Game 1: Portland @ Memphis 5:00PM TNT

[Blazinaway]

I mentioned it earlier and I notice others have mentioned it as well: something appears to be wrong with Lopez. In the last 2 regular season games, he played 46 total minutes. In those 46 minutes, he scored 6 points and grabbed 1 rebound. No offensive rebounds which always seems to be a sign he's engaged. Those are really poor marks for him

last night at least he grabbed 3 offensive boards, but he just didn't have anywhere close to the impact we're used to seeing him have. Now obviously, the last 3 games is a small sample size; and Memphis has a tough front line. But he just doesn't look like he's moving as well as he usually does or as engaged in the action. Right now, Kaman is more effective

I noticed that as well and I have to hope its an injury thing that is not being talked about, because if it isn't we have to seriously consider an alternative C this summer

[taufblazers33]

I have said this before and will say it again. Lillard has put too much attention to his social media fame that the game of basketball has become secondary. He looks dis interested and is playing like a top 20 pg, rather than top 5. I wouldnt be surprised if LMA leaves for anothet team in the summer.

Another area of concern is body language, not just Lillard but most of the team.

[Wizenheimer]

Asking CJ to take the starting duties in the playoffs is lot of weight to put on his shoulders and he has not started that many games. This team is asking a lot from players like Crabbe, CJ and Leonard who were not put in this situation last year.

they weren't anywhere close to ready last year and personally, I don't think they are that ready this year. Meyers at least came in and grabbed defensive rebounds, but all he did on offense was hide out at the 3 point line, not set screens, and shoot a few three's. If he would have went 0-3 or 1-3, his impact would have been hard to notice. I hate that he plays like a SF. And that's especially true after that Brooklyn game when he actually looked to be, and was, a force in the paint. I saw Memphis switch their defense several times leaving Tony Allen or Courtney Lee, and even Udrih on Meyers and not once did he make them pay by going inside

a lot about the playoffs is fighting fire with fire, and what Portland needs against Memphis is more inside offense (and a little brutality), not a big looking to play like James Jones

now, a lot of that is on Stotts, but at this point, it doesn't really matter who it's on, it's just a poor use of a 7'1 player in the playoffs
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as far as CJ, I'd agree that starting him seems bad for him. Overwhelmed. But the alternative is starting Crabbe which isn't good either. Portland's SG/SF rotation right now is Batum-CJ-Crabbe...thin, short, and inexperienced. CJ had a poor game...his 1st playoff game, on the road, against a top defensive team...it's no surprise.

remember when Meyers had that run of game when he looked good...I guess it was sometime in Feb. I wondered at the time what would happen when teams finally included Meyers in their defensive scouting and assignments. Well, teams did, and over a 20 game stretch, Meyers scored in double figure just 3 times in those 20 games; less then 5 points 10 times; and 3 points or less 8 times. The positive was after a few games when he just vanished, as the schedule progressed, even though his scoring was low, he started to grab a lot of defensive rebounds...play like a big man. But because his offensive skillset was so one-dimensional, teams were able to account for him and limit his impact

I'm bringing Meyers up again because I suspect CJ is going to face the same situation. He was looking good on offense at the end of the season as lottery teams were shutting down and playoff teams were gearing up. I think CJ, just like Meyers in Feb, was the beneficiary of not being scouted or planned for. Teams were collapsing off him to focus on Lillard and Aldridge, leaving him space for jump shots and driving lanes.

Memphis left him neither. They were prepared for his game. That becomes the test for a young player. What kind of impact can he have once opponents know his strengths and weaknesses. I think CJ has more offensive skills then Meyers so he may have more room to make adjustments, but it seems pretty clear memphis is not going to leave him an open menu of uncontested jumpers and driving lanes like he was getting at the end of the regular season.

How about look at the bright side, in game 1 against Houston Portland's bench scored 7 points across an entire game and that bench unit logged 56 minutes and took a combined 14 shots.

