Game Thread GAME# 44: BLAZERS @ NUGGETS - JANUARY 13, 2019 - SUNDAY, 5:00 PM, NBCSNW

I actually said that as they were lining up. 5 Players that can all hit from 3.

 

I was watching tonight and i started to see Nurk try shots that Jokic was trying and making. Seems like he was forcing and trying to show he could make those shots also. It's not Nurk's game. Jokic won that battle tonight.
Nurk has had the best of him at times. So it was bound to happen. Got to admit Jokic is a very good player.

 

Damnit.

 

That is true to a point. But i watched a few stretches where they had some good defense and just did not convert on offense. It does happen. Blazers could have won that game.

 

Totally agree with that. Denver was the better team tonight on their court.

 

We gotta play smarter. These games are decided by 1 or 2 points. CJ took a number of bad shots. Nurk settled for bad shots. We resorted to Dame hero ball down the stretch. We left a three point shooter wide open at one key point etc.

 

op98hib

 

Honestly though those Nuggets uni's were really really bad.

 

So I guess my background in minor college and HS is a coaches main job during a game is 3 things. Lineups, Playcalling, and communication.
Line ups because Matchups are one of the biggest factors of winning or losing a game.
I think Stotts kind of sucks at managing minutes, sticking with the hot hand, making the most out of mismatches.

Playcalling because you occasionally gotta just have good x’s and o’s, you gotta recognize what the other team is doing and take advantage of it. I dont think he calls a lot of plays, and sometimes I think his book of tricks is too small, but he does occasionally get the team to execute some nice things. Tonight for instance the play to start the game, was gorgeous.

Communication is because they need to be constantly seeing things that a player my not see with 9 other bodies on the court a ball and refs and feeding that info to the players. I think Stotts and his assistants are pretty good at this, do they fail once in a while yeah.

Overall Stotts is like an average to maybe slightly above average in terms of NBA coaches, but I dont think he’s the guy who will take them to a championship, Id love if he proved me wrong though.

I have a hard time with Stotts because sometimes the whole team looks in sync and moves the ball and clamps down on defense and they look like a wrecking ball. In tight games like tonight the “little” mistakes are amplified a lot though and that is when it can be frustrating to not have a very top notch NBA coach.

Every team goes through this though, I dont care what coach you have, people second guess Pop all the time and I bet he would tell you he’s screwed up a bunch. Not comparing Stotts and Pop, just saying that even the best of the best make mistakes.

I feel like overall there were mistakes tonight on both sides of the ball, it was an even competitive game and one team obviously had to lose. Say the Blazers win it, there would be guys in Denver having the same conversation about their coaches decision.

I would love to see what the Blazers looked like with another coach, I think that would tell us A LOT about the actual roster.

 

Yes I probably could name a lot other things that cause a game but some you might get hurt feelings. I name one Dame 2-10 from the 3 and I know your coming back and he score 26 points but the problem with that Curry score 24 points. So I give them a little excuse with the air big deal.

 

So Dame back to his normal 3point Shooting??

 

Yeah Jokic is damn good. I can still see Nurk maybe possibly getting that good, not in the same way of course, but that good. Nurk is more mobile & active. Nurks defense is superb. He just needs to get more smooth & steady offensively. We need to keep working on ways to use him offensively. He needs to keep working on his FT till he gets it above 80% if that is possible.

I think the way to play Jokic is to force him to score over and over. Don't double team unless he backs down very close to the basket. Make him score and use energy.

 

To me there some positive in this game. Only 9 turnovers and 25 assist. Layman just just might get confidence by stringing some good games together and Zach starting shoot the ball better. Then bench actually shot the ball well for 35 points and now there starting get together the last 4 games. So it not all bad. We loose by 3 tonight to the number 1 team and we lost by 2 by the number 3 in OKC. We are really close but we have to do better with the little things. That by the players and the coach. Bottom line little things matters from either winning the game or losing the game.

 

IMO, how good Stotts is is dependent on his role.

Lotto team trying to develop? Good coach.
Good team trying to contend? Bad coach.

 

He certainly wasnt good with those bad teams before the Blazers. I agree with you. My post was just a really long winded way of saying what my experience was and how that played into my opinion of Stotts. Im sure your experiences are different than mine.

 

aminu on jokic was just doing my fuckin head in.

 

Ughhhh

 

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