Okay ladies and gentlemen, what did you see that went well in this game? Are we on a defensive streak? Was that just an illusion? Give us your analysis. Remember, you have to have watched at least 3 quarters.
Our defense has improved. From dame to getting better to blake and kaman bringing good defense on second unit. Add in truck embracing his defensive energy guy roll, we have improved. Im not convinced we are top 5 at end of season but if we can be top 10 in both offense and defense I like our chances.
It's tough to gauge much off this game cause there was such a difference from the first to the second half, and then most of the fourth was the reserves. At the half blazers adjusted to smoother man defense like they did last game. That's the big thing to take from this, they can really get up on people and create lines of defense. But the offense was just clicking. Nothing new, just sometimes it clicks.
Our bench rotations are hard to scout for. Stotts is mixing it up and throwing different looks off the bench. They were a force in this win. If there were a category for 9's in the stat column, Nic Batum would be in the record books, he's gotten triple nines once
Defensively we made a statement with this win against the NBA's most potent offense. Defense does win. Great to see CJ hit back to back shots early. TRob really is a game changer tempo wise off the bench and he wore on Dirk defending him. I can't say enough about Blake and Kaman and how they anchor the bench
The defensive rotations are night and day compared to last year. To beat screens we were switching, but not in the confused 'what the hell do I do now' manner that we did last season. Multiple times we ended up with Blake guarding Dirk, and Blake successfully bodied into him and forced misses. Likewise, we ended up with Rolo guarding Parsons on the perimeter, and he was able to move his feet well enough to prevent penetration.
The Blazers are the Spurs of the North. They took last spring's beating to heart and learned their lessons well. Kaman and Blake are just what the doctor ordered. CJ and TRob will be fine come playoff time. If some people can't see that Nicolas Batum was the engine that propelled the Blazers last night, I just don't know what to tell them. He was making basketball plays all over the court, pushing the ball up, controling tempo, setting up guys, getting hockey assists, rebounding, playing defense, everything but shooting well. The guy makes 10 straight good basketball plays, then as soon as he goofs up once some posters jizz all over their keyboards in an anti-Nicogasm. It's ridiculous. He handles the ball and makes more entry passes and set up passes than any other player on the team. He's bound to miss a few. I counted one bad pass in the first half to 5 by Dame, and another 5 by other players who handled the ball far, far less than him. He wasn't feeling his shot so he passed up a couple. That's a good thing. He had a near triple double in only 3 quarters, and that doesn't even tell the whole story of how he propelled the team last night. But keep the wet wipes handy. He's bound a make a mistake or two in the next game. Great win Blazers!