In this game against Memphis a tougher defensive team by far, Portland's bench scored 21 points across an entire game and that bench unit logged 63 minutes and took a combined 18 shots.

hey...good job of finding a silver lining...

of course, last year, the starting SG & C scored 24 points, this year, 4 points...ouch!

more importantly, last year Aldridge & Lillard combined for 77 points on 50 shots, this year it was 46 points on 55 shots...quadruple ouch!!!!

obviously, Portland is missing Matthews a ton. I think they even are missing what Afflalo brings, although that loops back to Matthews. It's easy to forget, but I even thin that Portland is missing Dorrell Wright. His ability to play SF or stretch-4 would help a lot and he's a strong rebounder for his size (although it could be argued that Portland might not 'need' another player who takes 57% of his shots from behind the 3-point line)

[Epicurus]

When 22% of your shots are taken by a guy not hitting 24% of those shots, one can bet with high probability on a loss. Should Lillard not have shot so much, or should he had tried to shot his way back to his normal shot efficiency? If he isn't a scorer with reasonable efficiency, is he really much of a starting PG (does he do other things well enough to compensate for such terrible shooting)? Relatedly when your backup PG is a net negative of 20 points to his oppositional counterpart, isn't a high probability of loss predictable? Was the comparative terrible play of Portland's PG related to something done by the Grizzlies, or just mutual pathetic performances of the Blazers' PGs? Was last night's comparative PG a fluke or a harbinger for the series?

[JasonStern]

Portland's SG/SF rotation right now is Batum-CJ-Crabbe...thin, short, and inexperienced.

don't forget Lillard playing out of position alongside Blake and giving Memphis a height advantage.

When 22% of your shots are taken by a guy not hitting 24% of those shots, one can bet with high probability on a loss. Should Lillard not have shot so much, or should he had tried to shot his way back to his normal shot efficiency?

neither? the problem with Lillard last night was that his shot wasn't falling, so he'd drive right into a packed paint and force up a horrible shot. and more often than not, the refs weren't bailing him out. if anything, the Blazers need more ball movement. but it's easy to say that and hard to do when the lineups are so inconsistent.

[Case2012]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the coaching. Stotts defense will not work against teams in the playoffs. Giving up open mid range jumpers over and over again is terrible, and the spurs embarrassed us last year doing that. Now the grizzlies are going to do that for the next 4 games and make us look stupid. It just doesn't work without Wes. You could probably say the same thing about our offense without Wes too. The systems Stotts had in place that worked so well, won't work with him gone. He's just that important to the team.

Not saying Stotts is a bad coach, but if he refuses to adjust then he should go. We don't need another nate 2.0 player rebellion and Aldridge walking.

I hope Stotts makes some serious adjustments for Wednesday.

Weren't most the midranges really pull ups off drives. That has nothing to do with the standard criticism of soft ICE, nor the same as against the Spurs last playoffs. The best defense is still the ball going through the net on offense. Tonight shots, many very makeable, didn't go in. More than a few clankers for the Grizzlies went in, btw. What adjustments do you suggest, given the capacities of the squad?

On defense-switch on Pnr's every once in a while? and uh i dunno, maybe trap for once? Full court press? Maybe try a 3-2 zone? SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR ONCE?

Offense- actually run a Pnr to the basket instead of popping out for a mid range or 3 point shot. Lillard was supposed to be a pnr wiz coming out of college but he never passes to the roller.. like ever. Also, I just don't think the motion offense works without Matthews and Wright. We need better 3 point shooters for that to work, so it would be great if our offensive guru coach would run plays once in a while. You see all these guys running around setting picks and back cuts etc. for an Aldridge post up. Really? I wish we had unlimited TO's so we could just run out of bounds plays, because those are by far his best plays.

I'm worried about Stotts rotations and coaching leading to a rebellion in the locker room. Why should Lillard play hard on defense, when our system is basically designed for him to get beat on pnr's? Getting hit by screen after screen with no help all game because Stotts wants the mid range given up to better protect the paint? Why should he care? He knows he's gonna get beat, but it's basically what the coach wants, so why is he going to accept the blame? That must create a lot of frustration for him, and I can see it in his body language and play on the court. Why did Aldridge and Lillard play so many minutes in a total blowout? Why wasn't Meyers given more minutes early? Why didn't we see Frazier and Gee until the last few minutes? When what you're doing isn't working, try something else. How hard is that? Stotts doesn't seem to get it, and if it's driving me this crazy watching it on TV, then I can only imagine how some of the might players feel.

