SB Nation - Steve Blake

Game 25 Recap: Blazers 101, Bucks 108

Dave — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 08:08:09 -0000

Arrgh. It stinks to have to write about another loss. But you kind of knew when the game went into overtime, let alone double-overtime, that this would be a hard one for the Blazers to pull out. Shorthanded and on the tail end of a road swing against a team that's been waiting isn't a good recipe for extra-period success. Nevertheless the Blazers had their chances but couldn't overcome their mistakes and in the end couldn't pull out the win.

The game started with both teams looking to their big men to provide scoring. LaMarcus Aldridge tore up the Bucks most of the night. Andrew Bogut returned the favor. Both were mobile enough and had enough range to their game that their counterparts couldn't stop them. Centers and power forwards were the order of the day early and the Blazers were fine with that. But when the various guards stepped up to the plate Portland got outplayed. Luke Ridnour did damage in the first half, carrying the torch for Brandon Jennings who didn't attempt a single shot in the opening 24 minutes of the game. Michael Redd chipped in a little bit. On the other side Brandon Roy was quiet and Steve Blake and Andre Miller were noisy in all the wrong ways...and in the clanging of loud rims. Nobody but Martell Webster could hit a three. By now you know what happens to the Blazer offense when nobody hits threes. Portland exited the first period down 5 and it looked like it could be a long night.

In the second period Roy went on a run, which in turn developed some shots for Martell and for Jerryd Bayless. Bayless didn't get many opportunities but he did well with what he had. Martell was still doing well in the first half, so it actually made a decent lineup. It's important to realize that many of these shots were coming off of movement and screens, which seems to be a consistent factor when Portland's offense is going well. The Bucks, meanwhile, suffered from a lack of backcourt scoring. Also Andrew Bogut sat out half the period. That was a bad combination for the Bucks. Portland made an enormous comeback behind their rejuvenated backcourt and turned the 5-point deficit into a 5-point lead at the half.

Apparently Brandon Jennings looked at the stat sheet at the half and realized it is really hard to win Rookie of the Year without attempting any shots whatsoever. Perhaps he looked at LeBron tape from last night's game as well. Whatever the cause, he came out in the third quarter firing. The Blazers had to know it was coming but they're a little shy on point guard defense at the moment. Once Jennings hit a couple of threes the court opened up for anything Milwaukee liked. It was like going through a pound box of See's soft-center candies for them. No matter what they picked, everything was good. Portland started the period by driving inside but after they were rejected at the rim they apparently decided that three-point shooting was the better part of valor. They got a couple of close shots but mostly it was Brick City. Only some well-timed free throws saved the period from total disaster. (You'll recall that giving up copious amounts of charity tosses is in Milwaukee's M.O.) The game's wobble increased again as the Bucks outscored the Blazers by 15. For those counting that means the first quarter one team outscored the other by 5, the second quarter it was by 10, the third quarter was by 15, and the superior team alternated each quarter.

Obviously all of the people who believe in an orderly universe are assuming that Portland outscored the Bucks by 20 in the final period and walked out victorious. You're half right. They outscored the Bucks by 10. Both Roy and Aldridge came alive at the same time to spur the comeback. They even helped each other out a time or two, which is something you don't see often. Milwaukee shared the ball but maybe they should have considered going with Jennings, Bogut, or Ridnour alone as the Blazers couldn't seem to stop any of them. In the process of sharing the ball with each other they also shared it plenty of times with Portland, aiding the comeback's progress. Andre Miller was the third scorer for the Blazers in the period but he was a mixed blessing. It's easy to love the 5 points and especially the 4 assists he posted in the period. It's difficult to forgive two critical turnovers down the stretch when Portland had a chance to score crucial buckets. They were nearly identical, featuring Miller trying to force the tempo by driving against superior numbers on the break when his teammates weren't with him. He got stripped both times, once by Redd and once by Jennings. Both of these occurred in the last two minutes of a then-tight game. The first one the Blazers got right back. Not so the second. But either one could have made the difference and you don't expect that kind of thing from a 14-year veteran point guard. That's not to pin the loss on Miller...it was a group effort. But it's indicative that every time the Blazers felt the win in their sails in this game they hit a rock.

The final 38 seconds of regulation featured a medley of nice offensive plays. Andrew Bogut hit a hook shot to put the Bucks up three then Brandon Roy pulled the defense to him and threaded a sweeeeeet pass to LaMarcus Aldridge for a dunk plus the foul to tie it. After the big man had their curtain call Brandon Jennings made a teardrop runner in the lane to recapture the lead by 2 followed by Brandon Roy hitting a turn-around with 12 seconds left that was so bad that we would have barbequed anyone but Brandon who took it. We maybe would have barbequed him too but we'll never know because it went in. You could almost hear the Bucks' fans (who were quite vocal and sounded amazing all game, by the way) lose their beer and pretzels. The Bucks almost got a tip-in off of a missed Jennings jumper at the buzzer but it was a nanosecond or two too late. Overtime.

The overtime started out well. After Andrew Bogut made a layup followed by a short Roy jumper the Blazers fed a running Aldridge thrice. It was like three punches to Milwaukee's ribs. It looked like they could be headed for the exit. Unfortunately the Blazers never scored again after the third conversion. Perhaps they relaxed. Perhaps they were fatigued. Certainly we began to see signs of the perimeter defense breaking down as the Milwaukee smalls scored repeatedly, often times after a screen left them either free or mismatched.

There was a semi-controversial play near the end of the overtime wherein the officials invoked instant replay review for a second time in the game, the first having been the shot at the end of regulation. Milwaukee missed a shot and there was a scrum for the rebound. LaMarcus Aldridge was touching the ball but hadn't fully controlled it yet when two Bucks tried to tip it away from behind. They succeed and the ball went out of bounds along the baseline. The officials initially awarded the ball to the Blazers but the video review would show that LaMarcus' hand was the last to touch it (by about the same nanosecond as before) so they reversed their call. Technically they were correct in their determination. Full marks there. But this does highlight that even instant replay isn't foolproof because technical correctness sometimes breaks precedent. Every other call in the game is made in real-time. And made in real time that call always goes against the team whose players come from behind to tip. Had this been any time but the last, critical moments of the game that would have been Portland's ball. As it was, the call was made differently because it was reviewed. This begs the question: is technical correctness really correct or is it consistency?

Anyway, Brandon Jennings made a final shot to end the overtime and we were knotted again.

There's not much to say about the second OT except that the Blazers looked even more tired. Jumpers fell well short. Brandon Roy drove expecting to get fouled and threw up the shot as an afterthought. In overtime games you have to get the shot in and expect the foul to be called as an afterthought. Needless to say, he came away with neither. Meanwhile the perimeter defense got even worse as switches on screens became comical. Jennings, Ridnour, and guard Carlos Delfino scored repeatedly. Portland did not. End of game.

The Blazers didn't hit enough jumpers and didn't throw a wide enough defensive net to win in this game and that's pretty much the story. They're tired. They're banged up. They need to go home and hope to recover with a little rest and a friendly crowd.

Click through for the rest...

Individual Observations

These are going to be quite brief tonight.

Brandon Roy scored copiously but less than efficiently again, shooting only 8-24 to get his 23 points. Part of it is him, part of it is that his backcourt mates are playing like doo-doo right now. He was streaky, pouring on the points when needed and hitting the critical shot. But the confidence just isn't there. 8 rebounds and 6 assists but also 4 turnovers.

Blake and Miller combined for 5-22 shooting, 8 assists, and 6 turnovers. That was ouchy.

LaMarcus Aldridge had a whale of a game with 31 points and 11 rebounds. The Bucks had a hard time handling him.

Poor Joel Przybilla gets used so badly by his backcourt on defense. He never gets to worry about just his own guy. Not that being able to worry about Bogut would have allowed him to stop Bogut, but I do feel bad that Joel has to do everyone else's laundry as well as his own. He managed 10 rebounds and 4 blocks.

