I should be more excited after getting a win over the hated Rockets, but our Blazers continue to play with fire out there on the court. For starters, the passing. Will the lazy lackadaisical passes ever stop? There's not one culprit here; everyone is to blame here. It doesn't stop there. How many times will we continue to throw across court into traffic? Is this on Stotts? The players? I'm sure it's a combination of both, but in the playoffs, especially if we match up with San Antonio, we're going to get eaten alive. Bench scoring. Unfortunately, this one is out of everyone's hands. With a healthy Wes, this team looked loaded and balanced after the addition of Afflalo and Gee. But with Matthews now sidelined for the season, we're back to square one; no consistent threat off the bench. Blake is more of a floor general. Kaman hasn't been since same since the calendar flipped over to 2015. And Meyers doesn't get enough run. Lastly, we panic under pressure. It all started during the third game of the season against Golden State and now whenever a team traps or pressures of in late-game situations, you can almost feel a turnover coming. We dodged a bullet tonight (Yes, I know Brewer fouled Lillard, but it should have never gotten to that point), but for a veteran team, it's concerning to see the wheels come off in those situations. Despite all that, we've got one of the five best records in the NBA. Am I being worrying too much or is anyone else seeing the same things that I am?
I understand and see your concerns. I think we'll iron it out, the last month has been a bunch of moveable parts (Getting AAA and Gee, Losing wes, etc.) so I would expect by April that we'd be refined and retuned.
We have holes. We gotta get better ball movement and our backcourt HAS to get better soon. Dame is playing pretty bad and AAA is still learning his role.
Our best weapon off the bench is Meyer's launching 3s! But yes, the passing has been frustrating to watch. Dame continues to play sub par. If someone had told me he'd only shoot 34% from 3 this year I'd have thought he must be playing through a wrist injury or something.
I have been complaining about this for over a year. it drives me crazy and they are our two biggest weaknesses. The lackadaisical passes should be easy to fix. Not sure why they can't. But it will eventually catch up with them unless they work on it.
I'm not concerned because without Wes our prospects are less than they were. It takes the pressure off.
Nards needs more burn.... He's shooting well. But beyond that, he gives strong passes when he swings the ball. Has good form, is a quick pass, and has a little power behind it. It's a very pretty chest pass.
I think AAA picked up his role pretty darn quickly. How did we beat the Rockets in the playoffs? By Matthews sacrificing his offensive effectiveness due to expending all his energy on holding Harden in check on the defensive end. What happened last night? Afflalo hounded Harden non-stop, holding him under 20, and was basically invisible on the offensive end.
....Derp; that doesn't mean we can't clean these concerns/mistakes up. And yes that was a serious panic meltdown in the closing seconds of the fourth (Aside from that obvious non-call foul).
Yes the sloppy TO's are irritating as hell and concerning, we would have won a lot easier last night without them. NIC's recent play is huge however, if he can stay at this level, even with some lazy passes, we are a real threat, and just think if Dame wakes up. Bottom line is we are winning with some significant flaws, so what is encouraging is that we have areas to improve now and especially come playoff time
We got like 21 more games right? I think Afflalo will come around in 4-5 more games. I understand the concern for Dame, but this new style of distributing from him looks pretty damn solid. Also, Dame's rebounding and defense has been better than I've ever seen before. Dame will be he guy to carry us through the 4th in the playoffs. He's too good for a defense to play one style of defense against him in a 7 game series. Once he gets a game or two against the d, he will figure it out and dominate. I haven't seen a single player this season that can cover Dame one on one.
Yeah, he's looking more PG-esque lately. I just hope he hasn't lost his killer long bomb threes. I see him do less and less of those lately. But that shit is what hes good at and keeps him deadly. Either way as long as we keep winning, he can work through his business.
http://espn.go.com/nba/standings/_/type/expanded Winning record on the road, vs .500 and above teams, 3rd best vs. conference record in the west. All while we haven't even played on all cylinders. Imagine how good we can be when Afflalo gets in the groove and Lillard becomes Mr. Clutch again?
I must say, Afflalo is a more tenacious defender than Wes IMHO, I've never seen someone bother Harden so much. His length and speed makes him more of a mini Batum.
No, I think you're on point. We're a regular-season team, but absolutely not built for playoff success. We have enough talent on the roster to pull out more wins than losses, but the way we play will not get us anywhere in the playoffs.
