Ultimate Game Thread: Portland vs New York City - 4:30pm

[Fitz303]

Rice just called "The Great One" a defenseman try and get basketball facts right before even attempting hockey facts

[Fitz303]

Its nice to see LMA on the block, and on top of that, commanding a double team, and on top of THAT, finding the open man and kicking it out for the open 3

[slaman]

Walt Frazier speaks Waltonese
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwNr-0UJKmY

[EGame]

Ugg, since when did Nate become Kobe?

[Spykes]

Seriously. Why does Nate Robinson always decide to become a superstar against the Blazers. He did this same thing last year!

[EGame]

Wow terrible call, figures.

[slaman]

Robinson give Blake a play to forget
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ8b3xzJfss

[J~Rush]

5 more minutes

[J~Rush]

Robinson give Blake a play to forget
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ8b3xzJfss

I've made that move before, once. . .

[sabi]

Man, even though we're winning I'm getting tired of these bad calls every game

[slaman]

Robinson forces overtime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5iaFx4x_CI

[Billy]

What an odd game. Felt like at the end that Isaiah saw the possibility of a higher lotto pick diminishing and threw up the white flag. I literally can't remember a game where it was so hard to tell if the other team was trying to win or trying to lose.

[Pattycakes]

And we are officially an improved team from last year.

[Spykes]

Robinson give Blake a play to forget
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ8b3xzJfss

Robinson forces overtime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5iaFx4x_CI

I've got 1 word.... Scoreboard.


Seriously though, Robinson played an amazing game. He always has huge games against us.

[Fitz303]

Good Game.. shouldnt have been an overtime, but its all good

On a side note. Some Joker in the player comparison board had the balls to say "DWade and its not even close" in a thread of Wade vs Drexler.. He was the only response until I responded to him, but WOW

[b_roy7]

We should've taken them out in the 2nd, but adding drama doesn't make sense. Perfect time to showoff Miles to Isiah too! (Don't know if he was active or not) Loved LMA's game today though if you don't look at his FT%.

Nate = M.V.P., nothing lower.

[Mr Odd]

The Blazers were up then Blake was pulled
out which killed the ball movement, that made
the scoring drop which allowed the Knicks to
catch up and that gave them confidence and
once the Knicks had that little Nate started his
run then the Blazers had a problem. Im glad
that the Blazers got a handle on it. Blake hit
some big shots & then Roy finished it off in OT.

McMillan put the right lineup in at the end of
the game & OT. McMillan did good at the end.
But its just crazy to me why the Blazers just
didnt post up Nate Robinson all game to score
and or get him into foul trouble. Just confusing.

Anyway, GO BLAZERS!!

[southnc]

When the "little" guys are on, there is not much the immediate defender can do, except hope for good help defense. We've seen this same situation with Boykins - these guys are just too small & quick to 1-1 defend.

I give Blake great credit for working his a$$ off, despite the fact that there was no way he could have single-handedly stopped Nate - and, he got lousy defensive support from his team-mates.

Despite the Nate blitz, Blake got himself a double-double, with 15 points, 10 dimes, and NO TOs. And, I don't know whose been talkin to Blake, but his sudden determination to attack the basket has made him a much more valuable player. He hit some big shots in the 4th, including abusing Jeffries for a "Nate" type of score late in the game.

For as impressive as Nate looked against Blake (and everyone else), the "+/-" stat says it all: Blake had the highest of any player on the court with +14, whilst Nate had -4.

Roy's OT performance was just sensational. This team shouldn't write-off the playoffs just yet.

[Wizenheimer]

The Blazers were up then Blake was pulled
out which killed the ball movement, that made
the scoring drop which allowed the Knicks to
catch up and that gave them confidence and
once the Knicks had that little Nate started his
run then the Blazers had a problem. Im glad
that the Blazers got a handle on it. Blake hit
some big shots & then Roy finished it off in OT.

McMillan put the right lineup in at the end of
the game & OT. McMillan did good at the end.
But its just crazy to me why the Blazers just
didnt post up Nate Robinson all game to score
and or get him into foul trouble. Just confusing.

Anyway, GO BLAZERS!!

you're confused again?...and after all the help you get here??...

as for "blake being pulled"...he played 37 minutes the night before, was chasing robinson all night, and was on his way to logging another 37 minutes. He needed some rest and so did Roy.

As to "posting up robinson"...do you see the conflict in your statements? You wanted Blake to play the entire game it seems and yet I can't recall ever seeing blake display a post-up game. And NY made a point of not switching defensive assignments when Robinson was in the game...at least not when he was involved in the picks/screens. Portland doesn't really have any post-up guards. Roy could probably do it a little, but how often did you see Robinson guarding Roy, and how often do you see roy down low with the ball and his back to the basket?

Posting up those really short guards always sounds good in theory, but rarely works well in reality. Mugsy Bogues didn't play all those seasons because he was vulnerable to post-ups. He was quick and he was strong. Robinson is probably both quicker & stronger then Bogues. Teams occasionally tried to post up Damon when he was a blazer. There were only a few guards effective at it, like Billups and Cassel. But they have developed that ability by using it in hundreds of games over many seasons. I doubt portland had any practice time between the Milwaukie and NY games to implement a guard oriented post-up game using their undersized backcourt.

[BlackMamba]

well, good win, once again the offense seemed to be flowing.

what is impressing me (if i could say that) is that the starters are starting to play many mins.