Both Martell Webster and Steve Blake seemed to take some advice we offered last night and stepped in for a few shots instead of just bombing. It worked OK for Steve. He was 1-7 on his threes but 2-3 on the shorter shots. Martell hit 3-6 threes, 3-8 of the remainder. Keep at it.

Jerryd Bayless played 18 minutes and scored 9 points. His best moment came when he was set up on the left sideline while Roy drove the lane, Brandon pitched him the ball, and Jerryd drained the three. That's something Blazer guards playing with Roy need to do. Jerryd nodded like he knew it and Roy high-fived him afterwards. 18 minutes is better than the 8 he got last night. We're going to talk more about Jerryd's court situation tomorrow so I'll leave it at that.

Final Thoughts

This was a rough stretch. You have pretty much GOT to get these two upcoming home games now. Remember though that we're trying to get through December without totally getting ruined. It may not be pretty but it doesn't have to be. It just can't be fatal. And things are seldom fatal in December anyway.

Boxscore

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See your Jersey Contest scores here and enter Tuesday's game form here.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

Game 24 Recap: Blazers 99, Cavaliers 104

Dave — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:00:20 -0000

More photos » by Garrett Ellwood - NBAE/Getty Images

This is not going to end well.

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Well, if you're going to lose that's not a horrible way to lose. The Blazers played an inspired first half in this one. Gone was the listless play we've become semi-accustomed to lately. This team had more list than Santa. One of the things I sometimes forget is that the current incarnation of the Blazers has a little "Big Time" in it. They seemed to know they were on national TV. They knew who they were playing. They played with energy from the tip, taking a lead on the shocked Cavaliers (perhaps feeling a little entitlement to a home win themselves) and protecting it through the first half.

How did the Blazers do it? The supporting cast had a fantastic half. Martell Webster started the game on fire, hitting everything he threw up. It's not like he was taking it one-on-one. The Blazers attacked with Roy early, he drew attention, Martell and LaMarcus were the beneficiaries. In fact nobody but those three scored in the first quarter. When the stars didn't have a shot, Martell stepped up. But the Blazers also threw a few more screens in the offense, with both Roy and Webster curling off of them and hitting briefly-open jumpers as a result.

As the second quarter and the second unit (such as it is) rolled around we saw a ton of off-ball movement. The four players without the rock made it easy for the dribbler to find an outlet. Unsurprisingly the two players who benefitted the most were the two players who know how to function in that kind of offense: Juwan Howard and Andre Miller. Both of those guys have a sense of spacing that their younger counterparts lack. Howard all but killed the Cavaliers all by himself at the start of the second quarter doing nothing but raining down open mid-range jumpers. Miller ramped it up at the end of the second quarter, hitting all kinds of shots including a couple threes. Except for one Roy jumper, one Cunningham jumper, and a couple of Bayless free throws nobody but the geezer twins scored in that second period.

As you can imagine, Cleveland was a little flummoxed. Worse, the Blazers' energy on offense evoked similar play on defense. Joel Przybilla keyed the early momentum with a couple of MONSTER blocks. He was way into this game. Cleveland helped by steadfastly refusing to utilize LeBron James. He destroyed the Blazers every time he touched the ball but he was getting fewer touches than a broke guy at Déjà Vu. It was as if Cleveland had a fully gassed and insured Ferrari in the garage but elected to take the old Taurus instead. Add in that the Blazers weren't turning the ball over much and weren't allowing the Cavs offensive rebounds and you can see why Portland took a 9-point lead into the third quarter. They had outscored Cleveland 31-19 in that second period. Things were looking good.

Except you didn't need Paul Harvey to know what the rest of the story would be.

The Cavaliers announced their presence in the second half by throwing on a full-court press. The intention wasn't so much to stop Portland as rattle them. Perhaps it was also designed to light a fire under their own players. It worked on both counts. Wherever Portland threw the ball a defender seemed to beat it there. Where the Blazers had been playing free and easy, maybe even with a spritely tempo, in the first half now shots started coming later and later in the clock. The same jumpers that were golden early started missing late.

When LeBron hit a three-pointer on Cleveland's first offensive possession, approximately 37 seconds into the half, it was clear that Elvis had arrived at the clam bake. He proceeded to score 9 points in 3 minutes, hitting jumpers over shorter guys. The Blazers threw a zone which worked for a possession or so. Then it was the old "put out the fire" drill which saw Portland defenders running at him from everywhere. All of a sudden here come Anderson Varejao and Shaquille O'Neal.

Pause for interlude.

Shaq was huge in this game. Like around four bills huge. Seriously, you can now see the fat roll underneath the armpits of his jersey. The Cavs wear an "XL" patch on their uniforms. In his case it's missing about six "X's". I'm thinking the plan is to improve his free throw shooting by eventually being able to roll the ball down his stomach and into the hoop. Some guys become broadcasters after their career is done. I guess he's angling to be a blogger.

Now back to your regularly-scheduled programming.

Varejao and Shaq took advantage of Portland's inability to contain LeBron by scoring repeatedly at the cup. Portland eventually tried a smaller, quicker lineup both to protect Przybilla from foul trouble and to move men over to LBJ in a more timely fashion. That made it worse. Przybilla eventually put an end to the Shaq run with a classic heel move: poking him in the eye. Shaq went to the locker room and never came back. Unfortunately the same could not be said of Varejao, who proceeded to kill us with his energy on both ends. He bottled up LaMarcus Aldridge, rebounded all over the place, created turnovers, finished easy plays...he basically gave the Cavs all of the opportunity points they had lacked in the first half.

Meanwhile the Blazers' offense was in confusion. As jumpers missed we became more Roy-centric which had the dual effect of creating points and telegraphing to the Cavaliers where their defense should concentrate and exactly when the ball was coming up. It's not like Roy was hogging it. His teammates couldn't finish what they started early in the game. Martell Webster made like one of those drag racers starting with a huge boom but then blowing out his engine and coasting down the track. Steve Blake never hit anything in this game. LaMarcus got Varejaoed. The only guy who was any help was Andre Miller and that was at the cost of his offense running the same way Roy's did. It wasn't quite enough. Cleveland played sharper. The Blazers turned it over more and got fewer offensive rebounds in the second half. Oh...and LeBron was still cooking.

Portland made it really close, cutting it to 4 with 13 seconds left on a LaMarcus Aldridge three and then scoring again 1 second later off of a Roy steal of the inbounds pass. But Cleveland hit their free throws and Roy couldn't hit the contested, off-balance three that would have kept hope alive. It was as good of a performance as you could have expected but it wasn't good enough for the miracle win.

Here's hoping the Blazers build on tonight. They showed themselves and their opponent that they can be dangerous when they play right. The early offense was something to behold...everything you'd hoped for out of a perimeter game. The total lack of paint points rendered it unsustainable but if the Blazers can pair that movement and unselfishness with even a marginal inside presence they're going to be just fine. And by just fine I mean great. In the meantime while they're waiting for the post presence and more people who can actually hit outside shots to heal they should continue to work that hard. Good things will happen.

Click through for Individual Observations, the Boxscore, Links, Jersey Contest Results, and Final Thoughts.

Individual Observations

Brandon Roy had 23 points but never got steady offensive production until he blitzed the fourth quarter. Even then his run was short-lived. Cleveland figured out what the plan was and that made life too difficult. He was no better than anyone else on the team when matched up against LeBron James. In fact the three-guard lineup in the second half was a defensive disaster, especially when Przybilla wasn't in with them. But he looked more active on defense than he has in some outings. He had 6 assists as well.

LaMarcus Aldridge had three-quarters of a great offensive game tonight. He couldn't get anything going in the fourth. They just shut him down whenever he tried, which in any case probably wasn't often enough as the offense became guard-dominated. He drew 5 free throws and hit them all, which is good. He had 2 rebounds on the night...this on a night when he was one of two guys above 6'9" who saw significant minutes. That's not so good.

