokic got on us, Dame did quite a bit to Denver. Dame attempted 13 FT Joke attempted 12 FT I think we just didn't like it because Jokic didn't really have to work for his FTA or points, while Dame had to bust his ass to score 39. I thought the reffing was much more balanced than it was against OKC.
Not having Nurk will cost us the series, that was very evident last night. There’s just no defense. It would also be nice if the players would pass to each other rather than the other team, the crowd or to nothing in particular.
I was speaking more on the Blazers interacting with the refs being upset with missed calls rather than the officiating itself. The Blazers just weren't focused and that was part of it...a smaller part of it, but part of it. It allowed Denver to get down the floor 5 on 4 several times.
