OK, I realize Aldridge had an off-night, but what the heck was Matthews doing out there? He played 40 minutes and got exactly 0 rebounds. That's not a typo. He got 0 rebounds. How is that possible for a 6'6 bruiser like Matthews--especially when his teammate is struggling from the field? Matthews should have been in there hitting the boards and putting the ball back up for layups. You need a full effort from everybody on a bad night, and Matthews didn't give it.
All I can say is "Wow". After that game you choose to pick on this point from Wesley? Portland was physically dominated all night, from the front line to the back court. What makes it Wesley's fault?
Rebounding was the least of Matthews' problems last night. Yeah, he scored some points. But my god, he single-handedly derailed any hope the Blazers had of winning that game with bonehead play after bonehead play. Matthews has been instrumental in winning a number of games this season, but when he's bad he's monumentally bad. Miller looked like he still had the flu. Aldridge had a bad game, but it now appears he had an injured hip. Rudy was pretty awful too -- he threw two "alley-oops" to LaMarcus that were about chin level and another that missed him by 10 feet. And I couldn't count how many times players tried to lob a pass into LaMarcus that was deflected or picked off. Amazing night, against one of the worst teams in the league. Maybe the new guy is bad luck? LOL.
Who said it was Matthews' fault? I'm just pointing out that he didn't grab a single rebound in 40 minutes of play, which is a pretty shocking statistic. It tells me that he wasn't hustling enough and going to the boards--both of which might have made a difference in the outcome.
Maybe Wes and Rudy are closer to equal than we think. Rudy is inconsistent in shooting, but Matthews is inconsistent at everything now and then. When Rudy sucks, it's mainly his shooting, not his whole game. His decisions are always good. Matthews leads Fernandez in efficiency points per 48 by 19.1 to 18.0. He leads Rudy in PER, 15.6 to 13.7. But PER would be affected by the fact that for every 8 minutes Matthews plays, Fernandez plays only 5.