Andre Miller played tough out there on offense. He drove, dished, and hit his shots. I have a vague impression that he looks more confident against Eastern Conference teams but that's just an impression. He sure knew how to bake Cleveland's cookies. 8-13 shooting, 20 points, 6 rebounds. He had only 3 assists, taking a more shooting-guard-ish approach to the evening.

Steve Blake had 8 assists. Unfortunately that was about the only obvious good thing that came out of his night. He had 4 turnovers. Although he put himself in decent position many times he also got burned for being too slow or too short on defense. He also missed all 4 shots he took, including 3 three-point attempts. First of all, with the roster the way it is we can't afford to have a guy playing 36 minutes and only attempting 4 shots unless that guy's name starts with "P" and ends with "rzybilla". Discretion is good but you have to be a threat. Second of all...you goose-egged the evening. I hate to presume too much but have a handy piece of advice for both Blake and Webster. If the three-pointer isn't falling your choices are not limited to keep bricking or stop shooting altogether. Specifically there are shots available from 2-4 feet further in which are more comfortable. Obviously you can't step in if defenders are closing out on you but in many cases they're leaving you all alone. Take an easier shot, get it to fall, then try the hard stuff.

Speaking of Martell, 13 points in the first quarter, 0 for the rest of the game. 4 rebounds and 4 fouls otherwise. Obviously defending LeBron can be a discouraging experience. But you've got to keep involved and you've got to work for better shots instead of relying on the ones that the defense gives you most easily. On fire or cold as a witch's bras-trap won't do it.

Joel Przybilla...you made this game for us. 11 rebounds, 3 blocks, including a SPECTACULAR rejection of a Shaq alley-oop dunk. The guy had 2 assists when the offense was flowing freely too. He set the tone.

Hey Juwan...15 points in 16 minutes? Who are you, Jerryd Bayless? I guess this is the one situation where you're glad that the old-guy power forward you got also used to score with some proficiency instead of just rebounding and defending. With half the roster blown away you need the points.

Hey Jerryd...8 minutes? Who are you, Juwan Howard? No, seriously, I thought Jerryd looked pretty good out there tonight. He made a couple of nice assists and stayed turnover-free. More importantly the Blazers intentionally called the last play of the first half for him, giving him the ball to finish the period. He penetrated even when everybody knew that would be coming. He drew two foul shots and converted them. The fact that they set the play for him is a sign of respect. Of course more than 8 minutes would also be a sign of respect. I am not huge on bandwagons as I think we tend to jump the gun and/or not see some subtle things that keep our favorite guys from playing as much as we think they should. However in this case I tend to agree with my colleague Ben. I'm seeing Jerryd hit the few jumpers he takes. I'm seeing him drive with effect. I'm seeing him in the nascent stages of passing the ball and getting the offense. I do understand his effectiveness will be greatest with certain combinations. I understand that those combinations probably won't include Roy or Miller--let alone both--and that you have to give the nod to Brandon and Andre both over Jerryd right now. (In other words it's not just a matter of subbing in Jerryd in Blake's spot.) However no matter what the combinations may be I think you have to find the guy some more playing time, particularly if the other team has no choice but to send a weaker defender against him. Maybe not 30 minutes. Maybe he doesn't even move up in the rotation officially. But if Blake's not hitting his shots anyway, if Miller or Roy can handle the passing, and if Jerryd can do a few other things that Steve can't you have to sneak him in there for a few more minutes.

Final Thoughts

Pretty much said it all above, but I'll reiterate that I appreciated the effort. If the Blazers played every game this way, even with the evening not being perfect, there wouldn't be much cause to complain.

Boxscore

Check out what Cavs fans think at FeartheSword.

See how you did in tonight's Jersey Contest here. (We had some good scores!) Enter tomorrow's form here.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

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Rockets vs Trailblazers Game Preview

Xiane — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:43:34 -0000

We are playing the Portland Trailblazers. We have always played the Portland Trailblazers. We have always been at war with Oceania.

Well, not quite. But if there's one team we've seen a lot of lately, it is Portland. And overall this is a good thing, because the Blazers are an entertaining team to watch, the fans at Blazer's Edge are generally bright and reasonable, and they aren't the Lakers (whom we have also seen a lot of lately).

Both teams come into tonight's matchup with fairly similar records, but quite likely, very different feelings about those records. Rockets fans seem to be reasonably pleased with what the Rockets have achieved with their star-deprived roster. Trailblazer fans? Not so much, I think.

There are no panicked Blazer fans running shrieking through the firs yet, but it might not be far off if Portland drops a 4^th consecutive game. Thus far, instead of consolidating their gains of the past two seasons, and stepping up to contention, Portland seems to be struggling to find consistency.

I can't say I'm surprised that the addition of Andre Miller has not stabilized their PG situation, but instead made it, somehow, worse. Miller just seems to have that effect, despite there being nothing essentially wrong with his game. Miller is presumably on the trading block now, which given his summer signing, is not a ringing endorsement. Perhaps if Miller is traded Bayless might get a chance, but I doubt it.

The real story thus far is the continued development of Greg Oden, a concept not unlike that of process theology. Greg Oden is not omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, polyamorous. But Greg Oden is becoming omniscient, omnipotent, etc, etc. It is the faith of the believers that makes this process true.

Of course, for a center to be truly effective, the offense needs to run through him. This is a concept Portland has thus far failed to grasp. Tonight would be a poor night for them to start, and if the drama in PDX's frontcourt continues to steer the ship, then we have little worry in that direction. Even so, Oden has been highly effective cleaning up garbage and playing D. Chuck Hayes will have his hands full. We'll see if David Andersen can draw Oden out of the paint, or if he will be trampled on defense.

Portland has, it is true, suffered from some injuries, but this is where their vaunted depth should shine. Meanwhile, we'll continue to be scrappy, stroppy, gritty and hustleful and pray it sees us through yet again. That or sound, unselfish, basketball.

Matchup Analysis - I always get this wrong. Write Your Own Punchline!

Portland has been experimenting with its starting lineup. What we see tonight may in no way resemble this description.

PG - Blake vs Brooks

Steve Blake is a good player with some real limitations. One is that when defending a player like Brooks he often resembles a turnstile. Andre Miller is somewhat better at defense, but has his own limitations - mainly that he sometimes fails to understand his role in the offense and takes shots away from more productive scorers.

Advantage: Rockets

SG - Roy vs Ariza.

Brandon Roy, for my money, is one of the top 3 SG in the league at this point. Trevor Ariza is the sort of player who can slow him down. Will he? We'll see. Roy has put up some huge games against us recently.

Advantage: Blazers

SF - Webster vs Battier

If Greg Oden is becoming God, then, Portland fans seem to reason, Nic Batum is obviously an archangel, if only because he actually seems to enjoy playing D. Unfortunately for them, he's hurt and they merely have a recent top 10 draft pick to replace him in Martell Webster. Some criticism has Webster content to loiter around the 3pt line, and not much else. I have no idea what Webster will bring. We all know what Battier will bring, but will he add 6 blocks? Let's hope so.

Advantage: Even

PF - Aldridge/Cunningham vs Scola/Landry

LaMarcus Aldridge is no doubt an effective player, with a sweet jumper. He's not really my preferred style of PF though. He can get hot and score points in bunches certainly, and his mid-range game seems made to work with an offense running through an omnipotent center. For now, that offense isn't Portland. Cunningham is another talented young Blazer player, a rookie in fact. I think Scola and Landry bring more to the party, especially the way Landry has been playing.

Advantage: Rockets

C - Odin vs Hayes

We discussed the incipient divinity of Odin in great detail. The All-Father remains a great unknown, perhaps a great-unknowable to mere Rockets' fans. Unless a raven whispers something in our ear soon, then it is not given for us to know what may transpire. Hayes can frustrate nearly any big man, but a Big God? Well, that could be different. We may see lots of Andersen, drawing Odin out of the paint, as Australians just don't show proper respect to anyone.

Advantage: Portland

Prediction: A tough game, but Portland may be in some disarray. Rockets by 4.

