Game Thread GAME# 69: ROCKETS @ BLAZERS - MAY 10, 2021 - MONDAY, 7:00, NBCSNW

I think people need to stop freaking out over the defense last night. Or the back-to-back against the Jazz and Suns.

The Rockets gave up 140. We put it on cruise control in the second quarter. We were solid defensively. They were banking in 3s. They threw up a shot between two Blazers and over Nurk 3 feet from the hoop that went in when there was a 90% chance it got blocked into the third row. They made a couple of 3s from several feet behind the line. They had nothing to lose, they played loose because they were out of the game early, and they made shots that we were contesting that they aren't going to make on a lot nights. In the last couple of weeks, our defense has been a lot better than earlier in the season, and it was OK last night. Keep everything in context.

As for the Jazz and Suns, it's not the Blazers from our low point of the season playing the Jazz and Suns at their best. It's three teams playing NOW. Look at the rosters. Look at how they've been playing lately. If I were the Jazz and Suns, I'd be worried about playing us. Look at the lineups, the rosters. If you look at the players over the course of their careers, is there a reason we should act like the Jazz and Suns are out of the Blazers' league? Of course not. The Jazz were fantastic over the first half of the season and now have come back down to earth a bit more to where their talent dictates they belong. The Suns had a great stretch in the middle of the season until a couple of weeks ago ... and now they're playing back more where their talent would dictate, losing to the Hawks (who'd just beaten us by nine) by 32 and a LeBron-less Lakers (that we beat) by 13, and giving up 118 points to the Cavaliers. I'd be disappointed if we didn't at least split these games and I wouldn't be surprised if we win them both. We're playing well. We have players who've shown they can play well individually and as a unit. If we get hot now, there's no reason to believe we can't play like the Jazz did early this season and the Suns did in the middle.

 

Well, if you’re going to cherry-pick one game out of the three that I listed, let’s go with the Jazz. And it wasn’t a one-game sample. I simply pointed out that the Rockets recently have been putting up big offensive numbers on the teams they have played. That says something about them. It doesn’t say that the Blazers are a good defensive team. I wasn’t trying to make that assertion because I don’t believe it. But the “OMG, how could the Blazers allow a crappy team like the Rockets to score that much?” narrative is dumb. The Rockets have some good scorers and they have shown that they can score on good teams. They can’t beat them, because their D is awful, but they can score.

 

Also the Bench mob allowed 8 points in the last 90 seconds. That might skew things a bit?

 

I disagree. I enjoy watching our team win even if we don’t win title.

 

I randomly played Words with Friends with Pete once. I was like “Are you THE Pete Pranica?”

 

This was like 10 years ago. I got tired of it though. All I play now is Stone Age.

 

No need to apologize, everybody has an opinion. I’m quite sure somebody on here could find some faults with one of your co-workers. They wouldn’t owe you an apology. Ya, I remember watching Pete back in the day. I joined Blazers Broadcasting spring of ‘99, so I never worked with him, but got to know him over the years. Good guy.

 

Glad to see you made it safely through the night.....

 

Now his sidekick Brevin Knight has much to learn, but yes, Pete is good.

 

The problem is, we won't play the Suns or the Jazz, we will very likely get the Clippers, or maybe the Nuggets

 

He was referring to the upcoming games against Utah and Phoenix. On that note, if we lose both, we very likely won’t be playing the Nuggets or Clippers.

 

They aren't Jordan's Bulls or Wilt's 76ers, either.

I think both of those teams are beatable. We beat the Nuggets with their PG two years ago at their place. The Clippers lost in the semis last year when a lot of people thought they could win it all, and they still have Pandemic P.

I don't get this thing why some of our fans dissect every part of our team and dismiss our chances and then we see these other teams that have their own flaws but we act like they're the Moses/Dr. J Sixers.

 

Great post.

 

which would be a lot more persuasive argument if Portland wasn't 0-9 against top-4 WC seeds so far.