Two things... 1. Travis Outlaw was God awful. He is just so lost on the basketball court and costs this team too much, even when he's shooting well from the field like tonight. 2. Dump it into Greg more.
Sputtering???? They shot 51.3% and 47.1% from 3pt. Paul had 11 ast and 3 to. Too bad we didn't sputter.
Is it just me, or do the Blazers seem bi-polar in the 4th quarter? The either play really well, or baboon-ass ugly!
With LMA & Blake struggling so bad and with Rudy playing very efficient, can somebody please tell me why Rudy didn't get more shots? I didn't get to see the game.
Hard to say. off hand I'd say it was because he was getting a lot of James Posey's attention, and it's not like the whole offense can go through him all night long. Without Brandon, the team needed LaMarcus to step up (along with Greg, Blake, etc.) and it just didn't happen; oh well, move on I guess.
Outlaw was flat out killing me tonight. The blame goes to just about all, but Trout was just ugly out there. Not surprising, NO is still a bit better than us WITH Roy. Without him, they are a very tough team for us to hang with. Whatever, there was going to be a letdown after beating Boston. O well. Get better soon, Brandon!
For three quarters, we had them sputtering Maris. It was 61-61 going into the 4th. We were locking them up pretty good, and Blake was a big part of that. Rudy played well defesively too. They got hot in the 4th (10-16 FG) Paul took over and was a scoring/assisting machine down the stretch.
I'm finding it hard to work up the energy to care about individual performances (or lack thereof) tonight; the team looked half drunk at times on the court, methinks they expended just a little bit too much emotion on the Cs the other night, and minus Brandon this game was going to be tough enough. Looks like we could be in for a rough stretch ahead.
Yep. NO was also a very lucky team tonight, some of those shots West hit tonight were just mind boggling and don't go in 90% of the time. LMA failed to be the leader we needed him to be tonight. Where was Blake, he was invisible out there. Greg got into foul trouble which was CRUCIAL to our success tonight, and just left too many of their shooters open. I am praying we match up with NO in the playoffs. With Roy tonight, we run away with it.
Yup, major emotional letdown. I will be happy if the team can get one of the next two, and not make it 3 Ls in a row. If Roy doesn't play in LAL or against DET, I would be ecstatic with one of three. I don't think either of these last two games represent what this team is without Roy. My guess is they're somewhere in-between. VS the C's we played about as well as could be expected without our best player, and Boston was plainly not at their best. In this game, NO was simply on fire after Chandler got bounced... and well, I hope the team can't play much worse than tonight. A lot riding on that hammy...!
For such a crappy game (I didn't get to watch), The O's game recaps seem pretty positive. I love one of the comments made by someone on Freeman's gamer about the Joel-Chandler thing. "Joel should've thrown a punch, it's Jail Blazer time!" hahaha...
Rollin' out to meet some ladies at 12:34 in the AM. I like your style Ed O. I'm gonna call you next time I'm in Seattle. Tough loss. Oh well. Shit happens.
Dude. I encountered so much drama tonight it makes the S2 Blazers board look like Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. Most recent txt from the best friend of a girl I've been kind of seeing: "U don't even know! This is a problem! The tuna melt was awsome [sic] Thanks" I know that might not portray the drama. But trust me. It's there/here. Haha. Ed O.
Is anyone worried? We are 8th in the West, only ahead of Utah, who isn't healthy yet, and we know they will end up 3-6 probably. I don't know why, but today was the first time all season I was worried. Going through last nights scores and standings, the Western playoff teams just keep winning...
I still think we are going to finish 7th or eighth. Boozer is going to be out a while after his knee surgery, and now Millsap has a nagging knee injury as well. If Millsap goes out for a prolonged period, they will struggle. But, if Roy misses a couple of weeks of the course of the season... we may be out of it. The Lakers will be tough, but Det is a must-win for us.
Actually I think Utah is primed for a meltdown. Boozer is ruining their chemistry and they are just average without Boozer. I'll take the 8th seed, but if we want to make ANY noise in the playoffs we need a higher seed.
I think the moment this game turned was when McMillan called a timeout a few minutes after the Chandler ejection. I believe it was meant to calm the team down, and re-set them, after Chandler was tossed. But the TO calmed them down too much, and the emotional momentum they had was completely stymied. It was the right move if the Blazers had a player to follow through with the stability on the court (i.e., if Brandon Roy had been healthy and on the floor), but without that player, the Blazers were exposed as a relatively ineffective halfcourt team. This game also demonstrated how important it is to make a few more shots from the outside. The hot outside shooting of guys like Posey, Paul, and David West totally opened up the inside. With Travis and Aldridge missing everything from outside led to clogged lanes and packed paint - which compounded the offensive problems. Sure, the Blazers should have played better defense - but you're just not going to beat the Hornets, scoring less than 80.
