Rudy,Martell & Jerryd provided nothing last night....as did Blake.... But at least they ATTEMPTED to provide something...they succeeded in clanking shots and turning the ball over...and surprise...so did Steve Blake...
In addition to the stat lines, I also watched the game. Blake did nothing exceptional - in either a positive, or negative sense. The use single game +/- stats is meaningless. There are just too many variables. Perhaps, Blake just happended to be on the floor when Durant was on the bench. That would have a bigger impact on Blake's +/- than anything he personally did. As someone who watched the game, I can tell you without looking at a single stat, that Andre Miller had a bigger positive impact on his team's chances of winning than Blake did. Other than one or two late Bayless drives, the only easy scores the Blazers got were generated by Andre Miller - either lay-ups for himself, or lay-ups/dunks for his teammates. Blake didn't create easy scoring opportunites for anyone - himself included. So, if you want to ignore quantitaive stats that's fine (although I prefer to consider the stats AND personal observations), Blake had less of a positive impact than Miller (and Batum and Aldrridge and Cunningham - where's the Dante Appreciation Thread?). BNM
I don't even pay attension to +/- since I believe to be a mostly worthless stat. Even adjusted +/- isn't all that great. Anyway, I was just refering to how the team appeared to play on the floor. They played better when Blake was on then when he wasn't. As stated, I haven't the slightest idea what he might have done that helped.
We will have to agree to disagree about Miller's performance. I felt most of his stats came at the expense of the team and his turnovers far over shadowed his assists. I don't pay any attention to +/-. Any stat that shows that Dirk Nowitzki was a more valuable player then Shaq when Shaq was winning titles is a stat that deserves to be ignored.
Really? On a night when many of his teammates were shooting 0.000, you think Miller's 0.500 shooting came at the expense of the team? Yeah, Miller's 4 TOVs hurt, but his 6 AST lead to some very easy baskets (lay-ups and dunks) for his teammates. BNM
Yes really. I did not like what I saw from Miller one bit. Every score came out of the same bullshit offense I have hated for two years now. No passing, no ball movement. It sucked to watch and in the end failed miserably. It seemed like he got tired of trying to pass the ball to guys and decided he was going to get his. Which is lucky since his passes kept getting stolen outright or deflected. Also, I don't want to sound like I am pimping Blake's play. He sucked to. Just less or as bad as all of the other guards that played. After a game like last night the best you can say about any player is that they sucked the least. Blake, Batum and DC are the winners of the coveted "We didn't suck as bad as everyone else" award. LMA is not in the running due to expectations and his failure to meet them.
That's how you want to characterize his play? Seriously? He stopped passing because guys were settling for contested three pointers or off balance jumpers which were absolutely not going in. If the result had been a win or if this had been Brandon we'd be lauding him for trying to make something happen or taking over for his inept/cold/mediocre teammates. I had zero issue with Miller's game last night, besides Nic (early), Dante and LMA to a degree he was the only guy who had anything going
You blame that on Miller? He wasn't here last year. If you've hated the offense for two years, it seems like Andre Miller should be the last person you should be blaming for that. But, that's our offense no matter what the situation, no matter who's in the game, no matter who the opponent is, etc. Or, maybe he got tired of passing to guys who were 0-5, 0-6, and couldn't hit a shot to save their lives. With the way his teammates were shooting the ball, I don't blame Miller for looking for his own shot - especially when he was the only one in the game who was making anything. BNM
So it was by some AMAZING COINCIDENCE that the runs the Blazers went on in the first, second and third quarters (I didn't watch much of the fourth - when I did watch Blake wasn't playing and OKC killed the Blazers) were while Blake was on the floor? And, correct me if this is wildly off the mark, it's pretty hard for a team to "go on a run" without scoring any points. Okay, I can believe that.
The only "run" the Blazers went on with Blake in the game was in the 2nd quarter when they outscored the Thunder 10-3 - with Durant and Westbrook on the bench. In the first quarter, the Blazers matched the Thunder 13-13 when Blake was in the game. In the 3rd quarter, the Thunder outscored the Blazers 16-14 with Blake in the game and were outscored 7-5 in the 4th with Blake in the game. So, the only big run the Blazers went on while Blake was in the game happened to coincide with OKC's two best players being on the bench. I already said Blake did some good things last night, in spite of the 0-5 shooting, but it's not like he was some great catalyst that propeled his team to victory. His play only "stood out" because it was slightly less bad than Webster's, Rudy's and Bayless'. BNM
Blake didn't play bad tonight, did he? One could even say he was the difference in the game, couldn't they?
Nope, definitely not. After the season Blake has been having, I would never expected him to play one of the best games of his career tonight. BNM
The result were not out of left field as some would like to tell you. Blake has been the highest guard in win% we have had all season - and has been over 60% in win% for 4 years running. Some people just choose to ignore this.
There's a difference between ignoring something and understanding what it means. Steve Blake has benefited from playing the majority of his minutes over the last three years with Brandon Roy. It's called the coattail effect. BNM
Or one could say that Aldridge was...but that wouldn't support your point now would it? Congratulations to Blake I guess, he played one of his best games ever....I guess that justifies a season of REALLY poor play, yet heavy starters minutes that he has been getting..... Kind of like getting beat by 50 points and then puffing your chest because you took 40 shots and scored 20 points.... Yeeeaahh...OK.
