Well I can't wait until the Blazers blow Atlanta out tonight. Then what? They will say it's because Atlanta didn't prepare for us?
True, but our strength of schedule is 22nd out of 30 teams. That's pretty low. Of the "quality" teams, only Cleveland, Orlando and Dallas have had an easier schedule. Milwaukee, who is 5-2 has had the easiest. Based on their schedule, 9-2 is the record we should have. At 8-3 it appears we are underperforming slightly.
Last year Portland only won 20 road games total. They lost to teams like the Bobcats and Memphis with regularity when on the road. This year they are curb stomping them. Frankly I think it is a huge improvement. Portland is beating the living shit out of the teams they should beat the living shit out of. It has been YEARS since fans could say that. I am very pleased with how Portland has managed to win. They have won ugly. They have won at a fast pace. They have won at a slow pace. Just win, baby. Also Oden gets better every game. That move he put on Nazi in the Bobcats game was sick. The foul trouble will go down as he gets more experiance and the refs see him more. When was the last time we could say that Portland was a good defensive team? 2001 maybe? Not sure why anyone would be remotely depressed about the team right now.
I think a lot of folks are having a hard time coming to terms that Portland isn't a running team. I am not sayin everybody, but I think that people were thinking with Andre Miller coming on board this team would turn into a running team. IMO the identity Portland is forging is more like the New York Knicks of the Patrick Ewing era/San Antonio Spurs, any era. (which, by the way I hated to watch). Make the game FUGLY. Scrap. Play defense. Limit posessions. Just win. Bad times are when Viktor Kryapa and Juan on Five Dixon are starters on your team. Not now. These are good times, even if we don't "Rule the basketball universe."
Again though. That defensive rating is great, but it's based on games against a lot of really poor teams. I think Portland IS a better raod team against the scrub teams than last season, but until they consistantly beat good teams on the road they really aren't any better overall. So far Portland has been testen on the road by Memphis Minnesota Charlotte New Orleans Oklahoma City Houston The only two teams that could be considered good are Houston and OKC, and both of them will probably end up missing the playoffs. Or at best, battling for the 8th seed.
Memphis averages 105 a game. We held them to 80 some odd points. I know it was 20 points less than their average. Also, we did very well against Denver, was only 2 free throws away from winning that one.
Charlotte IS a good defensive team. They are 7th in the league in defensive efficiency. For the record - OKC is a good defensive team as well. They are 8th in the league in defensive efficiency.
Huh. You are right. Sorry about that. Must be because I was trying to read the board while also being on a business call on dealing with some boring stuff. My mistake. I just thought his needing a trade stuff was about the need for more offense from the SF position - so... We did play 3 good offensive teams, Denver, Atlanta and SAS.
Ya, I think that was his point? We lost 2-3 and won the SA when they were without Parker for all but 11 minutes.
There is a difference between being a good offensive team and averaging a high amount of points per game. One can be purely based off of the amount of posessions and pace of the game. You talk about Memphis averaging 105 per game. The piece of information you omitted, is that teams averaged 115 per game against them. Portland won by doing what they do best. Making the game ugly, slow it down, and controlling the tempo to their favor.
Why are some people down? A poster starts out with rational, legit concerns. Some people are willing to discuss the matter, but many just want to ignore and insult him. At some point, the poster gets frustrated and starts pounding on the table and screaming at people to put down the kool-aid and think. This just convinces the other people that they were justified in not listening to this ill-tempered sourpuss in the first place. Rinse, lather, repeat. Mags asked how the Danny -Downers will react if the Blazers blow the Hawks out. It's a fair question. Here's an equally fair question: if the Blazers *get* blown out, will there be honest discussion - or just tired excuses?
We played bad in only one of these games - and that was the Atlanta game, and just the 4th quarter. Sure, we lost to Denver - but the reason was not because our offense sucked - it was because Melo was channeling his inner-MJ and we missed some free-throws. We were up against SAS by a comfortable margin when Parker went out as well, it's not like he was really torching us with a 1-4 performance to that point. Again, I am just not following why we are in such a big need for a trade when playing good offensive teams. The facts are - this is a good team, they are going to win a lot, but, they are not going to go without a loss for the rest of the year. You want to be down (You, in the general Mixum world, not you specifically) - go for it. I just think that a little bit of using one's level head might do good. This team is far from being a bad team, and they do have some issues (which is true for each and every team in the league, heck even the MJ Bulls lost 10 games in the regular season). Roy's is much more of a jump-shooter with Miller handling the Rock - but Miller is pretty much useless if he is not handling the rock, Oden gets lots of fouls, some of them his own fault, some of them the fault of the guards which are, mostly, bad perimeter defenders, Webster is consistently inconsistent, Travis is out, Bayless has a boo-boo, LMA's head attracts elbows, Blake is only shooting 36% from the 3 and Rudy is a turn-over machine, We lost Sergio to the Kings who continue to win without him in the line-up and Michael Jordan is a better player than Sam Bowie, HCP is doing the freeze frame and Mike Rice is still crazy, The other Mike is a homer, there isn't enough Rebeca time on TV, the economy is in the dumpster, it's cloudy and rainy and Mixum has probably not been laid in a decade (Can't think of another reason to be that upset about an entertainment issue - if this is causing him so much down time - maybe he should not follow the team). I get it. Things can be better. But overall... we are 8-3, the defense is a lot better than it was - and if the team wins that often with all these problems - maybe, just maybe, they will be great once everyone starts clicking.
LOL, I just do it because I'm bored. Nothing too much about that. In fact, if you've read my posts weeks ago, I said we are fine with the roster we have. WELL UNLESS WE COULD LAND CP3, then trade is good. So basically, we won't be doing any deals anytime soon and I'm just fine with that.
We were up 12 when Parker got hurt. He was hurt in the second quarter with about 3 minutes left to play. I think it's fair to say he might have had an impact on that game.
