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Pros
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Arron Brookes + Kyle Lowry = Awesome !!!

Looks like Kyle Lowry is too good not to start
( can play 1 2 3 )

Chase can really run

David Anderson is a good pick up.

Trevor Ariza should be traded for a big man

Despite our injuries we stood toe-to-toe with one of the clear "favorites" in the West. When we were getting blown out we did not give up or concede defeat - we fought. Yes, we lost, but it was not a foregone conclusion!

I wouldn't be so quick to give up on Ariza. I think he could benefit tremendously playing along side a healthy Tracy McGrady.

DA, Lowry, & Hayes looked good imo.

My biggest beef with tonight's game was the sloppy passes and Landry not being aggressive at all.

For the OP:

When I was in junior high choir, Dave Lewis sat next to me. He was basically tone deaf. He'd hum along, droning a constant B flat. Thankfully, he wasn't too loud, so he got drowned out most of the time.

But every once in a while, we'd get to a quiet part and his B flat got real noticeable. It was painful. But he was a nice guy and the director didn't want to embarrass him. Eventually, she stopped us in one of those quiet passages and gave Dave Lewis the same advice I'm about to give you, Mr. BallBoy:

"Dave sweetie...why don't you just listen for a while."

No thread starting for a while, ok? Just listening. And quiet humming.

Or should we trade YOU for a big man?

Dislike

AB needs to be more aggressive
Scola/Landry combo was bad
We got out rebounded bad...Portland got 20 more
Our offense still looks like crap, especially 1-3rd quarter.
Our interior D is worse, which leads to perimeter D being weaker. Portland shot 50% on 3pointers,
Portland had 27 TO
I felt we got bailed out by the Refs in the 1st quarter with FT's

Likes

Chase looks like a rotation player, looked like he got scared in the 1st quarter
Ariza is about what i expected and I don't expect him to get better until T-mac comes back
Hayes is a man, holding Oden to 2 points
Lowry is a stud, if he continues to play this good and AB falters, we could see a new starting PG.
We didn't give up....but this can only hold on so long if we get into a long losing streak. Losing = bad morale and no matter how hard you play, teams will lose morale if they keep losing games

Is barely been one game and your already calling for an Ariza trade.

Like: Our bench (Chase, David, Kyle, and Carl)
We didn't give up, even after being down 20 in the 4th.
Brook and Kyle playing together
our fast break

Dislike: Our rebounding (Man it was hard watching the Blazers grabbing everything)
Our defense (Feels like we didn't put enough effort into it)

Overall is only the first game, Rick is still trying to get a feel for who fits better with who.

The rebounding issue is going to be a problem. Some of our rebounds came off of good hustling, but many of them were simply because the loose balls bounced the right way. No matter how hard we play, it's not going to change the fact that our opponents night in and night out are going to be bigger than us, and will snatch rebounds right over our heads. Suddenly, we know what it's like for opponents when they have to deal with a player that's just head and shoulders above our players. Irony is cruel.

Likes:
Brooks / Lowry combo
Trevor Ariza played better than I expected
Chuck Hayes, proving again to be invaluable
David Anderson's ability to spread the floor

Dislikes:
Budinger's deer in headlights look
Carl Landry's lack of passion
Scola not as agressive as we need him
Battier not looking to score as much as we need him

Can't really dislike any player. We have a bunch of role players...very good role players at that..

We can't expect them to beat good teams especially on the road. We are without our two star players. Its just not gonna happen. The team as a whole would be unbelievable great. But its not whole. So we have role players trying score 20 a night. Thats just not going be successful for us on a night to night basis. We'll win some game but there isn't really a player you can blame on this team.

One thing is for sure the rebounding has to get better. I knew we would struggle b/c they are bigger than us but that has to somehow get better. Scola, Hayes, Pops, Ariza, Landry have to get in there and use their athleticism to make up for the lack of height.

I was impressed at Battier's job of manning the C position against Oden for a few possessions. For being 6'8" 225, he owned the middle.

You really gotta feel for a 30 year old SF put in that situation.

p.s. CRACKFOOL SIGHTING

I think AB will be traded at the end of this season if Lowry can keep these things up like today.
And I also believe Morey is just trying to sell AB at high. S&T AB to a real PG would be awesome.

Portland is too big for the Rockets. The Rockets could not rebound with them. That is the problem they will have all year against elite big teams like Portland.

I'm not sure which bothers me more, how short we are or that Kyle Lowry only got 27 minutes.

What? I'm worth sighting now?

Dunno? You used to post a lot, then it seemed like you took most of last season off.