For coverage greater than that which can be conceived - Blazer's Edge.

Wednesday Practice Report

Ben. — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:14:06 -0000

More photos » by Rick Bowmer - AP

Forget about it.

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The theme of Nate McMillan's comments today was his team's defense and, particularly, its poor perimeter defense. In response to a question from Brian T. Smith, McMillan said...

We're not up close enough. We're not able to get into the ball and do the things (we should be doing).

We're missing key guys. Nic really set the tone for defensively how we played. Now we have guys who are working at that. They're not as good but they're working at it.

The interesting thing about McMillan's "not close enough" observation is how universal this complaint is among basketball coaches at every level. I've heard it from AAU coaches this summer, college coaches, I can even remember my grade school coaches harping about it.

No question, the spatial relationship between ball-handler and defender is a building block of any defensive system. So, why do defenders back off? There are three main reasons why this happens, regardless of what level of basketball you're talking about.

One, they don't trust their footwork or foot speed and give extra space to compensate.
Two, they don't trust or understand their help defense or defensive system and give space to prevent a bigger breakdown.
Three, they are simply not committed to defense on every possession.

At times over the last week, we've seen all three of those situations. Steve Blake has given space to prevent getting burned. Martell Webster struggled with forcing players away from their hot spots and towards his teammates. Brandon Roy and Andre Miller take plays off, content to allow jump shots over the top.

I turned back to Nate McMillan for his thoughts on this subject. When he watches game tape what sticks out the most to him? What is he looking to correct?

Blazersedge: You said guys aren't close enough. Can you pinpoint a reason for that? They don't trust their footwork, their team defense or is it just an effort thing?

I think it's -- you're all of a sudden asking some guys to do something that they haven't had to do [in the past].

Martell [Webster] has now become one of our guys that we are trying to put on the best offensive player. Well, he's been a shooter all of his life. And now going from a mindset of what I do best to what the team needs you to do.

Brandon [Roy] is having to take on some of that this year.

Rudy [Fernandez] has that assignment. Rudy is a scorer. And he's had to take on that assignment because we don't have [Travis] Outlaw, we don't have Nicolas [Batum], he has to become a defender. He has to defend better. Somewhat become a stopper.

Now it puts even more pressure on guys like [Steve] Blake to have to become better defenders on the perimeter.

With that answer I think you get a pretty harsh dose of reality of what this team is facing right now. Simply put, the Blazers perimeter defense is stretched dangerously thin.

As McMillan notes, with Nicolas Batum and Travis Outlaw out for a long time, everyone is being asked to do more. Average defenders are now drawing above-average assignments. Below-average defenders are now drawing average assignments. Wing defenders are playing more minutes and thus are at greater risk for exposure.

There's no quick fix for that. Personnel might improve but it's not going to happen overnight. If you're in Nate McMillan's shoes and you're thinking about ways to improve this team, a minor trade for a perimeter defender might make a lot of sense. Otherwise, you're faced with the prospect of running out these same players who have struggled defensively for months to come.

That's a tough, tough pill for a coach to swallow. How many hours of tape of bad defense can you watch?

For a second look at the Blazers' recent defensive struggles, Kevin Pelton tackles the subject with graphs over at Basketball Prospectus. His conclusion: teams have simply shot better against the Blazers over the last five games.

Is that a product of weak perimeter defense, luck or both? Feel free to weigh in down below in the comments.

Some other quick-hitting notes from a nearly empty practice gym today. I guess there's this Civil War thing going on that has most of the local media distracted.

Patty Mills was in the gym dressed for practice but didn't participate in drills aside from some light shooting.
LaMarcus Aldridge did not practice and was receiving treatment in the training room for the knee contusion that kept him out of last night's game. Nate McMillan currently says he is a gametime decision for Saturday. The Blazers won't practice tomorrow so that will give Aldridge something like 72 hours of time for his knee. If that's not enough and he misses practice again on Friday it might be time to get a little bit concerned.
Greg Oden did not practice due to a tweaked ankle, although he was in the gym getting shots up and had a smile on his face as he joked with coaches. McMillan seemed pretty confident he would play on Saturday. I think they were mostly just giving the big guy a rest.

-- Ben Golliver | (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com) | Twitter

RECAP: Warriors 108, Blazers 94 – Great way to start a weekend

dj fuzzylogic — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:29:14 -0000

The Warriors have found the big man they've always wanted.

Chris Hunter, formerly of the D-league as of earlier yesterday afternoon, started the second half of the Warriors win over the Portland Trailblazers and shutdown Greg Oden. This definitely secured the win as without Hunter's defensive presence in the paint, the Warriors might have been down by as many as a dozen or more like the first quarter where Oden dominated and helped the Trailblazers race out to an early lead.

The Warriors haven't had this stellar of a debut by a big man since Marc Jackson, jokes Atma Brother #1.

Hunter's defensive presence, however, reflected a larger team effort from the whole dubs squad where defense might have been as important, for once, as scoring.

For more, see what the good folks at Blazers Edge have to say about the game!

SBN Nation boxscore

Warriors Web- Post Game Links

Final - 11.20.2009	1	2	3	4	Total
Portland Trail Blazers	37	15	23	19	94
Golden State Warriors	29	27	27	25	108

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Chris Hunter is now part of a proud line of D-league studs that have found their roots in the NBA through the Golden State Warriors academy of basketball. Like those before him, Hunter shows a surprisingly steady game and solid fundamentals. The Warriors, surprisingly, ran an isolation for him against Oden, which he hit an open jumper on his first shot attempt, a fadeaway over Oden's Mr. Fantastic stretched arms. He then hit a cutting Curry with a nice bounce pass into the lane which led to a wide open jumper in the corner by Morrow. Within his first 6 minutes of playing, you would have thought this guy had been playing with the Warriors for a while. Or maybe this is really suggestive of how skimpy the Warriors playbook is? At any rate, I'm seeing some nice things from this University of Michigan alum. This might be might be the proudest I've ever been for that school, which I and R.Dizzle currently attend.

Anyway, our new #31 is a far cry from our old #31.

But things weren't looking that great. From jump, I thought this game was about to be a disaster. Maybe it was ominous clouds and stormy weather all day. But before tip-off, things already didn't feel right. Usually, coming to the Oracle Arena is equivalent to hitting up the hottest club in the east bay. Good looking women decked out in the voluntary dress code of Warriors gear, fly sneakers or heels, and a beer. The quality that we're used to was not quite there...yet. Oh yea, and then there was that Greg Oden guy too.

Anthony Randolph looked completely helpless against him on defense. Steve Blake was even tearing into the Warriors, backing down Curry repeatedly on the block or shooting over him.

As if this wasn't insulting enough, the Dreyers ice cream up in club 200 cost $6.00 a cup. That's exactly two times the price of the Loards ice cream across the street from my house. The ice cream was good, but this was just reflective of all the ugliess at the Oracle - on and off the court. Damn you Cohan.

Luckily, things changed quickly in the second quarter. Oden in foul trouble paved the way for the Warriors to, intelligently, attack the basket. Monta Ellis did what he does amazingly, which is getting to the hoop. Stephen Curry did what Warriors SHOULD do more often, which is getting Anthony Morrow involved the best way Morrow knows how: hitting open jumpers. The steady balance of inside outside definitely kept the Warriors in the game during the second half.

You know who also kept us fans in the game? The Warriors Girls. Susan Hovey (choreographer and dance director) looks like she's assembled the best line-up since 2003-2004. The WG's rockin' their white-on-white booty shorts and crop top/sports bra get-up was a nice touch. Susan Hovey is finally promising us what she originally came here to do: establish more "Pussycat Dolls" type entertainment. The cheering stinky dudes sitting dudes next to me hogging the arm rests wildly cheering attests to the fan appreciation of Hovey's efforts on her end (Riley could learn a thing or two). Also, yesterday was Hovey's birthday, so everyone please wish her a happy birthday if you can via GSoM.

