I don't think we can really pin it on Nate that suddenly the crappy players on the other team can't miss at the same time that every single player on the Blazers becomes rigid with fear. Will we ever win a fourth quarter again? What kind of a lead would we have to have entering the fourth to not blow it?
What's crazy is that the first three games of the season, we dominated the final 5 minutes of the game. Absolutely dominated.
I just don't get it. It's like a total collective failure of nerve. I've got to stop watching these games - it's just painful.
Its not really THAT surprising. Roy has always been Mr. 4th. Now he's hurt and we suddenly are sucking in the 4th. Pretty obvious if you ask me.
Good point; Roy starts looking like Baron Davis, and all of a sudden we are playing like the Clippers.
No Roy, because he is hurt and can't create his own open shot at will anymore. No Outlaw, who could create his own open shot at will, because he was run out of Portland for being "inconsistent". It's as simple as that. We're stuck with a PG that can't shoot, a decent offensive PF who doesn't get the ball late in games in scoring position, a C who is aging and has never been an offensive player, and a SF combo that is either too passive (Batum) or too inexperienced (Matthews) to make a big impact at the end of games. I'd add Rudy, but he's such an enigma that it is futile to try and depend on him.
Except that we've won plenty of games without him. Unless you mean that his presence in his current form is worse than his total absence, because the team looks to him when he's there but has to deliver themselves when he's not? That makes sense. But what the fuck's with Batum?
I kept close track of him when he played in the fourth quarter. On each of his five possessions, he ended them (the possessions) by standing in the weakside corner for 5-10 seconds while watching Roy/Rudy go one on one. Just a horrible misuse of his game.
Yay! Lakers lost again! I would gladly lose out the season if every time we lost, they lose. (And hey - at least WE won in Memphis!)
