I think Portland ought to play LMA on Gasol & Lopez on Zack. I also like the idea of going ultra big and playing Meyers at SF against Green. Let Batum take Conley & Dame take Lee. I think those matchups would tend to favor Portland in the long run.
I voted Griz in 6, bc they typically have done very well against us, and we've done so shitty the last four games. Also, I just don't feel Damian has his consistency back from when he took a nose dive when his shoes came out. Put that together with our injuries...and well....Griz in 6. i really hope we win, but..........................
I like our chances more being the underdog and starting on the road. Come out strong and steal game 1, then steal game 2 like in Houston!
Pick and Roll defense has to magically improve for us to win this series. We seem to be (and that might only be because we see it night in and night out - unlike other teams) one of the worst teams in the league at defending it and that is MEM's bread and butter.
Here are my "KEYS TO THE SERIES" 1.) Aldridge must be the best player on the court every game 2.) Dame must regain that outside shot. At least enough for the defense to overplay it. 3.) Batum must be the best SF in the series. He needs to shoot greater than 43% from the field and over 38% from 3. 4.) Kaman must be aggressive in the post. 5.) Leonard needs to always shoot when he is wide open. 6.) Afflalo must be the Afflalo of Orlando 7.) CJ must play at the level he was playing in the last 5 games 8.) We need another 3 point shooter other than Afflalo, Dame, and Batum that can hit consistently. 9.) Protect the fucking ball! No lazy ass passes 10.) Stott's must be 100% aware when to bring in his starters if the game momentum changes slightly.
I think Stotts should look at how the Clippers defended us. The big man must jump out and immediately trap. Their PF and Center aren't fast, so we could definitely recover if they roll.
I think Stotts has lulled the competition into complacency so we'll be a trap matchup for the Grizz. They'll think it's a walk over and we'll come out and surprise everyone. We excell at being the underdog and tend to disappoint when we're favored. All this bodes well for us and the Grizz have not had much playoff success over the years even with ZBo and Gasol. My X factor is Rolo. He needs to have the series of his career and rebound. Seems like he's had 1 rebound in the last two games.
The problem I foresee with that is if Green is hot from 3 pt range. Usually he is not but against us last time he was 5-7. Meyers was not guarding him that game, but none the less he has not shown that he is adept at covering 3 point shooters.
I agree with this as well. Also, green is a slasher and I worry that Leonard would get into foul trouble to boot.
Yes, Rolo has to show up. Dame and LMA are great but (on paper - and probably in practice lately) Gasol has the biggest advantage over his counterpart. Rolo needs to minimize that.
I think if you look at the match ups it may be easier to see what we need to win the series: Lopez vs Gasol - I dont think we need to (nor can we) "shut Gasol down" but I think if we can keep Gasol's games average and not dominant that could be huge for us. On the other side of things Rolo being able to knock down a few jumpers especially early could really change things for us Aldridge vs Randolph - I dont think we need LMA to dominate although sure it would be nice and obviously game changing. And I dont think points are as important as rebounds. I want to see LMA have those 16, 17, 18 round type of games because I think that means he is keeping Zach off of the offense boards and eliminating those easy buckets he gets. Being conscious and aware of boxing out would do wonders for us in this series. Batum vs Allen - If Batum can match Allens defensive intensity and just be a factor offensively (like making those timely 3's that make us deadly offensively) then that wins this match up for us. The one thing to be aware of with Allen is not letting him leak for easy lay ups. He isnt going to kill us offensively in any other way so we have to aware of this. Afflalo vs Lee - This could be interesting. Lee seems to kills us quite a bit. Afflalo (or whoever is guarding him) is not going to be able to help off of him. We cant afford to give him wide open 3's. On the offensive end we just need him to be aggressive but not overshoot Lillard vs Conley - I think breaking even here could go a long way and winning it could be huge. More importantly as mentioned we need to not get burned on the pick n roll. And I think that Lillard starting by taking it to the hole first and then shooting the 3 later when things have opened up will help our whole team more than the opposite. Bench - I would be happy with keeping Green in check and not giving them a big lead. Early season Kaman would be a game changer but I would be happy with smart Kaman. Coaches - Stotts needs to very careful with his rotations and time outs. As others have mentioned is will be very very hard to do our normal come back from double digits routine against this team. Overall the theme I see here is if we can prevent Gasol and Conley from having great games and keep Randolph off the offensive boards I like the chances of Aldridge or Lillard having a huge game which could be enough for us to steal a game on the road.
My No. 1 biggest fear going into this series, right there. It would be nice to try and trap the ball-handler, force a few turnovers, and take our chances with Jeff Green, Vince Carter, and Courtney Lee rather than let Z-Bo, Conley, and Gasol run wild on the pick and roll. All I know is, if Stotts doesn't adapt at all in this series and we don't make it out, he needs to be put on the hot seat. Great coaches make adjustments.