But it seemed that the Warriors last night lived and died by Dennis Rodman's wise words from Double Team: "Offense gets the glory, but defense wins the games." As awesome as Monta's and Morrow's offensive stats looked last night, it was really the collective hustle on the boards (sans Oden on the floor), smart help defensive by Vladimir Radmanovic, and Monta's man-to-man defense on Brandon Roy that helped seal this victory. Radman was all over the place on defense, but not like Randolph (we'll get to that in a second). You could see him doubling down in the paint when necessary. He was often the first person to try to defend a wide open man. He was even crashing the boards when Randolph struggled to get position against Pryzbilla. The best thing about Radman? He shot .500 and not one of those attempts was a 3-pointer. Talk about efficiency.

Maybe playing with Kobe back in the day actually paid off?

As the second quarter came to an end and the Warriors raced out to a short lead, Oracle started looking like the hot spot for good looking people that I always knew it to be. Maybe they showed up late. Or maybe I was just in a better mood.

Anyways, the third quarter featured Hunter and his ability to contain and frustrate Oden in ways that Randolph and MIKEY clearly weren't able to, which proved to be the difference maker, in my opinion.

Monta showed me (and Atma) a defensive side of him that he wants everyone to know. He clearly put his back into it for once -- a new defensive stance perhaps? Of course, in the process, he manages to publicly and passive aggressively diss his teammates:

"It definitely gets overlooked," Ellis said. "I hear people say Monta can't play defense, but if you go back and look at the tapes, you don't see Monta getting burned. I can do that day-in and day-out." (Yahoo! recap)

We would like to see that. And more of that impressive court awareness that led to 6 steals, several off intercepted passes either cross court or on the break.

But sometimes I can't tell whether Monta's offensive dominance just means he's a glorified Ben Gordon. Meaning, a lot of times it just looks like Monta has some major tunnel vision and already knows he's going to shoot it before he even gets the ball. Monta's game has grown a bit on both ends of the floor, and I wonder if there is more to come as the season progresses.

And Hunter's ability to play steadily clearly highlights Randolph's inefficiencies and mental lapses as a young player. His two offensive fouls calls on wild drive to the hoop don't quite capture the problems of his game like when he battled Stephen Curry for a rebound to the point that he knocked the ball out of bounds off of Curry. After a tremendous defensive effort by Randolph to prevent the Blazers' second chance points, which had hounded him throughout the first half, Randolph managed to tap the ball out away from his opponents. You have to love his hustle to try to corral the ball in. But plays that make you groan and wonder if this kid will get it together or if he's just regressing into bad habits. I won't get into it much more, but Hunter's 2-2 from the field reminds you, or possibly makes you want to forget, Randolph's 4 bricks all within half a foot from the basket. This guy needs to learn some tips on how to finish in the paint, quickly.

The Warriors lead hit twenty deep into fourth quarter and when the buzzer rang, you would have thought the Warriors just won the championship with the confetti falling from the sky. Why make the janitors' job more difficult?

Tonight's Warrior Wonder has to go to Chris Hunter. While the obvious choice is probably Monta or Morrow, I chose Hunter based off his ability to step in and make a difference instantly in his limited minutes. He was so good that the crowd gave him a standing ovation. Can we expect him to start the next game?

Game 11 Recap: Blazers 80, Bobcats 74

Dave — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:00:56 -0000

More photos » by Rick Havner - AP

BOOOOO!!! You STINK! I've scored more than that in a game all by myself! A blind man could have put this team togeth...oh wait.

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As reported below Travis Outlaw has suffered a stress fracture in his left foot. Updates as they become available.

This was another nice win by the Blazers on a much less than perfect night. They're starting to make a habit of this. I don't know whether that's good or bad, but I'm quite pleased that they won.

The game started out with the Blazers making a concerted effort to go to their stars. Roy, Aldridge, and Oden took the shots coming out of the gate. Only Oden was successful initially. Charlotte, on the other hand, did everything they could to get the ball inside. Unfortunately they came face to face with the Block Ness Monster in the form of Greg Oden, who swiftly taught them that jumpers are the better part of valor. They hung with the Blazers in the first quarter from the perimeter as both sides took mostly outside shots (almost universally missed) peppered with a few layups. The score was knotted at 18 after one.

The second period started with Portland's offense DOA as again they took the easy way out and lofted it over the top. With Oden having been out since the 7:22 mark of the first quarter with foul trouble there was nobody to buck the trend. Charlotte simply packed the inside on defense, waited for the rebound, then tried to run out. They had a fair amount of success but their attack wasn't explosive enough to get them up by more than 8. Finally after a painful series of turnovers and 20+ foot misses Andre Miller broke the ice, getting fouled on his way to the bucket and converting the free throws. Then Roy drove for a layup. All of a sudden the light went on and it was time to administer the spankings. Every point after was either at the rim, at the foul line, or off of a clear (and much closer) jumper. The Blazers went on an 18-2 run to finish the quarter up 8, having been down by the same amount halfway through.

One of the nice things about the Blazers in this winning stretch is that they've taken starts and ends of periods seriously, especially the start of the third. Tonight was no exception. They repeated the attack from the top of the game, going to Oden, Aldridge, and Roy with one Miller jumper thrown in. The big three ballooned the lead to 16 in less than 5 minutes. At that point Oden left the game and again the interior offense came to a halt. Had every fan in Charlotte simultaneously left their lights on in the parking lot the Blazers still could have provided them all jumpers. On the other hand it might not have worked as they couldn't find the post to save their lives. On the other end Charlotte started getting layups and tip-ins. Lo and behold, it's a four-point game after three.

Oden scored the first four points of the final period but by that time Charlotte was in no mood to cede the game. They scrapped hard, hit some jumpers, grabbed some rebounds, and tried to wrest it away. At this point Rudy Fernandez came in and provided some energy play to keep the Blazers in it, jumping dribblers and grabbing rebounds. Charlotte hit some threes but not enough to put them over the top. The Blazers made their free throws, weathered the obligatory Tyson Chandler whiny-soft-tough-guy temper tantrum (he wisely made sure Przybilla wasn't in the game this time), watched the refs miss a second-foul-in-the-last-two-minutes call, and still came out ahead 80-74 in a game filled with mistakes for everyone.

In a game featuring 8 assists for the Blazers (yikes!) you know this one was about individual efforts. Credit the Big Three, Miller, and Fernandez. Portland again held the opponent to sub-37% shooting. Gerald Wallace was held to 12 points on the strength of Portland's interior defenders and nobody else outside of Boris Diaw could make a difference. After they were thwarted early on the Bobcats stayed out of the middle for far too long and ended up paying the price. Portland made 21 foul shots to Charlotte's 8. The Blazers also moderated their turnovers. The only area where Charlotte did what they wanted was offensive rebounds, of which they collected 16, likely due to Oden being limited to 17 minutes of play.

Individual Notes

Greg Oden was a game-changer again, as should be evident by his name coming up every second sentence heretofore. He finished a perfect 4-4 from the field, confounding Charlotte defenders, tallying 8 points. He added 4 rebounds and 4 blocks. The 17 minutes were all about foul trouble. He ended up fouling out too, providing some justification for Nate's "Two fouls and you're down" rule. The perimeter defenders left him exposed on a couple drives. It wasn't that obnoxious, but all you need is two whistles to turn a 30-minute, 4-foul night into a 15-minute ejection.

LaMarcus Aldridge had a rough offensive night at 4-11 and 11 points, losing the scoring duel to Diaw. It didn't matter because the guys surrounding him were better and because he kept active despite missing. I like the energy LaMarcus has been putting out during this streak. He's a guy who could be demanding 18-20 shots per game but he's working for the team. Don't lose sight of that despite the rocky offensive start to the season.

Brandon Roy was on tonight and played a fairly complete game. You never noticed him taking over. He pretty much did it in the flow. 25 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 turnovers. His teammates helped him with Wallace too.