[Epicurus]

Lots of speculative projection, assuming, of course, that you are not a confidant of a player. Yet maybe you have a Ph.D. in Body Language, with a specialization in reading it from a tv screen. Whatever, highly entertaining.

Oh btw, the defense last night was almost at exact par with its yearly average in just about every factor, including pts per possession. And that yearly average was that of a top 10 defense. What collapsed last night was the offense, particularly at point guard. Unfortunately, I doubt if any of your flash impressions relate that well to the collapse or that your superior to Stotts offensive mind suggestions would help. But who knows. Perhaps you should have been hired for head coach.

[Epicurus]

My previous post is a bit too harsh. Yet I do tire of fans believing that whole staffs of experience professional coaches fail to see and have not considered rather boilerplate suggestions, many of which have been rejected by just about everyone coaching above the junior high school level. Oops, there I go again.

[Case2012]

Lots of speculative projection, assuming, of course, that you are not a confidant of a player. Yet maybe you have a Ph.D. in Body Language, with a specialization in reading it from a tv screen. Whatever, highly entertaining.

Oh btw, the defense last night was almost at exact par with its yearly average in just about every factor, including pts per possession. And that yearly average was that of a top 10 defense. What collapsed last night was the offense, particularly at point guard. Unfortunately, I doubt if any of your flash impressions relate that well to the collapse or that your superior to Stotts offensive mind suggestions would help. But who knows. Perhaps you should have been hired for head coach.

I'm pretty intuitive, but i was basing most of my impressions on defense from watching the game and several others just like this one. And yes, I have studied psychology and sociology, and for whatever reason body language is like a second language to me. It's weird but true. It comes in handy when dealing with liars, pulling chicks, and getting the drop on people in sketchy situations.

BTW.. come on man, you don't even know me and there were more passive aggressive, snarky insults in that post than i could count. I mean, why would you wanna troll someone from the same fan base? Don't you have anything better to do? You asked me my opinion and I gave it to you.

[Epicurus]

I have a bad habit, case, of defending accuracy and relevance against assaults to them. I don't get why you are permitted to criticize, whereas those critical of your criticisms should be mute. I don't know if I have better things to do, but I do know I wouldn't do this thing without a stimulus from folks like you.

[Epicurus]

Wow, just looked at SportsVu tracking of the game. The Blazers only made 27.7% of their 47 uncontested shots; whereas, the Grizzlies hit 54.5 % of 44 uncontested shots. Ain't going to win that many games if you can't hit the uncontested.

[zzaj]

Lots of speculative projection, assuming, of course, that you are not a confidant of a player. Yet maybe you have a Ph.D. in Body Language, with a specialization in reading it from a tv screen. Whatever, highly entertaining.

Oh btw, the defense last night was almost at exact par with its yearly average in just about every factor, including pts per possession. And that yearly average was that of a top 10 defense. What collapsed last night was the offense, particularly at point guard. Unfortunately, I doubt if any of your flash impressions relate that well to the collapse or that your superior to Stotts offensive mind suggestions would help. But who knows. Perhaps you should have been hired for head coach.

I'm pretty intuitive, but i was basing most of my impressions on defense from watching the game and several others just like this one. And yes, I have studied psychology and sociology, and for whatever reason body language is like a second language to me. It's weird but true. It comes in handy when dealing with liars, pulling chicks, and getting the drop on people in sketchy situations.

BTW.. come on man, you don't even know me and there were more passive aggressive, snarky insults in that post than i could count. I mean, why would you wanna troll someone from the same fan base? Don't you have anything better to do? You asked me my opinion and I gave it to you.

Just ignore him...that's what many of us do. No offense, Epicurious.

