Game 44: Boston @ Portland 7:00PM KGW

[Moonbeam]

I don't know why Batum is saying he fell on his wrist, you see very clearly he hit it against Sullinger.

He might have fallen on it earlier.

[Norm2953]

Any word why Crabbe did not get into tonight's game? He played a few minutes the other night
but no PT in a second half with a lot of undisciplined 1-1 play. That last second shot does not
work without Batum.

[GreenRiddler]

The refs didn't cause us to lose this game, the Blazers did nothing in the final 2 minutes. I wonder if we'll even be a top 8 team in the west by the time LA gets back.

we would have to lose a lot of games, we go .500 for the rest of the year and I think we win like 50 games.

Yep - a 19-19 finish would leave Portland at 50-32.

and we are still missing Lopez/Freeland, and LMA is gonna be back by early/mid March in pretty good shape(he can still run), so we can do better than .500. However this looks a lot like OKC when they lost their guys and started losing a lot of close games.

HCA is officially in the rear view though and maybe the division title.

[GreenRiddler]

Any word why Crabbe did not get into tonight's game? He played a few minutes the other night
but no PT in a second half with a lot of undisciplined 1-1 play. That last second shot does not
work without Batum.

I didn't get that either, I was shocked he was the only one to play when we faced the Kings, I mean everyone got mins that game. I can only guess he is still injured. However he played garbage time vs the Spurs last week.

[GreenRiddler]

looking at the bottom 4 I don't mind losing HCA, would rather face Dallas or Hou/Grizz than OKC Spurs LAC. Yeah Phx...I went there.

of course that could all change. the year is far from over, but we really have a conf F. appearance as an absolute cap with the lack of HCA. Good news is the guys we got are young and we got a stable system/locker room to come back even better next year. Hopefully without too many roster changes as continuity is big.

[Norm2953]

Crabbe must indeed be hurt for healthy, the team can run much of their regular offense when
Nic is available. Instead what we get is a lot of individual play with little ball movement which
really hurts Matthews. I would have liked to seen Crabbe, Matthews, Lillard, Kaman and
whoever is playing the best amongst T-Rob, Meyers or perhaps even Clever. I might even
prefer to go really small for T-Rob is a terrible FT shooter.

[GreenRiddler]

when you realize Turner has similar stats to Batum...ugh

[GreenRiddler]

Crabbe must indeed be hurt for healthy, the team can run much of their regular offense when
Nic is available. Instead what we get is a lot of individual play with little ball movement which
really hurts Matthews. I would have liked to seen Crabbe, Matthews, Lillard, Kaman and
whoever is playing the best amongst T-Rob, Meyers or perhaps even Clever. I might even
prefer to go really small for T-Rob is a terrible FT shooter.

lol yeah I don't know why he tried so hard to show the refs it was a shooting foul, like he is any good from the line.

Yeah that is true, I hope Batum is healthy for the next game because we do struggle when he is out and I don't believe we have had him and LMA out at the same time, they are very important cogs in our system. I actually think we can handle a Wes injury better than a Batum injury right now, due to not having LMA.

[Revived]

Blazers need to find a new inbounder. Steve Blake with terrible decisions in back to back games with game on the line.

Wes Mathews deserved that opportunity to win the game there at the end.

[Brautigan1]

Seriously can't believe this sht. Seriously. Is this a fking curse or what? What basketball god did we offend? Did someone say something bad about Michael Jordan's mom or something? This is just getting infuriating to endure. Curse of Oden? What? JEBUX.

[Drax]

Blazers need to find a new inbounder. Steve Blake with terrible decisions in back to back games with game on the line.

Wes Mathews deserved that opportunity to win the game there at the end.

Or Meyers Leonard he was covered by Evan Turner could have been an easy tip-in-pass.

[PDXKnight]

The refs didn't cause us to lose this game, the Blazers did nothing in the final 2 minutes. I wonder if we'll even be a top 8 team in the west by the time LA gets back.

we would have to lose a lot of games, we go .500 for the rest of the year and I think we win like 50 games.

Yep - a 19-19 finish would leave Portland at 50-32.

Hmm that's not a terrible win total. There are some tough games coming up though so we could conceivably lose plenty of games coming up especially if Batum's wrist keeps him out for long. We'd be down to 2 starters and its hard for any team to win a lot of games under those circumstances especially when 1) one of them is your best player and 2) you have a bench that is among the worst in the nba statistically. Gettig Rolo back will help a lot and if Batum can get healthy that would be huge as well and we could conceivably hold the fort until LA gets back but if our starting lineup is
lillard
Wes
One of Wright/crabbe/Barton
One of Leonard/Robinson/wright
Kaman
There is a lot of inexperience and/or just inability to come close to matching the production of la/rolo/Nic in there and I'm not sure it's realistic to expect the Blazers to play .500 ball against tough western conference teams. Sure easy games are in there but the schedule is gonna be pretty difficult over the next month.

[Wizenheimer]

naaahhh...I can't get upset about poor execution on an in-bounds play with 1 second left. Even if the pass would have got to an open player, the chances of a getting off a legal shot that actually converts were extremely small. Blazers only had 1/10th of a second less against the Rockets last year and that was the type of miracle-shot that happens about once every 3 or 4 years

Portland shouldn't have needed a miracle last night. They were up by 6 with 4 minutes left and over that final 4 minutes, this is what they did on offense:

0-10 on FG's
0-4 on three's
2-4 on FT's
1 turnover, 0 assists

it's kind of loopy to blame one player or one play for a loss like last night's. I understand the notion, I've had them myself before. But all Portland had to do was play a little better as a team in that last 4 minutes. Have better shot selection...play smarter. Portland didn't, they played dumb basketball and dumb teams don't win close games very often

[Epicurus]

Actually they played as a team unselfishly in the last four minutes. Open shots did not go in. At the three minute mark, there were three point blank shots in the lane that missed. The first set up by Kaman's good look to Lillard. Then Robinson's extreme hustle to keep the miss alive, but Lillard and Keman missed put backs.

Even the final Celtic shot was the product of effective team defense trumped by luck (and Matthews' premature and unnecessary breakout once Robinson tied JS up). It is just too facile to always call losses the result of "dumb basketball."

[monopoman]

looking at the bottom 4 I don't mind losing HCA, would rather face Dallas or Hou/Grizz than OKC Spurs LAC. Yeah Phx...I went there.

of course that could all change. the year is far from over, but we really have a conf F. appearance as an absolute cap with the lack of HCA. Good news is the guys we got are young and we got a stable system/locker room to come back even better next year. Hopefully without too many roster changes as continuity is big.

I think its a bit early to go full on doom and gloom mode. This team was without 3 key starters for the entire 2nd half. Even if Batum's shot is having a 1/10 night he still does a lot of good for this team especially in the 4th quarter. You can see how much this team asks Lillard to do when Batum+LMA+Lopez are all out of the game.

We basically have one guy that is dangerous on the court with the ball in his hands and it becomes a strategy of just get the ball out of his hands. Matthews is getting better at trying to carry the team offensively but he is at his best on that end being setup for easy 3's not trying to initiate an offense.

Even still despite all the major injuries one 3 pointer made by Lillard just a bit earlier or a few more made FT's and we are sitting with the close win or at least overtime. 1 point victories are not indicative of team strength especially when Boston was hitting so many outside shots that night it looked like they were automatic around the perimeter.