This loss hurt. Bayless has got to be available while Roy is out. It's basically because Steve Blake has such limited talents and puts too much pressure on everyone he plays with. I've never seen a softer player in Pro Basketball than Steve Blake. Here were the efforts of those who played tonight from one aspect of the game. It's a huge aspect. It's the ability of a player to get another player to commit a foul. By being able to do this, you do a number of great things: 1. Put the opponents best players in foul trouble and get them to then either play softer (which Blake always plays like a guy who has 5 fouls and is afraid to get the 5th), or to send their best players to the bench. 2. Get to the foul line and shoot high-percentage shots. Tonight these players got Boston's players in to commit a foul: Bayless: Pierce Davis T. Allen Bayless was on his way to causing 6 or 7 fouls to be called against players covering him. This is typical for him. Webster: T. Allen Perkins Wallace Garnett Pierce (3 fouls against Webster) Webster had a monster game causing opponents to foul him 7 times. That put a tremendous amount of pressure on their Defense and helped the Blazers get to the foul line often. But, it's a team effort, and when you got one guy like Blake who's totally useless in this deparment, Blake becomes a welcome to opponents every time he steps onto the floor. Blake can be used effectively for about 10 minutes a game max as a spot-up 3 point shooter and a fair defender against certain types of players. Howard: Perkins (2 fouls against Howard) Howard's effort got Perkins out of the game early in the 1st Half, where Perkins is one of their better Defenders. Wallace came in and was a force, but Aldridge was dynamite against him. Miller: Rondo (3 fouls against Miller) Perkins Pierce (2 fouls against Miller) Garnett Miller was outstanding also causing opponents to foul him 7 times just like Webster. This is typical for Miller, but Webster's contribution is something he can do every time if he wants to do it, unless Blake or someone else takes his minutes. This is something that Outlaw and Batum do not do. When Outlaws' cold, he's worthless. If Webster's cold, he still plays good defense and he can get opponents in foul trouble at the same time, helping Roy, Blake, LaMarcus and Miller get to the foul line. Rudy doesn't get to the line either, but that, I feel, is because he's so skinny and causing him not to get the calls from the refs. He tries, and with time, he will get the calls from the refs. Again, Blake's inability to get to the line cost us 3 or 4 points tonight and might have put another of Boston's players out of the game where they wouldn't have made an impact late in the game. Miller should have gotten at least one more call. Miller understands completely how all of this that I'm writing fits into a team's ability to win. It's like breaking a sledgehammer against a rock. You pound and pound and pound and pound and then suddenly it explodes. That's what happens in the 2nd half of the 4th Quarter when foul trouble sets in. I knew with Roy out and Bayless starting that we had a chance to accomplish this tonight. Roy creates these things for himself, but he fails to help others create these things. We actually had a better chance to beat Boston tonight without Roy than with Roy because of this. We would have if Bayless hadn't gone down. Against Boston this is true, but against other teams, we're better with Roy. It's really just Blake that's the problem. He's such a weakling and plays like a girl, and that's an insult to a lot of girls. Aldridge: Wallace (3 fouls against Aldridge) Garnett (2 fouls against Aldridge) Davis Aldridge got opponents to foul him 6 times tonight and more importantly, 5 of them were against Wallace and Garnett. A great game by Aldridge tonight. I do want to add that Blake played a good game tonight, but unfortunately, his good game is not enough to make the difference in winning against Boston. It's just what it is. Blake is a 10-minute per game player, whoever he'd play for. That's all he'd get if he played for San Antonio or the Lakers or Boston or Orlando or New Orleans or Houston or Phoenix, etc. Aldridge also should have gotten another two calls and didn't. Rudy: Garnett Rondo Rudy could have gotten another call for sure. Overall fouls for Boston: Garnett---5 Rondo---4 Wallace---4 Perkins---4 Pierce---6 Davis---2 R. Allen---1 T. Allen---1 Oh. Blake, as usual, didn't cause anyone to commit a foul against him because he plays like a girl. Here's what Blazers players are averaging per 36 minutes of play as far as getting to the free throw line. You can't get to the free throw line on a non-shooting foul unless enough of your teammates are helping get you there by getting opponents to foul them, too. Blake does none of this. That McMillan can't see this is a major flaw in McMillan's ability as a coach. Though, I'd still give McMillan Coach-of-the-Year. But Coach-of-the-Year is a reward for overcoming dire circumstances. Had no injuries happened, this team was destined to be another 1st round playoff loser with Blake leading the way as McMillan attempts to slow everything down to a crawl with Blake running things McMillan's way. Even with the changes, the Blazers are still DEADLAST in the NBA in Pace Factor. Bayless.. 7.7 Free Throw Attempts Per 36 minutes Roy....... 6.3 Miller...... 5.9 Oden...... 4.6 Outlaw.... 3.7 Aldridge... 3.4 (What Aldridge did tonight is what he needs to do every night.) Pryzbilla... 2.7 Rudy....... 2.6 Martell..... 2.5 (What Martell did tonight is what he needs to do every night.) Cunningham. 2.1 Pendergraph. 1.9 Howard..... 1.0 Blake....... 0.9 (GirlyBoy can't get an opponent to foul him in the act of shooting or foul him at all when their team is in the penalty even once every other game. Not once every other game. He'd then be averaging 1.0 if he did. That is the ultimate definition of a girlyboy. And, this is Nate McMillan's favorite guy. This is how screwed up Nate is. Whenever Steve Blake dribbles the ball, everyone in the arena knows that he's not going to make an attempt to score, so there's no need for anyone to leave their man. He can always be handled one-on-one. So, he makes nobody better around him when he has the ball. He's not a point guard. Not even close. Even if he's right at the rim, he won't shoot it because he's so afraid of contact or that the shot might be blocked. Watching him participate in a fast-break is a disaster waiting to happen.) Detroit's a horrible team, so we might win without Bayless. But say good-bye to any wins for a while if Bayless misses any more games while Roy is out. If Blake and Travis got just 10 minutes per game, that'd be perfect. More than that and they are detriments towards winning.
