The point is that our starters play too much and are breaking down. The fatigue And minor injuries are starting to catch up to them.
Didn't get a chance to watch or even listen to game last night but, holy fucktard, box score shows Smith and Freeland both at -17 in 3 minutes of play each. How do you even manage to do that?
Joel Freeland and Nolan Smith are two of the worst NBA players I have ever seen in my life. They should be fucking cut right now.
Teams that don't care get rolled up and blown out on a nightly basis. Given the fact that they're still at .500 half-way through the season tells me all I need to know about how much they care -- Hint: It's quite a lot. There are 5 (maybe 6?) rotation quality players on this roster right now, almost everything else behind them is D-league material and even some of those guys might have trouble hacking it in the minors. All y'all thinking that this is a "heart" problem have missed the mark completely, this is an "arms and legs" problem.
I think I posted this in the wrong spot so forgive my double post. I keep seeing people say how bad Freeland is (and that was true early but not now) when he has arguably been better than Babbitt this year. I know they don't play the same position much (if at all) and that might show just how bad Babbitt is vs how good Freeland is but lets keep some perspective here. The whole bench stinks. Freeland is middle-of-the-road bad compared to our bench not near worst of the bunch. I think we can all agree that Nolan isn't a NBA talent of course.
Agree Nik. The Blazers have mounted some huge comebacks this year, some successful ones, but others with too huge a mountain to climb lately. That those games were not massive blow outs, or didn't turn into extended scrimmages for both teams' third stringers, and instead were made close (setting a team record for consecutive close games I believe) tells me the heart is willing.
N I understand that our starters are playing a lot of minutes, but we are also falling behind early in games, when our starters are fresh. Lillard in particular can't seem to get motivated to really play hard until the second half.
I was on the 'bench Price and just play Nolan Smith' bandwagon of one. For 2 minutes and 37 seconds. LOL I mean, I'm all for getting a decent lottery pick to wheel and deal with, but that was just embarrassing. In all fairness to Nolan, he was fouled on that first steal, and simply rattled after that. I hope the young man got his degree.
Which I believe can be equated with fatigue and nagging injuries. Even at the start of a game, our players might be more run down than the opposing team's starting unit.
So what if he's more deferential early and then asserts himself as a shot taker later in the game? He's a fucking rookie for chrissakes, he's playing the most difficult position on the floor and is having to discover that balance of when to take the shot himself or create for his teammates. All this talk about "motivation," "heart" and "caring" is just so much bullshit this year. If you want to talk about guys playing out the string and not giving a damn all I have to do is point you to last year and one of the most gutless seasons I've ever seen from this team. This season is nothing like that.
Will say that Lillards doing the 'BRoy walk' up court far too much though, (especially for a 22 year old) - needs to push it up floor a bit more, also, he's settling on the long step-back jumper too much - needs to look to penetrate more. Overall, in the grand scheme of things, can't be anything but ecstatic with his performance so far.
No, Lillard and the rest of the team are always able to summon up enough energy to make a charge late in the game. If they can find that energy in the fourth quarter, they can surely find it in the first.
I hate to see massive deficits as much as the next guy, but I mostly chalk it up to talent deficiency. Either A) because the starters know they have to pace themselves somewhat so there's something left in the tank at the end because their relief is so poor or B) the bench surrenders a lead faster than a French infantryman.
There may be some truth to that. When you pace yourself, however, you let the other team outplay you and get a big lead. Then you have to play that much harder to catch up. Another possibility is that we don't have a real leader on this team, and everybody is sitting back and waiting for "the other guy" to step up. I definitely see that in Lillard. All he wants to do is get the ball out of his hands and throw it to someone--anyone!--else. He's just hoping that his pass will lead to a score, but he's not really working hard to make it happen. The day that Lillard starts forcing the issue every time down the court, and either driving to the hoop or dishing to someone for an easy basket, is the day we will have a true point guard on this team.
Once again, a lack of effort killed us tonight. Nobody played much defense except Batum, and Lillard (just like Roy used to do) only really played hard in the fourth quarter. What a miserable effort by a team that has beaten the Heat and the Knicks and the Spurs this year. This bunch of Blazers is sleep-walking through games now.
Each loss in this run of games lately has been for less than 6 points, that's not sleep-walking, it's just that the coin flips we were winning at unsustainable rate have started flipping the other way. They were never as good as all those close wins implied they might be and they're not as bad as the losing streak they are on implies either.
