Game Thread PLAYOFFS: ROUND 1, GAME 5: BLAZERS @ LAKERS 8/29/2020 - SATURDAY 6PM! TNT & NBCSNW

Sadly, he is misplace on the bench because he has struggled to stay healthy.

 

Will that title get him a raise mowing lawns?

 

It’s an honorable trade:

 

Did you watch the 2018 WCF? Houston lost Game 3 by 41 and won Game 4 by 3.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201805200GSW.html

 

The emergence of Trent may be the biggest takeaway of the bubble. Dame was brilliant, so glad to see Nurk back, and Melo completely has me won over. Tonight’s effort by CJ may have swayed me to wanting to keep him....but Gary Trent, Jr. was the bubble-maker!

 

instead, give him three years! Two with a team option for a third; 7 mil per gives him another $21mil to win a ring

 

You could've just said 'Yes, we're going to overpay'.

Anything more than ~$3M is an overpay

 

Like i said. You know your trivia.
A seven game series is all about adjustments. In this series the Blazers came out ready to play and socked the Lakers in the mouth. They used a mix of things that they had been using throughout the first 8 games and the play in game.
The Lakers also seemed to be brushing off a little rust. They had not been playing with that kind of intensity.
In game two not only had the Blazers lost Zach Collins (Who a bunch in here were ragging on even though he had been playing on a bad foot since the Clippers game) but the Lakers made some key adjustments. They moved the trap further out on Dame and they started a move that i'm sure you noticed. They started kicking the bounce pass. We watched more "Kicked Ball" calls in 4 games then we have seen all season. The kick was not getting them possession but it was disrupting the flow. Then the Blazers from the side out would go back to trying to set up or feeding Melo. Then there was the spread and front denying Nurk and Whiteside the ball. The Lakers moved Caruso onto Lillard. KCP has the starting position but time and time again Caruso was the guy on Lillard. Again Vogel used Caruso on CJ in game 5. The Blazers simply were out matched. Energy wins on defense. By this series the Blazers had used that defensive energy to just get there.
The Blazers had little they could change on much because they were with essentially 10 players and four of them are G league players. There was a post in the Game thread that said " Can you imagine Mario, Hoard, and Simmons on the court in a Close out game"? Well there you have it. The Blazers couldn't even suit up their fourth G league guy in Gabriel.

Lets not even get into what the Blazers couldn't do on defense to stop the Lakers. If that isn't obvious to you i don't know what to tell you. Bottom line- You have to stop one of either Davis or James and the Blazers didn't have a player on their roster that could do that. The Lakers could rest either or both and stay in the game with their depth. Then they could insert Lebron and Davis and the switch was flipped! Not to mention as usual the Blazers could not breathe on either one of them with fouling.

Your Trivia knowledge is unparalleled in this forum. You can pull a game or series that fits your narrative as well as anyone. But facts remain and in the end the crazy thing that happens doesn't usually happen. We watch the game for those anomalies yes. The game is still the game and the best team usually wins in a 7 game series. Please don't quote the 4 times a #8 beat a #1. I was around for those also.

I found the quote-

Even you must know the Blazers were outmatched. This was in the second quarter of a "Close Out" game.