A few third-quarter stats: Overall, Portland has outscored opponents 509-439 in the 3rd quarter. Portland's overall point differential is 5.1 ppg; nearly 3/4 of that (3.7 ppg) is third-quarter disparity. HOU and PHX have outscored POR 114-85 in the third quarter in 4 games; in their other 15 games, they've outscored opponents 424-325 (6.6 ppq). So--what is it about this team that makes them so dominant in the 3rd quarter?
All part of Stotts's system. He uses quarters 1-2 to see the game plan and plays everyone straight up. The players use the iPads to see how they've been defended. I'm sure one of the coaching staff does the same and takes notes. At half-time, they build an entirely new strategy based on what they've learned from quarters 1-2. Also, Batum has been the designated wing defender on whomever is hot. In the first 1-2 quarters, he just stays on his man.
After tonight's game, the Blazers have outscored opponents 670-543 in third quarters over the season. That's now an average point differential of 5.3 points per game in the 3rd quarter alone. Excluding us, that would be good enough to be 6th in the league (4th in the west) for overall point differential. Stotts is COY so far, IMO.
This ability to recognize an opponent's strategy and react accurately within the game makes me hopeful for this team's ability to be successful in the playoffs, because they're effectively turning each regular season game into two miniature playoff games, and making adjustments to improve the team between "games". It's like practice for the coaching staff, and practice for the players, getting them used to the notion of mid-stream adjustments. This team is data driven; we've seen LaMarcus give the process props as the reason he's had huge games (I think he mentioned it during the TNT post-game interview after the 31/25 game - "I watched my iPad and saw where I was rushing my shot, and adjusted"). So our coach has bought into the notion, our best player has (I think they all use it, but I haven't heard it from them)... and the rest of the NBA hasn't yet. And we're playing our advantage every night. This year may be unique in that we're ahead of the league with our system. Next year, everyone might use iPads in this way. Every team might try to be data driven from the President down to the Player. But this year, we're just about the only ones doing it, and it's paying dividends. Obviously it's not the only reason we're playing great, but it's a perfect system for 5 very smart starters who obviously are all students of the game. And that might be why the Blazers are the only team I know of doing this: we have five intellectual players as our starters. It's starting to look like a five-person master course in strategic adjustments. Like a graduate-level course in military tactics. Not every starting five would benefit, because not every starting five is as hungry to study the game. For years, we've been drafting and trading for basketball nerds based on the psychological tests we've given them, and this system is taking full advantage of their basketball IQ.
