Aldridge was, other than Batum, the only bright spot for the Blazers. But how does he get 19 FGAs and only get one free throw? Both of the starting bigs for LA were on the borderline of being in foul trouble all night, but when we have a floater (not the odendenied avatar kind) and a bunch of three point shooters, we're NEVER going to get opponents in foul trouble. Oden's energy level was down. I don't usually comment on that, but he was looking really aggressive in flashing to the ball in the key in the first half... but he never touched it except when the defender had established position and I think he kind of gave up on it in the second half. Frye is terrible. Outlaw had one of the most consistently bad games I can remember any Blazer having in a while. Blake had a couple late shots drop, otherwise he might have been worse than Outlaw. I'm glad that I got to watch the Lakers broadcast, because I don't think I could have stomached MB's standard sugarcoating... Ed O.
Until Roy went out, I didn't really miss Webster. I thought he'd be useful, but his presence or absence wouldn't have any impact in the W/L column. But without him and Roy, we just have zilcho depth at SG. It's killing us right now to run these wretched two point guard lineups. Two point guard lineups suck. They sucked with Jack and Telfair, Damon and Van Exel, and now Sergio/Bayless. It sounds nice in theory to have an extra playmaker out there, but it just seems to lead to confusion and a lack of clearly defined roles and size disadvantages. Not really a lot Nate can do though. Our first string and third string shooting guards are out.
Nice summary. I generally don't have a problem with Outlaw, but I can't think of one good thing he did tonight. Usually he's a sweet-and-sour mix of really good and really bad. Tonight he was a turd sandwich, with the bread also being two thinly sliced pieces of turd. And Frye? Ugh. He's a one-trick-pony who somehow can't do his one trick anymore (shoot jumpers--like we need another guy to do that.) Which makes him a dead horse that we need to stop flogging. I don't like Ike, but at least he doesn't make the back of my throat taste like throwup.
MB was in fine form tonight, praising Blake for being there against Toronto like a month ago. And calling it a mini-rally when we cut LA's lead from 20-something or whatever to 17. Stuff you can't make up. It's embarrassing...
Ha Ha. My favorite moment of the game was the 60 offensive boards we had on one play to finally make a 3 pointer -- embarrassing -- for BOTH teams! LoL.
Jeez. I found myself thinking, "I loath the Lakers, but I have to admit they've got a decent announcing crew. Pretty even handed, and not inclined to whine about officiating like our guys do. They even point out some flaws in their own players." It's such a shame franchises hire such rah rah stooges to broadcast the games. I'd much prefer it if each division just had a pool of broadcast talent that reported on multiple teams. Just cut all the propaganda bullshit out.
That was truly a battle of wills. "They don't want to rebound, and we don't want to score." An uninterested object meets an unstartable force.
It sounded tonight almost like there was some tension between Meyers (who I HATED as a massive homer with the Spurs) and Lantz (who was willing to be more negative about Rudy than anyone I've heard in the media yet, which was interesting). They disagreed a couple of times a quarter, and they let the disagreements go without conceding or smoothing it over. That, coupled with their lack of overt homerism, makes them a better experience for me as a fan of the Blazers and the NBA than the Blazers' guys. I would imagine it's cultural more than anything, given the transformation of Meyers and the consistency in "rah-rah-dom" of the Blazers broadcast crews. Ed O.
You know, I've been thinking if Rudy wasn't "Rudy" and played the way he has lately (jacking up a lot of 3s and not much else) I wonder how much slack Martell or even Jerryd would get for playing the way he does sometimes. I keep thinking it must be the jaw dropping alley oops, and flashy passes that blind people to the fact that he's turning into one helluva one dimensional player about half-way through his rookie season.
They were also chanting "We want tacos!" So anyways allow me to say Woo Hooo! Lakers have the best record in the league! Sorry for your guys disappointment but cmon, its the Lakers year (or close to it anyways)...So go Lakers! Now I will go back to rooting for POR And just to let everybody know, I beat drexlersdad in our Bynum vs Oden bet in total "good stats", 18 to 15!
We'll see if Webster takes a chunk of his minutes away. Rudy seemed (I don't have the stats in front of me) to start so well that he's got some good will built up with fans and the coach... and I don't blame anyone for that, especially given the lack of other options. As both Rudy and Outlaw have started to struggle, I think we all hope that the Webster hype from the summer and training camp is reality. Ed O.
Yeah, that was definitely pretty cool to hear. I loved it when Snapper used to openly mock Walton (even though Walton grated on me). I loved listening to Fratello and Jeff Van Gundy openly bitch at each other in telecasts. I like my announcers to be like a pair of smart sports fans watching a game at the bar. They should call each other idiots at will, snipe, make lame jokes, maybe even ogle some chicks. It'd be the simplest thing in the world for the NBA to test. Take the exact same game video and test it with guys like I describe doing it simultaneously on separate feeds. Then just look at the ratings.
ed-o our playoff hopes are fading...we dont have time to wait for webster and it sound slike roy has regressed ith his injury we need a trade to stay afloat
Maybe you wanna hold his wittle handsie while he plays too? He's earned nothing so far and is making Shavlik look like the guy who's paying for Bayless's PT. You're saying it's someone else's fault he's shooting 23% for the season, and falling. He has a TO or foul for almost every point he's scored. Give him a break. This is kindergarten for him this season. Don't expect miracles. PT isn't what he needs at all right now. He needs to watch and learn the game.
