I say if you want second chance points rebound better. If you want to stop the warriors from making their shots play better defense. Their 2nd half defense was pretty much matador style. Iggy get a huge stop at the end of game 2 because the Blazers didn't even try to run a play. Warriors took advantage of opportunities, but the Blazers haven't taken advantage of ANY of theirs late in these games. Wasn't great Warrior play to give up all those wide open shots the Blazers missed...
I dont buy this, although Draymond would be an instant upgrade, this team is just to mentally soft for one player to make a difference
Really? I think this team has proven they are mentally tough this year. You dont win that Denver series without being mentally tough. I think there is a difference between just being mentally and physically fatigued, vs being mentally and/or physically weak. This team is running on fumes man.
Disagree... the total collapse of games two and three was not because of a sudden loss of energy, it was mental
Never heard of mental fatigue? The mind hits a wall just like the body does. Not saying that's all of it, but I'm pretty sure its part of it. The last two series created TONS of emotions and expended TONS of energy. That affects you mentally as well.
LOL....except a post before this one you just said "they are mentally tough versus physically fatigued"....so which is it?
Dude. Laugh all you want. you are the one equating mentally fatigued as the same as mentally weak. Two different things my friend.....
Wtf?...where did i say mental fatigue is the same as mentally weak?... i said this team is mentally SOFT... they dont have what it takes to be champions
It is hard to believe that any competent coach or GM would look at Aminu and Harkless and see 2 guys who should be starting in the WCF. Add in that Nurk is on the cusp of becoming Bowie 2.0, and it is downright depressing. Did Dame hurt his ribs because somebody fell on him - or did he break his back carrying these guys?
Again, you say their play is effected because the okc/denver series effected them mentally and made them weak...thats not what being mentally soft to the point where they cant take their game to a championship level in order to beat the warriors....big difference, but you're not getting it...so im wasting my time here...have a nice day
Again you are putting words in my mouth . I didn't say the Denver series made them mentally weak. I said it made them mentally fatigued. We are running circles around here and your narrative is all too familiar....
I don't think Portland is mentally weak or psyched out or all the things fans generally say about their team after a disappointing loss. It's been a mix of poor play and the Warriors having a higher gear on defense that they can switch to when they feel threatened. The Blazers don't have the personnel to beat what the Warriors are doing when they take defense seriously--that's the whole point of this thread. Green is a trap-buster...he's fantastic at taking advantage of 4-on-3 opportunities. Portland doesn't have a front court play-maker who can help Lillard break trapping defenses. Lillard isn't the problem. He hasn't played particularly well since the Thunder series, but he's trying to carry the offense by himself against defenses designed to stop him from carrying the offense by himself. He's not a transcendent superstar--he's not on the LeBron/Curry/Harden/Durant/Giannis level. He's a star, but he's going to struggle when defenses can focus on him and not worry much about anyone else. Even his nominal sidekick, McCollum, is playing really poorly. The problem is that Portland isn't built to beat an elite team. Elite teams have the personnel to scheme to take away what you do best and you need to have alternate win conditions. When Lillard is taken away as a scorer, Portland has nothing else it can pivot into, so it just ends up spinning its wheels in a bunch of inefficient actions. Stotts isn't a creative mastermind, but without more play-making and shooting around Lillard, his hands are somewhat tied anyway and Portland will continue to be a good team that racks up wins against other good teams, mediocre teams and bad teams but gets jammed when they face great teams in the playoffs.
The thing I hate about this series is that Draymond has actually not been obnoxious towards us or the refs so I can't even hate him properly. He's just straight up killing us.