Had a blast working this one. CJ was ON FIRE! Flat-out unstoppable. The guys were putting up some points. THAT SAID.......... it was one game, and I hope we are all enjoying it. We should, we deserve it. I see in JinxSpeeds thread he's already got us heading to the finals. How our 2,3 and 4 are better than last season. I'll say what a lot are thinking,.......it's only ONE game. If we had loss big time, I wouldn't be on here screaming, SEE I TOLD YOU SO. Trust me, there will be enough chances coming up to do that. It was a great way to start off the season for our young team, but we did this to a non playoff team coming off a tough back to back without arguably their 2nd best player. Talked to their crew, and they didn't get checked into the hotel til 2:30AM. I've said it before, that stuff takes a toll. It''s not an excuse, but it is a factor. Go Blazers!
I think this team is for real. Don't see us making the finals, Just making the playoffs would be my goal, but I don't think this was a fluke.
Lillard keeps shooting that low of a % and yes we will drop some games. I was at the game last night and it was a little shaky watching him in the fourth miss two open shots and then turn the ball over. :-( Hopefully just shaking off the rust!
Lillard has been shaky with his shot for a long time. He was able to rely on his improved driving ability but he isn't hitting with his shot like he used to
He's really forcing some bad long shots too. I expect he figures it out eventually. But it's become a large sample size. We have lots of other shooter here. He could be very effective in the midrange and driving shooting only one or two threes a night.
Setting his shooting aside (which for the record I am STILL not worried about), for all the crap that Lillard gets about his assists production I found this interesting: "Damian Lillard's 5th assist is 1500 for his career. The last Blazer to reach 1,500 assists faster is Terry Porter (215 games)"
Yeah it reminds me of a football team that loses all their wide receivers and running backs. Casual fans only focus on names who score the ball. But the team gets up and coming talent at every defensive position. They return an improving above average offensive line. We might not have the big name skill position players. But people who closely follow young players know it's a joke to call it one of the worst rosters in the league.
Thanks, good stat. I would be interested where he ranks in minutes, hell he might be #1, or assists per36, assist per game.
Didn't the Pelicans make the playoffs last year? I agree it is one game and team will probably be up and down, but I wouldn't characterize the Pelicans as a non playoff team.
Yeah we're going to be hearing all sorts of excuses of how the Blazers lucked into wins. Portland is always difficult to play at, we have a big home court advantage because other teams have to fly way the hell up farther than any other NBA city to the rainy Northwest and play late games in a loud atmosphere. It will balance out with some road losses, but saying we'll only get 20wins is a joke.
I actually wish that Damian would shoot fewer three's, at least until his shot comes back. Chris Paul, arguably one of the best PG's in the game (a bit of a tool, mind you) doesn't shoot tons of 3's.
The nice thing about the win was, outside of CJ going bonkers, it wasn't really that far out of the norm for what the players did.
It must be a team confidence thing but one trend over the last few games seems to be that when team gets hot the whole teams gets really hot but unfortunately when we cool off we get really cold. The extremes seem to be pretty drastic. Hopefully it has just been a fluke the last few games and it evens itself out a little.
