Game Thread GAME# 78: BLAZERS @ MAVERICKS - APRIL 3, 2018 - TUESDAY, 5:30 PM (PST), NBCSNW

Look it would've been nice if we beat Memphis and clinched tonight but as Shonz always said "Nobody said it was going to be easy!" Let's win these last 4 games and earn the third seed. Go Blazers.

 

I don't think those stats reflect overall that they are bad shooters, they have just been missing. Collins is solid from three. Aminu is as well. Lillard and CJ are our best three point shooters. ET definitely isn't a good three point shooter and Bazz is also solid. They have just been missing a ton when previously most of those guys were on fire on that win streak. Moe as well before his injury. On fire from three. This team is just taking too many threes but i definitely think as of right now they need to go back to driving and pounding the ball inside to Nurk since he has been fairly consistent for a while now.

 

I guess I will be rooting for the Lakers tomorrow, yuck.

 

Some good things about this game were Pat and Shabazz are hitting shots again. Leonard played another solid game.

 

Hard to be happy after that gutless shit show . . .

 

Yeah. Neither of those things are probable. Possible yes. Probable no.

 

Another loss chalked up to Terry Stotts. I know it's an unpopular opinion around the Trail Blazers fan base, but yet again, Stotts' continued mismanagement of Jusuf Nurkic is costing us games to inferior teams.

Dallas had no rim protectors in the game the entire night and instead of feeding the Beast, he allows the team to throw up 40 3-pointers (10 by Aminu alone)!!! Nurk was 7-8 from the floor while players such as Aminu continue to have the green light to shoot any shot on the court. In my opinion, the only Blazers who have the green light to keep shooting when their shot's not dropping are Dame and CJ.

This same exact scenario played out last week in Memphis where Nurk was 5-6 and Gasol played minimal minutes. And if we want to go even father back, the Boston game unraveled when Portland went small and took out Nurkic after one pick and pop Al Horford 3.

While this is a glaring trend, and quite frankly terrifying if you're hopeful of this team making any noise in the post-season, it wasn't the reason Portland lost the game.

How on earth do you allow the Dallas Mavericks to score 115 on your defense? Where was the urgency? Dallas ran a simple pick and roll offense the entire night and we simply made no adjustments. It felt like Dallas was hitting every 3 they took, but they were really just 17-44. I won't blame Stotts entirely for the defensive output as the players didn't look mentally prepared for tonight's contest and with just five games to go and no playoff seeding locked up, that's pretty inexcusable.

 

You do realize he was in foul trouble right?

 

Why does Lonzo Ball miss a lot of games? What injury does he have?

 

The Portland "don't get your hopes up or you'll regret it" Trailblazers

 

Also can we make a rule that @BonesJones and @KingSpeed are not allowed to quote eachothers ?

 

Both were tough pills to swallow but I'd give this one the nod because we had Dame in the lineup and still didn't show up on both ends of the court.

 

The fact that we did this having already blown the Memphis game is mind blowing. One no show, not good but can happen. Two in a week after working so hard to get where they are is incredible.

 

Bones, I love ya brother......but yeah, your bickering with King gets a little tiring.

 

Every loss: Stotts sucks
Every win: crickets

 

This means they need to sit him the rest of the way.

 

I would not expect to see Lillard again until the Playoff start.

 

Oh bullshit. Every game thread we win there are people pointing out what went right and good in the game.

Whereas it's very easy, in losses like this, to see exactly what went wrong. And yeah.....much of it is on Stotts.