Game Thread GAME# 32: BLAZERS @ JAZZ - DECEMBER 26, 2019 - THURSDAY, 7:30 PM, TNT

Wow next year will be so much more fun I can’t wait

 

Nice shot Baze.

Need CJ to show up to have a chance.

 

Alright! Good second quarter! Regroup and get into single digits in the third! G O! B L A Z E R S!

 

Utah damn near playing perfect without their 2nd best player (Conley) and they only got a 10 pt lead

That’s how you know Utah is the fakest from all the so called contenders in the west

 

We won the quarter!

Good effort to fight back, and reduce the lead to 10.

Two more quarters like that, and we'll force overtime.

 

I know....that opening quarter was really bad for blazer hyper-tension

 

Bazemore is not good on defense end. I would start Little just for his defense because you already have scorers. What they need someone that can play defense.

 

But that would actual require him to coach defence, no? Or coach at all?

 

Conley is one of their worst players. One of the worst in the league, really. Their second best player is Mitchell. Behind Gobert. Then Jingles at 3.

 

We won the rebounds that quarter, to now lead the rebounding.

Great effort on the boards!

 

Watching Baze navigate a screen is comical.

Cross screening Hassan is also a guaranteed bucket at the moment. Ugh.

 

in case nobody has noticed, Blazers only have 5 assists on 19 FG's. A 26% assisted FG rate is not good basketball

 

Skal and Dame are the only players with assists and Skal only has 1.

 

Stotts needs to make adjustments on the Ingles pick n roll coming out of the halftime locker room. Would also love to see us try to get out on the fastbreak so Gobert isn't parked under the rim.

Knowing Stotts though, I don't expect any changes.

 

Halftime
Us - 52
Them - 62

3PM/A(%)
Us - 6/14 (42.9%)
Them - 9/19 (47.4%) - down from 70%

FTM/A(%)
Us - 8/13 (61.5)
Them - 1/4 (25%) - you've got to imagine the ref won't let this disparity continue for the rest of the game.

Points in the Paint
Us - 16
Them - 34

 

Someday we'll defend ball screens differently. We won't ALWAYS have one guy playing back under the basket while the screen either frees up a shooter or gives the other team a two-on-one. We'll blitz the screen every now and then, or switch off ... maybe we'd seen more of that if Zach wasn't hurt.

But years and years of predictable screen and roll defense. Whenever we get on a run, the other team always can just run a pick and roll and guarantee themselves no worse than an open jump shot.

 

He's played the pick-and-roll the same for years. I don't expect anything new, either.

 

Let's win the 2nd half by 11.

 

I will say this does seem like a winnable game. Portland needs to close-out better on perimeter shots; keep Utah off of the offensive glass; and run some offense thru the paint...inside->outside to get Utah off-balance in their defensive rotations. Gobert can't block everything