I do not know if it is coincidence or not, but the Blazers went back to starting slow when Blake was in the lineup tonight. The last few games the Blazers had got off to good offensive starts and tonight, they struggled in the first quarter. Secondly I would point out that was Blakes guy, Freddie Jones who ripped us a new one in the first quarter. It was nice to see Rudy break out of his slump, he had a good game tonight. Sergio had a nice game, he played very well. 5 assist 1 turnover, I'll take that ratio any day. Bayless looked like he is starting to hone his PG skills. 6 assist and one turnover. That one play where he fouled a 3 point shooter was pretty bonehead though. You can tell he thought he was fast enough to recover, but is still learning that NBA players can release a shot much faster than he anticipated. But you have to love any time a guy is on the floor and the team is +25 while he is out there. I know +/- can be easily not telling what is going on in the game, but at +25 you are doing a lot of right things. Outlaw looked comfortable tonight, he wasn't rushing anything. He got lost a lot on defense though, that was his man, Novac, that was ripping us from 3 point land. Travis was there on maybe one out of those shots, he has to get better. Last but not least. Greg Oden is getting in better shape, you can see it every game. His quickness and reaction is getting better and better. Now, the question is, how can we get him the ball more? Many times tonight the passes were just behind him, or frustratingly, Batum several times failed to throw him the ball after he reposted. I don't care if it is the 3rd repost, you throw him the damn ball.
Oh and I am also happy that when Sergio bumped chests with Greg, that it didn't crush his whole ribcage in. I was worried for the little guy.
He had a 23 point game. He had a 14 point game. Those are two decent games. He had an 8 or 10 point game. He had a higher +/- than Sergio in the first two games without Blake. He's only played a few games. Sergio has played MANY more games and has probably only had about 3 decent games.
And that 23/3/3 game was way more than decent and way better than anything Sergio has done all year with way more chances. When has Sergio gotten 11 free throws in a game?
Here is a clip of that dunk from youtube <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZsMAAWQoepg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZsMAAWQoepg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
^^^Hey Alex, I must be getting old . . . but I actually had an older version of that poster in your avatar which had (I think) Buck Williams, Drexler and one other Blazer (Kersey, Porter or Uncle Cliffy - I can't remember which one). That was one of my favorite Blazers posters when I was "a kid"; glad to see they did a revision of it. But shit, I'm old!!!
I was wondering if anybody else actually noticed the comment by Mike Barrett that he thought the Clippers would compete for a playoff spot after they got Zbo? Was he serious? He doesn't really believe that does he?
And yet we have beaten the Suns, Rockets, Magic, Heat (twice), Spurs, Hornets, Pistons (twice), and the World Champion Celtics (and we didn't have Roy). Learn the game, then post.
That's such a superstar move. I can't believe how good Roy has become. A "merely good" player pump fakes to get past the first defender at the three point line, attacks the paint and, seeing the help defender, either attempts a pull-up mid-range shot/tear drop shot, or passes it. Roy just elevates and hammers it home over the defender who was in a good challenge position. It's not amazing for Roy, but sometimes I'm freshly blown away by how lucky the Blazers are to have such a good player.
Looking at that it looks like the ball should go flying off his hand. I don't see how he controls it and jams in.
I know that if folks were actually following the league, they would note, that even though this short handed Clippers team has been losing, and had some players throw up some huge numbers against them, they have been pretty competitive in the games they have played, several of them being close even with the short handed squad. You just have to remember that a lot of players in this league have a lot of pride, and some of them, are getting what might be their only shot to make it in the league. That, can provide some amazing level of play from guys you would expect nothing from normally. So when it takes a while to put a team like this down, it doesn't surprise me.
