THEY'RE BACK Game 1: Portland vs. Denver 7:00pm Wed SNW

[Epicurus]

At no time in the game did the Blazers have a full substitute squad on the court. Always one or two starters in the game. http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20191023&game=DENPOR

Denver got 8more wide open three point shots than Portland. Their 16 wide open threes was in the middle of the league for such shots. What wasn't in the middle was their making 62% of those shots. Portland with 8 less wide open three made but 12.5%. I suspect that Portland's inability to convert led them to not take the shots, and the opposite for Denver.

[Norm2953]

Zzaj hit it right on the head in that this team as consituted is an outside in type of team, think
like the SA Spurs. It's going to get better as Stotts adjusts his offense to reflect his talent for
we're not going to be a team that has many 40 point scoring quarters for we're going to have
to win closer games with hard defense that funnels opponents into Zach and Hassan. N

[Sinobas]

At no time in the game did the Blazers have a full substitute squad on the court. Always one or two starters in the game. http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20191023&game=DENPOR

Denver got 8more wide open three point shots than Portland. Their 16 wide open threes was in the middle of the league for such shots. What wasn't in the middle was their making 62% of those shots. Portland with 8 less wide open three made but 12.5%. I suspect that Portland's inability to convert led them to not take the shots, and the opposite for Denver.

Denver looked like they were actually running a team oriented offense, whereas the blazers were a dishovled mess....doing their 1 on 1 crap. CJ is unbearable when he's off. Missing open shots is frustrating, but what's worse is not even getting yourself in the position to get good looks because you're forcing up stuff.

[zzaj]

At no time in the game did the Blazers have a full substitute squad on the court. Always one or two starters in the game. http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20191023&game=DENPOR

Denver got 8more wide open three point shots than Portland. Their 16 wide open threes was in the middle of the league for such shots. What wasn't in the middle was their making 62% of those shots. Portland with 8 less wide open three made but 12.5%. I suspect that Portland's inability to convert led them to not take the shots, and the opposite for Denver.

That's a handy website, thanks...

[Epicurus]

At no time in the game did the Blazers have a full substitute squad on the court. Always one or two starters in the game. http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20191023&game=DENPOR

Denver got 8more wide open three point shots than Portland. Their 16 wide open threes was in the middle of the league for such shots. What wasn't in the middle was their making 62% of those shots. Portland with 8 less wide open three made but 12.5%. I suspect that Portland's inability to convert led them to not take the shots, and the opposite for Denver.

Denver looked like they were actually running a team oriented offense, whereas the blazers were a dishovled mess....doing their 1 on 1 crap. .

Yes, that is why the Blazers lost by 30 points.

[d-train]

We lost the game but we crushed them in the paint. Last year in the playoffs Nuggets outscored us by 5ppg in the paint. Blazers aren't going to always outscore opponents by 32 points in the paint as we did last night, but when we do we will usually win.

edit: In the conference finals the Warriors outscored us by 11.5ppg in the paint.

[wade44]

Whiteside with minimal effort plays down the stretch defending Jokic shooting long jumpers. There's a reason he was always getting benched with Miami. Talented guy but just a flat out headcase & hard to keep him engaged in games

[Matt800]

I think that's about as bad as the bench will play, and denver has one of the better benches in the league. But I think they need to change the rotation. Simons, Bazemore, Hezonja, Tolliver, Skal doesn't really have anyone that will reliably draw the defense and get the offense moving, unless Simons is hitting his hero ball shots. With Gasol and/or Nurkic it will be better but they could have Lillard or CJ in there a little more, and maybe a little more Collins over Tolliver. And Gasol/Nurkic over Tolliver when they are back. Maybe Tolliver will be ok in some lineups once he gets more in sync, but he doesn't look great with the bench so far.

[Sinobas]

I thought Whiteside is the only one that had a good game. Dame was decent, but off from 3 and missed some key shots in the end. We'd have been blown out without Whiteside.

[Matt800]

I hope we get to see this team healthy plus Gasol and Nurkic in the playoffs. Just add in a healthy Nurkic and I think this game is a win even with the 3 point disparity, and portland can certainly shoot better and also defend the 3 better than they did in this game.

[Sinobas]

At no time in the game did the Blazers have a full substitute squad on the court. Always one or two starters in the game. http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20191023&game=DENPOR

Denver got 8more wide open three point shots than Portland. Their 16 wide open threes was in the middle of the league for such shots. What wasn't in the middle was their making 62% of those shots. Portland with 8 less wide open three made but 12.5%. I suspect that Portland's inability to convert led them to not take the shots, and the opposite for Denver.

Denver looked like they were actually running a team oriented offense, whereas the blazers were a dishovled mess....doing their 1 on 1 crap. .

Yes, that is why the Blazers lost by 30 points.

You don't think you're been witty there do you?