Andre Miller played an aggressive game tonight, doing everything from driving to hitting baseline jumpers to taking D.J. Augustin in the post and making him look about 4'9" tall. He helped spearhead the much-needed lane attack. 5-12, 5-5 from the line, 15 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist. Don't let the assist worry you. It wasn't that kind of night.

Steve Blake shot 10 three-pointers tonight and hit 2. Every field goal attempt was from beyond the arc. He did dribble-penetrate though and he picked up a couple of assists to go along with his 8 points and 4 rebounds.

Rudy Fernandez provided a lift in the fourth when everybody else looked tired. The game almost looked like it was going south until he stepped in. Like Blake, every field goal attempt came from beyond the arc but he hit 2-5 instead of 2-10. 10 points, 7 rebounds in 26 minutes.

Joel Przybilla tried to keep the middle safe and picked up 6 boards in 26 minutes. It wasn't his greatest game but he didn't hurt us either.

Martell Webster missed all three of his shot attempts in 11 minutes. At least he collected 2 rebounds. Juwon Howard played 12 minutes, hit a shot and a free throw, and got 0 rebounds...same as Charlotte's DeSagana Diop. Except Diop didn't dress tonight.

Final Thoughts and Links

4-0 on a five-game road swing. 4-1 is the worst that can happen. I don't care who you are, that's fine work. I'd give equal chances for a Blazer win or a huge blowout in Atlanta's favor Monday. Portland also has to watch on that first game back home as the tendency will be to relax. But none of that takes away 4-0 on a five-game road swing.

Boxscore

See what they thought of us at RufusonFire

See your Jersey Contest scores here and enter Monday's game at the form page. NOTE that we have a TRAVIS OUTLAW'S MINUTES QUESTION in that form. Just put "0" and take your 10 points.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

Gameday Preview vs. Portland Trail Blazers

David Arnott — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:16:35 -0000

Pump Up Music: Jimmy Eat World -- "Bleed American"

The Big Picture: Depending how you view Brandon Roy, the Portland Trail Blazers are either a traditional NBA title contender, or they're a dark horse contender with talent up and down the roster, but no singular superstar spearheading everything. I happen to be in the Brandon Roy Is A Superstar camp. Portland fans are lucky to be watching a Hall of Fame caliber guard leading them (not saying he's going to the HoF, just that he's producing at that level now), and that's one of the prerequisites of a championship team.

The best part for them, though, is that the rest of the team is pretty stacked, too. LaMarcus Aldridge is a borderline All Star who's picked up his rebounding this year. Steve Blake and Andre Miller have a really high floor at PG; between the two of them, it's nearly guaranteed they won't get a stinker from the position in a given game. Of course, there's Greg Oden, who may not be the Evolutionary Russell like some breathless folks thought back when he was drafted, but at the absolute least, he's every bit Kevin Love's equal, only without nearly as many questions about his defensive capabilities.

Last night, the Blazers ground out a win over the Hornets, who were without Chris Paul for the fourth quarter after an ankle injury. Brandon Roy logged the most minutes, with 38, and all twelve guys played. In other words, they're reasonably rested for the seconf half of a back to back. Look for the same kind of minutes distribution again, with the Blazers going ten deep. Blake and Miller should start together, and Joel Przybilla, Travis Outlaw, Martell Webster, Jerryd Bayless, and Rudy Fernandez could all get at least ten minutes each.

Key to Victory: I'm most concerned about the Aldridge-Boris Diaw matchup. If Gerald Wallace ends up on Roy for much of the game, that's awesome for us, and if it's Raja Bell, then so be it, because he's probably still a better option than Flip, and if Felton's guarding Roy, that means D.J. Augustin is in the game. While he should get every opportunity to play his way out of his slump, D.J.'s been a horror show the past few times out. But I don't think we have any kind of answer for Aldridge other than Diaw stepping up his game. Crash might be able to contain him a bit, but that would require putting Diaw on even more perimeter-oriented players, and that's no good. Physically, Freedom Fries is probably best suited to dealing with Aldridge, but that's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay outside the box thinking at this point. Might Larry Brown follow up on his idea to play Tyson Chandler at the four sometime this season and go with Muhammad for stretches?

Detail That ~~Might Interest .08% of You~~ Should Interest 100% of You: Blazersedge, the SB Nation Trail Blazers blog, holds a Blazersedge Night every year, in which readers donate Blazers tickets to kids who wouldn't otherwise get to go. Please consider it yourself. One of the best Christmas gifts I've ever received was when the then-Official Girlfriend of Rufus on Fire bought a few of those tickets in my name.

Cap space and draft picks oh my!

Stop-n-Pop — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:55:36 -0000

More photos » by Don Ryan - AP

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The caption on this picture says that Jonny Flynn is battling Steve Blake and LaMarcus Aldridge during the first half of their game. In reality, Flynn had lost control of his dribble and simply fallen over in the lane, dropping the ball into the hands of a Portland defense who was willing and able to relieve him of possession. Such was the night for the Wolves. These are the sorts of contests where you really hope that the Wolves' coaching staff knows what they are doing because to the fan's naked eye, there really wasn't anything that went right. Nothing.

BTW: before you head below the jump, you should click here to read our newest feature: Money Talks with shrink.

We all knew this was going to be a long season. We all knew the Wolves weren't going to be world beaters. Most fans know that the Wolves have put themselves into a situation with a solid organizational future filled with cap space and draft picks. We know that the new coaching staff is installing a system with a high learning curve. We all know that being a Wolves fan in 2009/10 requires a load of patience.

All of that being written, there are some quarters, some halves, and some nights--even this early in the season--where even the most patient amongst us has to be wondering "what the hell?"

David Kahn started his tenure by priming the pump for an expectation of a two point guard system. He drafted a bunch of points, signed one more, and then hired a coach who won't put two points on the floor together. Al Jefferson, the team's highest scorer and best paid player, is looking completely hampered by injury and by a system that seems 100% not geared to utilize his talents. The team's best all-around player is out for 6-8 weeks with a broken hand and will probably take a few weeks to get back in the swing of things once he finally finds his way back onto the court.

I give this team about a 2% chance of finishing the season with its current roster. Something is going to give. Someone is going to get moved. This is a good thing. This team has a lot of assets and, by all accounts, they have a hard working VPBO who is willing to make the big deal. The problem for us fans is that the current product is...well, what are we supposed to feel about it on nights like the ones against Milwaukee and Portland? This team was blown up in the off season and it looks even more mismatched than last year's group. Yes, Jonny Flynn is intriguing. Yes, it looks like Kurt Rambis and his staff knows what they are doing, but can this franchise weather the storm of unwatchable ball with players who are likely not part of the long term plan? Who on this club can you be sure will be around in 2 months? Really, even Al Jefferson has to be put into question at this point. He looks like a square peg out there...a square peg who can't play defense and is 30 pounds more mismatched at the 5.

It's not that they're not playing hard. It's not that there aren't some things to be excited about, but...well, I don't think I really appreciated just how much Kahn's early dealing put this entire franchise into a state of flux and how that would affect my interest in what is going on out there on the court. I will watch the games because I love pro ball and the Wolves are my favorite team, but watching the squad against the Blazers I couldn't help but think that we're going to see about 10 more changes to this team in the next year and that I have more allegiance to what might happen than to whatever Pecherov, Wilkins, Cardinal based rotation we see run out on the floor. Jonny Flynn can put up 20 points a night but the most exciting thing about this club is still its cap space and draft picks. That's crazy. A lot of people have emailed me to ask me when I think the Wolves will "turn the corner". My answer to this is the moment we stop talking about draft picks and cap space for about 10 games in a row. For now, it's more entertaining to talk about things like whether or not Big Al is a fit or whether Ryan Gomes and Ramon Sessions will get traded before the end of the year. That's a bit more problematic than I thought it would be at the start of the season.

