Game Thread PLAYOFFS: ROUND 1, GAME 1: THUNDER @ BLAZERS - APRIL 14, 2019, SUNDAY, 12:30 PM, ABC

With the title,

"About Last Night, This Is For You, Jennifer"

On NBA.com. Outstanding!

 

Dude, we had a amazing crowd

 

*edited*

 

I'm not so sure the term "GREAT" is what I'd use.

 

Didn't see many on here talk about Mo and Chief. I think they were VERY active on the defensive end. Helping out Kanter down there. I believe if they can continue that hustle on that side of the court, we are going to win more games.

 

Mo was solid early and Aminu had his moments throughout the game.....but they NEED to be even better because they were outscored 34-12 on the offensive side and that was with George having a miserable shooting night on quite a few open shots as someone showed in a graph.

 

Yeah agree Aminu had great defense as always. That does give us flexibility to make up for Kanter lack of defensive ability. I was however very pleased with Kanters effort level. Often in his career he has been atroucious on defense. Last night I thinl he was closer to average than bad!

 

We got 74 points from 3 guys last night...seems the game plan was to keep Chief and Mo on George all night long and be relentless..worked. They simply don't need to score with this gameplan. Enes offensive rebounds give Dame and CJ the green light to shoot jumpers knowing there's a good chance Enes gets a second possession....If we don't have 6 guys in double figure scoring it shows pretty much on the scoreboard....no 134 pts last night...kept them under 100 which I totally give credit to Chief and Mo for doing..they wore Paul George down....Mo was leaning on his bad shoulder all night and swiping at his shooting arm with force. PG didn't just miss shots he normally makes...he was tired from being chased all 4 qtrs. without a break

 

Were you at the arena?

If not, I wouldnt be so presumptious.

 

@riverman ...I concur that Mo and Aminu did a good job. I just don't feel comfortable relying on George missing the 8 of 11 'open' shots again as show by whomever posted the graph showing types of shots. Now if his shoulder is so bad that no matter if he is open or not, he can't shoot, that is a big bonus for us. I'm just not counting on that.

I more made '3' and Kanter not scoring on that traveling, left-handed bank that started at the 3-point line and who knows what happens. As with most of the games this season between these teams, the gap is very small.

 

Chief also hit clutch FTs.

 

He's up to like 87% this year. He's automatic. Quite an improvement from his career < 75%.

I just jinxed him, didn't I?

 

They got 5 shots each. Not sure what they can do when they don't get the ball.

 

Damn you! Jinxuza1!

 

They give you the ball, defend and rebound...create turnovers which is what they did in my view..nobody complained about Bruce Bowen or Dennis Rodman not getting shots up...you need those guys in the playoffs and both Chief and Mo have gotten double figure scoring when we needed it. Last night we didn't need it nearly as much as them wearing down PG who has had record numbers scoring against us all season....he looked tired after game 1....I like that starting a best of 7...Dame said it all..he showed huge love to them and pointed out the stats aren't showing what they bring to this team..Rodney Hood and Seth Curry should be getting the shots, not Mo or Chief. I understand people want balanced scoring...I'm just really excited about how we won that game one today

 

That doesn't quite fit with what actually happened, however. PG was better in the 4th than in the 1st. So...they exhausted him in the early stages but he got his second wind late?

 

Just the conversation I was having with a long time NBA insider how has or has had multiple relatives in coaching and front office positions around the league.

Dame/CJ took 45 of Portland's 86 shots (52%) and converted on 40% of those shots.

The rest of the team took 41 shots (48%) and converted on 44%. So it's not like the rest of the guys were bricking away so Dame/CJ had to force shots. He completely believes Portland needs to spread it out a bit more with Dame/CJ taking there fair share but not in such a large percentage. He mentioned that even if you get an open shot, how tough it is to hit that shot in a pressure situation when you may not have touched the ball in a shooting situation for 15 minutes of real time. That is a lot to ask.

He really liked how Portland moved the ball in the first quarter but wasn't a fan of the 'Hero/ISO' ball for most of the rest of the game.

Thought Kanter was perhaps the Player of the Game although commented about how the PnR's are different with Kanter vs Nurkic and how that affects what Portland does. Chuckled at how many steps Enes took on his last lay in.