It didn't help that Dallas zoned the hell out of him. Didn't help that our entire team was dismale from the perimeter. It didn't help that our defense couldn't buy a defensive rebound, but if this is truly Aldridge's team, these are moments he needs to prove it. Aldridge needs to take over and will the shots in. Figure out ways to force contact and force the refs to call fouls. Hoe in the hell does he only average 2-4 foul shots a game?!??!?!?! This isn't the regular season. This is the post season man! The time when bigs are sent to the line and the outside becomes hard to score. This is the time we need our bigs to step up and will a win! Come on LA still waiting for that allstar performance. The one that will be at the level of Roy's 4th in game 4.
He's running on fumes, man. 81 games in the reg season, with 40+mpg for much of it, and 43+ mpg in the playoffs battling against guys that significantly outweigh him.
Mags, I do enjoy your posts, so nothing personal, but are you friggen nuts? He was getting contact on almost every shot, dragging two and three guys around with him and getting hit with everything except a chainsaw. The refs should have made more calls. He should have spent time at the line. Chandler and Dirk should have both fouled out if the game had been called evenly. So when the guy trys to keep from being mauled for a few mins and open the inside up by hitting from the outside, meh, I dont hold it aginst him. He works his ass off.
Didn't this become his team though? These are moments when your star player, "Go to Guy" take over. Makes it his mission to will you past this series. When times are tough, he is the one that carriers your team, even if you are running on fumes. This was why I fell in love with Roy. Even when times were tough, he would usually never give up. Now that Roy really can't match his health with his heart; Aldridge needs to be the man. I really hope Aldridge comes in this series mentally. We need him
Agree with Mr. Jones here...I don't think he played "soft", and he was bodied and hammered going inside. What I would like for him to do is forget that he can attempt a turnaround, fadeaway 18-footer. He did a decent job of that through the last few months, but I've seen a few rear their ugly collective heads this series.
Yes I am nuts, and I am just a HUGE Aldridge fan. He is and will be my favorite Blazer. Maybe I am harping on him because I demand more.
Average minutes have been Aldridge 43.0, Nowitzki 38.6. No big difference, yet Nowitzki isn't complaining. PERs are Aldridge 19.9, Nowitzki 23.2. Even when Aldridge isn't tired, he doesn't do much in the clutch last minute. He's no Roy. Why wasn't Aldridge tired in the last playoffs? Why wasn't Camby hurting? Should I mention Juwan--no, I won't.
You realize that's just gametime, right? Including TO's and other stoppages the difference is probably closer to 8-10 minutes per game which can add up. Add that LMA had to guard opposing centers most of the year and played eight more games than Dirk (comes out to over 700 more minutes over the course of the season). There is a reason that upper echelon teams try to watch minutes during the regular season and Aldridge's play as of late is great example of when that doesn't happen.
Aldridge should be more spry. He was born on Nowitzki's 7th birthday. Also, does Nowitzki play in any international events? Aldridge rests. Also, Nowitzki routinely goes beyond the first round, so there's some more wear and tear while Aldridge rests.
Yes, I think he played soft, and I'm a big LA fan. I found myself yelling repeatedly, "Would you take a freak'n shot going TOWARD the hoop instead of fading every damned time? I want the Jan-March LaMarcus back. Go Blazers
Can we all agree DIRK is soft? And the ref's are out to protect his fragile body? Sheesh If LMA got half the calls he did this series would be tied.
Maybe if LA would go at Dirk instead of fading away all the time, he might get some calls. I'm sorry, but the way LA has made Dirk look like an all-NBA defender in this series is kinda pissing me off.
The Mavs were packing it in. Turnovers were happening right and left when LaMarcus tried to turn into the key or when the pass into the post was soft. He had very little room to work in the 4th. In the 1st half, he looked a little soft, but it seemed like the Blazers were intent to get Wallace going early and then getting Roy going too. Maybe that was a coaching decision, maybe not. This game was lost in the 4th when nobody could sink a shot and the key was just a sea of Mavs defenders. Now on defense, I thought that the Blazers, LMA included, did a piss poor job of keeping Chandler off of the offensive boards.
LMA is defending Dirk for much of the game. Dirk is defending in either a zone, or is man-up on Marcus Camby or Chris Johnson.
I also don't think LA is soft, I just think we don't have another physical big threat nor balanced and effective outside shooting to keep them from sliding inside and double and triple teaming him. Camby has an effectiveness as a finesse center, but when Portland is on offense, Aldridge is getting defended against Chandler or Haywood who may not be the best in the world but they are physically strong centers and on the inside Camby does not provide any relief to that because he is not a scoring threat. I think Aldridge muscles it for so long and then little by little starts working his way out toward shooting further and further away from the paint. I think this series, which I am still of the strong belief we can win is showing our weaknesses as a team quite clearly. We need a big strong center next to Aldridge, one that other teams players are going to fear going inside on, not just because they might get their shot blocked but because they might get slammed to the floor. One that has to be checked on both sides of the floor. The playoffs shows us that the game slows down quite a bit and we see a lot more half court sets. In game five we were pounding it inside early on I am assuming with the plan that we break them down and then start balancing that with outside scoring, the problem is we don't have consistent outside scoring threats. My question is no matter how far we go into the playoffs, what do we need to look for before next season to continue our growth and will Oden be able to be part of that. In addition I think Miller has had the most consistent series of everyone to this point.
I'll also point out that Nowitzki, who averaged 6 FTA in the regular season, is at 10.5 for this series, while LMA, who averaged 5.5 FA in the regular season is at 4.0 for the series. Yet LMA has more inside points and attempts. Yeah, he's playing soft.
In the second half, Aldridge mostly gave up on going into the post. They've effectively shut him down. He doesn't get alley oops anymore. Hats off to Dallas but Aldridge has got to punch back on Thursday.
