When he came in, I will admit it, I was worried. But man did he shut me up. He played great and gained my respect.
I highly recommend checking out this blog written by Blazers intern Shalamar Clark about Chris and his playoff debut. Great highlights, great quotes. Chris Johnson Throws Block Party In Playoff Debut I just hope we see more of CJ tomorrow afternoon!
This. Carlisle didn't expect Johnson to come in at such a critical juncture and Dallas had no idea how to attack him. That won't happen twice.
There's nothing to gameplan for. Johnson isn't a factor on offense, so they can just ignore him like they did yesterday. His main contribution, blocks, rebounds and hustle, are things that gameplanning won't do much about.
The gameplan is to go right at him and back him down. He weighs less than Armon Johnson. He can't hold position. You can also run Dirk off a pick and CJ will go flying.
Back him down with who? Dirk will obviously go on anyone. Other than that, who else is going to post up Johnson? Haywood, Chandler, Marion?
[video=youtube;QeiE5XP4HSg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeiE5XP4HSg[/video] [video=youtube;_bzsqFnau9w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bzsqFnau9w[/video]
Huh, in the pre game scouting report, CJ may have been mentioned somewhere along the lines of "recent call up from D league, will not play" Tonights report will be along the lines of "holy shit, he blocked dirk" "OK, stay away from that guy, swing the ball to..." CJ is so new, he still has the price tag on his forehead, no one is going to know how to play him. Yeah, I know he weighs like 127 lbs, but he did manage to average around 4 point something blocks a game and somewhere around 12 pts (no I did not bother to look it up, point is that he can score as well as play d)
Exactly the man I was thinking of when I was wishing the Blazers would lay some wood and send a message to a couple of those Mavs pansies. The Blazers need to make NaBitchsky and a couple of his buddies think twice when they go inside.
Speaking of Armon Johnson, on the TNT telecast when Chris was wowing the announcers, they hurriedly put up a bio on the screen for --- Armon Johnson. LMFAO. Shades of "Bo" Outlaw.
CJ blocked Barea, turned, then caught up to a fast breaking Batum for the follow jam. Now that's fun. I wish Kevin McHale would come spend the summer working with our big mean. For a Celtic McHale is alright in my book and the guy knows a thing or two about playing in the post and winning playoff games. Edit: Ha! I typed mean instead of men, LOL. Maybe the team should hire someone to work with our big men and make them mean instead.
I hope he'll continue to get minutes in relief of Camby. He's earned it in my eyes, this isn't the first time I've seen him come off the bench with a defensive spark and the team is much bigger when he's on the floor which allows GW to play his natural position.
God knows we need someone who can back up Marcus and LaMarcus. Even for six minutes a game would be nice.
We should throw him in there and tell him to beat Nowitzki down the court every time. It would be a dunkfest.
