Game Thread GAME# 64: BLAZERS @ SUNS - MARCH 6, 2020 - FRIDAY, 6:00 PM, NBCSNW

fuck that noise. Dame was fine his 2nd game back after a groin injury and 3 weeks off. He scored 24 points on 16 shots while CJ scored 25 on 20 shots. And Dame was working his ass off on defense for somebody who doesn't give a shit

your blaming Dame for shit is almost as bad as blazer1977

you two should form a I-hate-Dame club

 

Oh my godness.... I can’t believe honestly. Disgusting

 

He’s horrible

 

Not this time.

 

- They late switched with the guard
- Switched Hezonja on to him in the 2nd so they could switch pnr.
- Went zone to keep him out of pick and pop situations

None of these were executed very well though.

 

Anything to get Melo off the court tonight would have been good in my book.

 

You maybe didnt watch the game or you were drunk, but he was terrible. Awful body language. You hate CJ we all know that. At least CJ was trying to make something happen, while Dame was just standing around and watching. Yeah he was sooo great tonight

 

It's no hate dude, but someone has to address it, otherwise nobody does it here on S2.

 

I think it's very possible for someone to play a below average game while still trying and wanting to win. Seems like far too often some people confuse results with desire.

 

I don't hate CJ, I dislike his game and want him on another team

but I don't spend any time trying to interpret his body language...because that would be fucking stupid

 

I watched some attitude tonight.
Seemed to me that Melo was taking a bunch of plays off. Not exactly sure why but he was not even trying to contest shots or even stay in front of his man. Saric for the most part.

Then i watched Whiteside respond to it by pretty much leaving the interior defense at times because he was sick and tired of trying to cover for Melo.

Ariza ended up calling him out of it so it seems during one stoppage for free throws. Ariza tried to make up for Hassan playing very loose. Ariza pretty much lit Whiteside up but you could see his reaction was "Tell Him" pointing at Melo. after the first free throw Stotts pulled melo and put Mario back in.

This chemistry is not gonna work. Not while losing. If this keeps up we will not see Melo back next year (I personally have no problem with that) and i would bet Hassan is gone also.

Melo had some good games. But it is obvious at this point, right now anyway, he has lost a step. You are no longer seeing him move in for rebounds and even jumping for boards. He is literally side stepping when a player is driving. You have not seen him make an power move to the basket since before the All Star break. No Dunks. He is coasting.

Of course this is just my take but it is what i am seeing right now. Might be more to it? But right now there is no reason to see Melo on the court.

 

something was definitely going on there. It didn't look like Ariza and Whiteside were talking nice to each other and Baynes kind of had a smirk on his face standing between them

I don't want Melo back. He's not going to be more efficient next season when he's a year older, and he's just another easy excuse to run iso-ball...screw that

at this point, one of the most unbelievable things about this season, to me, is that with 18 games left, Portland is 12 games behind OKC. Not in a million years would I have thought that last fall

 

The mix is very bad. You have Whiteside who seems to need to be the big man. You have Melo who is simply not playing hard and then you have Ariza who always at least tries. Ariza seems to be getting fed up with the half ass garbage.

 

Melo has faded.
Pains me to say cos I love the guy, but he's starting to remind me of Willie Mays with the Mets.

 

The man is coming off a groin injury. If you have ever injured your groin you would know that it’s a nagging injury that takes a long time to completely heal.

 

Stotts was fine leaving Steph Curry open from 3 so him being ok with leaving Baynes open from 3 is not a shocker.

 

Hell it was total team lost from the coaches to players plain simple. You can point fingers about anyone of them. Phoenix really does got shooters and you leave them open they will make you pay and that exactly what they did. You can't have the same game plan for every team and that's what this team as majority of the time especially on defense. You can't have the same game plan for ayton at center then with Baines at center if you can't have come up with difference defense against who out there you going to loose quite bit of games.

 

If the scheme is unchanged and Baynes is a 33% three-point shooter, I'm assuming there are a lot of other centers who have hit 9 threes against us in the last year...or not?

 

Now this has been a hell of a season and truuuuust me, no one wants Stotts fired more than me BUT...

If I told you we would be missing Nurk, Collins, Hood for most of the year, Dame for almost a month, would you feel the same way?

Now what if I told you are rotation, in late February, would include Caleb Swanigan, Wenyen Gabriel?

I’ll say this though...

OKC must have a hell of a training staff because CP3 hasn’t played more than 61 games in the last 3 years (already at 61) and only 3 in the last 9 years total.

CP3 says it’s the vegan diet, but idk

 

Interesting. Melo had some power drives in game against Washington a couple nights ago. He also had an alley oop dunk. Did you miss that game?