At one point in the season, the division lead was safe and it seemed almost impossible for OKC to catch up to the Blazers. Now? Not so much. Portland has 19 losses, OKC has 25. So, now with 26 games, OKC only has to finish with 7 more wins than Portland. And at the rate they've been going, that isn't actually difficult. Portland has played 55 games, OKC has played 56. But Portland has 12 of their 27 games at home, whereas OKC has 15 of their remaining 26 at home. With how Portland has played for the better part of a month now (and especially the last 2 "games"), it's not out of the realm of possibility for that to happen. The best record OKC could go vs the worse Portland would have to go to win the division: OKC vs POR 26-0 vs 20-7 25-1 vs 19-8 24-2 vs 18-9 23-3 vs 17-10 22-4 vs 16-11 21-5 vs 15-14 20-6 vs 14-13 19-7 vs 13-14 18-8 vs 12-15 In other words, the Blazers better get their shit together soon, or they're going to give OKC a lot of reason to believe they can win the division.
OKC already has enough reason to believe. Getting blown out by a less than average Utah team and choking yet another game and losing to another playoff team in the west just doesn't bold well for us. Our schedule will only get harder and as long as OKC can stay healthy, they are already a proven team that can win many games.
I think they will. They just have to do it, and soon! And why the hell was LA not playing on the most important game of the year so far? I know it was a sprain, but damn dude.
C'Mon Julius...I get what you are saying and all but really? Do you think the Blazers are going to slump for the rest of the year? I think not. And they will have a couple nice winning streaks also.
At this point it's hard to assume they won't continue playing like this. One or two weeks can be a fluke. We've played shitty, lassez faire basketball for over a month now and are falling like a rock. Stotts appears unable to adjust to defenses pressuring Lillard out top, and where the fuck has Wes gone? He was the worst player on the court for us tonight by far. He had no business being in the game in the fourth.
They haven't shown much in the last 2 months really, if you think about it. Their killer instinct is gone, their clutch shooting is null, and their ability to hold leads seems to have taken a hike up diarrhea creek without a paddle.
Blazers had a very familiar system with few new players and easy schedule to start both of the last two seasons. I think other teams take awhile to adjust to new faces and new schemes whereas we come out of the gate at full throttle. Last year we had all the close wins by a few points early on but that was balanced out by a bunch of close losses. This year we had a bunch of great 4th quarters but the last month we've lost most of those close games. I'm less concerned with winning the division than having the team playing well. The biggest positive this year has been the defense; its been elite at times. So if we are healthy in the playoffs we have a chance. But I'd say odds are strongly against us making the WCF this year and losing in the first round is certainly a very real possibility.
Eerily similar to last season... And even when we were winning we weren't playing great basketball - we were relying on Lillard-Time to bail us out on a consistent basis. I would say something about coaching, but I've been told that's not the issue.
I'm not as worried about OKC catching us. Even if they pass us, I'm okay with dropping in the standings as long as we keep playing well-- like we did last night. I saw some of the best defense ever out of this team last night. Similar to the loss in Dallas. We've lost some of these games, yes, but we have also showed signs of absolute dominance against some good teams. These close swing games tend to even out as the season goes along so I'm not too concerned. I just want build some chemistry and momentum going into the playoffs. This happened last year when LA was out and our 3pt shot left us. When he returned, we cruised through the last 10 games and got guys healthy heading into the postseason. We need that again this year. And for gods sake please avoid MEM and their bracket as much as possible.
With LA out the Blazers offense becomes easy to figure out. Problem is even with LA in our execution at the end of games has been bad. We dont have much of a sample size with Lopez and the starting unit back but ill wait a few more games before assuming anything.
Our offense got figured out about midway through last season. Last season we thrived off of dumping the ball into the post, then having LMA kick out when the double came, and we'd swing the ball all the way to the weak-side corner for a 3. That was, in a nutshell, our offense. With or without LMA it's just not that good of an offense - certainly not good enough for a team hoping to contend for a championship. Also, I've noticed more 3-man-weave than I've seen since Mo Cheeks was coaching! LOL! Way to take it back to basics, Terry!
we should be worried/concerned as we are not playing well, and while I hope it's not serious LMA now has injured his other thumb. We need to start getting it together or we will are in trouble
I wish I shared your optimism. What I see is when we play good teams we have a really hard time getting good looks down the stretch of close games. When our guys knock down circus 3's with a hand in their face, we win. When they don't there doesn't seem to be a "Plan B". About 18 games ago #O lost his superman cape. He's not hitting those bombs from 5' behind the line to bail us out when the game's on the line. You can't blame him for that - it's not really a sustainable model. We have arguably the best PF in the league, but have a hard time getting him the ball in spots he can be effective late in games. A lot of turnovers, shot clock violations, or highly contested shots and most of the time it's not pretty. Sure, LA was out last night & the Grizz are outstanding defensively. But last night wasn't a 1 game outlier. It wasn't the first time we've been put in a sleeper hold on our home floor (GS, ATL, LAC were others) Who knows if we'll be able to hold off OKC at this rate? Probably depends on how long KD is out & how long RW keeps balling out of his head. If we play over .500 (even 14-13) it would take a pretty good run on their part to win the division. Feels like it's going to be close.
