Christmas Night Special: Blazers @ Warriors [[Game Thread]]

[tisbee]

Having Lee "defend" Aldridge while Udoh guarded Cunningham seemed very odd to me,until I started to post elsewhere and had the (likely)mistaken insight that that WAS the plan. It freed Udoh to offer help D to all the other Blazers who were running wild thru the interior earlier in the game. If Smart assumed Aldridge wasn't going to dominate in the low post against Lee,either because Portland wouldn't constantly feed him or limited skills/experience there,then having Udoh play off a non-scorer allowed Udoh to defend the lane against any penetration. Once the lane was closed,Smart might feel Portland would start jacking outside shots on a night Portland had shown little ability to hit them. So what looked rather dumb may have actually been a pretty Smart move
And it seemed every time Rad came in as a PF,Portland coach pulled Camby(who was doing pretty well on glass) and went small as well.

[Visigoth]

All the good teams have strong physical PG who can defend Westbrook, Rondo and Rose...Curry will never fit that big strong physical PG mold...

Steve Nash? John Stockton? Even Isaiah Thomas wasn't a "strong, physical PG", he was just the ultimate pest who wasn't afraid of anybody or anything. It has nothing to do with the physical.

If Curry wants to be a good defender, and puts time in to be a good defender, he can be a good defender. But just because he's a crappy defender doesn't mean you toss him out because, NEWSFLASH: The kid has had the most offensively explosive sophomore year of any guard in the league, and his play-making continues to develop.

Stick this kid on Orlando and he's going to be pure domination.

[KR4]

Having Lee "defend" Aldridge while Udoh guarded Cunningham seemed very odd to me,until I started to post elsewhere and had the (likely)mistaken insight that that WAS the plan. It freed Udoh to offer help D to all the other Blazers who were running wild thru the interior earlier in the game. If Smart assumed Aldridge wasn't going to dominate in the low post against Lee,either because Portland wouldn't constantly feed him or limited skills/experience there,then having Udoh play off a non-scorer allowed Udoh to defend the lane against any penetration. Once the lane was closed,Smart might feel Portland would start jacking outside shots on a night Portland had shown little ability to hit them. So what looked rather dumb may have actually been a pretty Smart move
And it seemed every time Rad came in as a PF,Portland coach pulled Camby(who was doing pretty well on glass) and went small as well.

All good takes. I noticed that too about Udoh guarding Cunningham.

[ILOVEIT]

IMO the failure to get defensive rebounds looked like a scheme issue. Warriors bigs are trying to get waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out on top to force guards back etc...That high double team was clearly Fing the Warriors interior defense and rebounding up. I saw Portland gaurds constantly dishing to their big guys diving down towards the rim.

Smart needs to cut the big "show" thing with the big guys and let them zone up a bit more in the middle....GIVE the fricken outside shot up a bit more....it's the middle of the lanes and the defensive boards that the Warriors need to shore up.

I guess what I see is the Warriors big just scrabling constantly wayyyyyyyyyyyyy too much instead of being able to patroll the middle and and keep opposing bigs or smalls off the glass.

[St.Nick]

IMO the failure to get defensive rebounds looked like a scheme issue. Warriors bigs are trying to get waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out on top to force guards back etc...That high double team was clearly Fing the Warriors interior defense and rebounding up. I saw Portland gaurds constantly dishing to their big guys diving down towards the rim.

Smart needs to cut the big "show" thing with the big guys and let them zone up a bit more in the middle....GIVE the fricken outside shot up a bit more....it's the middle of the lanes and the defensive boards that the Warriors need to shore up.

I guess what I see is the Warriors big just scrabling constantly wayyyyyyyyyyyyy too much instead of being able to patroll the middle and and keep opposing bigs or smalls off the glass.

Good call.

[king1]

Everyone is griping about lee guarding lma. He was 8-21 and we won the game. He made him make some tough shots. I am moe upset he isn't rebidding better. I bet the next tsp game you will see him get ten rebounds every game.

[FNQ]

Actually I will post one thing about this game... nothing to say about this game because I see that people see what they want to, constantly.

David Lee is the vocal leader of this team. Great team guy, picks up teammates when they mess up, says 'get the ball to _____' if they are hot or constantly open. I cant wait to start going to some March/April games when the current crowd thins out and its much easier to hear the team interacting..

[FNQ]

Actually, Steph's done a good job on D tonight. Much better than usual, he's been really pesky. He's just terrible at getting around screens, which led to some ugly three-point shots.

