Game Thread 2023-24 Game #28 - BLAZERS @ WARRIORS - DECEMBER 23, 2023 - SATURDAY - 5:30 PM PST - ROOT

Was nice to see him play. For the longest time I had this condescending cheerleader vibe with him

 

Box and 1, double, zone, full court press whatever…. There’s a reason teams are throwing junk at him

 

No doubt...

Teams know Ant is the Blazers best offensive player/biggest threat and the roster affords them the ability to leave a guy open on the perimeter that is unlikely to beat them over 48 minutes.

 

Very true. We have no one to keep them honest

And Simons shouldn’t be a number 1

 

Agreed... the fact that Simons probably shouldn't be a #1 option and yet is worthy of committing multiple defenders, shows just how far this roster has to go.

 

I'm hoping that Shae can grow into a true #1. He has the physical tools to impose his will on another team. He just doesn't do it.

 

There's Nate !! We missed him this game. I'll give him a quick game summary: Billups played Nate's favorite 3 guard lineups for most the entire game. The "too small" Blazers got crushed on the glass and in the paint. The good news is Anfernee hit a bunch of 3's, Scoot only shot 1 airball, and Brogdon added a bunch of stats for his trade deadline sayonara.

 

Couldn't watch this one. Did an early Christmas with some family tonight. I'll watch it later.

 

The Blazers took about the same number of shots as the Warriors (84 for the Blazers, 83 for the Warriors) , so it wasn't the rebounding (although it definitely could have been better).

It was the fact that the Warriors shot 76% (38-50) on their 2-point field goals that really killed Portland.

I am sure you can imagine what the Warrior offense looked like and the Blazer defense to get to that number.

Lots of slicing and dicing of Portland as seen in the Utah debacle.

 

So the Blazers still don't play defense?

 

Glad this happened. Scoot did this young fan right.

 

Brooke jumping in on the action.

 

a defensive rating of 132.1 last night bumping their season average to 115.8. They now rank 19th. Over about 10 games, their ranking has dropped from 9th to 19th. In terms of a team stat, that's falling off a cliff and hopefully they'll hit bottom soon. It's not entertaining to watch the opponent have a lay-up drill, and the entertaining things about this team are already pretty limited

 

Blazer fans have talked for years about the need for an elite 2-way wing and how difficult it is to find one.

It might be even more difficult to find a true alpha. Since Brandon Roy's last healthy season in 2008, the Blazers have only had one true alpha: Dame. And Roy was a flawed alpha in that he could not accommodate another ball-dominant player in the lineup. Dame has proven he can. And even though it was LMA's team when Dame arrived as a rookie, it was pretty obvious even then that Dame was going to be 'the man'....and we all know that Aldridge couldn't deal with that

I suppose CJ might have been an alpha-lite, as you put it, but he looked a lot more like a beta-blocker to me. He couldn't make teammates better or ignite the team into a more aggressive posture like Dame often did. CJ was the opposite in that the team tended to stand and watch instead of joining the party

and you're right, there are no alphas or wannabe alphas on this roster. Grant might wannabe but he definitely wonteverbe

 

good one to miss!

 

I’m in the “give them some time” camp.
Defense is the team part of the game. Good defense is hard work and it takes chemistry. A lot of chemistry. It also takes experience which this team lacks.
It will come my friend. Just be patient At least I keep telling myself that.

 

Not gonna rip on Jerami too much, he's had a fantastic season. We can't expect Super Grant every contest. The Warriors are sneaky good and can make their opponents look downright silly. Steph & Klay took turns torturing Portland's defense. Jerami looked a bit fatiqued and got caught on the recieving end of excellent Warriors half-court basketball.

 

Jabari Walker was -25 in this game. The Blazers coaching staff had him waaay too far away from the hoop guarding passing lanes. "Are we blitzing? Are we switching? Oh... the Warriors dunked it again. OK, time for offense."

 

It’s kind of coincided with Simons returning. Just saying

 

That would be awesome, but I think Ant or Scoot are far more likely to be a true #1 than Sharpe. Sharpe has all the required physical skills to be a #1 though.