The stats tell a different story. Travis has always drawn fouls at a much higher rate then Martell, and Rudy at about the same. Martell is going to the line at about his career average this year... nothing seems to have changed. I don't think this is merely a matter of him deciding he's going to go draw more fouls, it's probably more a reflection of his abilities. Dude has weak handles. He can't count on guys running into him on 3 point attempts (like last night with Pierce) every game. 09/10 Martell WS 2.6 Usage 18.3... 44 games in his Win Share projects out to 4.8 for the year 08/09 Travis WS 5.3 Usage 22.0 08/09 Blake WS 5.8 Usage 17.0 08/09 Rudy WS 6.1 Usage 18.4 For injury reasons, Travis Blake and Rudy all fared better last year then this. It seems that you're projecting that Martell is doing much better (or could be) then he actually has been. I'll grant you that his D is improved from his earliest years, but he is hardly a lock down guy. it seems you're playing favorites in your analysis STOMP
To play devil's advocate ... rolled ankles usually come as a result of cumulative fatigue. It's pretty rare to see someone turn the ankle over in limited action or early in a contest (across sports), although the former could be argued as largely a sample size issue. With our bench players pressed into bigger roles than they have grown accustomed to, these sorts of things are likely to happen.
I don't think this applies to Bayless. Dude has been getting more NBA minutes of late, but it's not like he hasn't been pushing himself off that stage for years now. This injury was sustained in the first half and it's not like they were in a back to back game situation... JB had played all of 21 minutes two nights before. sometimes it just happens STOMP
I consider Bayless to be among the most rugged players on the team, so other than his dangerous choice of shoes, I would agree it's just the way the cookie crumbles. (Note that I did say cumulative fatigue, though, not just the one game. He has played a lot more the past month than he did for the previous year and a half. The body doesn't instantly remember the way things used to be, although it does so better with youth on its side.)
Update (9:45AM): Patty Mills has been recalled from the D League for tonight's game. Jerryd Bayless is officially listed as "questionable" with the sprained ankle suffered last night. -- Ben
He came down on sombody's foot! I have a hard time believing that if he wasn't "fatigued" that he'd have been able to shake that off.
People land on feet all the time during the course of a game (or step on rocks and sticks while running) and nothing happens most of the time. You only see the replay when the ankle buckles... The likelihood of injury shoots up dramatically the later in the activity it occurs, i.e. when fatigue sets in.
I knew it might get missed if I didn't emphasize it, but I said, "if Martell wants to do it, he can do it like this on a regular basis". Martell needs to keep doing what he did last night, not what he's been doing in the past. I've seen him do it more this year than in the past, but it needs to be every night, not one in five nights. In their histories, Martell has been as horrible as Outlaw when it comes to not playing physical and driving to the basket. Martell can do it. Outlaw simply can't do it.
HCP, Did Patty make it in from Albuquerque for tonight's game? EDIT: Disregard. I just read it in the later thread.
??? how did I miss it? I repeated your wording in directly answering this question. See post #22 for that. one can hold an opinion on just about anything... it doesn't have to be based on reality. For their respective careers Travis has averaged going to the line once every 9 minutes, Martell once every 13.3... which is exactly what he's averaging this year as well. 51% of MW's career FG attempts have been from 3 point range, while 15% of TO's have. Travis rebounds and blocks shots at a much higher rate. To say that they've been the same at avoiding inside play is just wrong. I really doubt that all Martell has to do is flip a switch to leapfrog Travis's ability to drive and draw fouls as they've both had enough time establishing a body of work for us to have a pretty good idea as to what their game is. STOMP
It's all he has to do....is flip that switch. It's harder to do on a Nate McMillan team, as Nate discourages driving to the basket more than any Coach in the NBA. Martell may have to do it with another team. His time is disappearing though if he doesn't turn on that switch soon. When he "chooses" to drive, he does it fairly well. When Travis "chooses" to drive, he SUCKS at it. That's all I said, nothing more.
