I mean these little fourth qtr runs are nice and all but when we start playing the thunder, lakers, celtics, etc.... its not gonna cut it. I mean yes its a greta start but is it fools gold or are they that clutch? I tend to think its a little of both but its concerning that its taken 3 major efforts in the 4th to win 3 games. The bulls will not go cold like these previous teams did. In fact this will be the first real test of the season on monday.
Good teams find ways to win games. We just beat a possible playoff team in the East on their home opener.
Basketball is a game of runs. Good teams have enough runs to win games. It's irrelevant when those runs happen, so long as they are enough to win the game.
It's good practice to learn how to run close out games at the end, who's going to be in the game, what plays will work, what kind of subs do you make, etc. Gotta be big confidence builders so that when the Blazers do play the big teams, they know they're fully capable of doing it. It's building that mentality that they expect to win, which is impressive this early in the year.
Nate McMillan coached Portland teams play to the level of their competition more times than not. In a few games that they should destroy opponents they do, but in most cases, they play to that level and win closer games. When Portland plays better competition, they will play better.......It's their MO
I don't think CHI on monday is gonna be that big of a test, sure they can take us but the odds aren't in their favor. They've needed huge games from Rose to stay in it with OKC and beat a pretty bad Detroit team, and if we go to our zone early and dare them to shoot over the top then we should take this one without to much of a problem. They'll be better once they get Booz back but you can say the same thing about us and getting Oden/Joel back.
You have to remember their are multiple angles to look at this as well. Bad team gets their game up against good teams. Teams also usually play really hard on their home opener. The Blazers have faced 2 home openers in a row now and sent the home team out with an L. The same can be said when Portland faces tougher teams. They will probably play harder, more of the game against tougher opponents. They play the game for reason. If you need more of a reason, look at what happened to Boston. They knock of Miami on night 1, and then go to Cleveland and blow a game against the Cavs. Would you have ever thought they would blow a game against the Cavs? Do you really think it effects their chances of coming out of the east and making the finals? I don't think Boston loses any sleep over that one.
and we have not yet IMO come close to playing a solid "complete" game, we've played great in the 4th, we are putting new pieces together and I see us a much more effective team the 2nd half, asusming we stay reasonably healthy and ge Joel and oden back
In all honesty, I've sort of been half expecting the Blazers to go about .500 through this really rough first month until they start getting some of their depth at center back. So if they are able to stay afloat (or better) I'm going to be pretty content. Regardless, the season is never won or lost in November and December. If they're still playing the 'cardiac kids' role in February, then we can start to question things a little bit more.
Well one thing I agree with Mixum . . . the Knicks suck. How can you spend all that money, have so many players want to play for the organization and suck that bad. Feel sorry for NBA fans in the NY, NJ and the surrounding area . . . no wonder Mixum has to try to affliate with another NBA organization . . . I would too.
So what happens when we play playoff contender teams? Well, we'll find out what we're made of. But let's face it, we're missing Oden, Godzilla and I think Nate was expecting Pendy to allow Cunningham to finally get back to SF, where he can really play at his best. If this team were fully healthy I think we wouldn't have this thread. But I like the makeup of this team and Nate has some good experience around him this year as coaches so we'll take care of business as well as we can.
That's a really good point about the home openers. I thought the Knicks got some really good output out of some very subpar players. I've actually been pleasantly surprised about Oberto. I don't think our center spot is really all that bad.
Well let's see, if we lose, you will say," Ha, I told you so!" If we win, you'll come up with some horseshit complaint about some random thing that means nothing that solidifies your stupidity!
I've been pleasantly surprised in the sense that I think he's better and more savvy then Jeff Pendergraph, and he's head and shoulders (well maybe just eyebrows?) better than Juwan Howard. Solid pickup by Cho.
