How Sustainable Is Portland’s Hot Start?

Holy shit that was good

 

I think its hilarious how we are so use to being fucked our fans are jaded and can't even enjoy how incredible this team is. This is one of those magical years in sports you don't get very often, enjoy it, this team is legit.

 

Yeah Matthews is hot but Dame and LA are cold. It will all balance out and we will be good.

 

How they played in the fourth quarter last night causes me to think they can sustain a high level of play. Granted, they will go through a lull this year where they will struggle but I think if they continue to embrace the defensive end the way they did last night. They can keep it up. One thing that I can def see is how important it is to Stotts for this team to exert effort on both ends on of the floor. His fire and emotions last night showed this is a lil bit more to him than just offense.

 

Well said on all accounts.

 

Thanks!

And I'm loving this coaching staff. I think we learn more and more about it everyday. Just how valuable, Jay Triano Kim Hughes and David Vanterpool are to Terry Stotts. David has an interesting disposition. Almost a hard nose/eat dirt kind of disposition. And I think its a lil contagious. Terry on the other hand is showing me that I would be opposed to replacing him. He is proving to be a great x's and o's guy and terrific game manager.

 

I guess I should have said: our record from that point forward will likely be significantly worse than our current record.

I hope Matthews can sustain his current level, but I have serious doubts that it can continue for much longer. He plays with so much intensity that it seems he runs out of gas through the season. I sure hope he proves me wrong.

 

So Matthews regresses to his norms.

Then Lillard and LMA increase their norms.

It balances out. We're not the Knicks, we don't have 1 player.

 

Being hot early is fun. The title usually goes to a team that is hot late.

 

Yeah its been awesome. I loved the inside defense against Golden State I can't remember us playing like that since we had Camby or Pryz.

I've been very impressed with our rebounding. That was my biggest concern of a LMA/Lopez tandem but our team has been great since the Houston game.

I don't expect us to keep up the great defense or rebounding, but we don't have to. If we can just stay slightly above average in those areas with this teams offense we could make some noise this year.

 

Yeah I agree his shooting will come down. But I also would expect Aldridge and Lillard shooting to pick up, so the team as a whole could maintain their averages. Its not as if the Blazers are way out of the norm league wide they don't lead in any shooting percentages. The offense is getting open shots and high quality looks, when that happens the team will score the ball well.

Plus they've won these last 10 games, they don't have to win every game. Teams that win the title only have to win four games every time they lose three. Just winning a playoff series would be a great season.

 

I've posted it before, but I get the Pippen/Wallace team vibe from this bunch. Never really seem out of a game, and you can see the confidence on the floor.

The ultimate short-coming of that Pippen/Wallace team was the team never had an offensive identity in crunch time. Share the ball is a great idea in the flow of a game, but in the NBA, having a big dog to run things through in tight games at the end appears to be important. This team seems to be fine with running the ball through LMA late in the game, and letting him pass the ball out if doubled for an eventual three point attempt, or to shoot the ball if he isn't doubled.

That kind of stuff does matter, IMO.

 

robin lopez is getting better every game, you can tell he loves portland. the scariest part of this team is chemistry is still developing.

 

With this offensive scheme, I don't think that is true.

This offense is working because we have at least 3 deadly shooters on the floor at all times that the defense must respect. So if one player declines, and two of the players you already had to account for get better, I don't think they offset each other.

To put it another way... teams are already focussing on LMA and Lillard. If they increase they production a bit, it won't offset the negative affect of a team not having to cover every inch of the floor on defense.

 

This is where I disagree. The offense is getting open shots BECAUSE they have to respect ever single Blazer on the court. Our offense can keep the defense moving and reacting. Once the defense doesn't have to respect and cover every player, that will have a bigger negative effect that LMA and Lillard improving their shooting because the defense is already focused on them.

IMO.

 

Well if the defense stops respecting and covering Wes or Nic they will have to leave them open. Both those guys have been deadly when given easy open shots. I don’t think leaving them open is a good strategy, even if either has a slump. They’ve been good shooters for many years now. I’d be happy if our opponents give Wes those shots. He’ll probably hit less than 50% he is now but I believe he’ll hit enough to be extremely effective. We also have Mo and Wright to spread the floor if need be.

I’m not worried about our offense having a letdown. Sure we might not shoot 40% 3’s but we will be able to score the ball very well.

If a team can pound us inside as the Rockets did we could have some trouble. They dominated us in the paint and on the boards. The Pistons played us tough inside. Guard’s penetrating into the paint is a problem. Lopez and LaMarcus are rebounding far above their career averages. Can they keep that up? We’ve also been very fortunate with opponents missing a lot of three’s.

 

Dwight Jaynes had a funny article today with the huffpo/bait title 'ARE THE BLAZERS FOR REAL?'

He goes on to write that he doesn't understand the question and doesn't know if the Blazers are for real.

Thanks, DJ!

 

I guess we'll see.

But this offense is built on having a weapon at each place on the court. If that goes away, I think our offense goes down the drain.

 

With Batum/Wes/Dame taking turns struggling that certainly seems to be the case.

The hot start was built on "hit your 3s and defend the 3-point line". Right now, the team isn't doing well at either.