There's a big difference between making excuses and factoring in situations for what they are. It IS hard to beat the Grizz playing small ball
I guess the thing with Dame is how important he is to this team. As I said above, Aldridge is the best player, but we don't win unless we have Dame time. I was really hoping he came out of that funk last night. I don't have a doubt we will see the normal 4th quarter dame before the season ends, I just don't want to lose too many games before it happens
we failed down the stretch. that was the situation. Grizz played their game. Credit. Are you happy now? We sucked. We should have won. Period. There's your perspective.
I don't know. When the Blazers went on the runs in the 2nd quarter and went up by 11 it was stimming from wes/affalo/blake playing great permiter defense. I can't remember if wes was in when the Blazers went on their run in the 3rd so.. But Wes played really well defensively. Might not have had his offensive game. but his defense was lights out. Minus when he fell asleep on lee and gave up a wide open 3. If it's on anyone.. it's on Stotts for not being able to draw up plays that get buckets. Specifically pointing to the last 3 minutes of the 4th quarter. Grizz are good they can come back... But at home Stotts should have been able to pull that one out.
Exactly. Stotts is failing this team in a huge way. If Dame's been scouted that's on the coach, not Dame. If we're struggling to make long jumpers then the coach needs to draft up some plays to get some higher-percentage shots. But from what I've seen our offense got scouted LAST SEASON and hasn't looked good since December of 2013. And you know when Mags is calling for Dame ISOs that the offense isn't any good! I mean, if we as fans can see that bringing a screen to Dame is HINDERING him rather than helping why the fuck can't the coach see that and make a change? When is Stotts' contract up? I suspect he won't be coaching the team by the end of next season. Too bad we didn't pick up SVG or Joerger when we had the chance...
I have faith in Dame but one pt of concern is his frustration when he doesn't get foul calls in the paint. He needs to keep getting back on defense and not making a big deal out of non calls. It's the Blazers, we don't get calls. Never have.
I didnt read every post, but I think the fact that Batum is AWOL offensively teams are able to focus more on Lillard. They sag off Nico daring him to shoot knowing he will pass.
Bring up an extremely good point. If Nico had any resemblance of consistency things might really be different.
I think Memphis deserves at least as much (if not more) credit than the Blazers deserve blame. They are pretty darned good at playing defense, after all...
you have a point. When you look at the game and see where we spent damn near a quarter scoreless..five and a half here...six there..kind of adds up. Then look at the shot selection..
Well you can factor that Batum had respect for the years before. So the first 20 games would account for that. But then teams started understanding that Batum hasn't been shooting well so they try sagging. Then the realization that Batum wasn't able to hit his shots begat more gambling. So ironically, dame was so good the first 20 games, then his decline started happening at a slow decline until now. So the concept of Batum creating issues for dame is very real. I would also add Matthews as well because his shot has become inconsistent lately. The fact is when our outside shot isn't falling. Teams can take us completely out of the game.
Especially without LaMarcus @#$%ing Aldridge. That said hopefully Afflalo will make a real difference. There's nothing more frustrating than getting an opponent in the penalty and subsequently watching the Blazers chuck from outside.
Omg yes!!! I remember a recent game where we had a team in the penalty with 10 min remaining in the quarter. We shot only 1 FT!!!!
Don't get me started on that. I really hope AA can solve that and get to the line somewhere around 4 times a game.
Few things are more frustrating. One of the oldest basketball defensive axioms is to get a team to settle for outside shots. I'm hoping A-Follow (Rice) can help us with that. We need to take the ball to the %^&%# hole when we're struggling, draw some fouls, and then:
