Game Thread GAME# 43: NETS @ BLAZERS - MARCH 23, 2021 - TUESDAY, 7:00 PM, NBCSNW

Well @Natebishop3 and I tried to tell ya


And boy has Cj fallen off a cliff

 

That's not going to be a difference maker, unfortunately.

 

Look... listen... when Nurk gets back we'll have a decent shot at a title but we'll still only be at half strength because we're still missing Zach.

 

Unfortunately, we started playing Playoff caliber teams. End of hope.

 

Dame and CJ absolute dog shit. Jeff green and joe harris are simply better than Portland 3rd best players. They are so loaded it’s incredible what a team. Our GM got us rodney hood. Just bad roster and terrible terrible coach. Dame needs to either take week off to recover because his shooting has been terrible. 2 pts in 4th quater. Ok your knee is hurt take week off cause you look terrible out there. CJ also total shit

 

How many times does Rodney have to show you he shouldn’t be out there Terrance? I don’t care that Nas was out, I would’ve rather played Elleby or Giles. Actually, Claxton could be the only center in the nba that Giles could’ve matched up with physically.

 

The Blazers need to play defense for more than the last 3-4 minutes of a game to get wins. Certainly against a team with James Harden running the offense.
I can give them that the refs were calling it a bit tight and RoCo was in foul trouble all night.

On the positive it seems like they finally figured out they have this new guy named Derrick Jones Jr that can dunk a ball and will break to the basket and score at times if you are willing to pass the ball to him.

 

Oh god. Stotts is going to say, "They were just making their shots and ours weren't falling. We had good shots but..."

 

The way we are playing my prediction is we will be part play-in unless we do something about protecting the paint. Kanter very good in rebounding and scoring but he not the person you need to protecting the rim. But also when have bad premeter defense doesn't help. If I was Olshey I be talking with cleveland about McGee.

 

I figured you were gonna blame the nano-bytes?

 

Difference in the game I thought was that Dame and CJ were able to defended 1:1 by Claxton. Both tried shooting threes over him, and couldn't. And they also couldn't drive past him.

In the playoffs, Claxton is AD, except AD will also destroy you on the other end.

Watching this team is depressing. There is a sense of dread knowing that unless Dame is super human they stand no chance of winning most games. Our point differential and clutch record are a direct result of Dame, but I'd rather just be in less clutch games, by winning more games without having to go through the clutch.

 

To be fair it isn't like stars are exactly lining up to wanting to play in Portland. Our only chance is for Neil to trade for a disgruntled star on a potential rental and he has showed he will never do it. He prefers to see no defense from our backcourt.

 

So why exactly doesn’t Giles play
anymore? Dude Terry has to go, his offense sucks, his defense sucks, and his rotations suck.

 

Blazers should've traded cj for harden. But no they want to stick to being a mediocre team

 

This isn't a joke, if we make it into the play-in, I hope that McGowan fires Olshey and Stotts before our first play-in game. We play the "playoffs" with an interim coach and start the search right then.

 

Especially when they take the majority of the shots but they had 36 tonight that's actually down from the usual amounts.

 

Other than Philadelphia, the Blazers haven't beaten a legitimate playoff team since beating the Los Angeles Lakers all the way back on December 28th, 2020. They're highest quality win is probably beating the 8th place Mavericks twice, who recently blew the Blazers out by 40. This is why I don't buy into the narrative that the Blazers have "overachieved", and don't think their record is impressive.