Blazers vs Hornets - 5:00pm PST

[zzaj]

As much as they've been living, tonight they died by outside shots. NO is a good team and to lose to them at home is not a knock. Blazers should be proud that they can come home 3-4 with it almost being 4-3 (Toronto).

I would like to see Nate develop some plays that take advantage of teams that are going to quickly double Brandon to get the ball out of his hands. Tonight, the Blazers were doing the right thing by rotating the ball around the perimeter, but there has to be more of an offense than that in order to be effective against quality teams. Hopefully the coaching staff can design some things from watching the tape.

Teams are learning more and more ways to take Brandon out of the game offensively, and the quick double worked exceptionally well tonight. There is every reason to expect that, or variations of it from here on out...so hopefully Nate can find something that will work.

--sorry about the long post--

btw, nice dish by outlaw in the 1st and I actually didn't wince watching him try and penetrate today.

[TBpup]

A couple things I was disappointed in. West got his 4th foul but the Blazers refused to go inside to try and get easy baskets or get him to pick up his 5th. Instead, they had a total of 4 two point baskets in the 2nd and 3rd quarters according to Mike and Mike.....brutal.

I did wonder about Nate taking out Blake while he was torching it. I would think you would go with the hot shooter until he cools off...cool him off by sitting him on the bench. Maybe that's just me...

Normally I like to see more of Sergio but no one was hitting shots tonight no matter how much he found the open mad. Since that is Serg's game, I get why Nate pulled him even though it wasn't really anything he did or didn't do. Of course that is a bit confusing.....16 points and 4 assists in 16 minutes one night and 5 minutes the next. Kind of tough to develop under those circumstances.

3-4 is alright but they beat the bad teams and lost to the good one....what did we learn?

[The Sebastian Express]

That they beat who they were supposed to on the road and lost to good teams at those teams arenas while they've beaten good teams in Portland as well?

[PDXKnight]

All in all, this was a very successful road trip. The Blazers played their hearts out every night and while they sometimes seemed a little bit too relaxed, they definitely played like they could win every night. Since the Blazers are back at home for 6 games, our record should improve and if they can somehow pull of a win over the Nuggets, that would be huge for our division standings.

[swede]

I never like to see the the team lose but 3-4 isn't so bad considering we could've been 5-2 had we executed right now the stretch..but who knows we could miss the playoffs by 2 games.

[BlackMamba]

well, in this games the blazers shot terrible.

that and the pargo factor was what made the hornets win.

[cucad8]

Aldridge being as passive as he was sure didn't help matters. I didn't see him fight for a rebound in the 2nd half until we were down by about 10. Thanks for showing up late. He watched so many shots(Not just him, but if he is playing C on the floor, he needs to get in there) just bounce around instead of even challenging Chandler or anyone for a board. Was really sad to watch him last night. It's just one game, I'm not making an assesment of his year, or him as a player, just commenting that last night, he was next to worthless, as far as I'm concerned.

[UGotThrilled]

Aldridge being as passive as he was sure didn't help matters. I didn't see him fight for a rebound in the 2nd half until we were down by about 10. Thanks for showing up late. He watched so many shots(Not just him, but if he is playing C on the floor, he needs to get in there) just bounce around instead of even challenging Chandler or anyone for a board. Was really sad to watch him last night. It's just one game, I'm not making an assesment of his year, or him as a player, just commenting that last night, he was next to worthless, as far as I'm concerned.

While I maybe would be a little nicer to Aldridge, he really does need to make it his mission to get 10 boards a game. I would appreciate him so much more if he could average double digit rebounds per game.

[R11]

A couple things I was disappointed in. West got his 4th foul but the Blazers refused to go inside to try and get easy baskets or get him to pick up his 5th. Instead, they had a total of 4 two point baskets in the 2nd and 3rd quarters according to Mike and Mike.....brutal.

I did wonder about Nate taking out Blake while he was torching it. I would think you would go with the hot shooter until he cools off...cool him off by sitting him on the bench. Maybe that's just me...

Normally I like to see more of Sergio but no one was hitting shots tonight no matter how much he found the open mad. Since that is Serg's game, I get why Nate pulled him even though it wasn't really anything he did or didn't do. Of course that is a bit confusing.....16 points and 4 assists in 16 minutes one night and 5 minutes the next. Kind of tough to develop under those circumstances.

3-4 is alright but they beat the bad teams and lost to the good one....what did we learn?

LOL, you just wouldn't be happy if you couldn't bitch about Nate would you? FWIW, West picked up 3 of his five fouls in the third period and was then quickly pulled from the game. After coming back in midway through the fourth he picked up his 5th.... Brutal. Oh yeah, the Hornets played zone much of the third as well.

Blake played 15 straight minutes covering the second half of the 2nd period and the first half of the 3rd. He was pulled to get a breather when Outlaw, Jones and Jack were put in (a group that usually scores pretty well for the team). When Jack failed to produce in his 8 minute stint, Nate brought Blake back in during the 4th, something he normally doesn't do...

As usual, you are complaining about developing Sergio and in the same post you complain that they didn't win all of their games on the road... Furthermore, you say that you understand that Nate pulled Sergio because he wasn't producing anything, and then say you are confused why he wasn't played more....


ron

[mojomarc]

Ron--quick question: why do you always sign your posts like that? I promise you we'll know who you are even if you don't