Game Thread GAME# 62: BLAZERS @ RAPTORS - MARCH 1, 2019 - FRIDAY, 5:00 PM, ESPN & NBCSNW

Jake the Snake. The brother came to play tonight. Love me some Jake.

 

Dame had a chance to put us up two from the charity stripe, but uncharacteristically missed one. It wasn’t the reason we lost the game, but it did seem like a momentum shift. I can’t help but think that the silly buggers the Toronto time keepers played with the shot clock, made an impact. The piss farting around really disrupted the flow of the game.

I didn’t like the switch on the last play. I think Moe should have fought over the screen, and Dame should have showed, then quickly gotten back to Lowry. The way they switched so quickly, it seemed like they were playing to instruction, so I guess that’s on Stotts.

 

Free throws. Missed two in the last four possessions. Got to make your free throws. Mo misses badly and dame misses one.
Nice to see him make the three in a row but when you are not getting calls on the road you better make the free throws you do get.

The main thing you try to do when playing a very good team on the road is to stay close enough to be in it at the end. Tonight the Blazers did just that. Good game and a very fun game to watch.

 

I did notice them running the clock when the game was stopped. Pretty much ran about 5 seconds off the clock at one point. Clock kept running to 44.4 seconds when play was stopped.

 

I didn't like the switch either but the way they were calling the game Mo would have been called for a foul. Maybe not a bad thing as it would have stopped the clock but Leonard would not have missed free throws so who knows?

 

Tough loss. Kawhi was great.

 

Would we have won with Kanter? I like to think so. I hope we don’t meet them in the finals.

 

Yeah I was wondering how someone was going to take a shot at CJ after a game like that. You guys never disappoint. Yes we know Dame is better, but to use the word " choke" because he missed that last 3 pt attempt is comical.

 

I think we lost the game because they were better tonight. Keep in mind that we didn't have Kanter. We may be better with Kanter. We took the second best record in the league to the brink and came up just a little short. Feeling pretty good about our team. Go Blazers!!!

 

Maybe I shouldn't use choke but when someone stiff up on that shot I knew it wasn't going in. He didn't look comfortable on that shot at all. He had a great shooting nite up to that shot. But he has miss critical free throws in the past in late games and he has miss big shots in the past too. But he hasn't made a lot critical shots in the last minute shots in his career some not a lot.

 

Look lets not try to pretend that certain posters go out of their way to hate on CJ. Tonight was a little more difficult to find something to bitch about but when you play 40 tough minutes like CJ did tonight there will be be mistakes along the way to focus on. But only Blazer fans can look at CJ's game tonight and not give him major props. He battled the whole game.

 

I knew the response would be "HS and NBA are different.".... No fucking shit. What made you feel the need to say this...?

Situational basketball is situational basketball. Situational basketball is a thing at any level, and situational adjustments are a thing at any level. Defensive schemes used in the NBA are used in college and HS.

Do you not know what a hard rotate is? Have you ever done an effective scramble drill defensively?

And you seriously think an on-fire Lawhi has a lower chance of making a basically open 10-footer than those guys do of hitting a 3 with a hard closeout? And that's if Kawhi can even deliver them the ball. As I've said, a 2 or 3 didnt matter. Any made shot would beat us there since we had no timeouts.

 

Yup. And if you know how to rotate hard (i.e. coached correctly) then those 3s wont even be open.

But nah, I got people saying dumb shit like "NBA and HS are different" to try to discount stuff I've learned from playing for a very good HS coach and college. I like talking ball with you, HJ, Dviss, and others because you guys actually get it.

 

Consistency in foul calls would be swell.

 

I think they planned to switch that because they thought Kawhi would post up Dame and Kawhi hadnt been successful posting Dame (who oddly enough is a good post defender).

It actually looked for a second like Kawhi thought about putting his back to the basket and realized hey I can just take a few hard dribbles and shoot over him.

When Dame was shooting FT’s I thought they would sub in Hood, or another Long defensive guys. I think they assumed Nurse would call a timeout.

 

CJ had a great game.....but to be fair, that last 3 that barely hit the rim was quite the departure from the rest of his shooting night. So something was obviously different.

 

Tough loss, but well played. Nurk in foul trouble was the biggest factor IMO. Meyers Leonard with empty minutes was huge. This team is obviously better with Enes playing. Turner was missed as well. Very good effort though in a tough place to play. Gasol's old bag of tricks came up big tonight for the Raptors, and Kawhi was hot. All things considering, nothing to be mad at the Blazers for.

 

That makes 0 sense. Why would they switch a pick n roll with 4 seconds left to guard against a post up? There was no time for a post up. Also, why would we rather have the 6'3 guy guard him in the post instead of the 6'9 guy?

And CJ was on the game, wasn't he?

Layman, Moe, Aminu, Dame, and Nurkic should've been the lineup out there. Shouldve put Dame on Green and had Aminu and Harkless guarding Leonard and Lowry.

 

He didnt set his feet, or follow through, it was off before it even left his hand you could see it, it wasnt his normal shooting motion and the release was awkward. Dont know if it was choking or just one of those shots, but it happens here and there. I know his defense was bad, but they really needed his scoring in the middle of that game when no one else could hit a shot.

 

I am not pretening guy by CJ how I feel about him. He does have some very good shooting nights. But he also had some bad ones too. Tonight he had a good shooting night but the one shot I am talking about he didn't looked good on the shot and miss pretty badly. Another thing if we traded him in the off season I won't loose know sleep about it because I don't think he 2 way player and I don't think he makes other players around him better. He had one of these games tonight and come in the next game he be shooting but bricking everything, this as been his season this year he been up and down all season and this not my opinion but this what I really think about him as a player.