He shot .408 from the field in March....I was referring to his overall shooting but perhaps could have been more clear. He shot better from '3' in March but was streaky....had 7 games were he didn't make a '3' at all. Take out the 2 highs (6-10 and 4-5) and the two lows (0-0 and 0-1) and this takes out the biggest swings from the mean and then calculate. He still shot a good .392 from '3' which is almost exactly what he shot for the year so reflective of his month shooting from distance. Crawford can certainly shoot you 'into' or 'out of' a game. If he is shooting poorly, Rivers can always take him out. When he goes crazy, Hendo and Crabbe don't yet have the ability to duplicate that. Few players do.
But that's exactly my point, if he's not shooting well then you have the shell of Paul Pierce and Jeff Green going up against Davis, Crabbe and Henderson.. That's a huge advantage to us. If Crawford is shooting well then they only have a slight advantage, if any because our 7th and 8th guys are better than theirs
Im on the fricken Clippers site checking out their roster. Their page sucks.. Ive never gone to another teams site before. LOL. BRING EM ON!!!!!!!
That's the thing. If we are to win this series, and I think and believe we can and will... it will be from our bench and rebounding. If the bench can step up and outplay their bench and we can out rebound them as a team I think we can take the series. Oh yeah. And Defense. Must maintain a strong and stable D and not let up for any type of duration. Pivital matchups? Jordan vs ? Plums to start but...Who can box him out and keep his rebounding low? Harkless Vs Griffin ...Assuming Harkless starts, and I think he should, I think he can be enough of a defensive force on Griffin to cause him to miss most of his now very reliable mid range shot. I see Harkless turning on the D and frustrating Griffin causing turnovers and poor shots. CJ vs Crawford.... This will be my personal fav. As has been pointed out, Crawford has the ability to do what few can, shoot you into and/or out of a game in a moments notice. Well CJ is another one who is starting to prove he can do that too when he gets super hot. We have seen it a couple times in his short career already. Yes CJ is a starter, but will most likely be on Crawful when he plays with the second unit. I look for CJ to just dominate this both on O & D. shutting Crawful down big time and giving Doc a huge smug look from across court as we finish them in 6 and watch them sulk out of the Moda. Bring this damn thing on!!! Blazers are once again considered huge underdogs.. Just like Dame and his group likes it. Nobody will see the total domination they put onto the Clippers, in the first game, coming. Doc will have a T in the first game and possibly be ejected before the series is over. Oh. These are all facts i'm just informing you all of in advance.!!!! Book it!
These were good talking points before the game so thought I'd use them to review. Not picking on anything at all as I thought they would rebound better as well and didn't expect CJ to be such a no-show either. Pivital matchups? Jordan vs ? Plums to start but...Who can box him out and keep his rebounding low? No one did. The Clips were normally a poor rebounding team but they toyed with the Blazers for most of the night until it didn't matter any more. This is one of those area where 'size matters'. Jordan and Griffin are just WAY too big for Plumlee and Harkless/Aminu. That isn't changing anytime soon so Portland will have to figure out another way to address that. Harkless Vs Griffin ...Assuming Harkless starts, and I think he should, I think he can be enough of a defensive force on Griffin to cause him to miss most of his now very reliable mid range shot. I see Harkless turning on the D and frustrating Griffin causing turnovers and poor shots. Griffin treated any smallish Blazer guarding him like they were nothing more than an annoying mosquito. Harkless....got early fouls. Aminu...just got backed under the basket. Griffin didn't find out if he would struggle with his outside shot because he didn't have to shoot anything but FT's outside of 3'. Whether it's Vonleh or Kaman, they need more bulk especially if Griffin isn't going to shoot from the outside at all. CJ vs Crawford.... This will be my personal fav. As has been pointed out, Crawford has the ability to do what few can, shoot you into and/or out of a game in a moments notice. Well CJ is another one who is starting to prove he can do that too when he gets super hot. We have seen it a couple times in his short career already. Yes CJ is a starter, but will most likely be on Crawful when he plays with the second unit. I look for CJ to just dominate this both on O & D. shutting Crawful down big time and giving Doc a huge smug look from across court as we finish them in 6 and watch them sulk out of the Moda. This one went surprisingly sour for Portland. Rivers started Mbah a Moute on CJ and McCollum never recovered. He was an abysmal 3-11 and did nothing else to justify being out on the floor and was outscored by his opposite SG number Redick 17-9. For Portland to have ANY hope, that needs to be flip-flopped. Bring this damn thing on!!! It's here and Portland got run out of the gym. Plumlee couldn't finish hardly anything, the Clippers let Aminu and Harkless have outside shot they wanted and encouraged them to do so and the one advantage Portland was supposed to have (Rebounding) was thrown in their face as they were outrebounded by 20%. Blazers are once again considered huge underdogs.. Just like Dame and his group likes it. Nobody will see the total domination they put onto the Clippers, in the first game, coming. They were underdogs for a reason and while I think they come back and battle to a closer score in Game 2 and not get blown out, unless Aminu starts hitting from '3' and Plumlee can finish around the rim, this series won't last long. Doc will have a T in the first game and possibly be ejected before the series is over. He was surprisingly quiet although didn't have much to complain about after the first 18 minutes of the game. VERY rare for the normally Crying Rivers.
