Game Thread Blazers @ Jazz 10/12/15 Game Thread

So have we gone from one of the best in bounding teams to the very worst?

 

Well, he fouled out of playing time so it's his own damn fault.

 

We were one of the worst last year too.

 

nice work boys

 

Nice. Wins at Utah are always hard to come by. Pretty impressive, especially without Lillard.

 

Back to being a 500 ballclub! Go Blazers!

 

DON'T SLEEP ON THE TRAIL BLAZERS.

just might get burned.

 

Won on the road without Dame.

 

8 blocked shots tonight..good to see...the Jazz only blocked 4

 

The standings.

http://espn.go.com/nba/standings

 

Really? I always felt Stotts was great play calling on the inbounds and we executed well. Maybe the only thing I'll miss about Batum. But if there are stats to back up your stance I stand corrected

 

Think I like Harkless better than Aminu at the SF position.

 

Yes.

 

Harkless looks like he is ready to make his 4th season a bust out season. Agree, he could take the starting SF job away from Aminu.
Olshey stole Harkless for a protected 2020 second round pick.

 

Random thoughts on our players tonight...

CJ has no conscience. 6/21 and he would have kept shooting if he didn't get that flagrant two. He seems to get tunnel vision and he's definitely not the most comfortable playing the point, but for 12 minutes a night I think I'd be fine with it. On a team like ours without a lot of creators anyways, I think it's fine for him to get his shots.

Harkless's statline is worse than his first game but I thought he played better this game. More in control on offense, not trying to do too much. He took better (open) shots, he just missed most of them. Definitely a prototypical 3&D player as long as he can keep hitting the three.

Aminu is talented but sometimes it just looks like he's making a bunch of moves that get nowhere. He's obviously being given a lot of freedom but I'm not sure that will be his forte. Defense is impeccable though, really stellar stuff.

Vonleh makes some moves that just make you go WOW, but he never finishes the play. What gives? He also has a tendency to get blocked....a lot. Not sure if anyone else has noticed this but Vonleh gets blocked a ton and it doesn't make that much sense consider how long he is. Sure he's not a jumper but it seems like every time he goes up for a play, another player is right there to swat his shot. He's super active on the offensive boards though, so he's got that going for him.

Leonard was clearly the best player on the Blazers tonight. He was also the best player on the floor. His early threes set the tempo for the game and pretty much changed the entire Jazz defense. We did see the Jazz (and presumably what a lot of other teams will do) go small and stick a small on Leonard. He didn't get as many open looks after that. Meyers tried posting up a few times but they never got him the ball, partially because he's awful at sealing his man and partially because no one on the team seems to be capable of making a simple entry pass (Dame and ironically, Meyers seem to be the only ones capable). He just gave up after a few times. He did manage to crash the offensive glass when the Jazz went small however, which is good for his productivity. 5/6 from the FT line and all of them pretty much generated from crashing the offensive glass.

Leonard is so clearly talented though, it's really surprising Stotts doesn't feature him in a lot more sets. Most of his shots seem to be trailing threes and the like. He's such a gifted passer it's a wonder why they don't run a few more plays that give him an opportunity to make decisions on the fly. Also, why do they never run the simple pick and pop that they ran thousands of time with LMA? Maybe Dame and Meyers will do it more when Dame comes back, but it makes too much sense for them not to run this play when it's so simple and ingrained in the Blazers offense.

 

I have no stats (they aren't kept) but I felt like the second half of last year saw several botched inbounds passes to end games.

 

Favors has never taken that next step.

He's a solid starter but extremely mediocre. A poor man's Al Horford.

 

CJ's idiotic cheap shot could easily have ended a career.

I hope it was an anomaly.