Game 13: Portland vs Boston 6:00pm SNW

[LillardTime]

Turner 2-8 and 4 turnovers.

The guy has literally been rock solid all year, has one bad game and people want to jump on him and say this is the real turner. He’s never going to live up to the contract but seriously it’s rough to jump on him after ONE game. I’d be pretty happy if he plays 70 solid games and 12 stinkers over a season.

[Roy The Natural]

Turner 2-8 and 4 turnovers.

The guy has literally been rock solid all year, has one bad game and people want to jump on him and say this is the real turner. He’s never going to live up to the contract but seriously it’s rough to jump on him after ONE game. I’d be pretty happy if he plays 70 solid games and 12 stinkers over a season.

Yea, it's a bit ridiculous honestly. He had a bad game offensively, but the second unit wasn't helping him exactly. Lot's of missed shots on that second unit.

[Wizenheimer]

Spoiler:

now that was a fun game to watch. Had everything...Boston lobbing three's to get back in the game...Blazers stupid turnover after stupid turnover...Chief being the long-range hero...whatttt?

if you would have told me that Aminu would launch a critical three in crunch time from 30' I would have bet it would be 5' short...but nothing but net?

also, I think the real Evan Turner made an appearance tonight. Maybe that's unfair, but tonight was more like what he's been for 8 seasons then the first dozen games. Hopefully he won't be this bad again for a while

by the way, it seemed like Boston was torching the nets from three in the 2nd half, but I believe they were 12-31. That's 'only' 39%

To the first point.... yea maybe, but the Evan Turner that Portland has had to start the year is the Evan Turner that Boston had, Evan Turner was a really solid player for them.

he was about the same level of facilitator but he's been shooting out of his mind so far. His eFG% for Boston was around 46%; going into tonight it was 53% this season. The best he ever did prior to Portland was 47%. And his TS% in Boston was around 48.5%; so far this year, it's 55%. His career mark is 49%

the problem is if he regresses to his norms in shooting he won't be playing in the Boston system, it will be the Stotts system and that's not a good one for low efficiency shooting. And we saw tonight that when he plays with Dame, he'll get passes for open looks at the three point line. He shouldn't be shooting three's

I really wish Harkless would get better because then Turner might spend less time on the floor with Lillard. They are oil and water

[Shem]

if you would have told me that Aminu would launch a critical three in crunch time from 30' I would have bet it would be 5' short...but nothing but net?

When Aminu shot that long 3, I was saying:

"Oh sh**..."

When it went in:

"HOLY SH**!!!!"

I wasn't economical...I used all 4 letters

LOL I did too. I just can't use all four letters without the language filter kicking in. Then I had to apologize to my 8-year-old daughter.

[Roy The Natural]

Spoiler:

now that was a fun game to watch. Had everything...Boston lobbing three's to get back in the game...Blazers stupid turnover after stupid turnover...Chief being the long-range hero...whatttt?

if you would have told me that Aminu would launch a critical three in crunch time from 30' I would have bet it would be 5' short...but nothing but net?

also, I think the real Evan Turner made an appearance tonight. Maybe that's unfair, but tonight was more like what he's been for 8 seasons then the first dozen games. Hopefully he won't be this bad again for a while

by the way, it seemed like Boston was torching the nets from three in the 2nd half, but I believe they were 12-31. That's 'only' 39%

To the first point.... yea maybe, but the Evan Turner that Portland has had to start the year is the Evan Turner that Boston had, Evan Turner was a really solid player for them.

he was about the same level of facilitator but he's been shooting out of his mind so far. His eFG% for Boston was around 46%; going into tonight it was 53% this season. The best he ever did prior to Portland was 47%. And his TS% in Boston was around 48.5%; so far this year, it's 55%. His career mark is 49%

the problem is if he regresses to his norms in shooting he won't be playing in the Boston system, it will be the Stotts system and that's not a good one for low efficiency shooting. And we saw tonight that when he plays with Dame, he'll get passes for open looks at the three point line. He shouldn't be shooting three's

I really wish Harkless would get better because then Turner might spend less time on the floor with Lillard. They are oil and water

Sure, that's fine... he probably won't shoot the way he has to start the season the whole season. But Evan Turner's 8 points whether it's on 8 shots, or 9 shots isn't a concern. It's running the second unit and playing some solid defense. I mean, in the scheme of a singular game, Evan Turner getting to his points by taking a single extra shot is negligible.

