Game Thread GAME# 23: BLAZERS @ SPURS - DECEMBER 2, 2018 - SUNDAY, 4:00 PM, NBCSNW

Tough loss. Team needs to win against Dallas

 

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God man he always sounds like a damn fortune cookie

 

So on a positive note
The Lakers beat Phoenix so we can pretty much assume we can stay ahead of them.
Utah lost to Miami
Dallas beat the No Good Clippers
Memphis lost to Philly

I don't know that there is much positive there but we can take it that way if we want right?

 

I said guard point guard due to ET plays point on offense.

 

Are there worse fans in the league than Spurs fans? They lose a couple of games, and the place is empty. They just sit there, entitled, casually watching, sort of. It's so quiet in the arena, the jackass sound crew plays random super obnoxious noise nonstop the entire fucking game. God I hate that. I would absolutely hate to watch a game in San Antonio. I'd love it if they'd have a 20 game losing streak.

 

Sadly, the last game in Portland, 1/2 the lower bowl was empty. Some seats filled in as the game went along but it was quite empty and very quiet for a Portland crowd.

 

Boooo

 

SA's got a recent championship and a legendary coach though... Blazers got a Great player and a lot of getting rocked in the playoffs...

 

And we still got smashed

 

So you admit, you know offense was not the problem. Thanks you know.

You know good talk.

You know btw that 6'11 dude only took 5 shots in the paint tonight. You know rest were outside the restricted area.
You know Perimeter defense.

 

Just curious, do number of attempts matter or do the results play any part of it?

Combined they shot 23/50 which is 46% and had 61 points which is good for 1.22 points per shot. Those numbers, while not really good or anything, are still decent. Dame also had 10 assists with only 1 turnover which is phenomenal.

I guess I just don't understand on a night where the defense was the entire reason for losing (I'm sorry you're just wrong if you think otherwise), that a stat like how many FG's our two guards took has any relevancy.

By the way, you are doing that crap again where you round up to make your point look better. 50/86 is 58.1%.

 

Obviously scoring wasnt and hasnt been a problem, but because they shoot a lot of 3’s there are a lot of long rebounds that lead to transition baskets. Also tonight they had 17 turn overs, which usually means the offense gets to to play against a defense that isnt set.

CJ and Dame did their part scoring though and the fact is its their defense that was just sad tonight...

 

Question for those that think Dame is going to want out: Do you want him to leave?

For me, to be a great player you can't want to run when the going gets tough and take the easy way out. I understand ring chasing at the end of a career. Gary Payton was 35 and Karl Malone was 40 when they signed with the Lakers, I'm not really talking about stuff like that.

Kevin Durant was Dame's age when he signed with GS. He's a little sissy who had to join a team that won 73 games just to win a title. He was up 3-1 against that team in the WCF's and couldn't put them away. Fuck people who want to take the easy way out.

I guarantee you Dame would rather die trying than win a title with a team like GS that doesn't even really need him to win. Not that he'd be traded there, but you should understand my point. Clyde got traded to the defending NBA champs. Portland is Dame's team and he wants to lead them to the promise land. He's not going to give up that quest or start bitching about how he can't win here.

Some players just take it upon themselves to make their team better and elevate them to victory. Can those type of players win a title in a league where there are a bunch of insecure babies that have to team up and form all-star teams just to win a ring? No, probably not, and if they do it would be really fucking difficult. I have much more respect for people like Dame who give their all on the court and in the community and don't want to be traded or leave via free agency. That saying "If you can't beat them, join them" is stupid in sports. If someday he does beat them and wins a ring in Portland it would be one of the greatest achievements in sports and would be worth more than 5 rings if he played for GS.

 

Dame and CJ combined for 5 turnovers (CJ had 4). I'd take 5 turnovers from those two with how much they handled the ball every game. I was specifically talking about those two being "ball hogs" not the offense in general.

Portland shot 12/29 (41.3%) from 3. I don't care how many run outs the other team gets, shooting 40%+ from 3 is usually a good thing. 17 turnovers is not good overall. If you think about it though it makes sense that Dame and CJ would shoot so much. Getting 50 shots up with 5 turnovers, 10 shots at the hoop for every turnover, is way better than the rest of the team that 36 shots with 12 turnovers or only 3 shots for every turnover. I'll take Dame and CJ at least having a chance at scoring over the others who turned the ball over much more frequently, even if the shots don't go in.

Defense was awful. Why not give Baldwin or Layman a crack at DeRozan?

 

Curious who you'd rather have shoot?

 

Our crowd isn’t the same anymore I feel like.

It’s not as loud and intimidating. Add the home court advantage we couldn’t even utilize, it feels like we lose more often at home the last couple years than years past

 

This, I agree with.

 

But i also watched that dude shut down the Blazers pick n roll time and time again.
I also know they employ a thing called the pick n pop.
So you saying offense wasn't the problem is completely discounting his defense that he played against the Blazers. When the Blazers hit shots they can get back and set up on defense. So when they go 5 to 7 minutes clanking shots and giving up long rebounds the Spurs went right down and punished them. Absolutely nothing stops your defense more than a missed shot and turnaround basket. Every team in the league runs Pick n Roll. Why? Because it's the toughest thing to guard in basketball. When run correctly it almost cannot be guarded. But when you have your defense set you can mitigate it and make the other team take a contested shot. The Blazers were not doing that well. The Spurs were. Most of those problems were because they were caught off guard and out of position in transition. Because they missed the shot on the other end! Now stop trying to analyze shit and simply watch a game.

Literally SMH!

Having a true Power Forward that can guard Pick n Rolls and can actually run one while being able hit an outside shot would help this team. What is so hard for you to understand about that?
You might think this was a good talk but really this has been a forced class on basic principals. The fact of the matter is Aldridge was the best big on the floor last night. The Blazers didn't need DeRozan. They needed a Power Forward that isn't a bench 3 and D player.