These two games with Denver could signal the eventual power from the Northwest division. Billups has turned that team from an also-ran into a serious contender, and if the Blazers are going to make any kind of noise in the playoffs, they have to go through the Mile High City. Would you all be satisfied with a home-and-home split? Portland never seems to play well in Denver. Personally, I think anything less than a sweep of both games would be a bad sign for the rest of the season. Brandon Roy, if he can keep his game at the level it's at right now, is too much for anyone on Denver's roster to handle. The question would be, do the Blazers have the means to stop Melo and Billups?
Re: How huge is this upcoming back-to-back with Denver? Ask KingSpeed! He's been saying the world will end as we know it if we don't win both!
Re: How huge is this upcoming back-to-back with Denver? I think they're pretty big. We've already lost twice to Utah, and I have a feeling us, Utah and Denver will be separated by a few games in April. And we don't want to be on the losing end of a three-way tiebreaker against those two teams. Division games are always big whether they're in November, February or April. We can't afford to lose both, a split would be all right, but 0-2 would not be good.
Re: How huge is this upcoming back-to-back with Denver? I don't think it matters. Wins will come regardless if we win or lose 2 to the Nuggets.
Re: How huge is this upcoming back-to-back with Denver? Division games are always important. I watched them play against Cleveland last night and even though they kind of got blown out, they look like a very tough matchup for us. Billups has always given us fits, and the Nuggets are a very athletic, very aggressive team, and they are playing very good perimeter defense. Oden, Travis and LMA getting inside and scoring in the paint (along with Brandon) are going to be crucial in this game ... it wouldn't hurt if our second unit shooters like Rudy hit a high percentage of their outside shots.
Re: How huge is this upcoming back-to-back with Denver? If we can't handle Utah and Denver, what does that say for our play-off hopes? We are already down 0-2 to the Jazz. Going down 0-2 to the Nugs would be a serious blow.
Re: How huge is this upcoming back-to-back with Denver? I hate to doubt our guys, but coming up with a win in Denver has been tough for us over the last decade or so. No matter what the rosters are, we seem to struggle there. However, if we can pull off a win on Monday, it would sure help our chances down the line. I'm not going to hold my breath, though.
Re: How huge is this upcoming back-to-back with Denver? Keep their bigs off the glass, and hopefully Batum can slow down Melo. Also, we can't let Kleiza or JR go off on us. Play smart at a slow tempo while choosing our spots to run. We have Roy who is as poise as they come, if the team follows his lead, we should be in good shape. Again, this all goes down the drain if we stop attacking the hoop and go into an offensive drought or our bench plays subpar again
Re: How huge is this upcoming back-to-back with Denver? We have to win one. You don't get to play these games over again in April. They count towards tiebreakers. We must win one. Winning both would be huge. And I disagree that we have to go through Denver to contend. I say they have to go through US to contend. And they have to stop Brandon Roy to do it. I think we can win both. 20-10 at the end of Christmas Day would be beautiful.
Re: How huge is this upcoming back-to-back with Denver? Yes 1-1 is essential. 2-0 woudl be huge as we would move into first. 0-2 would hurt. Obviously it is a long season but these 2 are big.
Re: How huge is this upcoming back-to-back with Denver? I wonder when the team will head out to DEN. PDX seems to be on the brink of shutting down tonight according to the news.
Nuggets: 17-10. Blazers 17-10. This reminds me of when the Blazers and Lakers were 45-11, both on 11 game win streaks. The Lakers won and went on to win 67 games. We went into a tailspin. These two games next week are HUGE. It could catapult us for the rest of the season. By all means, feel free to merge.
Re: Nuggets: 17-10. Blazers 17-10. We know they're huge. Hopefully we capitalize on 4 games in 5 nights. They can use the Oden.
Re: How huge is this upcoming back-to-back with Denver? They're supposed to head out tomorrow. Hopefully the guys make it out safe tomorrow, and it'll probably be fine when they get back.
Yeah, absolutely huge. We need to take at least one. I think the fact that we have soo much time to rest gives us a good shot to take the one in Denver, and then I think we will win teh one in Portland regardless. Winning 2 would be incredibly huge. But hte season is not over if we go 0-2.
I anticipate a split, which is basically, just par for the course. At this point in the season, the Nuggets and Blazers are in a dead heat, with 50-odd games still to play, right? So a split means that remains the case. It would certainly be great if Portland could win both - and set the Blazers up for having the tiebreaker against the Nuggets - but it's far too early to really pump this up as "must-win" or anything close.
