Forensic Fan Game Nine, 11/12/14 v. DEN From the Top: The Blazers go to 6-3 on the year against a hapless (1-6) Denver team losing their 6th in a row. In baseball parlance, the Blazers put up some crooked numbers last night. Their 39 points in the first quarter was a season-high for a quarter, until it got broken by a 45 (?!?!) –point second quarter. Our outburst brought our season-average 1st-quarter scoring up to 28.9 pp1q, second in the league. Unfortunately, DEN’s 28-point effort kept our 1Q defensive average to 29.2 pp1q, 29th in the league. As I’m sure you’ve heard elsewhere, the Blazers’ 84-point first half almost hit the team record of 85. A “fun” ESPN fact about this, the 130 points we ended up with were the lowest ever by a team who scored 84 or more in the first half. Player of the game: Damian Lamonte Ollie Lillard… Damian’s 27 points, 9 assists and all-around dagger skills were evident early today. DEN couldn’t stop him in the first half, and his 9-points-in-37-seconds in the 3rd commenced Lillard Time early and simultaneously knifed the heart out of the Nuggets’ comeback. Damian is now at 20ppg, 6.2 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game, even after a horrible first 3 games. Monster Games ™: No double-doubles today. Kaman had 16 and 7 rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench set the tone early, and Lopez’s 19 points in 21 minutes effectively ended the game at halftime. Points Per Shot: Strong work all around. Dame had 27 on 16 shots, Kaman had 16 on 8, Lopez had 19 on 11, but today’s winner is Butters! 15 points on 4-7 shooting (3-6 from 3), and 4-6 FTs. Don’t look now, but CJ’s sitting at 47% on 3-point shots thus far. Coin Ratio: In a game that’s put away early, it’s tough to parse out ratios, as the team wasn’t playing in “normal” mode for most of the 2nd half. Regardless, Damian kept up his stellar work with 9 assists on 16 shots (56 cents). Blake had 5 on 8 shots (63 cents). On the whole, the team had 30 assists on 45 made shots. Bench: On a night where the team’s up 34 at halftime, you’d expect a healthy amount of garbage time, and there was. But the 10-man rotation Coach went with for the majority of the game (until deep, DEEP) garbage time (or as I call it, Ty Lawson’s Stat-Padding Parade!) went 15-30 (50%), 5-14 from 3 (36%) for 45 points, 19 rebounds and 11 assists in 98 minutes (~20 per player). Even the deep bench (Leonard/Wright/Robinson) made a couple of shots and weren’t completely useless in the last half of the 4th quarter—I mean, they WERE playing against DEN’s rotation players. Let’s put it this way: JaVale “I’m making 12M this year and 12M next year” McGee got off the bench for 4 combined minutes in a game that DEN was losing by 30 in the second quarter. Since I should write something balanced here: Blake and Barton had Offensive Ratings below 100. Will was the only Blazer with four violations of another player. C’mon Nic, it’s not THAT bad. I’m talking about fouls. All in all, a solidly above-average effort. The scary thing? There’s plenty of room to grow/get better and more cohesive here, and it looks like Crabman is, if not the Real Deal ™, at least showing that he’s earned some rotation time. Questions for the Group: Crabbe: Buy or sell “solid NBA rotation player” right now? Lillard: Has he taken the helm of “The Man” for the team? Should he? We’re off until the weekend, when Brooklyn comes to visit on Saturday night. Stay tuned here for more Blazers/NBA content (including RC2 Power Rankings), and stick around to chat awhile. Until then…
Thanks Brian, again a great read. Crabbe: Buy or sell “solid NBA rotation player” right now? Buy! Lillard: Has he taken the helm of “The Man” for the team? Should he? Yes and Yes! (Error here: As I’m sure you’ve heard elsewhere, the Blazers’ 84-point first quarter almost hit the team record of 85.)
I think the thought with Crabbe is that very few of us think that his play the last 2 games was anywhere near his ceiling. And if you feel that way then that really really opens up the idea of trading a few players like Barton, T-Rob and and especially Wright to maybe get one more really impactful player for our bench and that is the kind of player could be difference in making a deep run in the playoffs. It will be interesting to see how Crabbe progresses when Batum comes back. Does Crabbe play better with starters? Does that mean he should be one of the first subs for Batum or Matthews as a way to get more time for Batum and Wes with then bench players or even just to get them more rest? I think a lot can potentially ride on the progression of Crabbe and I agree that I think there is some good room to improve even with his solid play so far.
Absolutely he is the type of player who plays better with starters. As does CJ. i think most (not all) players do. The players who don't are scorers who need to dominate the ball and are better coming off the bench to play with second unit players. (i.e Mo) But I think role players like Crabbe, CJ, Claver, TRob all play better with.... better players.
First off, great job BFWA! These are the most fun posts to read on S2! And I fully agree with Homer on both counts. Or should I say all three counts?
That's it. Crabby can really D-up too, he did a great job on Afflalo, and he may be one of our best perimeter defenders.
Totally true. And I think that's the best thing about the Blake/Kaman signings - it allows the rest of our bench to be the role players that they are. No longer do they have to worry about being a primary play-maker or scorer - they can just focus on the few things that each of them does well.
Need to see more from Crabbe to answer your question but I like what I've seen and I'm glad we have them. Aldridge is still The Man. He's been in the league longer and he's a top 5 talent in my book. Lillard is the engine and the closer. I have a belief that we can win every game we play and that is because I trust Lillard and his leadership. Just look at it in terms of our series against Houston. Aldridge played like an NBA legend in the first two games (Lillard was good in those games too) and got us the 2-0 lead. Lillard closed the deal at the buzzer of Game 6. It's a good combo to have. Maybe the best in the NBA. I would take Lillard/Aldridge over Harden/Howard obviously. Oh and great read, Brian.
I get what you're saying about Aldridge, can't argue the talent part, but I think personality is a big part of being 'the man' on a team, especially in high-pressure situations. Lillard is just wired better for it tbh, and he wants to rip the heart out of the other team.
I think Wes has rubbed off on Lillard's game. You can see the heart and drive now that seemed absent the first couple of games. Wes always brings that intensity. Playing against Blake is better for Dame as well. Blake will make practice tougher on him than other guards he's practiced against in the past. (Mo, etc..)
