And I thought I would be even more upset. The funny thing I'm really not. Just puts this season in perspective. We will be seeing days like these. Times when we use a lot of energy to beat a good team and have no gas for the next. Possibly the team and coached learned from this. Nate nor any of the team for that matter has gone through this. So lesson learned. Now it's time to kick Cleveland's ass!
Omg abandon ship trade lma for draft picks its all over!!! We need a few losses like this to keep us on the right track. Not happy about the loss but not as depressed as I thought id be today. Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk
Although I wish they had won, and it would've been a good sign, I think how they react to getting knocked (on their asses) that is as important. Thankfully, no team in the WC is pulling away from the pack, and the teams that 'should', are struggling too (or have the same record Portland does). The Spurs are w/out Manu for a while ,and that COULD be an issue. The Lakers aren't terribly good so far. Dallas is so so. Denver is doing good, but I'm not sure how long that will last. Houston, Golden State, Minnesota, etc, not much to get excited about yet. Memphis lost Zach for 2 months or so (but are a good team still, imho). Portland just lost on a back to back against a team that had something to prove. It sucked, but on the bright side, the team isn't dealing with injuries already.
We should win our next three to improve to 8-2, best in the West but we better not overlook Cleveland. They're only 1 game behind us in the standings.
If we had won, I would have started saving money for a trip to the finals. That was a game that good (but not great) teams will often lose -- it doesn't bother me to recognize that we aren't elite, and it doesn't dampen my appreciation of the good things we've seen so far. I do agree with other posters in terms of concern over road games. Obviously it's still early, but the early signs of being a bad road team are troubling. I have to believe that the coaching staff has noticed this too, and that they are looking for ways to fix it.
Tell me a "great team" and I'll find you a horrible loss they had. Great teams have bad nights. The 72 win Bulls lost to the Knicks by 30 points. The loss last night doesn't mean we aren't elite. We have already beaten Denver, Los Angeles Lakers, and Oklahoma City. We're the best team in the West so far this season.
I did some research on the most elite team last year, the Dallas Mavericks. Did you know they had a 6 game losing streak last year? And a 4 game losing streak too. They had a game where they only scored 70 points in a 19 point loss against the Grizzlies. They also got beat 110-82 by the Lakers with three weeks left in the season and the teams jockeying for playoff spots. And oh yeah. They blew a 23 point lead in the playoffs with 13 minutes to go in the game.
Clarification: (had a Tapatalk problem there and sent too early) It's true that I don't think the Blazers are at the elite level, but not simply because they lost one game.
to steal from another thread... ....Oh, and lest I forget: [video=youtube;_KClpLzFftU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KClpLzFftU[/video]
I think that this loss pointed out a glaring problem: If we cannot stop the other team from scoring, we cannot rebound and run. And as in years past, our half-court sets have no depth or dimension - what used to be "give it to Roy every time down" is no looking like "get it onto LMA every time down" - despite double-teams thrown at LMA all night, Nate refuses to run developed plays to other players. There will be games/teams that happen to be hot and if we don't add a bit of dimension to an otherwise predictable offense - then we'll struggle time and time again if we cannot run. Lastly, we are a player away from making real noise. Crawford will be that player - but when he's off, he's OFF. So we need another scorer. A scorer in the paint over another shooting guard may be what is missing? I'm thinking our hope may lie in signing Kenyon Martin if there is some way to do so in March. I don't see any trade possibilities that don't equally weaken us. Go Blazers! The two losses were not good losses.
King, I believe he was just saying that winning has more to do with "The ability to win when others normally lose" and most championship teams have that in them. But I don't think he doesn't believe in this team. In fact, I was feeling the same way. And this loss doesn't change my feeling this is a contending team.
Can we just merge maggs threads into 1? Maybe call it maggs thread? It feels like he makes about 5 a day.
