Game Thread 2022-23 Game #13 BLAZERS @ MAVERICKS - NOVEMBER 12, 2022 - SATURDAY - 5:30 PM (PDT) ROOT

It seems to me that both Lillard and Simons cheat to the center too far and leave the corner three open often. Same thing CJ used to do.

 

Maybe Anf, but still need a good ball handler to avoid turnovers.

 

this is what some of us were talking about just a few days ago. That being that close games in the last 3 minutes are most of the time decided by luck and breaks, not talent or scheme.

Dinwiddie is in his 9th season and is a career 32.9% shooter from three. Dorian Finney-Smith is in his 7th season and is a career 36% shooter from three. Yet they were 4-4 in a 1:40 span in the last 3 minutes. That's not scheme, that's just good fortune for the Mavs and bad fortune for the Blazers. It didn't help that Portland had 2 turnovers in that same stretch

Portland is now 5-2 in close games. A .714 close-game winning percentage is a great outcome and it's almost certain it won't remain that high. Phoenix was the only team that had as high a percentage last season

Blazers were 9th in close-game winning rate in 2017-18....7th in 2018-19....8th in 2019-20....4th in 2020-21...23rd last season. Strongly suggesting it's good to have a healthy Lillard when the Blazers are in a close game

 

When Hart stepped out of bounds it was a tough break for sure.

 

What this game reinforced in me is that I really hate watching Luka play. Cries more than anyone else in the league and gets the homer treatment. Talented player, but why resort to that kind of trash play? It works I guess so I answered my own question. No sadness on the loss. Great road trip. Replace Nurk and his DNP's with a solid defensive center. Holmes for SAC has been basically removed from the rotation.

 

the thing you’re leaving out is that they were wide open shots. That’s not luck. If dinwiddie is wide open it’s not luck that he hits them. If they were contested and still went in, then your post makes sense.

 

I agree with you on Luka.
As for Nurk's DNP, is he hurt or are they being overly cautious? Most of these guys all have minor injuries so I would not trade him
just yet. Not for someone who getting beat out for minutes by Metu.

 

my post makes great sense (and who better to objectively gauge my logic than...me) because players don't shoot 100%, all the time, on any shot, no matter how wide open they are

on three's, with the closest defender more than 6' away, Dinwiddie's average this season is 50%. Finney-Smith's average is 36.4%. Last season, Dinwiddie shot 39.3% on wide open three's; DFS shot 41%. Yeah, it would have been better with tight defense, but just like players can't shoot 100%, defenses can't tightly cover everybody

besides that, it's inaccurate saying Dinwiddie was wide open on all of those three's...he wasn't. One, yes, but Simons and Dame were within 4' on two of his shots:



last season, Dinwiddie shot 26.6% on contested three's (defender within 2-4'). This season he's at 38%.

so, by averages, Dallas should have hit less than 2 or those 4 three's. So yeah, they benefited from some close game luck, just like the Blazers have

 

That one foul on Eubanks was absolutely ridiculous. The ref should be ashamed of that one.

 

Didnt see the game, but I was surprised Hart played 36m and went 0 fer.
Why didnt Sharpe or Naz get extra minutes since Hart couldn't make a hoop?

 

Sharpe is a great shooter and often open. Also- they need to look for him in transition.

 

If he’s open, give the ball. I don’t care how young he is.

 

When do you make that call to take him out? When the Blazers were up? or in the last 2 1/2 minutes when they were down? Not sure I would put a cold player into the game at that point.

Yeah his shooting needs to improve, but he does do other things for the team......like defense and rebounding (He was the team leader in rebounding last night) There were only 3 players that did not have a negative +/- and he was one of them. Not saying that Chauncey cares about that stat, nor should he, but the team generally plays better when he is on the floor. Hopefully, he can get his shot back during the home stand.

 

Like I said before, as of now he's panning out to be a poor man's version of Dame. He settles for too many low percentage threes, can be a bit of a black hole on offense and is absolutely loathsome on defense. He has a role for sure, but I've been under the impression that we are trying to raise him up as the future star of this team. If that's the case then he needs to change his mindset and work on some of these glaring weaknesses in his game. Not hating, just an observation.

 

some of that may be accurate. Hard to say really because this is his first time as the starter on a good team

I do know though that all the off-season chatter around here about trading Dame and building around Simons was ludicrous

 

The only ones who overreact and throw our players under the bus are the ones that think we should win EVERY game. It’s always been like that my man. Nothing new.

 

All good shooters are a "bit of a black hole on offense" at times. There are certain times I prefer it because they can catch fire in a hurry. I am guessing that there will be times when he is playing with GP2, Sharpe (or Nas) Winslow, and Eubanks (or Watford) and in that scenario, he (and Sharpe) will need to take the majority of the shots.

 

I'm not saying he can't or shouldn't play a key role on offense moving forward, I'm just not convinced as of now that he's "The Guy" for this team like a lot of people have been calling him in recent years. If he doesn't turn out to be at least as good as Dame is he really someone you want to build your team around long-term?

 

100% agree. Is there any accountability with refs? I wish they would have challenged that. You can't let them get away with such horsesh*t.

 

He is not Dame. But I don't think people have said we need to build around him, it was more that he is just one young piece of the puzzle. IMO you really need to be an elite superstar for any team to build around them. Most teams don't have that type of guy, so it makes sense to have multiple borderline all-stars.