OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dude your sig is the BEST!!!!!!! LMFAO omg i cant stop laughing i love that picture
Really? This is a team that has done so much with 13 minutes of Greg Oden since he was selected more than a year ago, playing without another starter... This team is far from lucky. The rest of the NBA is. For now.
We arne't that lucky... I mean we lost to Utah where we could have won it... Some people say we could easily be 0-5, but we also could have been 3-2 (thats hawt).. We are better than I thought right now, even some ppl are panicking... As long as Oden can stay healthy and give us 10pts and 9rebounds and 1.5 blocks and we can have Greg/Joel in at all times, I think that makes us much better and I can def. see us making the playoffs. we are getting better already as the season goes on... and are an upper echelon (sp?) team at home in the NBA, imo.
I disagree. It wasn't just that shot. He hit the shot before it as well. He assisted on the Prz dunk with a minute and a half which tied the game. He had a key rebound off a McGrady miss. He was pretty amazing in OT. I would have liked him to distribute a little more throughout the game. Brandon's done such a wonderful job given who he's been matched up with this season, the carousel of teammates he's played with, and while given more PG duties than ever.
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you know what sucks? I tracked the OT in yahoo, who said we lost. I went to bed pretty unhappy with my 1-4 Blazers. Then a student in one of my classes said we won! Incredible. Go Blazers! BTW, 2-3 is a lot better than 1-4
roy more than redeemed himself for his poor game with those shots, finished with 17/7/5, not bad at all.
I have to agree. It's great having a player who wants the ball to close out games(Brandon, where were you in 2000???). But the closing of the game was putrid. We had no business going to overtime and nearly losing that game. Going to a 4 corner set offense and letting Brandon play one-on-one, worked last year when he had Outlaw and Aldridge as his only two alternative outlets and the league was still getting to know Brandon Roy. But Aldridge is a much more versatile scorer this year and Rudy can nearly do everything Roy can. They both have hit big shots before and can be trusted. Both players had matchup advantages closing out the game. I would have liked to see us working through LaMarcus in the post, or have Rudy run around off screens and such. That would have put us in a better position to rebound as well. I mean, I hate us mimicking LA. You know LA, right? Play disciplined Triangle until the last 3 minutes of a game, then junk the offense altogether and watch Kobe play 4(counting the refs) on 5 to close out the game. I've been trying to watch Rudy/Roy body language toward each other this year. Brandon didnt really go out of his way gushing over Rudy's arrival in the off-season. He was complimentary toward Bayless as a contrast. There might be some friction, which sucks. I think they could potentially be a great tandem. Ideally, I'd like to see whoever has the better matchup do the creating, and that may be Rudy this season while the league figures him out. Roy is the better penetrator, no doubt, but Rudy reacts faster than Brandon which might make him a more ideal facilitator.
Great post. Aldridge had been abusing everybody Houston threw at him all night to the tune of 27 points. Fernandez was being guarded by a second year 5'11 pg, and was clearly on fire while. And Roy decides the best option in the fourth quarter is to go one-on-one with Ron Artest? Ugh. We'll all remember this as a legendary Roy ending. Which is great, because we won. I just hope Roy doesn't plan on doing this every night. Aldridge and Fernandez were unstoppable last night, and we did the Rockets a favor by mostly ignoring them. This isn't the team anymore where Roy has to take every big shot in the fourth.
Yep, Brandon did his best to shoot us OUT of the game in the 4th. It was not his finest play. He partially redeemed himself with the 2 game winners. As for Aldridge, he had an excellent game, but was crap from the line. If we had posted Aldridge late in the 4th, Houston would have fouled and made him earn those points at the line.
Not to get off topic, but from some of your other posts I know you'd like to see some trial runs of a Rudy/Roy/Batum with Joel and Aldridge lineup. I missed the first half, but I did see them run together around the 9 minute mark of the 4th. It lasted about 2 minutes before Batum picked up his 5th foul and Nate had to pull him so he could save him down the stretch It wasn't a very productive 2 minutes, but it's a start. By the way, from my point of view, another impressive game for Batum. In particular, the steal he caused that resulted in a fastbreak layin after a feed from Blake. Those are the easy, quick hitting scores we are not used to getting. And another time, when McGrady had him on a clearout wing and was sizing Batum up for the dribble drive. He danced a little then thought better and passed off. Beautiful!
Yeah, Batum picks up easy buckets better than anybody on this team. He's tough, he likes rebounding and defending, and he doesn't hold the ball much--there's really not much to hate about this guy. That's definitely the lineup I want to see more of, preferably even starting. He's a better fit with the Rudy and Roy because he doesn't hold the ball like Outlaw, he's a more consistent offensive rebounder, and he actually stands a chance at guarding the other team's point guard. He gets his without ever having a play run for him. Outlaw is extremely useful when the play breaks down and you just need somebody who can rise up above everybody else and take a contested jumper. Roy and Rudy are just as good at getting their own shot, so he's kind of redundant. The Roy/Rudy/Batum lineup didn't look that great last night, mostly because Roy wasn't really playing team ball through much of it. I can't remember another game where I was so frustrated with him. He's usually so much smarter about playing the team game. Hopefully he just decided to go Young Kobe Bryant last night to shake himself out of the funk he's been in.
Yeah, you may be right. But if he's going to be a Big Three-type big man who is going to win a championship for you, he needs that experience. We can't be afraid to go to him down the stretch because of free throws.
And that wasn't even Batum's fault. Yao ran into Batum in the key. That was unfortunate. I don't believe we would have even gone into overtime if that foul was called. Who knows though.