Evan Turner scoring hasn't been what's made him better this year, it's that he has until today been passing the ball well and been one of the major reasons why the second unit has been so good.

The Stotts system is fine for him as the lead handler in the second unit. He's surrounded by shooters, he doesn't need to shoot outside a bunch himself.

[Wizenheimer]

Turner 2-8 and 4 turnovers.

The guy has literally been rock solid all year, has one bad game and people want to jump on him and say this is the real turner. He’s never going to live up to the contract but seriously it’s rough to jump on him after ONE game. I’d be pretty happy if he plays 70 solid games and 12 stinkers over a season.

I'll give him credit for playing well and being consistent so far, but 12 games doesn't erase 640, or the previous 150 games he played as a Blazer.

I'm pretty sure his shooting will regress, but if he continues to run the offense for the 2nd unit well and play solid defense, I'll ease off. Still, I can't wait till he's on another team

[Wizenheimer]

I'm really looking forward to this 6 game road trip starting Wednesday

@ Los Angeles Lakers
@ Minnesota Timberwolves
@ Washington Wizards
@ New York Knicks
@ Milwaukee Bucks
@ Golden State Warriors

a lot of winnable games there, but it is the road. A 4-2 trip would put them at 14-5. A 3-3 trip at 13-6. I think either would qualify as a fast start compared to where they have been the last 3 seasons 20 games in or so

[monopoman]

Nuggets went on a 3 game losing streak, meaning the Blazers are now #2 in the west standings. I can’t remember the last time we were 2nd in the West standings. I would assume it would have been back during that 2013-2014 season. Blazers really putting the league on notice here I think getting swept was the wake up call this team needed.

[zzaj]

I gotta give a lot of credit to the Blazers tonight. During the Celtics run, and all night really, Portland looked very poised. In the past I feel like we would have seen some panic set in and the home team would have started trying to hoist 3s or go super ISO in order to match the Celtics scoring...but not tonight. They controlled the pace as best they could and ran the offense for the most part. And it worked when the Celtics cooled off from 3.

Tonight was a night where Stotts' offense could shine a bit. In that first quarter the FLOW allowed Lillard to simply read what the Celtics were giving them out of the PnR. I'm not quite sure what the Celtics breakdowns were. It seemed like Kyrie was doing a particularly poor job defensively. And there was no help defense.

I hear what Wiz is saying about Turner in this game. My hope is that he was just pressing a bit against his former team. Any time that Turner is taking 3pters at the end of possessions you know something went wrong and that it's probably a scramble play. That happened a couple times tonight.

I too said aloud, "...are you kidding me?!" When I saw Aminu was going to shoot that 3pointer. Gotta tip my hat to him for making a wide-open, clutch shot and Lillard for trusting his teammate. I just hope they don't make that a habit...

Lastly, WTF is with the Morris twins? If they played the Blazers every night they'd be the Bryant twins...

[zzaj]

Nuggets went on a 3 game losing streak, meaning the Blazers are now #2 in the west standings. I can’t remember the last time we were 2nd in the West standings. I would assume it would have been back during that 2013-2014 season. Blazers really putting the league on notice here I think getting swept was the wake up call this team needed.

I think they were #1 at the beginning of last season for like 2 days

[The Sebastian Express]

I gotta give a lot of credit to the Blazers tonight. During the Celtics run, and all night really, Portland looked very poised. In the past I feel like we would have seen some panic set in and the home team would have started trying to hoist 3s or go super ISO in order to match the Celtics scoring...but not tonight. They controlled the pace as best they could and ran the offense for the most part. And it worked when the Celtics cooled off from 3.

Tonight was a night where Stotts' offense could shine a bit. In that first quarter the FLOW allowed Lillard to simply read what the Celtics were giving them out of the PnR. I'm not quite sure what the Celtics breakdowns were. It seemed like Kyrie was doing a particularly poor job defensively. And there was no help defense.

I hear what Wiz is saying about Turner in this game. My hope is that he was just pressing a bit against his former team. Any time that Turner is taking 3pters at the end of possessions you know something went wrong and that it's probably a scramble play. That happened a couple times tonight.

