Who picked the Blazers to beat the Suns? Nobody (except Henry Abbott). Why? Because the Suns, as currently constructed, were just better than the Blazers with all the injuries. Maybe we would've stood a chance if Batum was fully healthy and could have been sic'd on to Nash the way Hill was on Miller, but he was clearly struggling. But we were facing a team with a two-time league MVP and a guy in Stoudemire who was called the League MVP of the second half. We should've lost. But the Suns are old, and might lose Stoudemire. And at least we're not the Mavs.
Hmmm. If we would have played as hard as the Suns, it would have been a very, very close series. We didn't.
So are the Spurs playing even less hard? Boy, that Poppovich must be an even bigger bum than McDillon...
the result might say 0-3, but it's not like the Spurs have been getting run out of the building either ... they're getting beaten pretty soundly, but they are competing in every game (for whatever that's worth).
You can work harder in the regular season, but I don't buy it in the postseason. Both teams are trying their hardest, they both want to win. The Blazers played scrappy all season long but that won't win games in the playoffs. The Suns were clearly a better team. They got more out of they're third and fourth best players in Richardson and Hill than we did out of our best player.
That's because both teams did a pretty good job of clamping down on the opposition's best two players. I agree that the difference was the bench. It's not just that our bench was thinned out by injuries: their bench played as a unit. The threesome of Dragic, Dudley and Amundson in particular really left their stamp on the game when they were in. Ironically (I'm sure I'm misusing that word), Nate has always stressed the idea of having "units", but Bayless in particular works as a lone gunman. The Spanish Armada was a "unit", albeit one that made our defense much worse. We should also remember that the Suns have done all this without Robin Lopez, who was turning into a very important cog for them. I hope he's ready for when they face the Lakers.
There was no question Phoenix was better. Not to pat myself on the back but I said we would lose when we were up 1-0 Everyone wants to say the bench is not as much a factor in the playoffs. Phoenix's bench kicks ass. Plus their starting line up is pretty good too.
Fine - the Suns are a better team. (as are the Jazz, Lakers, etc) Is that all there is? Is this what the indefinite future looks like?
If the team never has a healthy Roy and Oden, yes. Not being sarcastic. Without a healthy Roy and Oden, the Blazers are a competitive team that will lag behind the best teams. We'll see whether they give Portland healthy seasons, I guess.
This is why I like to wait and see how the team we lose to does in the 2nd round. I take pride knowing that we could have beat that team seeing them go out and demolish SA. We won game one on the road and another at home. SA prolly wont win a single one. I could see the Suns going to the finals also barring a Stern screw job (which I'm sure is in order)
Injury depleted Blazers team taking the Suns to game 6, almost game 7 while the Spurs with their big 3 and Pop are having trouble winning one. Trade everyone and fire McMillan
No. We're younger than all of those teams, and we were more injured than they were, too. Even if Oden never plays again, the team should get better as the young guys mature... if he comes back even to where he was before getting injured this year, the team's future looks very bright. Ed O.
No doubt we still have a bright future. But I think it has to be dimmed from what I and many others thought at the time we drafted Oden. I thought we had the best group of 3 young players in the league, would likely win at least one title and possibly multiple ones. Now I have to lessen those expectations.
Either McMillan isn't converting Pritchard's talented players into productive ones, or Pritchard isn't obtaining enough talented players. Or both. ------ I talked to Rasta's hand and it stopped moving. Seriously. The rational explanation is that my computer just happened to freeze at that instant. It was weird. The hand froze, then after I talked to it again, it moved very slowly. Then after a minute it got all friendly again and wagged really fast.
