We got the lead in the second quarter with Johnson, Matthews, Batum, Aldridge, and Camby. We got the lead with amazing defense and pushing the ball. The starters tonight are the ones who slowed the ball down. They were the ones who went ice cold in the second half. I don't think it's Nate who slows our pace. I think it's Roy and Miller. Roy never pushes the ball. He never has. We were kicking the crap out of OKC when we ran on them. Too bad the starters don't do that.
Roy should try not sleepwalking throughout the whole game and maybe try and break a sweat. I was watching him all night and there's barely any movement out of him on both sides of the ball.
I just don't think we can blame Nate for this. The first thing he talked about going into the 4th quarter was pushing the ball again and running. We've talked about this before, but I really think Roy is in control of the offense out there.
We had the ball last in regulation time with 8 seconds and Roy took a shitty shot. No excuse for taking a forced 3 pt shot in that situation. Brandon milked the clock and never got closer to the basket. He like everyone else needs to learn from stupid plays. Don't do it again.
The buck stops with Nate. The offense was isolations and Andre Miller jumpers at the end of regulation and into OT. Where's the pick and roll? Baseline screens?
Looked like we had the right gameplan tonight, but some terrible execution down the stretch. Our lack of depth may have caused fatigue for players like Batum, and obviously limited out options by not having a guy like Rudy to put on the floor when we were down 3. We were very close to putting them away a couple times, but didn't put our foots on their throats. It's a long season and we'll grow from this loss.
I don't buy it. The only thing you could fault him for was not putting in the second unit when the starters were stinking it up.
Same with OKC. They ran two plays. Westbrook just outworked everyone on the offensive boards. I don't get any coaches in OT. Most refuse to substitute until someone fouls out. Even when their players can't breath.
As long as Roy continues to look like this the Blazers have problems. It's almost like he hates the offense the team is running. I haven't seen a player continually half-ass his way around and setting screens like Roy did tonight. I'm pretty sure Miller noticed and said fuck this I'll have to create the offense.
Coaches want to win/lose with their best players on the floor and their best player making reads/decisions. It makes tons of sense to me, despite not working tonight.
We don't have any sort of offensive identity right now. I think that's a reflection on Nate. The fact that he has to continually search for the "hot hand" to bail the team out isn't effective coaching, it's grasping at straws.
OKC has better one-on-one players than us. I'm sure Nate would be a great coach for them. Unfortunately we have guys like Andre and LMA that instead of Westbrook and Durant.
Might be a bit extreme, but I certainly would put the blame of tonight's loss on Roy over Nate. Having said that, Roy demands a ton of attention of the opposing teams best defender, that even on nights like tonight we're better with him than without him in my opinion.
Roy is one of the top 1:1 players in the league. He made a couple bad reads and we paid for it in a close loss. He makes one better read and we win the game. I like my chances on him taking care of the ball better and getting better shots down the road, but obviously we all wish it happened tonight.
Well they still played like shit when they went one on one. If it wasn't for the long rebounds from shooting bricks, their fans would be pissed like we are. They did not play well in OT. We just sucked.
You might want to check the box score. Andre Miller - 16 points, 11 assists LaMarcus Aldridge - 22 points, 4 boards It's not like those guys put up bad numbers offensively. Hell, Aldridge kept us in it during the first quarter. It was rebounding that cost us this game. Period. That's not on Nate.
The team was struggling on offense and at no point did Roy try and takeover. Every offense stalls at some point yet the good teams in the league have the one guy that can bail them out and keep them rolling. Roy wanted no part of that tonight. 6 secs left in the shot clock and he'll be looking to pass when there's only 1 guy on him.