Getting around to the actual game, here's the Four Factors:

	Pace	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Minnesota	94.0	98.9	48.8%	14.5	21.3	16.0
Portland		123.4	54.3%	32.9	29.3	13.8

(UPDATE) The PopcornMachine GameFlow is available here. (UPDATE)

The most disappointing aspect of this particular game was a complete unwillingness of anyone in blue to attack the paint. Greg Oden is a nice young center and the Blazers have a lot of young athletic wings who can make that sort of thing a bit of a pain, but if you are going to win in the NBA you need to attack the rim and get to the line.

Another disappointing thing of note was the Wolves getting out-assisted 35 to 19 and out-rebounded by 10. Al Jefferson was in full Black Hole mode, drawing the entire offense to a grinding halt whenever he touched the ball while taking a good 5-6 seconds to set up a one-handed push shot that rarely was on mark. Nathan Jawai repaced him and proceeded to find Ramon Sessions twice in the middle of the lane where he could do nothing with the ball because he was surrounded by nothing but trees. On too many possessions, 3 or 4 Wolves just stood around and watched.

As for the rebounding...the less said about that the better.

I don't have any bullet points for this game. It was completely non-descript on the part of the Wolves. Jawai had some nice moves, Gomes played OK, and Corey Brewer found some time to make a few good hustle plays as well as keeping the Wolves from getting ally-ooped on a couple of times.

The last thing I have to say about this game is that I hope whoever gets to stick around for 2-3 years remembers this one. I hope they remember the Blazers taking 3s and going for the Sports Center dunks while being up by 25 (quick side note: how in the world did Ramon Sessions get called for a foul when Martell Webster jumped on his back?). This is one of those tilts that you have to file away in the revenge file. The Blazers came out and kicked the you-know-what out of the Wolves and they kept on kicking when they were down. I'll never hope an injury on anyone but this was one of those games where you were kind of hoping Jawai or Brian Cardinal would have put someone trying a 3 while up by nearly 30 on their back. Perhaps the Wolves aren't even at that level of play. Maybe there's nothing long term for the majority of these guys to protect. Whatever the case, here's hoping someone remembers what kind of crap was put out there last night and does something to change it when they get the chance with a better surrounding cast somewhere way, way, way down the line...well past 70+ more games of wondering who will get to stay or go, and what, if anything, will be done with all that cap space.

Until later.

Game 3 Recap: Portland 83, Oklahoma City 74

Zorgon — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:22:07 -0000

More photos » by Sue Ogrocki - AP

Nice Pose, KD. You'd make a great model!

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Yahoo! Sports Box Score:

The tagline for this game should be, "If all else fails, get fouled!". That's pretty much all I saw. Everybody immediately wants to chalk this up to bad shooting and call it one of the worst games the Thunder has played. But I think this game was one of beauty. It was one where both teams played such excellent defense that nobody could score. Nobody could penetrate the lane easily. Nobody could get an open shot. It was just two excellent defensive teams going at it, and when a basket was actually scored, it was usually something to behold. Games like this haven't been seen often since the 1980s, so when they actually do happen, I try to treasure them for what they are, not criticize everybody on the team for having a horrible night.

This is the type of game where you'd expect Russell Westbrook to flourish, and in a sense, he did, scoring 23 points on 8-12 Shooting, grabbing 4 Rebounds, dishing 2 Assists, Stealing it twice, and Blocking 2 shots. Nonetheless, he eliminated all the good he did by fouling out and having 9 turnovers. If I was Anne robinson, the mean British woman from The Weakest Link, I might find a few choice things to say about Russell Westbrooks performance. Deplorable? Pathetic? Speaking of Britain, the Thunder Girls apparently appeared on Blue Peter this summer. The Morning Animals asked if it was like Britians version of Late Night with David Letterman, and they confirmed this fact. Except, Blue Peter is not a late night talk show. It's a kids show. More like Reading Rainbow than anything else. Okay, that's enough about the Thunder and Britain. I promise.

Everybody has immediately jumped on the train of thought that we lost this game because of Kevin Durant and his 3-21 shooting. Well, that's somewhat right, but somewhat wrong. A lot of his missed shots were attempts to get the ball down the lane and get fouled. Sadly, he's not as good at that as Brandon Roy, or a guy like Kevin Martin who we've seen earlier. He's good at getting it down there, but he can't do it all game, and he definitely needs to step out to mid-range and the 3 point line in order to be completely effective. But, his performance wasn't that bad considering he made 10 free throws, which is 5 shots, which amounts to a 8-21 night. Jeff Green had a similar problem, but on a smaller scale.

Meanwhile, out of all of the Role Players, guess who had the best game. Comeon, just guess. Nope, it's Etan Thomas! 9 Rebounds, 4 Points, 50% Shooting, and 1 Block. You can't ask much more of him. Since his performance was the only one without flaws, I'm giving him the Thunder Wonder award tonight. No joke! And, Jeff Green grabs the Thunder Down Under Award, for being not totally terrible. And, the Thunder Blunder goes to Russell Westbrook. No kidding.

On the TrailBlazers side of things, they played a much more team oriented game, and I bet they're glad to come out of the Ford Center with a much-needed win. Greg Oden was a beat in the paint with 12 and 10, Steve Blake dominated from 3 point range, and Roy, Webster, and Outlaw all had okay scoring nights. Nevertheless, you've got to give the Thunder Plunderer to Steve Blake, who hit the 3 Points Daggers when they most mattered.

As a short note, David Franzoni has taken over my old blog, Blue Blitz. I'm glad to see someone took over my old site, and I'm sure he'll do a good job. Check him out.

Next Game: Versus the Lakers, Tuesday, November 3rd at 7PM Central Standard Time.

Game 4 Recap: Blazers 83, Thunder 74

Dave — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:47:30 -0000

More photos » by Sue Ogrocki - AP

No matter what anyone says, my elbow is better than the back of your head.

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Two questions surrounded the contest between the Blazers and Thunder tonight. The first, most immediate, and most important is simply, "Would the Blazers win?" The answer, thankfully, is yes. Portland took advantage of Greg Oden's interior dominance, Brandon Roy's bull-headedness, and some timely jump shooting to outscore Oklahoma City in an ugly game in which the offense for both teams was sporadic and sub-par. The game came down to a contest of wills and Portland, with more experience at winning when things go astray, took it in the fourth quarter.

Surprisingly the Blazers failed to control the boards in their usual fashion. The Thunder snagged 14 offensive rebounds on the night, 7 by Jeff Green alone. The upside was that Greg Oden vacuumed up everything that came his way off the glass. Do not take his rebounding ability for granted just because you're starting to see it every night. He is one of those guys who can bend the game just from the caroms he retrieves. He looked like a force tonight. He didn't get every rebound but for the most part if Greg was near it nobody else was getting it. The rest of the team ended up looking fairly mediocre on the boards as a whole, a couple of vibrant plays excepted. You just didn't see the Blazers wrest control of the glass, the game, and the tempo early. That made it a more difficult affair than it needed to be.

On the plus side the Blazers broke down the Thunder early by getting it into the lane. Greg Oden (a second mention!) had a couple of nice post moves which caused them to pay attention to him. Jumpers followed and after that cuts off of screens. This kept the Thunder wondering where the attack was coming from and led to a couple of sweet-looking halfcourt sets...the kind where the pass is as spectacular as the finish. That, combined with OKC missing a ton of otherwise makeable shots, gave the Blazers a 10-point lead after the first quarter.

At the beginning of the second period with largely reserves in the Blazers' offense stalled completely. They went one-on-one a great deal, resulting in an astonishing number of turnovers. At one point they had committed 7 TO's in 6 minutes. It was like the team collectively lost its brain. Everybody was over-dribbling and then bail-out passing. The ball never got anywhere near scoring position. Meanwhile the Thunder were gaining energy off the break and by making mincemeat out of the Blazer defense using Russell Westbrook. Westbrook would end up with 9 turnovers on the night but he also sliced and diced repeatedly, making the Blazers look powerless to stop him unless he coughed it up. The Blazers promptly and obligingly lost their lead, finishing the half with 39 points, heading into the locker room up 2.

