To come out and fight balls out tonight after this stretch of tough games is amazing. I'm really looking forward to the finish. CJ is developing and Dame is slowly but surely getting his game back.
Yes but the total distance traveled throughout the season is much higher than most teams. That means getting to your home or hotel later than most teams. Later means less sleep, less time to recover, more fatigue.
The blazers can still win the championship, all they have to do is make the playoffs then hit 70% of their shots.
John Havlicek never stopped running the whole game. As Simon & Garfunkel would say, Where have you gone, Hondo?
I'm still surprised/confused/amused at how discussing obvious reality is seen as negative or non-fandom. The Blazers were playing over their skiis in the first 29 games. It was a great run, fun to watch as a fan but completely unrealistic to expect continuity. However, if anyone dared point out that the pace wouldn't continue, that there were big defensive issues, that the bench was very poor and that that shooting would inevitably decline thereby exposing many of those issues, it was greeted with, "Scoreboard....uh, check their record....#1 in the West just isn't good enough for you?"....and on and on. It was certainly not to be negative anymore than realistic analysis and discussion is now. The positive is the bench is starting to play a little better and CJ is getting his legs under him....awesome! The dare I say negative, is the defense is still brutal (58% to the Clipps last night) and now that their 3-pt shooting has declined substantially, the ability to cover some of these weaknesses is simply gone. Hopefully they find their way back to playing better than the last 24 games but no one is expecting a return to the first 29 game pace.
What shot notoriously abandons players late in the 4th quarter? The long jump shot due to tired legs. Is the end of the season going to be any different for us?
same thing happened to the Knicks last year too. Tremendously hot start behind great jump shooting then it fell off towards the end and they lost in the first round. I am getting worried we are headed for the same fate.
Some crazy stats for you. Overall Team Clutch performance 2013 Off Efficiency - 129 Def Efficiency- 100.5 Net Efficiency - 28.4 2nd best in the NBA 1/1/14 to present Off Efficiency - 98.7 Def Efficiency- 118.2 Net Efficiency - (-19.5) Fifth Worst in the NBA That pretty much sums up how things are going.
