This loss means NOTHING? SOMETHING? EVERYTHING? Choose your own adventure.

So we lost by 4 with:

- Our best 2 players having their worst combined game of the season
- The refs fucking us over (Typical Houston favoritism)
- We had mental lapses on defense that we haven't had since last year
- Houston shot great from 3pt (even by their standards)

And we lost by 4. We didn't give up any ground in the playoff race as OKC & UTA (the 2 teams right behind us) both lost.

Bragging rights? Playoffs mean more, and CP3 and Harden have a history of choking there. Oh, and Houston is still one of the crappiest cities in America (sorry @Mediocre Man).

Would've been nice to win, but it means NOTHING. ClutchFans will act like they won a championship, but that's a sign of respect to US.

Go Blazers!

 

Another encouraging sign: our bench was great. We’re going to need that to do well in the playoffs.

 

They don't even have a full house on most nights. Tons of empty seats. Drexler is happy at least.

 

I mentioned it in the gamethread if we were to meet Houston I like our odds. Nurk will beast on them if they keep switching like that and Dame and CJ won't play bad like that a whole series.

 

...where is the video version of this post?! Need the hype train posted live before midnight @BonesJones then we can swap out the main video here --> https://bonesinpdx.com/

 

There were a lot of encouraging signs for sure. It does mean one thing though....we are not better than Houston. But we kind of already knew that. Their 14 losses so far for the season is a pretty good indicator. I do love the way this team competes every night now.

 

Imagine we had this Nurkic, Aminu, Harkless and even ET all season, we could have 7-10 wins more

 

Next one we take

 

Dane and CJ play AVERAGE, we win.
Refs call a fair game, we win.

 

In the future I might propose to BlazersEdge the idea of me doing Blazers related videos for them.

 

Were not better than the best team in the league with them.

But if we can hang with them while only playing an average all-around game, were a contender.

 

We have faced:
Minnesota w/out Butler at home
OKC w/out Melo at home
Golden State w/out Curry at home
Miami w/out Whiteside at home
Cleveland w/out Love at home

Every win came at home with our full squad against short handed teams.
THESE ARE NOT QUALITY WINS, the quality wins are on the road against big teams with our team facing injuries.

I was waiting tonight's game so bad because Houston was at full strenght and i got all the answers i was searching.

It's no coincidence that Lillard and McCollum both had their worst shooting night against a good team, it's another proof that Lillard is not a superstar.
Against good defensive teams who really pressure the ball and defend the three he struggles a LOT, he doesn't have the ball handling to create separations or the size/strenght to bully the defender.

After every win of the streak i kept saying to my fellow blazers fans "i will change my mind once they face a really good team at full strenght" and here we go, Houston kicked our ass more than the boxscore says.

What's bad is that this win streak will be used by Olshey to sell the fans on this mediocre team.
The ceiling of this team is the first round of the playoffs, second round only with a good matchup.

Lillard and McCollum kept saying they were the best backcourt in the league, well, i hope they saw tonight what the best backcourt looks like.

 

I don't think we should fear Houston. We've seen their offense before. The single iso and three point kick outs....that was basically our Roy teams and it looked great, too, when clicking. They're a more dangerous version of it because they're a better defensive squad with more 3 point weapons than those Roy teams, but the design is still fallible. Just got a figure out a way to defend the kickouts better and hope Dame/CJ can match Harden/Paul. I haven't listened to Barkley, but does he question the Rockets can win a championship being a jump shooting team?

 

You make a case for doubting the legitimacy of the streak, but my takeaway from this game is much different than yours. The contributions from everyone outside Dame and CJ was outstanding. A lot of their production was really outside of what Dame and CJ created for them. I'm more encouraged from this game than sobered.

I'd like to see Stotts play Harkless, Aminu and Turner exclusively on Harden next game. Too many times, Dame ended up on him and Harden abused him. I thought Dame did a pretty good job for the most part, not pressing and involving his teammates, but the few times he did press it wasn't pretty. He got his usual looks, just wasn't hitting. I like our depth better, too. In a 7 game series, Paul and Harden are going to be exhausted on the tail end of it.

 

Harden and Paul can play like this on every given night, Aminu and Nurkic one night out of 30.

Every time Lillard face a team that pressure the ball (like every team in the playoffs because the playoffs are another sport than the RS) he starts to force everything because like i said he doesn't have the ball handling to create separation or the size/stenght to bully the defender.

I saw THE SAME EXACT SHOTS he forced against Golden State in the Playoffs once their defense was tightening, or the same exact shots he forced against the Clippers/Spurs.

Not to mention his defense, just terrible, but it's not his fault, he doesn't have the lateral quickness or the size/strenght to defend at a high level.

They're not underrated, they're just not elite.

 

No reason to apologize. Every city has their good and bad.

The ref bitching is comical. They just beat us. They are a better team.

Fouls
Hou 23
Por 18

FTs
Hou 29
Por 27

 

Your post is a piece of shit. Did you wait out our entire 13 game win streak, waiting for a loss , to finally post?

You are forgetting us smashing a fully healthy Utah and fully healthy Golden State. Your post can fuck off.

 

I'll post this on both threads

It means something

 

I'll post this in both threads

This loss means something

 

I actually checked his account a couple days ago. He hadn't been on the site since February 4th. I'm easily baited by trolls but I'm not gonna mess with replying to this dude. He doesn't deserve attention for this crap. It's actually more bearable since he's really the only negative troll left.