It's now a little clearer that we seem to be outmatched at four of the five positions, Paul over Lillard because of his much better defense, Redick over McCollum because of his much better shooting percentages, Griffin over Aminu (no explanation needed), Jordan over Plumlee. None of those really close in my eyes. Harkless about even with Moute. Bench about even, we got Davis and Henderson but they got Crawford.
It looked like Stotts came out with the same plan like them double-teaming Dame every time was a complete surprise. There was no adjustment at all during the game and they kept running the high pick-n-role over and over again. Rivers also made the adjustment of Mbah a Moute onto CJ. So Game 1 would have to go to Rivers as much as I hate that. It's almost inconceivable that Stotts didn't have them prepare for the constant double-team but why they kept running right into it is beyond me. If it's just up to Aminu to make shots to win this series, that probably doesn't end well as that is just not his game.
good post but one exception for me...Kaman actually did a great job boxing out Jordan and setting screens
He absolutely did but the game was basically over by then so it's tough to tell if that was Kaman (which I think he does some things that just don't exist other places on the roster) or if the Clippers had let off the gas by then out of boredom.
Great Post!!! NOt saying things would have went different, but we wil also never have a chance if the refs are so easily manipulated by a finger pointing Griffin. If they are going to allow the Clips players to influence thier whistle blowing, The Blazers might as well head to the D league. I almost turned the game off after that I was sooo pissed. After all the talk, you think the refs would know the details of the Clips trying to manipulate them and would have none of it... Of Course Doc had nothing to complain about. His p[layers were dictating to the refs when to blow the whistle. Her got his way and then some.. again.... I will say this. Never before Have I seen a Hack -a-whoever go so bad. Doc owned us on that move at the end of the first quarter....
I think we set a record for blocking shots directly into their pt guards hands last night...CP3 and Redick didn't even have to move to collect the tips and blocks all night.
With as much as all the series in the West were blowouts in the first game, will the league try to 'even' things up a bit with calls for the teams getting smoked? It's bad enough that Griffin is reffing as well and that Paul falls down like he's been shot when he gets breathed on. Otherwise, all 4 series could be done in 5 games or less and that is bad for TV revenue. Never forget the NBA is a business.
The Benches: Advantage Clippers Playoff rotations usually only go about 8 deep as there are rarely back-to-back games and coaches ride their top players. Jamal Crawford, Paul Pierce, Jeff Green (and Austin Rivers) at #9) DWARFS anything that Portland can counter with. The Blazers counter with Ed Davis, Gerald Henderson and Allan Crabbe with maybe Vonleh at #9 out of necessity against the Clipper 'bigs'. Crawford is up for 6th MoY (again), Jeff Green is a match-up problem IF he gets going and Paul Pierce is good for a dagger even if he doesn't contribute as much from game to game anymore. For the Blazers, Ed Davis will battle until his heart gives out, Gerald Henderson will be a steady, veteran influence and Crabbe hopefully can find that stroke he had midway through the season. Is there anyone that will have a breakout performance like CJ and Meyers from last year? *************************************************************************************************************** Okay, I thought the Clippers bench had an advantage but I didn't think it would be this much of a discrepancy. Crabbe took 3 shots....looks scared. Hendo is the only guy who looks like he wants to shoot and I suppose Kaman for the couple minutes he was in there. Ed Davis isn't having NEAR the impact off the bench he did in the regular season. 43-10 is a downright thumping and with the way the Clips are doubling any Blazer PG with the ball, that is going to need to be turned around in a hurry.
