Game Thread GAME# 45: WIZARDS @ BLAZERS - JANUARY 24, 2015 - SATURDAY, 7:00 PM (PST), NBATV & CSNNW

Don't have depth??? Have you paid attention? Aldridge has missed 7 or 8 games. Batum has missed 7 games. Joel has missed about that many at least. And Lopez has missed, what, 20 games? AND WE ARE STILL 32-13, 4th best record in the entire NBA! We have survived those injuries because of our depth. Crabbe, Barton, Wright, Freeland (before he got hurt), Robinson, Kaman, and Leonard have all had to start and we've continued to win games at a good clip. We are very deep.

 

Mey

yep, he played a really good game, great win!

 

In previous years there were other teams that easily blew out teams all regular season by double digits. Dallas and Phoenix years ago were the talk of the town, winning by double digits and having 60+ wins. How did they do in the playoffs?

I'm not saying Golden State won't be successful because they have stellar defense, but winning by double digits isn't the reason why a team will have success in the playoffs. It's having a "go to guy", great defense and excellent rebounding. Our team is top 5 in all of those categories. I like our chances

 

The point is we are expending a large amount of energy trying to pull EVERY game out. Like we did last year. How did we fair in the end?

 

I would say there is no point in making a deal then...

I would say that we could be better back there.

 

About the same as OKC and MIA. We ran into a buzzsaw. We wouldn't have beat SAS last spring if all 5 of our starters had taken the entire month of April off to rest for the playoffs.

BNM

 

Better than GS, Houston, Memphis and Dallas

 

Would GSW be blowing teams out if they were missing 40% of their starting line up? Who knows, they have had at least 4 starters on the floor in every game this season. They have enjoyed the kind of health the Blazers enjoyed at the start of last season. GSW has lost a total of 14 starter-games (13 for Bogut and 1 for Klay - a 12-point loss to PHO) due to injury this season. The Blazers, so far have lost 43 starter-games due to injury.

And, in spite of our injuries, the team has more blowouts than you seem to give them credit for. Over half of our wins (17 or 32) have come by double digits. With all 5 starters in the line up, we are 15-6 with 8 double digit wins. With all the starters healthy, we've only had one game that was decided by a single possession (2-point win in DEN). As odd as it seems, given all the injuries, we've actually only had 3 games all season decided by 3 points (single possession) or less. Of course, that's misleading because games like the 3OT win over SAS actually ended up being a 10-point win (in a game where both teams were missing two starters).

Given the fact that we've been missing at least 1 starter in over half of our games (24 of 45 games) and two starters in 8 games, we're actually doing amazingly well.

Injuries happen and it's part of the game. Sure, it would be nice to add another quality veteran to our bench, especially someone who can score (Kevin Martin), but there isn't a team in the league deep enough to weather the injuries we've had and fare any better. Heck, at this point, OKC has missed fewer starter-games due to injury (37) than the Blazers (43), but they are barely .500 (22-21) and yet here we are 9 games ahead of them in the standings at 32-13. Oh sure, losing Durant and Westbrook is more significant than losing Lopez and Aldridge (or Batum), but we keep on winning while they've struggled just to get to .500.

BNM