I always like to step back and take in the bigger picture, the whole enchilada. As I've made quite clear countless times, I'm against censorship of any kind. Knowledge is power, and one only weakens oneself when they limit the information they receive. I'm stubbornly American in that way, as opposed to being American Lite.
That Bayless was not the future PG guy was obvious to most over a year ago, while both Steve and Sergio were outplaying him (at the point). But it's likely the Clips wanted no part of Miller in place of Steve. They've been there, done that, and got nowhere with Miller. I'm pretty sure that's the only reason we traded Steve rather than Miller, and if that's so I support that move. With Steve AND Camby, we'd be the favorite to win this series, but without Camby we'd have no hope at all.
There's a reason they don't include preseason stats in a player's yearly totals. It's because they're exhibition games! They don't count. The players know this. The coaches know this. The fans, with you being an exception, know this. How exhibition games should play into our playoff discussion is beyond me. And bringing censorship and patriotism into the mix?
Since the issue is comparing Blake's effectiveness against Nash to Miller's effectiveness against Nash, and Steve and Andre were battling for the starter position and their futures with the team during pre-season, it counts plenty. Also, if you remember, they were pretty intense games, with both sides going full bore to win.
The last preseason game is usually played as if a regular season game. Final cuts have already been made and the regular rotation players are the only ones who play. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/teams/schedule?team=por&year=2010&season=1
To everyone who says Andre Miller has never left the first round and isn't a winner. Neither has Grant Hill. Yes, he's been injured most of his career and yes, his role is that of a role player and yes, he did torch us last game but Andre Miller is just as capable of torching the Suns and leading this TEAM to the next round. Blowouts mean nothing. The Suns blew out the slow, half-court Spurs once. But who went on to win that series and eventually, the championship?
Winning a road game and thus taking home court advantage was huge. The score of game 2 will not matter unless the series is lost in 7 games. Meaning, the Blazers have to win their home games.
