Warriors L vs. Bulls W

[Butter]

I am a little bit surprised by the 180 degree difference between the Blazers performance against the Warriors vs. the Bulls last night. I didn't get to watch the Warriors game, but the defense just looked to be two different teams.

Neither the Warriors or the Bulls have to size to compete with the Blazers on the interior. Biedrens is a difficult combination of size and quickness, but the Warriors pretty much started 4 wing players in that game.

It seemed like the Warriors used their speed, while the Bulls just got shut down. I guess the Warriors have the advantage of Don Nelson versus Vinny?

Bottom line, was it the opponent, or was it the Blazers effort?

[Tommy Udo 6]

The Bulls are really a crap team except for Rose. Shut Rose down & the Bulls are losers.

Gordon is playing for contract & shooting less than 25%. Plus, he has not been passing the ball to Rose. That is something that the Bulls need to address.

Deng & Hinrich both missed the game - and the front line is horrid.

Vinny is doing an Ok job of coaching - but it is hard to win with the unbalanced roster that he is given.

Lakers were beating the Bulls handily the night before - but then sat their big guns so that the beating did not look too bad. Bulls have not won a road game all season. So the loss was understandable.

[jakjup216]

we coulda have and SHOULD have beaten GSW.. we started out the game down 9-0 but we ended up taking the lead 15- 12!!!! but everyone was outta sync AND we had to fight against bad calls.. on the road.. but we get another shot @ them

[Yangsing]

It was both. Blazers turned the ball over and the Warriors were playing at an unexpected level. Neither happened against the Bulls.

[UGotThrilled]

I think that a lot of it had to do with the Blazers. Certainly not all of it, but I think in some ways their loss to GS may have been a good thing, to show them that they need to come ready to play the whole game, and that they cant just keep it close and try to win in the final five minutes. I think that if they had beaten GS, the story would have been about the miraculous work in the last 30 seconds, and not about how piss poor their defense was for the first 47:30. They had something to prove against the bulls, and the bulls are not a good team, and we were back at home for Greg's Home debut, so it was kind of a perfect storm and we obliterated them. It was awesome.

[BBen]

I would like to preface this post with the fact that I'm not a Portland homer since I've recently started watching the team and I'm not very emotionally attached. That said, the GSW game was fixed. I've watched numerous fixed games over the years (I suspected Donaghy before the whole corruption thing, but who didn't?) and this one had all the hallmarks.

First of all, Portland averages the least amount of turns in the league with 12.4 (a stat taken after the game). VS GSW they had 21. OK, that happens occasionally. How about the fact that LMA played 20 minutes and fouled out? Hmm, starting to get weird, we usually don't see star level players foul out, especially after only playing 20 minutes (he had like 4 consecutive charges in a row at one point). This is especially weird since he averages around 3 personals per game. Then there was the fact that Portland put GS in the penalty with about 7 minutes left in both the third and fourth quarter.

OK, this is all really weird. However, combine all this with the 3 second call on Oden and the mystery foul and tech on Rudy before Portland was about to tie the game and you've got a fix.

How do you make a team win a game? Take out the opposition's best player and call lots of offensive penalties (to reduce offensive possessions). I give the win to the refs, not the GSWs. They're not even in the same echelon as the Blazers.


Edit: Blazers average 21 fouls per game. Vs GSWs they had 32. That's 11 over average. Weeeiiirddd.

[Butter]

we coulda have and SHOULD have beaten GSW.. we started out the game down 9-0 but we ended up taking the lead 15- 12!!!! but everyone was outta sync AND we had to fight against bad calls.. on the road.. but we get another shot @ them

I think the biggest problem was the Blazers defense. Clearly the Warriors have a lot of scorers. But their offense is based mainly on jump shooting. It seemed like the Blazers weren't defending the perimeter very well, which opened up drives to the basket for the Warriors.

I guess really what I'm getting at is the Blazers defensive effort. Until last night, they were 29th in the league at FG% allowed. I'm really hoping that last night will be a turning point for their defensive effort.
I know it was only one game, and they will not hold many teams below 80 points. But hopefully they are ready to play that type of D from now on.

[BlackMamba]

refs?

[JD45]

Sometimes blowouts happen. The Bulls played LA tough the night before.

One game doesn't mean anything.

[Sinobas]

I would like to preface this post with the fact that I'm not a Portland homer since I've recently started watching the team and I'm not very emotionally attached. That said, the GSW game was fixed. I've watched numerous fixed games over the years (I suspected Donaghy before the whole corruption thing, but who didn't?) and this one had all the hallmarks.

We better hope that Greg Oden becomes a national star, and we get more fans from around the nation, because you don't win an NBA championship without the blessing of Godfather Stern. The NBA referees **** fix games all the time, and the NBA mandates that certain games be fixed. Tom spilt the beans after he was caught, and admitted that the NBA told the refs to give the game to the Lakers in the 2002 WCF, a series that even had some senators clamoring for an investigation.

Refs that bet on games should their arms and legs chopped off. Then tie some skies to their back and push them down the slopes at mount hood, and let gravity take it's course. They piss me off!