They cut the camera to Roy and Blake. Roy said something like "did he just shoot a three?" and they both kind of crinkled their noses. Not so classy, Nicolas.
Pritchard's goatee stole the show! And I thought Oden had two of his strongest (successful) offensive plays of the regular season. Bayless looked good.
Ha ha ha ha! Frye was the only Blazer (-1) with a negative while he was on the floor. That dude needs to pick up his agressiveness, his body language is bad. I thought Bayless tonight showed his progression. He was more in control tonight then earlier in the season. I noticed he tried the alley-oop to Rudy again, this time it was closer, but still missed on timing. At least he didn't throw it out of the gym like last time. I also noticed that he wasn't winded like he was earlier in the season. He played great D while in(better than all the other PG types on the team even as a rookie) and even made a few nice passes.
Bayless didn't seem unready, he had 4 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds in about 8 minutes. That's pretty good production...at that rate, he'd have 20/10/10 in 40 minutes. That may be a little much to hope for but it does show he was productive in his minutes. He even had a steal. I hope McMillan starts giving him more minutes. He's possibly the most talented guard on the team outside of Roy (Fernandez, of course, also might be).
I just noticed, the Kings took 76 shots inside the arc, and ended up shooting 41% for the game. If you wanted to see the effects of having 2 7' types with shot altering capabilities in the game, this is it. Having Aldridge teamed with either Oden or Pryz is a lot of length to contend with.
He would have also shot 5-20 in 40 minutes, but it was in garbage time, so why bother to extrapolate any numbers?
5-20 shooting isn't actually a problem if you're scoring a point per shot (thanks to free throws). But the point was not to do a valid statistical projection (which is why I discounted it as obviously not something one could really expect)...just to show that he was productive in his limited time. Garbage time or not.
Just got back from the game. Very nice to see the guys not let the previous losses linger. - Loved the highlights during the timeouts. There were chants of "Terry! Terry!" during the first half. TP never really had big highlight plays, big dunks or crossovers -- the guy just played basketball with a no fear attitude, and being an underdog all his life and succeeding probably made him a big fan fav. - Always nice to see Buck back in Portland. He got the loudest ovation during the retirement ceremony at halftime out of the former players. - Clyde had a video message saying TP is the greatest PG in Blazer history. And Rick Adelman had another video message, but forgot what he said. - The Blazers busted out the Bust a Bucket song a couple times. The Blazer dancers danced to it, and they played it one other time during a timeout. Always fun to hear that again. - Big G.O. looked like he's getting his legs back, especially with that dunk off the pick and roll, and another overpowering one. I liked what G.O. brought. - Roy is awesome as always. - Jerryd has unbelievable hops. People oohing and ahhing in my section, and couldn't believe the height he was getting. - Channing is looking terrible although it can't help that he's getting 2 mins of burn and gets taken out. But seeing Diogu and Bayless get in garbage time while he still sat, and Joel and LMA still in there in the fourth.. ugh, I bet Frye was just stewing over there. - Salmons was unbelievable in the first quarter, but completely disappeared after that. All in all, 16-10, I'm very happy to see us back on track.
Oden's dunk just got #8 on the top 10 plays on ESPN. I thought Joel's block was going to get #1 . . . but they didn't even have him in the top 10!!! That block was retarded - one of the best I've seen in a long time!!!
Oden's dunk was #4 on NBA.com's top 10. And Roy's monster steal was #8. However, Joel's killer block was not on the list, so he gets robbed again.
That steal was awesome. One of the top plays of the season, right up there with his shot against Houston.
Yeah, I can't believe that guy said there is "no way he would get near 4apg in 25mpg" I don't get it. I guess he has a reputation, but if you watch him, he is very unselfish and tries to get everyone involved. I think he is a capable PG, imo. And I really think he would kill it with BRoy. But again, I like how Sergio and Blake are playing. So Ithink we are good for now. I just think the people totally ragging on him for just being a SG are way off. He is a combo guard that can play BOTH which is a great trait to have. His ability to penetrate and dish is awesome and would take soooo much pressure of Roy. Anyways, awesome game. Everyone scored. This is exactly what we needed. Damn... how easy we could be 18-8... damn. Oh well. Life goes on! 16-10 is fine, we are in great position with a much easier schedule the rest of the way. Go Blazers!