Best defense? Roy has had sequences of plays, but I've never seen him lock somebody up for as long as Jerryd did tonight against Stuckey.
okay, okay . . . nobody said he doesn't have his moments. But he reminds me of falling in love with a beautiful woman who's a train wreck - she'll tear your heart out, and she'll give you the most exciting moments of your life. You can't let go, but you know you should. You're better off cutting ties and watching her break somebody else's heart. And just when you think it's over, she'll come back to Portland as a NY Knick and drain a fade-away jumper at the buzzer to beat you.
Well it was pretty obvious that this game turned when Bayless came in and defended Stucky. You shut down the point, you shut down the attacking focus of their offense. What really became obvious (like it hasn't been all season....) is that the PG need to quit leaving our big men out to dry on defense by switching on the perimeter instead of fighting through the screen. When Bayless was in, he not only fought through screens, he actually saw them ahead of time and beat the screener to the spot. That if completely awesome. There was a reason that the Pistons shot damn near 60% in the first half, and ended up at 48%. The shots were that more much difficult. There was one point right before Bayless went out, that Detroit was down to 36% for the game. They picked it back up right after he went out, and Prince kept getting switched onto Pryzbilla or Aldridge. Bayless gets the game ball IMO. Outlaw and Aldridge only did what I would expect the #2 and #3 scorers from last year to do, which is to step up when Roy is down.
Agreed. But in fairness, nobody can play that kind of defense for 4 quarters every night. Bayless looked posessed out there. You know what I absolutely loved though? When he made mistake on the offensive end (and yes, he made his share tonight) he busted his ass back on defense and got several stops. That is just desire, and Nate will live with him forcing some bad shots and playing a little out of control offensively sometimes if he's locking down on D. I just hope his intensity remains the same defensively all year.
excellent points and I definitely agree. IT's very encouraging seeing this from Bayless. If he continues to play like this in the next coming weeks, bye bye sergio
Why doesn't it refuel everyone? Our player won a game for us. A game we needed to stay in the top 8. Enjoy!
Just got back from my buddy's house where I got to watch comcast HD on a projector screen. Needless to say, it was a good experience. I'm stoked at how LMA, Rudy, and Bayless played. I'm glad Travis raised his trade stock, but I still hope we get rid of him. That's all I can really post right now in terms of thoughts. Off to bed. Great day to be a Blazer!
i was telling the people i was watching with this. he played excellent, and nates gotta reward him for his defense.
1. Bayless Bayless Bayless. Carried the emotions of the team on his shoulders... lifted the crowd and the emotions of the game. loved to see him yell after that steal/dunk. 2. Outlaw...jesus there is no other player in the league that is so love/hate. love that he makes shots, hates that he takes them as a lot of them are awful. love that he has become a very dangerous weakside shotblocker, hate that he can't box out for shit. and on and on and on. 3. Aldridge = stud. 4. We struggled mightily in this game, but a lot of people came through in the clutch. Very solid second half. 5. Should've played more Bayless and Batum in the 4th quarter IMO. I question Nate's substitution pattern this game.
I agree with you. Nate should have been doing more court generaling and swapping Batum/Bayless in for defensive posessions.
Just got back from the game: - Our game ops crew is still kind of terrible. They never take advantage of when we're on a big run unless it's in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter. I don't care about stupid people being blindfolded and walking to the fridge. I don't want to see those stupid T-shirts being thrown into the crowd. We were making a HUGE third-quarter run but nothing to get the crowd involved during timeouts. - Jerryd Bayless was huge tonight, and I loved to see that he's getting comfortable. He got a semi-dead crowd REALLY into it in the second half. Big props to Jerryd - Something was off with the sound system too. It kept skipping during each sound bite they play... - It's funny how much fast-break points can be such a momentum-changer for the team and the crowd. We desperately were waiting for something to happen, some run, and when we got it... the crowd was into it. - Couldn't believe we gave it to Travis in the end, but I'm happy he made it.
