I'm hearing that the Blazers will be fortunate enough to be playing a bunch of teams coming off the 2nd night of b2b's. That's awesome. Lakers last night, and OKC tomorrow night for starters. The planets are aligning. I plan to win my bet with Sly.
Second game of the season and a young team to boot. I predict almost no discernible drop off in performance due to fatigue for OKC. If this was mid March or somesuch, I'd have a slightly different take.
honestly, I thought that Dame was getting quick pulls on Wed, and I wasn't sure if it was b/c of nerves, fatigue, Stotts trying hard to stick to a rotation, etc. But toward the end of the game he was gassed. I wonder if he's in prime-enough shape to be what Durant and RW are at the end of games with the energy they expend during it.
That concerned me too. I mentioned in another thread that I think he's going to struggle with physical and mental fatigue. By the end of the game it looked kind of dazed. Hopefully it's just nerves.
Think about how revved up Lillard must have been in his first NBA game? Going against 4 first ballot hall-of-famers, playing in front of 20 thousand people, oh and by the way, you have complete control over the offensive flow of the game. By the end of the game, it must have felt like he had played 2 in a row.
that's kind of what I'm saying. Minus the 4-HoF'ers part, he's basically going to be doing that every night. I don't know (and I don't NOT know) if he has built up the NBA stamina yet to play the same way in the 4th that he can throughout. Durant couldn't, during his rookie year.
No doubt, I had to laugh when he said he hadn't even packed and he should probably ask some of the other players about what he should bring. The guy seems to eat/sleep/breath basketball. I am trying hard not to get too excited about him... I'm not to the Jordan level but I was already thinking Jason Kidd (triple double, triple double, triple double) level by the end of his first NBA game.
One big plus for that is he did 4 years in college so he's got much more of an NBA body already than our other rookies. He's got a great body already strengthwise and I think the way he's built will make him durable... at least I hope so!
Long term, I'm not worried about Lillard's endurance at all. David Thorpe raved about the reports coming out of his pre-draft workouts - about how hard he was pushing himself, and how many times he was repeating the process with every team he visited. If he got gassed against the Lakers, I'd attribute most of that to wearing himself out by having a ton of nervous energy in the day or two preceding the game. Eventually the novelty and hype of being a rookie will wear off and he'll get himself into a routine.
I'd actually rather catch opponents who were considered only slightly better than us on b2b nights rather than teams considered much better than us. I expect us to have a tough night tonight. Not because of skill level, but because younger teams seem to struggle on the road more than vet teams (that's Batum, Lilliard, and Leonard).
Fixed that for ya. I'm really excited to see what the dragon can get done this game. He's not dealing with Nash and Blake here. RW is widely regarded as one of the best defensive guards in the league. And it's not like Serge Ibaka is gonna do like Dwight Howard and go all offense/no defense on ya. If that guy's gonna block some shots and pick up some fouls. Point being that the dragon is gonna have to work a lot harder than he did against the l*kers. If he was tired in Wednesday's game he's gonna be runnin on fumes int he middle of the third quarter tonight.
