Back to the positives: The recent losses have been close games. While losses suck no matter, hopefully it means we are closer to being a contender.
A true positive: We're not Philadelphia. http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nba-bag-volume-2-10-steps-to-tanking-perfection/ Despite the blow-it-up crowd speaking from a position of hope in striking gold and a possible trip to the finals someday, I'd rather be here -- with the possibility of playing at least 86 games this year, and the possibility of winning four of those extra games, even if it is frustrating now -- than be in the "let's hope we're better next year because right now we're starting Ha Seung-Jin" tar pits again.
I agree! At the beginning of the year, I really wanted Asik but Lopez has certainly improved and he's only 25. He'll be even better next year. Though, it would be nice to have Asik coming off the bench Another positive: not as worried about playing Houston in the playoffs if that ends up happening. After that last blow out loss, I thought we just didn't match well against them but this close game has made me more optimistic about playing them in the future, though not expecting to win a playoff series against them this year.
In college, for whatever reason, I told an acquaintance to call me Speed. Many years later, I started posting on O-Live under the name Speed. Then I got clever and started posting as Speed's dog, Speed's piano teacher, Speed's mom, etc. Finally, I posted as KingSpeed which is now the name of my corporation. Once, when I got kicked off O-Live, I came back as KingSpeedForever which is now my email address @aol.com. I'll admit that I thought MCW was going to become a star this year. His coach even said so. But he has been a big disappointment after those first few games. They do have Noel though and maybe they'll get a good pick but it will take them awhile to get average.
Back to positives... My goal now is 55 wins and wherever that puts us, it puts us. We need to go 13-6 the rest of the way to make that happen. I think it's possible and that's what I'm rooting for. 22 win improvement on last year. Near the contenders in the standings. Go BLAZERS. As as Maxiep reminded me, BELIEVE HARDER.
1. Batum is capable of throwing better passes. 2. Eventually, the antiquated coaching concept of not fouling for possession when up by 3 points with a few seconds left will disappear, especially now that the 3-pt shot is like a layup in the NBA. 3. I don't have gonorrhea.
We were going to foul when we were up 3 but Houston didn't allow us to. It was a quick catch and shoot. Fucking sucks he made it. But we still had lots of time to win it. Unfortunately, our "play" involved throwing the ball away and giving Beverly a chance to win at the buzzer. What the hell is Stotts thinking? Back to positives, healthy, 42 wins, lots of games left...
Maybe to catch them by surprise like the L*kers did to us on the lob play. They did that with time on the clock too. Stotts might have thought that Houston was expecting us to run the clock down. Is it not a possibility to just grab someone before they even inbound the ball? I feel like a 1 pt lead and the ball with 8 seconds left is better odds than letting Harden have a 3.
I can get down with this. (FYI, thanks for the back story on the name.) You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to KingSpeed again
I can't find the stat, but Dame was 1-1 in OT last night. In his career, I believe he's shooting almost 90% from the FIELD in OTs.
Portland won a lot of close games at the start of the season. Now it's losing them. It's regression to the mean, which is oddly comforting because it means we weren't as good as we thought, nor as bad as we think. Also, I honestly think Lillard and LMA were pushing themselves harder to make the All Star team. That effort has sort of petered out. Both are shooting badly and neither are defending worth a damned. Dame especially is in a three point shooting funk now, which he'll break out of, while Aldridge is missing more of his jumpers than normal and isn't working that hard to get closer-in shots. Why is this good news? I think it's a sign that these guys have something of an on-off switch, and they are kind of coasting in "off." I think we'll see better effort out of them both once the playoffs start.
We're closer to the 1st seed (4.5 games) than the 9th seed (5.5 games). We're not the only good team that is currently struggling. Indiana has lost a season high 4 in a row. Miami has lost 3 in a row. OKC has gone 3-5 since Westbrook's return. It's long season. All teams suffer slumps at some point. The good news is with 19 games left, we have time to turn things around and have a chance to enter the post season on an upswing. And the ultimate positive is there will be a post season for the Portland Trail Blazers this year. Kingspeed, you need to check your math. If we win 55 games, that's a 22 game improvement (55-33 = 22), not a 16 game improvement. BNM
