Where did our offense go? rant thread

Yeah true. To me it all seems mental with these guys. Like I said they play rattled when the going starts to get tough and can hardly even keep a grip on the ball let alone hit a 3. I'm not sure what there is to do about that.

 

I didn't think we drove that much. I remember Wallace and Miller getting (non) fouled a couple times but we mostly just settled for jumpers, especially LA. At some point you have to start forcing the officials to blow their whistles and jump shooting just doesn't do it in the playoffs. Unfortunately to start seeing success we'll have to change our whole philosophy on offense IMO

 

Seriously, our nerves got the best of us. We rushed absolutely everything. We were out-boarded because we rushed, couldn't make the perimeter shots cause we rushed, and absolutely turned the ball over because we rushed. If we could have just slowed things down; I think we would have had control of this game. We were doing it in the first and had control. The moment we started rushing was when we lost control.

 

Getting touched on a pullup J gets Dirk to the line almost every time. That's all I'm asking for!

 

31 fucking FT's going into the 4th

Seriously?...Seriously?

Dallas was 26th in FTA/G this year

 

IMO our rebounding effort or lack thereof killed us. Out rebounded by 12 and on the offensive end they had 20 friggin rebounds, how many second chance points did they have? Rebounding is desire and effort, they simply wanted it more than we did tonight.

 

Part of rebounding is playing the right players. Nate chose to leave Camby and Johnson on the bench for the end of the 3rd quarter and most of the 4th. With Dallas playing Chandler and Dirk, that's just giving away way too much size. LaMarcus has never been a great rebounder and without any help, it was totally predictable that the Blazers got killed on the boards. I understand that the lineup he had in there was supposed to produce more offense and that, with hustle, those guys sometimes hold their own on the boards, but it flat wasn't working tonight. I just don't get not changing something when what you're doing isn't working. What the Blazers were doing was definitely NOT working.

 

Our offense left about the same time McMillan came on board....coincidence?

 

With or without the free throw disparity, we can't hit from the outside. The 1st half we were solid from the 3 pt line, but couldn't hit anything after that. Besides Roy's 4th quarter outburst, we've had no offense for 2 straight games.

 

We were an offensive juggernaut under Mo Cheeks?

I'm shocked that Nate's teams weren't scoring 110/game with Telfair, Dixon, Khryapa, Zach, and Joel

 

I agree, we are better off running. And that kinda goes back to the Roy issue, because Roy prevents us from running more than anyone on our roster.

 

I remember reading somewhere that Portland was the second worst 3 point shooting team in the league this year, just ahead of the T'Wolves.

So yeah, one of the worst and by far the worst in the post season.

 

I don't think this has as much to do with Nate as it does with the personnel....

This team struggles to score WAY too often to be a consistent winner, and there are far too many long scoring droughts. POR desperately needs some better offensive players, or how about some players who can at least hit the outside shot more consistently?

Look at Dallas....they have Jason Terry coming off the bench, a guy who is an instant offense type of player who can create his own shot AND is a good shooter, Peja Stojakavic...near the end of his run, but can nail an open jumper, even Barea as much as despise him, can create offense..

Who does POR have that can do that? Rudy seemingly can't hit an open jumpshot....Mills? shooter in college, bricklayer in the NBA....and guys like Matthews\Batum and Wallace who are far too inconsistent, particularly from the perimeter to make teams pay for packing the paint\zone.

and if Aldridge isn't\can't pound the ball in the paint and his jumper isn't falling.....

and Roy as great as he was in Game 5 cannot carry this team to the finish line as much as he used too, and jumpshooting which never was his forte to begin with, has become a large part of his offense now, thus large inconsistencies in his play.

POR, desperately needs to add some offensive scorers (preferably shooters) this offseason....

 

Mental note... The third quarter was when the game slipped away from us. Roy didn't check in until 4 minutes left in the 3rd. We didn't put the pressure on at the start of the third, and we were trying. The offensive rebounds killed us. You can't run unless you get the boards. Then the dominance on those offensive boards now forced Nate to concentrate more on rebounding the ball, then running after a missed shot.

It amazes me that you blame our lack of running on Roy, when actually the lack of running was due to our inability to rebound off a Dallas miss.

 

I think over the course of the season, the Blazers seemed to run a lot more when Roy was out. That has nothing to do with last night though.

 

I think my post simplified things too much and the conclusion you've jumped to isn't how I feel.

I do not think Roy lost us the game last night. I've stated multiple times on here I thought its our roster full of streaky shooters, no bench, and only one post that is a threat on offense. I never once blamed Roy for this loss, or any loss this series.

When I talked about running, I'm thinking more big picture. Guys like Wallace, Batum, Aldridge, Matthews, Miller, and Rudy all function better in an up-tempo style. Roy, however, is much better in the half court, for multiple reason. Now maybe there is a way to mix up units and change speeds.

 

That's pretty much what I was getting at. Overall, we run much better without Roy. That's no knock on Roy, its just not a style that he plays well doing.

 

Oh okay... No worries man. I do agree with this.