SB Nation User Blog: sergioFTW

Entire Blazers Squad at Team USA Minicamp

sergioFTW — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:48:12 -0000

Entire Blazers Squad at Team USA Minicamp

Well, just about . . . "Also expected at the minicamp are Portland's Greg Oden, Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and Jerryd Bayless;"

Blazers Tickets for the NBA Finals Picked up our playoff tickets last night, but it looks like...

sergioFTW — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:25:42 -0000

Blazers Tickets for the NBA Finals

Picked up our playoff tickets last night, but it looks like they made a mistake and in addition to the 1st and second round, etc., gave us tickets to 4 games of the NBA Finals. Of course, we all know we won't need seven games to win that series.

Link to hi-res image here.

Nate [Hearts] Sergio

sergioFTW — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:57:50 -0000

Nate [Hearts] Sergio

Probably the most positive quotes about Sergio I've ever heard Nate say.

Y'all have me and my wife to thank for the Spanish Armada representing last night. We only break...

sergioFTW — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:59:59 -0000

Y'all have me and my wife to thank for the Spanish Armada representing last night. We only break out this combo of jersey's for the big games.

Rudy [Heart] Sergio

sergioFTW — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:36:48 -0000

Rudy [Heart] Sergio

New NBA TV video, with lots of Rudy Sergio love going on. Includes footage of them in their Euro duds out on the town in NYC.

Sergio the Scapegoat

sergioFTW — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 08:10:44 -0000

Is Jerryd Bayless the shot in the arm the Blazers need?

McMillan was none too pleased with Sergio Rodriguez during the Christmas night loss to Dallas. Sure, Sergio finished 4-for-4 from the field and had a nice backdoor pass to Rudy Fernandez, but McMillan played him only 2:05 of the second half. I asked him Friday why.

"Defense,'' McMillan said, a little more than a touch of disgust in his voice.

"Yeah, the pick-and-roll ...'' I said, noting the Blazers' team-wide problem that night. But before I could finish, McMillan was already shaking his head.

"No, just defense period,'' McMillan said. "He has to play better defense.''

This pisses me off so much I can't even think straight. The game against Dallas featured some of the worst defense we've seen from the team in some time, but to call out Sergio is just ridiculous. I watched Sergio's D very closely in that game and his defense was questionable on no more than 3 plays—outside of that he stayed in front of his man and made the proper rotations. Barea didn't make a single play against Sergio, but with Sergio on the bench looked like Michael Jordan against Blake and the starters. Yes, Terry beat Sergio off the dribble a couple times to make plays. But there was soooo much worse going on that court on xmas.

Why Nate would publicly eviscerate Sergio's defense after this game to justify himself for not getting him time in a game where he was performing very well, is just totally beyond me. It seems clear to me, that regardless of the effect, Sergio is giving 100% on D and improving.

I'll never understand the relationship between Nate and Sergio.

Update:

BrianfromWA made a comment on O-live that runs through Sergio's actual performance on Xmas. I thought it'd be helpful to have it up here for people who are commenting from imperfect recollections (as I myself was):

Why are you bringing up single-game +/- as a personal stat? Let's dig a bit, shall we?
Sergio comes in at 3:21 left in the first. 24-18 Mavs. He's guarding Kidd for 2 minutes, then Barea comes in at :48. Neither one scores or gets an assist for the rest of the first quarter, and we cut from a 6pt lead to a 4pt lead. Sergio has a 3, the amazing assist to Rudy, a layup and sets up Joel for his 2 FTs. So how does he have a bad rating ?
Then, to start the second, Sergio again scores a layup. Then another one. Then the man he's guarding gets the first points or assists in 7 minutes of play when Barea gets a rebound and layup. Sergio then comes out. We're now down 43-33. How can that be? Well, I'm glad you asked. I know Sergio is the whipping boy right now, but perhaps Nate should rethink his idea of having Frye and Outlaw out there at the forward spots at the same time. B/c here's what happened for Dallas around those timeframes...2FTs by Terry, Howard 3, Nowitzki 2, 2 buckets by Singleton, a Wright 3. AND: Travis 0-3, Frye 0-1, Rudy 1-2, Joel Travel, Sergio Bad Pass. But I'm sure it's all the fault of Sergio and his disgusting defense.

FFwd to the 4th quarter. 80-77 good guys, Sergio comes in, immediately commits the foul on Barea. Then Rudy is 0-1, Travis 0-1, Roy 0-2. Meanwhile, DAL goes miss by Terry, miss by Barea (Sergio's guy), make by Nowitzki, make by Bass. Sergio leaves with it 81-80 them.

So to recap: when Sergio was in the game he was 4-4, 9pts, 1 turnover. The man he was guarding was 1-4 with 0 assists. His teammates were 1-10, 2-4 FTs and 1 turnover, while the other team (aside from Sergio's man) were 6-12. Must've been Sergio's disgusting defense. Couldn't be that teammates were missing shots, getting lit up on their own by leaving their men open (and I'm looking at you, Rudy, Travis and Frye).

Spanish Armada FTW

sergioFTW — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:38:44 -0000

Spanish Armada FTW

Quick article on Sergio + Rudy. Lots of money quotes.

TrueHoop Believes!

sergioFTW — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:28:12 -0000

Henry Abbot just posted a nice little story about the world beginning to believe the Blazers are less the lucky hosts of the much-desired shot fairy and more just a solid basketball team. I think we're all beginning to believe. Last night was a great gutsy win for this team. and 15 wins in the last 16 games sounds sooooo nice.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-29-9/Ain-t-No-Fairy.html

Outlaw gets some Yahoo! love

sergioFTW — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:18:05 -0000

There is an article about Outlaw on the front page of Yahoo's NBA page:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AiW.7siIHcs5APdp5jGsm4a8vLYF?slug=aw-outlaw121807&prov=yho o&type=lgns

It's funny how a little 8 game winning streak can get you some national media attention.

maybe if we add 8 more reasons to the streak Outlaw can get people to put his real photo up and remember his name.

ESPN Power Rankings

sergioFTW — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:49:08 -0000

The Blazers win streak, mostly against playoff teams, is getting us some much deserved respect. With this mornings newest Power Rankings by Stein at ESPN, the Blazers come in at #10. 10!, in the whole NBA. Last week we were 20, and the week before I think we were around 25. That's some serious moving up. It's always fun to watch the national media figure out something we've known for awhile. ;)

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking