Shavlick can get ya boards and attack the glass. Might not be the worst idea to change up style when LA get tired or in foul trouble.
I'm trying to remember if our Olympic team played good defense. They were known for it if I remember correctly. So Nate (and the other coaches) got the NBA elite to play defense. Why won't that work with the Blazers? Is it lack of talent, lack of experience, lack of desire, or lack of coaching? I don't disagree with you that our defense is bad. I'm just not so sure about the reason(s).
This year's Olympic team was full of pretty damn good defenders like Chris Paul, Tayshaun Prince, Dwight Howard and Kobe. Aside from Boozer, I can't think of many bad defenders on that squad. No credit to Nate for their defensive performance. I think it's a lack of defensive talent on the Blazer roster and some players that don't put the effort in to improve in that area. One of the biggest offenders is Travis Outlaw who has been in the NBA for 6 seasons and still makes egregious rookie mistakes.
That's right. That intermittant hissing sound coming from the gas pipe is just a normal part of the baking process. Smell? What smell? We should all show our faith in KP by sitting in a circle striking matches!
That Knicks team is in 8th place right now. They could make the playoffs. Also- they've had some seriously high scoring game but we held them to 97. I thought that was a good win. The Clipper loss was tough but they're better than their record and just beat the Rockets. Nonetheless, if Blake hits a couple more FTs, we win that game. I'm very excited about the 10 games from January 10th to 28th. Only one of those games is against a better than .500 team, based on current records. That is our chance to gain ground on people. We also MUST take one of the two games against Denver at the end of this month. If we blow both of those, we're in trouble. The Christmas game against Dallas is also very important. We'll see what happens...
The sad thing about posting this here is that there are so many people who overreact to losses. I have said this most of the year, even after wins. You can see that Portland has some glaring weaknesses in it's game, that other teams have scouted and started to figure out. I don't think the sky is falling, or do I think I am having a knee jerk reaction. Portland is a jump shooting team that plays piss poor perimeter defense. They also draw very few fouls. We are second to last in the league in fouls drawn, and last in and 1's. I think these are all important stats, and Portland isn't very good at any of them. I'd also like to see a stat on shot clock violations and near violations because I would bet Portland would be at or near the top in that category as well. And of course dead last in fast break points once again.
I tend to agree with your assessment of those three games. Win two out of three of them, and the Blazers can begin to be considered among the serious playoff contenders in the West. But win just one, or drop all three, and the Blazers will start to lose their margin-of-error for making the post-season. The bottom line is that a team like Denver, Dallas, or Phoenix (anyone think maybe Utah?) will have to miss the playoffs in order for the Blazers to make it. That's a tall order. All those teams are more experienced than Portland.
I actually think Utah can be the 2nd best team in the West. But 2-9 is going to be intense. Houston, New Orleans, San Antonio, Denver and Utah all have a shot at the #2 seed. Injuries I think will play a huge factor in this. Phoenix, Dallas and Portland will be fighting for the last 2 spots. Man, this is going to be a great NBA season. Its sooo different when you know your team is fighting for a playoff spot throughout the year.
Not that it detracts from your overall point about the center tandems effectiveness, but Joel has never been a big MPG guy... he's averaging just shy of a minute less per game compared to last year. http://www.nba.com/playerfile/joel_przybilla/career_stats.html He seems to take his offseason conditioning seriously and spoke about having the best core strength/being in the best overall shape of his career prior to this season. All credit goes to him for doing what it takes to elevate his game. Nonetheless, I expect Oden to start having Matrix moments here shortly. He radiates potential and (IMO) its just a matter of time before he starts to flow and play to his abilities. Thats when Joel's minutes will truly be kept down. Heres to looking back at this thread a little later this season and laughing STOMP
The schedule so far this year has been ridiculous, and if Steve Blake hadn't choked on 4 of 5 free-throws we'd be sitting at 16-9. Yeah, we suck. Now that the season is officially over, who should we target in the lottery? No there isn't.
The Blazer's ARE a good team, but they are not currently a championship caliber team. They are on their way up, so becoming that type of team is a realistic possibility. To look at the last 5 games and say the whole season is lost is pretty silly. Like every single other team in the league, they will have their ups and downs. They will win games they shouldn't and loose games they should win. All teams do. The difference really comes down to how many games does a team loose where they should have won. The Celtics, Cavs and Lakers this year are winning most of the games they should win. Championship caliber teams do that. Portland is not going to win as many games they should win.
I would like to point out that the OP.....me......didn't say anything about the season being lost, or simply looking at the last 5 games.
A MUST WIN game in December? After all the times that you've said there are NO must win games until you're going to be eliminated, and always said it in your usual snarky 'learn the game' style? Does that mean that you're finally learning the game?
