Game Thread GAME# 42: MAVERICKS @ BLAZERS - MARCH 21, 2021 - SUNDAY, 7:00, NBCSNW

Thanks. I found it.
After listening to the context of the quote, It is troubling, but not quite as damning as I had thought.

 

You'll still have a number of years to catch up. Being 45 is not playing, watching and or studying but you are welcome to talk on any level you might consider relevant.

 

It's one of those responses that should not need Green Font. It certainly didn't used to need it. It was meant to make you laugh. That was the purpose.

 

The Shot chart has been posted. Those were shots every team in the NBA takes on a nightly basis except a few Damian Lillard takes because he takes shots not every player makes. The Same could be said for Doncic, Curry, Young, James, Harden etc...
CJ had 4 wide open looks that didn't fall from 3. Lillard had 5 real good looks from 3, Melo missed 4 but only 3 of them were what i consider open looks for him.
I assume you are now calling the 3 point shot a "Shitty Look" because that is what the conversation has been addressing. 0-18 from 4 players that include Lillard, CJ, Melo and Hood will not happen again any time soon.

 

Ugly game all around for the most part.
The more i look at numbers the worse it gets.
Done with this one. On to the next one.

 

"They just got hot from 3"
-Stotts, probably

 

if you have 45 yrs of experience and don't believe our defense is problem, I don't know what to tell you.

 

This is our season.

7 of our 17 losses are by 20 points or more.

10 of our 21 wins are by 4 points or less.

Fucking embarrassing blowouts and Dame carrying our water for close wins.

Also, Rodney Hood has now had 700 minutes of game time this year to get his shit together, and he still hasn't. He's owed $11m next year, which is really depressing. The only time we should trot him out is with Elleby during blowouts to try to drive his numbers. Maybe somebody will take him off our hands if he can do something in garbage time.

 

Every teams has ugly games like it's been happening for decades but how you bounce back from a ugly that's show the team character going forward.

 

I've been saying our record is a mirage. I hate using point differential, but there is a reason why it's one of the bests metrics to evaluate potential playoff success. The variance in close games is usually massive, and these results have gone in our favor because of Dame's greatness. But it's hardly sustainable because our schedule is about to get even harder. The goal from now on should be to maintain a top 6 seed, but it's looking less likely than I had expected, even with CJ and Nurk returning. The defense HAS TO improve and we keep getting worse every game. But our coach is sitting here literally popping champagne with his staff in the locker room thinking he's accomplished something. Just irks the hell out of me. And the mentality from the players after these performances is just infuriating. There is no pride, or fire. No one even looks annoyed, as if they are just satisfied because they got the split. I can give two shits about our actual win/loss record-- the way we play is not indicative of anything more than a first round exit in the playoffs.

Instead, I feel like our coaching staff/players/management have gone all in on this magical season thinking we're actually a .600+ team when in reality, we're closer to .500 or less. The decisions Neil makes this week have to keep this in mind.

 

Such nonsense.

Even if those guys were 9/18 instead of 0/18, we'd have lost by 13.

 

Nobody anywhere said anything about the defense not being a problem. If that is what you took from my comments then i don't know what to tell you.

 

Satisfaction with mediocrity. This guy coaches like we're a lottery team HOPING to make the playoffs, rather than a contender. Can't wait til he's gone.

And our media fucking sucks. Not one useful question.

 

The only medicine portland has to stay in the playoff hunt at this point is a return of The Beast and hitting 3 pointers at a high percentage.
case in point will be the next team up, only way we win even if we play SUPERB D is if we are hot from three and get a few easy buckets. We shoot under 40% from3 against Nets we're toast. And thats the way it will be with other teams against the Nets.

 

well, over the all-star break, when Stotts challenged his team to elevate their defense to the top half of the league, Portland's defensive rating was 116.4. Now, 6 games later Portland's defensive rating has dropped to 117.5, more than a full point worse

now that's an effective coach being effective

 

Because you assume Stotts would have finished the 4th quarter with bench players if that were the case?

 

Portland D is bad, as Clyde would say "no doubt about it". I guess it all falls on Stotts and the front Court mostly?
The Nets are nearly as bad as Portland and their Def ranking is in the same neighborhood. Is it because Steve Nash isn't a decent defensive coach, or the players he has, or both?

 

As is most often the case, I’d say it’s a combination of factors. First and foremost for the Blazers, it’s the roster. With Nurk and Collins out, the Blazers have no rim protection and not much coverage when the guards get beat. They also have no defensive guards that they can bring in to deal with a hot opposing guard, so they are forced to rotate either RoCo or Jones to try to cover and that just leaves one of our small guards trying to deal with a bigger player. Getting Nurk back will definitely help the defense, but it probably won’t make the Blazers more than a middle of the pack defense unit.

Beyond the roster issues, there’s just team philosophy that says they can out-score anyone. Stotts is first and foremost an offense oriented guy and that’s exactly what Dame, CJ and Melo want in a coach.

 

agree and I think the Nets have that same mind set. They are not all that concerned about how many points they give up as long as they outscore their opponent. Thats todays game more than ever.