Gotta hand it to Blake tonight, he looks to have finally rediscovered his shooting touch and he was absolutely money from the foul line.
And if the playoffs started tomorrow, we'd be the 5th seed in the West . . . . . . only to face New Orleans and lose
I think we can survive a couple games without Roy. Rudy will step up. Bayless will get some minutes. And Travis can step as well.
If BRoy is on the bench the continuity of our offense just shuts down. He makes everything flow. We would be missed!
I disagree that we shut down. On the contrary, the Sergio-Rudy-Outlaw combo often breaks the game open for us and then falls apart when Roy and the starters come back.
I think we are fine with those guys on the court together in spurts, but you see who has the ball in his hands down the stretch when the game is on the line.
Here's proof: Against the Suns: We trail 21-29 with 40 secs left in 1st quarter Roy goes out We come back and lead by as many as 8 points. When Roy returns, we are up 45-39 that's a 24-10 run with Roy on the bench http://www.nba.com/games/20081101/PORPHX/playbyplay.html
nash was subbed out of the game the same time as roy and came back into the game with it 43-35. so portland went on a 22-6 run with nash out of the game(well actually 21 as nash came out between roy shooting fts).
The point is... we can play well without Roy on the floor. Period. That is the only thing that was being discussed. And I showed proof. Nash or no Nash, that is far besides the point. And if you watched that game, Sergio and Rudy were playing so well and then got yanked and all their momentum stopped.
it certainly makes a difference if nash was in the game or not. the suns are a far inferior team without nash. i agree that portland can play well without roy on the floor but you presented it like they were playing against equal competition with and without roy when with nash being out that obviously wasn't the case(of course you may not have remembered that he was out off the top of your head and probably weren't checking that side of the box score). obviously portland got good results in that case with roy on the bench, but it was at least partially due to the fact that nash was sitting out and goran dragic was in his place.
Our offense was great during that point of the game. Would Nash have defensively stopped Rudy, Sergio, and Outlaw all with the stroke of his magical hands? I think not. The Suns may have scored more with Nash in there but they wouldn't have stopped the flow that the Blazers had.
with nash sitting for 6-7 minutes the suns committed 5 turnovers and only made two shots from the field. i'm pretty sure you would agree that it is easier to play good offense when your opponent is turning the ball over and missing shots and can out in transition than when they are scoring and you have to inbound it every play. but like i said, i'm sure portland did play well then without roy and i know portland can have success without him, but nash being out skews the stats in that particular instance where i wouldn't trust them as much as stats over a longer period of time or that came against similar competition.
Here is the problem with Blakey He played well tonight, but all he does is shoot jumpers. If they aren't falling we are a bad team. We need a player that will attack the rim and either score or kick out. Shooting jumper after jumper is not a very good strategy if you actually want to compete for the playoffs.
addendum: Here is the problem with Webster He's played OK in the past, but all he does is shoot jumpers. If they aren't falling we are a bad team. We need a player that will attack the rim and either score or kick out. Shooting jumper after jumper is not a very good strategy if you actually want to compete for the playoffs. addendum 2: Here is the problem with Joel He's played well in the past, but all he does is rebound... Conclusion: we were playing 2-on-5 last year, and we still won 41 games!! --------------------- Actually, Blake is a terrific player, even starter, on a team of all-stars. He does not turn the ball over, and he doesn't take bad shots - he's a role player. Do we have a team of all-stars? When we get an in-shape Oden, he'll be a better fit. Until then, we will struggle without him putting much pressure on the defense.
