Did you watch the game?? Portland played like crap for 3 1/2 quarters. They were letting the Spurs' bench players drive to the hoop for uncontested layups. The Spurs actually had a 7-point lead at one point late in the second half. It was embarrassing. We pulled it out in the fourth quarter, thanks to Batum clamping down on George Hill and some big plays from Miller and Wallace, but this game was way closer than it should have been.
Or maybe Pop was not going to allow Aldridge to beat him, so he double and tripled him every time and forced our other guys to make plays, like they couldn't do against OKC? It's probably why guys like Nicolas, Wes and Andre were wide open consistently every play down the stretch.
Funny part about some of these ignorant comments is that when Roy and LMA are in at the same time, Roy's whole focus is setting up LMA. Lets see, what else has happened since Roy came back (playing 13 minutes Sunday and 24 minutes Last night) Maybe a new starter who averages over 40 minutes a game? A guy who is playing really well and is putting up big numbers? Could those be REAL factors? I remember Sidney Wicks's rookie season. Petrie was out hurt and Wicks put up big numbers. Some dumb ass fans actually thought the Blazers would have scored 20 more points a game if Petrie would have been in the rotation. The next season it didn't quite work out that way......
I largely blame Andre Miller for not involving LMA last night. Needing a 4th quarter comeback to beat a Spurs team without Duncan, Manu, Parker, or McDyess is not a good sign for the playoffs, IMO. Miller got a lot of praise, be he dominated the ball, the offensive motion was for shit, and he only ended up with 2 assists.
Wait, I though this problem was eliminated from Ripcity Two? Or, is there a new target that the "experts" can now focus their frustrations on? I missed the memo... Also, LMA did have a poor statistical game. I guess I don't see why discussing the reasons for this deserved your dumb post.
The team is 10-7 since his return and have beaten SA twice, Philly, Dallas, Miami, and Orlando in the past 3 weeks, with half of those games on the road. He may not be helping the team much, but it seems like a stretch to say he is hurting the team. Of course, your history re:Roy is well-known, so I won't pretend to think that you've formed your latest anti-Roy meme out of any sort of true analysis. "You never thought" you'd say this? Are you kidding? You've built up one strawman after another since Brandon broke your heart by not standing with the team during the national anthem.
I also think it's safe to say that Wallace's addition, along with the return of Camby, have impacted LMA much more than Roy's 20-some minutes off of the bench.
Yes, I did. I watched it from start to finish last night and again this morning. What I saw (both times) was a come from behind win on the road on the second night of a back-to-back Our best player had his second worst game of the season, and we still won, on the road. I'll take it. It shows up as a W in the win column, and that's all that matters. But then, I'm not a negative Nancy that likes to bitch about every little thing after a win. I prefer to enjoy it when we win. BNM
Both times I watched it. Some people here must have been watching a different game. Anyone who thinks Andre Miller almost cost us the game is a fucktard that doesn't know shit about basketball. Go back and watch the end of the 3rd quarter. Miller came out with 3:36 left in the quarter and the Blazer up 2 (65-63). Without Miller in the game, the Blazers turned the ball over 4 times in the last 3 minutes of the 3rd quarter and got outscored 9-2 by the Spurs, turning a 2 point lead into a 5 point deficit going into the 4th quarter. Roy turned the ball over 3 times on the Blazers last 4 possessions of the 3rd quarter. Miller played the entire 4th quarter. With Miller bringing the ball up, the Blazers cut down on the TOVs (they had 3 in the quarter, one by Rudy, one by Batum and one by Roy - none in the last 7 minutes of the game) outscored the Spurs 33-20 and won going away. BNM
Our record was pretty good before Brandon returned. 10-7 is not earth-shattering. I've also noticed, as someone else pointed out, that we seem to be a little more stagnant offensively when Roy is on the court. And of course, Aldridge is really not the beast he was before Roy came back, though I will agree that Wallace's presence has something to do with that. I'm personally hoping that Roy can start making a bigger contribution. This is hysterical. You must have missed the post where I said Roy looked good in his first game back . . . http://sportstwo.com/threads/179872-Nate-getting-ready-to-start-Roy-in?p=2551766#post2551766 and the one where I said he looked like his old self in the fourth quarter . . . http://sportstwo.com/threads/181119-Is-Roy-back/page2 and the one where I said his return would help us make some noise in the playoffs . . . http://sportstwo.com/threads/178888-DO-NOT-TRADE-ANDRE-MILLER!!!!!!!!?p=2537364#post2537364 I love Brandon Roy, and I'm really disappointed that he's been hit with bad knees. You have taken one statement I made a long time ago and hung onto it like a dog with a bone, burying it in your "backyard" of Blazer memories and digging it up every once in awhile to knaw on it and drool over it. I guess it's fun for you, but it makes no sense to anyone else.
Forget that the team won, let's go back to A: Blaming Nate B: Blaming Roy C: Calling LaMarcus "soft" D: Bitching about stupid stuff because that's what we do.
LMA's backslide also corresponds with the arrival of Wallace. Perhaps LaMarcus has a hard time being on the same team as equally talented players? It seems likely that his personality is such that he would defer to another player of equal caliber, at least from what little we know of his upbringing.
Considering that 4 Spur starters didn't play, Aldridge sucked against scrubs. By several measures, he was the worst Blazer in the game. http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201103280SAS.html click on "advanced box" If you divide efficiency points by minutes, he was by far the worst Blazer in the game. http://espn.go.com/nba/dailyleaders/_/gameId/310328024 Since the Spurs' best player plays at Aldridge's position, and he is debatably our best player, you'd expect him to profit from their injuries the most. Instead, he profited the least. Conclusion: He didn't come to play, fired up.
Maybe he doesn't HAVE to be 25-10 like he was for a while. God forbid he has a few bad games. Some of you act like he's pissing on the flag, molesting little kids and jacking off on the bible.
This is so funny. We lost to the Spurs for like 3 straight years and LA used to put up big #'s! Now we are winning, why do so many people care? We got the W!
