CELTICS @ BLAZERS GAME THREAD - 2.24.2013, Sunday 6:00 PM - KGW

Claver: A reasonably good player who has been heretofore uncomfortable. I'm interested to still if he can maintain his comfort level.

Lillard: Haters gonna hate. Our opponents are designing their whole defensive scheme around stopping Lillard. This sort of thing takes some time to adapt to. I'm sure he'll have a lot less trouble next year, which is really what's important here.

Maynor: Offense continued to flow with him in there. Didn't just run the offense, made Boston have to guard his penetration. Happy to have him, looking forward to when he actually knows the offense.

 

Vic was a +14 for the game. I think he will be our sf back up.

 

Except he's not a SF, he is a stretch 4 without a consistent jumper yet.

 

He can play sf fine. The moment he can consistently hit that jumper, he will be extremely dangerous. His Bball instincts is really impressive. He just seems to always be in the right place at the right time.

 

I couldn't agree more with everything you said other than the SF part.

 

Claver had as much to do with winning that game as any player on our team. His combination of defense, hustle, intelligence, awareness, and nose for the ball are impressive. He is a keeper. Maynor will be too. Leonard will be a player too -- next year.

 

I think he can play SF just fine if he works on his footwork. He is actually fairly athletic but seems to let people blow by him to easily because he can't keep them in front of him. Offensively he has the skill set to play SF but defensively fast SF are going to make him cry until he can figure out how to not trip over himself trying to not let them blow him by.

 

Completely agreed. Maybe he can get away with playing small forward against certain matchups (hard to think of anything specific at the moment TBH) but his spot does look like a small-ball 4.

 

He's like a good change-up pitch to throw the other team off balance.

 

What's with all these euros coming in and frustrating teams? Do they have some school on "how to be a pest in the nba" or something?

 

American players are confused when they see good fundamentals. Most probably can't pronounce it, let alone spell it.

 

The Dagger

 

I know the tankers didn't want to see it, but what a great win for the Blazers. Love when there is a buzz in the RG and last night, if only for one night, the game and the RG had that electric atmosphere. Fun to battle with the Celtic fans too . . .

 

Agreed. I cannot remember another game that had so many of the other teams fans there. Glad they went home disappointed.

To follow up on JFizzleRaider's post earlier, I agree that I do not want to see this team in rebuild mode for the next decade. We have a nice core in DL, LA, Nic and Wesley. We now just need to solve our starting center problem, land a serviceable player with our draft pick this year, and build a bench. Only one team out of thirty is going to win it all. Without a Lebron type player, we have to just hope for them to have an off year and be in contention when it happens.

 

If Claver is a 4, why did Stotts start him when Wes was out?

 

Because Stotts is an idiot? (Not my answer - speaking possibly for others)

I think Claver is a SF. He played SF in the Euro/Spanish Leagues. He can play SG or PF in a pinch though.

 

Claver is a center! Learn the game then post!

 

He is a SF, but in todays NBA SF's and PF's have become somewhat interchangable

 

Claver has handles. He's a point forward. Learn the game.

I just finished watching the recording, Victor was impressive. If he gets to be a better finisher look out.

I liked Maynor's impact. He was cool and obviously knows how to run the pick and roll. It was nice to not have the Nolan Smith sub panic attack.

Noone should ever say anything bad again about Wessy. Ever.

Boston team D was focused on Lillard and did a great job against him.

LMA was pretty effective despite all the fadeaways. If Fez keeps raggin' on him I'm going to start "THE OFFICAL PM YOUR ODEN PENIS PICS TO FEZ HAMMERSTICKS THREAD". I'm still pissed at him for replacing the sideview hot chick avatar with Robert De Niro.

End of transmission.

 

As evidenced by LMA, SGs are the new PFs.