Well, we know Matthews was the choice of the scouts and Nate certainly seemed to sign off on it, but there's no concrete evidence that he was or wasn't part of KP's "plan"
Batum Dunk. Shades of Drexler. [video]http://www.nba.com/games/20101005/LACPOR/gameinfo.html?ls=gt2hp0011000008#[/video]
My thoughts on tonights game: I was very happy that once again(counting the fanfest), Bayless, Rudy and Mathews show they can play together. I thought Bayless did a good job running the show while he was in, and only showed some weakness to his game when he started to get winded. That second unit punched the clock and rolled up the points. That is what I like to see. I am not sure what some folks are seeing in Armon Johnson. I thought the 2nd unit ran visibly better with Bayless at the helm tonight. Wow did Miller give an "Old Man" teaching to Bledsoe when they were playing head to head tonight. Luring him into traps. Making him think he was letting him go by him, then poking it away. Aldridge I give a thumbs up to. He played very well. He is turning into a veteran. I saw him pull several crafty tricks through out the game. Pull the chair out. Pushing off to rebound. It was nice to see. It kind of reminds me of some of Buck Wiliams old tricks.... Speaking of Buck Williams. Did anybody notice how nobody from the Clippers got an easy layup until deep into this game? On one play Roy hammered Griffin to make sure he didn't get a shot off. Blake Griffin made some good plays but early on looked like a guy still getting used to NBA speed of play. He will be fine, as the game went on he seemed to adjust better.
That was something not lost on the crowd; I heard a couple of people mention The Glyde right after that dunk. It got a huge crowd response.
Thanks for the in-person recap. As for Johnson, I don't think anybody (who's sane) thinks he's ready to step in and play big minutes at the backup point guard spot right away, I think people just see some potential with his willingness to defend and some of the decent court vision he displayed in Summer Leauge, as for tonight, it was a pretty bad day for all the rookies on both sides, so I'm not really sure what can be taken away from any of these first NBA pre-season games. I'm glad to hear Bayless looks more comfortable running the show, because if he can, it goes a long way toward solving some rather nasty problems that are looming over the team in the near future at that position (when/if Miller starts his decline, who takes over if Dre goes down? And who can succeed Miller when his contract is up).
I don't know about you folks, but I did see a few new offensive plays tonight. There had been a lot of discussion about if the offense will change. I think they have added some new wrinkles, from what I noticed tonight.
Yeah there was a lot more movement early on especially with Nic cutting across and making himself open on the high post for a second. Almost a motion offense.
That's good to hear; maybe he was just trying to stay under the radar with those quotes the other day. Or maybe he was just having some fun with the reporter.
Wheels was saying (not that I'm discounting anyone here, it's just that this quote stuck out to me) that the offense wasn't really that different, that they were just running it crisper (more crisply?) that last year. Is that the case? I know there was a blurb by Quick or someone saying that they're only running a few offensive plays in practice, b/c they're focusing on D and open-court running. I don't have a problem with that. We know that the Roy Iso works, and we know that any centers we have who are adept at the P&R are in the training room, and if Nate and/or the Team get over their reluctance to run after stops (Bayless ran after a make today!) then I'm generally ok with the old offense as a backup if we don't get a quick play from our transition game. EDIT: More "motion offense" does make me happy.
Here were my impressions: Roy - Slow start, seemed to be going through the motions. Not ripping him, but he certainly wasn't trying to impose his will. LMA - Played a very nice game, but he was the same LMA tonight and he was last year. Nice touch, ran the floor, can't go left, not strong at the rim in traffic. Batum - Nate ran at least 6-7 plays for him, I believe he scored twice on those plays. His set shot was very smooth tonight, and that dunk was awesome. Miller - Typical vet in an opening tonight. He just wanted to do enough to show the rookie what its like to be in the NBA. Pedergraph - Same as last year. He's a nice 12th man. Matthews - Very solid game. Plays hard, sees the court well, shot the ball well, crashes the glass hard. Overall, very impressed. Rudy - Seemed to shoot the ball care-free (probably because he doesn't care anymore), and that led to him making everything. Cunningham - Same as last year, I really like his game for some reason. Bayless - I thought he attacked well, still didn't make his teammates better, but the team played better with him on the court over Johnson. Johnson - Fine on defense, but the shots in the key weren't falling. I'm guessing the extra size gave him trouble. Babbit - Played very little and looked like he didn't want to mess up. He seems to push his shot instead of shooting it up. Looked slow as well. Williams - Again didn't play much so I shouldn't make much of it, but he was easily the worst of the people who played. Couple turnovers, off the ball fouls, didn't make a shot. Man, he sure is athletic though. Overall, I noticed Nate waving his arms to push the ball but that all that happened. He did call a timeout with about 31 seconds left in the 1st half and clearly drew up a play to get a 2 for 1, something the Blazers rarely have done in the past. Granted, we got 2 bad shots out of the deal. Our defense looked better, but the Clippers looked horrible on their own.
