Game Thread SEEDING GAME# 5: CLIPPERS @ BLAZERS - AUGUST 8, 2020 - SATURDAY, 10:00AM, TNT & NBCSNW

That may have been the end of the season right there. This team can look so good one minute and suck so hard the next. Meaningful change - embrace it!!!

 

8th seed only has to win 1, 9th seed 2 game

 

Stotts gonna Stotts.

You mean to tell me we had LESS talent than what the Clippers had out there in the fourth?

No. Just no. Not buying the "Stotts is doing the best with what he has" line Stotts apologists use to death.

 

That’s it in a nutshell. You can’t rely on scoring 125 a game night in and night out. There’s gonna be times when shots aren’t dropping (like the second half of this game) where a decent defense can still help to get you a win. This team is abysmal on that end of the court. TNT crew interviewed Stotts after the third quarter and asked if his team needs to play better defense... his response told me all I needed to know. He said something like “Both teams are playing really good offence” and deflected from the actual question asked. This team will never compete with the big dogs of the NBA until they bring in a different coach.

 

There is bad and then there is this. Blazers had a chance to control their own destiny and they fumbled it. The offensive and defensive possessions in the last few minutes of the game were embarrassing. This team needs more than 4 guys that can contribute.

 

We can still get 8th if we win all 3 and Memphis wins no more than one.

go Heat!!

 

We missed Whiteside.

 

I am in disbelief as to how that all ended but what puzzles me more than anything is why we aren't running the Dame/Nurk pick and roll throughout these games. It's our most effective play and we just don't use it. I wish we would blow this team up. Keep Dame, Nurk and Gary then get rid of everyone else including our coach and GM but I really don't see that happening. I know next season we will end up with a mid seed in the playoffs if we just keep this team together but we won't be anywhere close to a championship and that's got to be the goal when you have guys like Dame, Nurk and an emerging Gary Trent Jr.

 

Man! CJ went from hero to goat after those 2 knucklehead fouls. I was already to dog out the CJ dislikers, but then he just got a huge case of Headupcha. That was the key turning point. Up 5 and then we fell apart. CJ has to do better. Dame was letting CJ take control because he was gassed. It happens to the best.

 

Yeah Dame choked, but it was the 6 missed layins throughout the game that cost them. Brutal.

 

Doc giving the game to the Blazers resting George in the final 5mins and we fumbled. Ugh

 

I think Stotts is an average head coach and a top-notch/elite assistant. I don't know if the Blazers can take the next step with him at the top, but, tbf, I don't know if we're deep enough to take the next step, either, and I'm not sure if that problem is addressable.

It would have been interesting to see this team if Hood had been able to come back, too.

 

Well that was a joke of a finish, except it wasn’t a very funny one.

on to champions league

 

Did ya hear Paul George though?!

they asked Paul George why he sat the last 5 min, He tried holding in his smile and said load management

 

Been saying that for a while now.

 

I for the life of me cannot understand why they stopped running pick and roll with Dame and Nurk. And with Melo/CJ out there, there is always one defensive liability. You just can't survive like that.

 

If we are the ninth place team we will have to win two in a row and if we somehow are the eighth place team we will only have to win one out of two. Before everyone was sitting I had this game as a loss and still thought we would end up with the eighth seed but the way we lost this game was very disheartening.

 

Bright side is that two games means more Blazers basketball

 

Nurkic missing easy shots like crazy doesn't help too. It's like his touch is back to 17/18 Nurkic. He needs to improve that shit