I generally love hearing peoples' opinions and perspectives except when most of they time they feel obligated, for some reason, to tear down your opinion and perspective to do so...

[Epicurus]

I understand. Some of us just can't stand our biases challenged with reality. You are just being human.

[GreenRiddler]

Why is there a "We don't lose to Spanish players" motivation sign in the locker room? That is just unnecessary. I am surprised Gasol never said anything about it.

[Ripcity4life]

Well obviously PA had his hand in that -- Rudy Did not work out , Sergio was a bust and Claver was a joke -- 0 for 3 for Spanish players

NEXT -- not really a story -- was it in bad taste maybe but the Grizz had the last laugh

Maybe the Blazer coaches etc should worry about making a better game plan then coming up with stupid sign with random crap on it.

[GreenRiddler]

You see all these guys running around setting picks and back cuts etc. for an Aldridge post up. Really? I wish we had unlimited TO's so we could just run out of bounds plays, because those are by far his best plays.

I'm worried about Stotts rotations and coaching leading to a rebellion in the locker room. Why should Lillard play hard on defense, when our system is basically designed for him to get beat on pnr's? Getting hit by screen after screen with no help all game because Stotts wants the mid range given up to better protect the paint? Why should he care? He knows he's gonna get beat, but it's basically what the coach wants, so why is he going to accept the blame? That must create a lot of frustration for him, and I can see it in his body language and play on the court. Why did Aldridge and Lillard play so many minutes in a total blowout? Why wasn't Meyers given more minutes early? Why didn't we see Frazier and Gee until the last few minutes? When what you're doing isn't working, try something else. How hard is that? Stotts doesn't seem to get it, and if it's driving me this crazy watching it on TV, then I can only imagine how some of the might players feel.

I remember that play. The game was decided by that point (late 3rd qtr IIFC) it was just an ultimate face palm moment, because it was such a tease. Guys were finally making quick decisive moves to get free. Like you said setting picks off the ball, back cuts etx. and it lead to someone passing it to LMA on the high post with 10 seconds on the shot clock /facepalm.

It really reminded me of iso B Roy or the negative aspect of it, where we gave him the ball and made him go to work, but people always groaned about having 4 guys standing around picking their nose. Well posting up LMA with under 15secs on the Shotclock won't lead to anything but a miss or a make. There were alot of misses this game.

We were held to under 20 asts too. IIRC SASs did a good job of making us play 1 on 1, seems we are playing right into the Grizz's hands.

I don't know maybe I am wrong and we just missed alot of open shots so there weren't alot of assists, but it just felt that Memphis was much more decisive in their actions and moved like a coherent team that wasn't trying to live and die by 1 player on offense. I know teams rely on their best player, as they should, but I think we rely on ours more than any in the league. LMA's Usage % this year was unholy for a big man.

[GreenRiddler]

Yeah, RoLo's kinda disappeared the last while.

He tends to do that in the playoffs, did it for the Suns as well.

You were the same guy who commented when we got Lopez and said not to expect much, I believe it was something like "He is probably gonna be backing up Meyers by year end." Sounds like you got some sour grapes for him having found some success outside Phx.

Why else comment when he struggles?

[SD2042]

Why is there a "We don't lose to Spanish players" motivation sign in the locker room? That is just unnecessary. I am surprised Gasol never said anything about it.

I was listening to the local sports radio this morning before I went to class today, the host Geoff Caulkins said that the Blazers had some bizarre sign up in their locker room. I didn't get the chance to listen to the rest of the show due to class. I didn't realize the Blazers had such a motivation sign like that up?

If so, that could cause some controversy real fast.

[Dame Lizard]

The sign (if true) would probably be Batum's. Big Spanish vs France basketball rivalry internationally.

Stuff like that is so unnecessary though. When someone does/says something stupid, like Parsons' "I am the best SF in the series", like last year, karma often works wonders.

[Wizenheimer]

for whatever reason body language is like a second language to me. It's weird but true. It comes in handy when dealing with liars, pulling chicks, and getting the drop on people in sketchy situations. .

now I know who you are!