Portland extended its lead by only 2 points in an equally ugly third quarter. The offense once again consisted of everybody exploring their own possibilities for several seconds before getting stymied and bailing out with a pass to someone else...who explored their own possibilities for several seconds before getting stymied. It's not like the Thunder were putting on a defensive clinic. They didn't have to. All they had to do was follow the ball. The big exception was Brandon Roy, who actually made threatening moves off the dribble. He didn't produce points in the quarter but he did break down the defense, allowing guys like Webster and Blake to find shots.

Roy kept the ball in the fourth, drawing multiple fouls. Webster and Blake continued to chip in. Oklahoma City, meanwhile, forced shots. When the Blazers smelled the blood in the water they upped the pressure, converted the points, and never let the Thunder up off of the mat. Badda-bing, badda-boom, wrap up the victory.

But that brings us to the second question of the evening: "Would the Blazers win in such a way that evidenced sustainably good basketball, so as to make you think they had their act together?" The answer to that one was no. Granted, Portland likely would not have won this type of game on the road a couple years ago. In that sense they have shown strides and due credit is given. You don't have to worry about the Blazers chucking a game like this because they fell apart or failed to exert effort. But concerns remain nevertheless.

This still doesn't look like a team that trusts each other on offense when under any kind of pressure. The ball movement is beautiful when the defense breaks down. Portland isn't going to pass up opportunities and between Fernandez, Miller, and Roy they have the chops to convert pretty plays. But when the defense is even remotely decent the offense devolves into watching somebody work or passing fruitlessly without real attack. The Blazers certainly have the talent to exploit individual matchups but it's not the best part of their game. More to the point, until Roy steps in and just takes over it doesn't look like they're trying to exploit matchups on purpose. They seem more like they lack better ideas after their initial screen doesn't produce a shot, so they just give it to somebody who looks likely, saying, "Do something!" Often that person tries to create for themselves, drawing the defense, but others don't react in time...maybe because they're not sure yet what's going to happen. So you end up with an awkward jumper or a guy getting double teamed, having to stop, and not being able to make an incisive pass to find the open man. Or, as in the second quarter tonight, you end up with turnovers. Basically the ball slows down to a crawl and even mediocre defenders are all over it.

This is still a team that's giving up more free throws than it takes. The disparity tonight was huge until that fourth-quarter run the Blazers made. For whatever reason the Blazers just aren't able to attack the rim with enough authority to draw calls. Either they eschew the drive in favor of the jumper or they get in there and put up something that looks weak enough that the officials have a hard time blowing the whistle. Obviously Brandon Roy is a huge exception, but how long can our offense consist of him penetrating and defenders, knowing exactly where the attack is coming from, setting up to knock him out of the sky? Whether through re-designing the scheme or through more individual commitment the Blazers have got to find a way to get to the line. Without fast break points it's about the only option for easy points.

In a similar vein, Portland has some good shooters but hoisting 21 of 69 attempts from distance is too high of a ratio. They hit 38% of those threes tonight but many nights that's not going to happen. Or even if you don't want to say "many" nights, there will be at least 8-10 games this season where the long ball just isn't dropping. If that's your most devastating assault you're going to lose most of those games. How many games will the division be decided by? Western Conference seeding? Flirting with the three can bring a lot of excitement and zest to your day, but it's fickle and you don't want to tie the knot with it.

The Blazers continue to have trouble with individual defensive matchups and then trouble again covering. Turnovers aside, Russell Westbrook was doing some NSFW things to his defenders tonight. That would be Not Safe For Watching, at least if you're a Portland fan. Had Kevin Durant had any kind of offensive evening (and he was brutal for most of it) Westbrook would have killed us and we likely would have lost. We have problems defensively at point guard still. We have problems covering for point guards. We have trouble when Greg Oden gets drawn into screen situations with a point guard. Back in the day opponents could break us down with half a move and any good pass. Nowadays it has to be a good move and it usually takes two passes, but we still get broken way too much.

In the end this is a little bit like forecasting the economy. Certain indicators seem to say the recession is over. Others aren't budging. Who knows really? But it's pretty certain that even if the Blazers play 75-80% of the games facets in good fashion, that missing 20-25% is going to keep them away from the status they're seeking. Over the long haul they need to build cohesiveness...far more than we're seeing. The short-term goal is winning while growing. Hopefully we'll see a game pretty soon where it all snaps together, confidence builds, and winning basketball builds upon itself. Until then we're due for more ugly nights and nail-biters.

Individual Notes

If you're going to have a bail-out plan in an otherwise ugly game, Brandon Roy is a fine option. Despite the 5-17 shooting night he wasn't going to let this team go down. He dropped 5 dimes and kept the pressure on once it became apparent that the game would be hard-fought. 16 points in 39 minutes.

LaMarcus Aldridge went down with a knee contusion after only 12 minutes of playing time. He made a conscious effort to get inside. Unfortunately he was met by a swarm of defenders there and thwarted. But he stayed aggressive, rebounded the ball well, and even dished 3 assists in his limited minutes. The Blazers have to find a way to keep LaMarcus deeply involved if they want to win consistently.

Greg Oden pretty much feasted in the middle tonight. This was one of those game which, were this 2012-13, he would have scored 30 and grabbed 15 boards. In 2009-10 it was 12 points and 10 rebounds. He also played 29 minutes, about 7 more than he's been used to, with only 4 fouls.

Martell Webster matched Roy for a game-high 39 minutes and scored 10 therein. His main contribution was defensive, as he responded to last night's minute-reduction with a bunch of hard play. He was rewarded with 4 steals, 5 rebounds, and generally poor shooting from his opposing counterparts. To say that was all Martell would be a stretch. But he helped.

Steve Blake scored a Blazers-high 18 tonight, hitting 4 of 5 threes. He was a good offensive outlet and did what he was supposed to. Defensively he was just overmatched. He collected 5 fouls, experiencing the full wrath of Westbrook. He got 31 minutes because, to be fair, who on the Blazers was going to stop Westbrook? That doesn't change the fact that it's a problem even if it's not unique to Steve.

Travis Outlaw played 32 minutes and shot 4-10 for 12 points and 6 rebounds. This wasn't a reliable night for him but he did alright in a Travis-esque way. He's just a gamble in so many ways. On some nights that's fine. He's the dagger in the back the opponent can't guard against. But on nights when you need a reliable frontal assault Travis often comes up short.

Andre Miller played 20 minutes, collected 4 fouls, rebounded the ball 3 times, scored 4 points, and didn't manage an assist. He tried to face down Westbrook a little more aggressively. It was the right idea but it didn't work much better.

Joe Przybilla had 5 rebounds and 4 fouls in 17 minutes. The Blazers keep trying to give him the ball in traffic which is a bad idea. If that pass is available it could be because the opponent doesn't care if you make it. Joel needs his teammates to create such a threat that his man leaves him alone with a seam. Then he can catch and convert. Otherwise he's a one-man No-Passing Zone.

Rudy Fernandez had 2 steals in 14 minutes but had trouble hitting shots or making plays for others. They had him set up the offense a little but he dribbled a lot with not much result. Still a work in progress. With Jeff Green out there dominating the boards it was hard to field a smaller lineup, which probably pinched Rudy's minutes.

Juwon Howard got 9 minutes and managed 3 fouls, a bucket, and a turnover.

Final Thoughts

It'll be interesting to see how the Blazers respond to Atlanta and San Antonio, each a tough opponent presenting disparate challenges. The Hawks may be a kick in the pants to get the Blazers into high gear. If Portland doesn't come to fight for 48 minutes they'll be trouble though. You can feel the humidity thick in the air. There's going to be a lightning strike somewhere. The question is will it be the Blazers igniting and striking another team or will that discharge happen within the team itself as frustration boils over? It's not like the Blazers are in bad shape. They're 2-2, reasonably close to 3-1. But it's been a tough 2-2. Hopefully it gets easier soon.

Boxscore

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--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)