Game 59: Portland vs Boston 7:00pm SNW

[d-train]

It wasnt as bad as I expected and considering Boston shot 50% on 3 pointers, the Blazers didnt do too badly.

Have a fee issues though... how can that guy box out Whiteside so much for easy layups from their wings? Why does CJ suck so badly from the line this season?

You are talking about Theis. That's smart basketball. He does that in every Celtic game I have seen this year. I'm not sure what Whiteside can do about it because it's an illegal screen but a legal boxout. Maybe he can try to run through it, that would force refs to make a call on it. Problem is the foul could be called against Whiteside.

[PDXKnight]

I don’t know what to think. We are down our best player and 4 starters now so it’s hard to win in this league under those conditions. My gut says we rest Dame a bit more than we would need to in order to tank a bit but he’s a guy who wants to play so who knows

[Epicurus]

It's only one component of a much bigger problem but...

The way the NBA is shooting more 3pt shots is really exposing Stotts' defensive scheme. He's only had one year (his first) that the team was in the top 10 of opposing 3pt percentage. Every other year has been 15th or lower. This year, so far the Blazers are tied for 26th in the league.

Additionally (and interestingly), even though the Blazers have always been in the top 10 of 3pt % under Stotts, they have always been middling in 3pt shots attempted--somewhere in that 12-22 range.

Yes, the 3% percentage of the opposition has rarely been low. Same for this season with a big exception, the opponents are taking more three point attempts than heretofore. Last season the opponent three attempts were at the bottom 10, this season at the top 3 rank.

Another way of saying that is that the opponent this year is eschewing the two point attempts offered by the Blazer defense, and instead taking more time to find an open or mildly contested three. Now the issue is with somewhat lumbering bigs, what alternative d exist, especially on pick and rolls. switching or hedge/recovering require quicker bigs on the screener. Without such the problems existing today would be much worse.

[Epicurus]

It wasnt as bad as I expected and considering Boston shot 50% on 3 pointers, the Blazers didnt do too badly.

Have a fee issues though... how can that guy box out Whiteside so much for easy layups from their wings? Why does CJ suck so badly from the line this season?

You are talking about Theis. That's smart basketball. He does that in every Celtic game I have seen this year. I'm not sure what Whiteside can do about it because it's an illegal screen but a legal boxout. Maybe he can try to run through it, that would force refs to make a call on it. Problem is the foul could be called against Whiteside.

The refs who allow Theis in the lane for over three seconds each time are not the ones who will call an illegal screen.

[DaVoiceMaster]

Not to mention a moving screen a number of times.

[JasonStern]

I don’t know what to think. We are down our best player and 4 starters now so it’s hard to win in this league under those conditions. My gut says we rest Dame a bit more than we would need to in order to tank a bit but he’s a guy who wants to play so who knows

3 games out of the playoffs. tomorrow's game against the Pacers is most likely a loss, but after that you've got:

@Hawks
@Magic
Wizards
@Suns
Kings
Suns
Grizzlies

that's a fairly winnable stretch if Dame can play.