Game Thread GAME# 27: BLAZERS @ THUNDER - FEBRUARY 16, 2021 - TUESDAY, 5:00, NBCSNW

Giles is out. Hood is out. That means Melo at center and more minutes for Nas.

 

Nassir Little and CJ Elleby here you go.
Next man up!

 

I'm a little worried about this match up. OKC seems to match up well with us this year. we're going to have to come out with the same shooting rhythm that has won us the last few games because if we have an off shooting night just from say.. Trent or Melo, its going to be hard to make up for that production during the stretch of the second half were we'd most likely need those points to attempt a comeback. key is for Kanter to keep up the excellent work on the glass working the put backs and offensive rebounds & that should at least give us more of an advantage with or without the hot hand shooting. team also doesn't necessarily need to have awesome defense to win this but they at least needs to be able to make key stops. SGA can't have a bucket whenever he wants tomorrow night. I like how we have been shooting collectively so I think we come away with this one like 117-110

 

I still think we'll beat them. The good news is that Muscala isn't too big. So if we just keep Enes in against Horford most of the time, we shouldn't have a big size disadvantage. Who knows if we would have even played Giles very much in this game, given the Thunder's roster. I think we'll still kick their asses.

 

Yep, you just need to cover Muscala on the perimeter. He has killed us in the past because we leave him open. 6-10 from 3 last game against us.

 

Yeah, athleticism on the perimeter is much more crucial in this game than size, unfortunately Melo doesn't really bring either but he will be hard for them to defend.

 

Whats the deal with Naz? Is he hurt again?

 

in the dog house

 

What about weather? Will they have power? Travel?

 

Whatever happened to Andre Robeson ?

 

https://lmgtfy.app/?iie=1&q=Check the web

 

Thanks man

 

It is currently a balmy -8 degrees in beautiful OKC.

 

I don't like the looks of this next four games in 6 days stretch. Thunder today, Pels tomorrow and then a one home game against the Wiz. On paper these are games the Blazers could win if they are playing well.
At some point they will get that tired (every shot hitting the front of the rim) look.
The thing is they have a B2B then two days with travel off and then another B2B with travel ending in a game against the Suns in Phoenix. They need to get their rest in the middle here.
I have always felt the NBA season is ridiculous in the way it is scheduled. They try to cram so many games into way too short a time. This season it only seems worse. The wear and tear on the players is crazy. Personally I feel quality on the court is sacrificed for money. Two to Three games a week is plenty. When they push it to four in four different cities And in this case for the Blazers they will play 5 games from Tuesday to Tuesday in 5 different cities the idea of a quality game kind of goes out the window.

By the way. When was the last "Covid" protocol restriction?

 

We need to keep on winning before that 3 game slide of Suns, Nuggets and Lakers

 

Melo at center for 20 minutes today lmao

 

Those three games are tough but I don't know why we can't win all of them. Then we get the Hornets, Warriors and Kings. I think 7-2 the rest of the way before the all-star break is realistic. We just have to beat all of the teams with worse records than ours.

 

That Lakers game without Davis sure looks less daunting.

 

IMO 5-4 would be very good.