Game Thread 2022-23 Game #46 - BLAZERS VS LAKERS - JANUARY 22, 2023 - SUNDAY - 6:00 PM (PDT) ROOT

We can’t protect a 25 point lead at home against Lebron and a bunch of scrubs and you have faith still that this team will turn it around.

Bruh, we are awful

 

So we don’t lose him for nothing.

 

Yep, you can look at it that way, but I think it’s foolish to even hope to get Wemby. And even if Portland got him, he’d probably break a leg or something else.

 

Billups saying this is a lack of experience in these types of situations and that we (the players) don't have playoff expertise.

There is some irony in him saying that.

 

How can anyone watch this team and think they can turn it around. Bruh the starting lineup plays 35+ mpg together a game and can barely break even. No team in the league would look at that and think there’s an ounce of chance making any noise in the playoffs.

 

On the first try my friends…

 

Billups says he know the group is still listening to him because the team still competes.

 

I feel sick for complimenting this team on the way it played in the first half and retweeting a couple of their highlights. If they want to look like clowns, OK, but don't make the people supporting you look like clowns in the process. How the heck do you forgot how you played 10 minutes earlier and blow a 25-pt lead at home to a bad team?

 

What would they look like if they didn't compete?

Honestly, you wonder at times how much worse they would look if they ran a line-up of Badji/Watford/Walker/Sharpe and Johnson out there?

 

I dont feel like the team competed at all in the second half. Bevmo by himself outcompeted the entire Blazers lineup. I think you may be able to say soon that Billups has lost the team.

 

Does it? Could have fooled me.

 

We had one good quarter of play tonight and three shitty quarters. If no significant moves are made by the trade deadline, then I'll be mad. Right now when we actually played a lineup of Dame, Ant, Shae, GP2 and Hart at one point because we have no size off the bench... I expect us to blow big leads against a team like the one we faced tonight. We lost two straight to the Thunder. I'm just saying that this team won't continue to be this awful and isn't awful enough consistently for those teams to end up with better records than us (see the two wins against the Mavs).

If you want to stand behind that ridiculous post be my guest but those teams will show just how bad they want better lottery odds and this team will show just how badly they want even a play-in shot at competing in the post season.

 

Of course, then you'll have all the people coming out and saying how draft picks are a waste of Dame's prime years.

No. Trading draft picks for Robert Covington and Larry Nance Jr. wasted Dame's prime years. The picks we traded for RoCo would be contributors now. Dame's still producing.

Stop worrying about Dame's prime years. Get the best talent you can get and the best coach to figure it out. I'm as tired of hearing about Dame's prime as Nurk swearing at the ref in Bosnian because he airballed a 3-footer against Wenyen Gabriel.

 

Rarely are things said in press conferences that are worth listening to. Tonight was kinda juicy though.

 

Must be competing in NBA2003, because they aren't doing it in real life.

 

If anything could happen it’s Nas starting for Hart. Won’t really make a difference though.

 

I don't know if Chauncey can effectively coach what he believes, but I think his approach to the game isn't bad. It's just whether or not he can teach it and/or get players to buy in. Some of these players have never been very good defensively so it might be tough as they are older to get them all to be on the same page. It may take a MAJOR change of personnel and not just pieces here and there.

They don't have a lot of that defensive 'dog' in them, and they certainly don't have the size to make up for that lake of game attitude.