Nurkic didn’t even play in the 4th quarter the other night, and last night he got only 18 minutes total. What’s going on? Has Stotts lost faith in him? Is Nurkic in a slump? Are Davis and Collins just better defenders, and therefore more valuable than Nurkic at the end of games? Curious what you all think. I haven’t been on the board in awhile, so sorry if this has already been discussed.
He was in foul trouble pretty much the entire night last night. Steven Adams was getting under his skin. Plus Collins had a career night so Stotts left him in. Against the twolves, EZ ED was doing a good job on Towns. Thus less minutes for the Nurkinator.
Nurk let Adams get in his head a little bit imo. Collins had a great game, best of his career and Stotts rewarded him. Credit to Nurk he wasn't pouting, nor has he pouted. But lets be clear. When Nurk is at his best, so is Portland.
Simply this: Collins had the hot hand. Congrats to Collins. Congrats to PORTLAND TEAM ball. Stotts has the game flow in his vision right now- That is what the head coach essentially does.
The simple answer was that Davis was a demon under the basket last night and Collins had his best game. Stotts just played a hot hand.... that's all.
[QUOTE=" . I haven’t been on the board in awhile, so sorry if this has already been discussed.[/QUOTE] Well, you might have noticed that this might have fit quite well into the thread at the top of the board! All these unnecessary threads knocked Sly's quotebook thread so far down that I was about to yell at him for skipping it again. WTH?
Yeah the refs were ticky tacking Nurk early but then after he knocked Adams down running up the court, they painted a giant bulls eye on his back.
Exactly. Way too little contact allowed by Nurk, in comparison to the palooka Adams. Adams couldn't bang Dame enough.
Who cares, we won. A coach makes adjustments on the fly and is supposed to ride the hot hand.....mission accomplished.
Plus, the Okey Dokes were biotching about fouls all night, yet Nurk lowered his arm slightly, and ,I believe it was Jerami Grant, raised his into Nurks arm, and FOUL! Nurk looked like, "you've got to be kidding me.
Did you see the play where Dame drove to the basket and Adams literally reached out and drilled Dame in the chest with his elbow? No call. Then on the ensuing possession we got called for some ticky tack shit. In fact, I noticed 6 times Dame was clearly fouled with no call. Harden or Durant would have gotten every one of those calls. I've never seen an all star take so many hits while the refs swallow their whistle. And before someone points out that Dame has a high free throw rate: so fucking what? That just means he gets hit a lot.
Adams was also beating Nurk back to the offensive end and scored easily over a smaller defender. What was Nurk's plus minus?
Man last 3 games that I watch is all the same , sleeping until 7 min to end or 5 min to end and then , Lillard go nuts in offense scoring insane Basket after Basket ,Nurkic go insane around the rim in defense stopping everything and Portland catch difference and win .. All others help also and get more engaged but start to when they start they all start.I m not Expert in NBA i watch whole my life Europe Basketball witch is kinda kindergarten for NBA . So I have question about Nurkic . Am I assuming wrong thinking that hes good defender on Nba standards for 23 year old , and is offense easier to learn then defense , and also is Sttots good coach for him to improve hes offense. . And one more question id somebody will have the time , How the fuck Lillard is not a world star . I honestly never notice him being mention on NBA shows and before I start to follow Portland have no idea how good he is.
That’s a very good question. The reason is that the media in this country is focused on the superstar teams (Warriors, Cavs, Rockets, etc.) and the larger media markets (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.). Portland is a small market and the games on the west coast don’t end until after midnight on the east coast, so teams like Portland tend to get ignored. It’s fucking ridiculous that Lillard isn’t given star treatment by the New York TV networks, but it has always been this way and probably always will be.
The Warriors tip off at 10:30 eastern time, so the west coast thing is not the issue. The "Jail Blazers" never lacked for media attention, nor did the Drexler teams....after they reached the finals. IMO it all comes down to winning. The media loves a winner. Loves to build them up and tear them down. But they are often slow to the party. For Dame to get more TV exposure the Blazers need to make it past the first two rounds. The size of the market and the location of the market plays into it a little, but not as much as it used to. The internet has made the world shrink.