Funny you should mention that, I dont know the ACs names but one kept hollering at Curry 'remember our work on screens' ... and they overall sounded very pleased with Curry's defense. I didnt see much wrong with it last night either, he was very good positionally. Monta and Dorell, on the other hand... well, thank god they are athletic enough to make up for it sometimes. Unfortunately we can't play the old and slow Blazers every night.

[turk3d]

David Lee is the vocal leader of this team. Great team guy, picks up teammates when they mess up, says 'get the ball to _____' if they are hot or constantly open. I cant wait to start going to some March/April games when the current crowd thins out and its much easier to hear the team interacting..

Well he should make the all star cheering leader team.

[turk3d]

IMO the failure to get defensive rebounds looked like a scheme issue. Warriors bigs are trying to get waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out on top to force guards back etc...That high double team was clearly Fing the Warriors interior defense and rebounding up. I saw Portland gaurds constantly dishing to their big guys diving down towards the rim.

Smart needs to cut the big "show" thing with the big guys and let them zone up a bit more in the middle....GIVE the fricken outside shot up a bit more....it's the middle of the lanes and the defensive boards that the Warriors need to shore up.

I guess what I see is the Warriors big just scrabling constantly wayyyyyyyyyyyyy too much instead of being able to patroll the middle and and keep opposing bigs or smalls off the glass.

I've been complaining about that for years. ONE of the reasons that Biedrins has so much trouble defending his man (too busy chasing wings). That's part of the NRE BTW.

[FNQ]

David Lee is the vocal leader of this team. Great team guy, picks up teammates when they mess up, says 'get the ball to _____' if they are hot or constantly open. I cant wait to start going to some March/April games when the current crowd thins out and its much easier to hear the team interacting..

Well he should make the all star cheering leader team.

Your complete lack of sports knowledge just amazes me sometimes.

[FNQ]

I've been complaining about that for years. ONE of the reasons that Biedrins has so much trouble defending his man (too busy chasing wings). That's part of the NRE BTW.

is that why the coaches were yelling "fall back" every time a big popped out too far?

[turk3d]

David Lee is the vocal leader of this team. Great team guy, picks up teammates when they mess up, says 'get the ball to _____' if they are hot or constantly open. I cant wait to start going to some March/April games when the current crowd thins out and its much easier to hear the team interacting..

Well he should make the all star cheering leader team.

Your complete lack of sports knowledge just amazes me sometimes.

What amazes me even more is you thinking that you know more.

[turk3d]

I've been complaining about that for years. ONE of the reasons that Biedrins has so much trouble defending his man (too busy chasing wings). That's part of the NRE BTW.

is that why the coaches were yelling "fall back" every time a big popped out too far?

That must be something new. It's time someone figured that out.

[FNQ]

You spent the thread trying to convince people that Curry's defense was terrible, when Monta's was worse last night..

I feel like I'm hating Monta simply because you make up so much BS and have no idea of the concept of team basketball. Truth is Monta is a capable starting 2 guard who can carve up slower teams w/o interior presences. But he's in no way a #1, should not be making decisions and isn't a good option during crunch time.

But he's good enough to keep our team in the late lottery, so at least there's familiarity.

[turk3d]

You're wrong at just about everything you just said. I'll leave it at that. Just because you were at the game doesn't mean you saw more than on can be seen on TV and doesn't increase your knowledge of it either. And now you admit you hate Monta. LOL.

[Visigoth]

You're wrong at just about everything you just said. I'll leave it at that. Just because you were at the game doesn't mean you saw more than on can be seen on TV and doesn't increase your knowledge of it either. And now you admit you hate Monta. LOL.

You're just seeing what you want to see. Stephen Curry had one of his best nights defensively last night, it was actually fun to watch if you payed attention to him and didn't see what you wanted to see. Monta, on the other hand, sucked on that end.

[turk3d]

Maybe that was one of his best defensive nights but if it was, it was nothing to brag about. He got beat many time by both Miller and Matthews and even Patty Mills (he made Mills look good at times). Maybe it was one of his best, and he was trying (maybe you consider that good for him) but I just don't see it. I suppose that it wasn't one of his worse.

[xRapHeadx]

You're wrong at just about everything you just said. I'll leave it at that. Just because you were at the game doesn't mean you saw more than on can be seen on TV and doesn't increase your knowledge of it either. And now you admit you hate Monta. LOL.

You're just seeing what you want to see. Stephen Curry had one of his best nights defensively last night, it was actually fun to watch if you payed attention to him and didn't see what you wanted to see. Monta, on the other hand, sucked on that end.

Curry was denying well on post ups, but let's not act like A Mil wasn't still breaking the entire team down. 15 ast. yikes

[GSWhoopfan]

There were quite a few number of offensive rebounds the Blazers got...over everyones favorite (Lee).

i wish Lee would box out more consistently.