[DaVoiceMaster]

At no time in the game did the Blazers have a full substitute squad on the court. Always one or two starters in the game. http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20191023&game=DENPOR

Denver got 8more wide open three point shots than Portland. Their 16 wide open threes was in the middle of the league for such shots. What wasn't in the middle was their making 62% of those shots. Portland with 8 less wide open three made but 12.5%. I suspect that Portland's inability to convert led them to not take the shots, and the opposite for Denver.

I'm fairly confident the Blazers started the 2nd Quarter with Simons, Bazemore, Henoja, Tolliver, and Labissiere. Looking through the 2nd Quarter Play-by-Play on ESPN indicates Collins, Hood, and CJ all came into the game around the 9 minute mark (give or take a few seconds for each).

[Wizenheimer]

At no time in the game did the Blazers have a full substitute squad on the court. Always one or two starters in the game. http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20191023&game=DENPOR

Denver got 8more wide open three point shots than Portland. Their 16 wide open threes was in the middle of the league for such shots. What wasn't in the middle was their making 62% of those shots. Portland with 8 less wide open three made but 12.5%. I suspect that Portland's inability to convert led them to not take the shots, and the opposite for Denver.

I'm fairly confident the Blazers started the 2nd Quarter with Simons, Bazemore, Henoja, Tolliver, and Labissiere. Looking through the 2nd Quarter Play-by-Play on ESPN indicates Collins, Hood, and CJ all came into the game around the 9 minute mark (give or take a few seconds for each).

yeah, that's what I saw....no Blazer starter on the floor

[d-train]

I'm fairly confident the Blazers started the 2nd Quarter with Simons, Bazemore, Henoja, Tolliver, and Labissiere. Looking through the 2nd Quarter Play-by-Play on ESPN indicates Collins, Hood, and CJ all came into the game around the 9 minute mark (give or take a few seconds for each).

That lineup played for 3 minutes and was matched up against 5 Nuggets backups.

The game was lost in the 4th quarter with Lillard and CJ in the game. It's interesting that Whiteside was on the bench much of the 4th quarter and Blazers were outrebounded.

Edit: I just had a second look. Whiteside was in the game when it was lost. In fact, our 5 best players were in the game when it was lost.

[Epicurus]

Yes, popcornmaching was mistaken. It had Hood playing the whole 2nd quarter, replacing Toliver at the start of it. Sorry for the wrong info

[BlazersBroncos]

Doesn't change the fact that this team shouldn't play a minute without one of Damian / CJ on the floor.

I fear that playoff super-hot-right-now ISO CJ has made us all forget how annoying he is when he forces things and ISO balls and the buckets don't go in. Stotts main failure as a HC has been in his inability to concoct a game plan that forces CJ to move off ball.

[Epicurus]

CJ is in near constant movement. He has been and will be in the top of the league in miles in motion. Are you saying all that distance is when he has the ball? Also didn't the Blazers have a top 3 offensive rating last season?

[zzaj]

Doesn't change the fact that this team shouldn't play a minute without one of Damian / CJ on the floor.

I fear that playoff super-hot-right-now ISO CJ has made us all forget how annoying he is when he forces things and ISO balls and the buckets don't go in. Stotts main failure as a HC has been in his inability to concoct a game plan that forces CJ to move off ball.

I certainly haven't forgotten '25 dribbles and shoot' CJ. Problems:

1) That's probably the thing CJ is actually best at, even if it's arguably fools gold. Take away his ISO play and what do you have? We have to assume Stotts knows what his players are capable of in terms of 'good of the team'.

2) Who else is going to handle the ball in sets? Lillard and CJ are the only ball handlers on the team. Simons and Mario seem to have reasonable handles, but it's an entirely different thing when you are having to navigate and run an offense against a defense that knows what you want to do and is set up to stop the primary ball handler. Some of us have been bemoaning the fact that Olshey hasn't prioritized a 3pt shooting ball handling PG or + defending ball handling PG in recent years.

If only we could take Bazemore's frame and defense and meld CJ's offense into it...

[d-train]

2) Who else is going to handle the ball in sets? Lillard and CJ are the only ball handlers on the team. Simons and Mario seem to have reasonable handles, but it's an entirely different thing when you are having to navigate and run an offense against a defense that knows what you want to do and is set up to stop the primary ball handler.

Lillard, CJ, and Bazemore are proven ball handlers who can run an offense. Hood is a proven ball handler, but initiating an offense isn't part of his game. Mario and Simons might be ball handlers who can initiate an offense.

Replacing Harkless with Bazemore, Hood, and Mario has certainly expanded our ball handling.

It's true that Lillard, CJ, Bazemore, and Simons are combo guards. Bazemore is a combo guard/wing. None of them is a traditional pass first PG. However, I don't hear fans clamoring to transform our offense from one initiated by scoring combo guards to a more traditional PG.

It's interesting that when Rockets added CP3 to their team that they didn't transform their offense from one run by a scoring combo guard to a traditional PG even though they had one of the best traditional PG's of all-time.