I too said aloud, "...are you kidding me?!" When I saw Aminu was going to shoot that 3pointer. Gotta tip my hat to him for making a wide-open, clutch shot and Lillard for trusting his teammate. I just hope they don't make that a habit...

Lastly, WTF is with the Morris twins? If they played the Blazers every night they'd be the Bryant twins...

Stretch fours that they put in as small fives against us are brutal. Like last year with Mirotic.

[monopoman]

I gotta give a lot of credit to the Blazers tonight. During the Celtics run, and all night really, Portland looked very poised. In the past I feel like we would have seen some panic set in and the home team would have started trying to hoist 3s or go super ISO in order to match the Celtics scoring...but not tonight. They controlled the pace as best they could and ran the offense for the most part. And it worked when the Celtics cooled off from 3.

Tonight was a night where Stotts' offense could shine a bit. In that first quarter the FLOW allowed Lillard to simply read what the Celtics were giving them out of the PnR. I'm not quite sure what the Celtics breakdowns were. It seemed like Kyrie was doing a particularly poor job defensively. And there was no help defense.

I hear what Wiz is saying about Turner in this game. My hope is that he was just pressing a bit against his former team. Any time that Turner is taking 3pters at the end of possessions you know something went wrong and that it's probably a scramble play. That happened a couple times tonight.

I too said aloud, "...are you kidding me?!" When I saw Aminu was going to shoot that 3pointer. Gotta tip my hat to him for making a wide-open, clutch shot and Lillard for trusting his teammate. I just hope they don't make that a habit...

Lastly, WTF is with the Morris twins? If they played the Blazers every night they'd be the Bryant twins...

At least Aminu has confidence in that shot, pretty sure that shot gets a lot tougher if you have 0 confidence that far out.

[Norm2953]

I was wondering what everyone thought about how the Celtics are playing. Shooting too many 3
pointers which is why they are 7-6 amnd with the return of Gordon Hayward and Kyrie, not the
tough defensive minded team we saw last year.

[Sinobas]

If we flip flopped the halves, and the Blazers came back from 13 down in the 1st to win the game by 8 with a brilliant 2nd half, this game would have a different feel. But for awhile there in the 3rd, they were just getting annhilated. It was a storm of some really bad Turnovers, the Celtics getting hot, Portland getting cold, and of course, the refs sent the Celtics to the line on at least 3 phantom calls that I remember.

But we closed out the 4th strong, which is something I don't remember happening too much last year. Many a time last year when the other team had momentum in the 4th we folded.

This was a great homestand, where we beat some very good teams. Who'd have thought we could say that about a homestand where we actually lost the to LAKERS.

[Sinobas]

I was wondering what everyone thought about how the Celtics are playing. Shooting too many 3
pointers which is why they are 7-6 amnd with the return of Gordon Hayward and Kyrie, not the
tough defensive minded team we saw last year.

They ended our winning streak last year, I think Irving, Hayward and Horford were out. They were better without them for the 2 games I"ve seen.

[Soulyss]

A couple of thoughts on last nights game:

- Boston has a ton of talent, but they are clearly struggling to find their way. Kyrie is a talent, but If I am Boston I am quietly kicking the tires on what I could get for him... This team simply looks better and played better with Rozier & Smart at the guard spots. Hayward is a shadow of himself... it's sad.

- Portand with basically a wire-to-wire win despite some very sloppy play. Portland is still feeling out their rotation at this point.. It will be interesting to see if Mo gets healthy and what Stotts decides to do... Frankly Layman has played well enough with the starters (Check out his advanced stats, they are excellent.) that he should probably keep the job and frankly has earned more minutes.

- The Beast is back. The big man has been balling... A couple of very nice plays late where he previously would have picked up an offensive foul charging in... this time he stopped, gathered himself, controlled his body and scored.. Big signs of growth from Nurkic last night.

- I really though Dame's distribution last night was great. I would love to see him average 4 less points again if it added 3 assists to his numbers... Blazers play better when Lillard starts with distributing.

This road trip will tell us if this is real or not. If the Blazers go 4-2 or 3-3... We should feel pretty good about where we ar headed.

[Soulyss]

Turner 2-8 and 4 turnovers.

The guy has literally been rock solid all year, has one bad game and people want to jump on him and say this is the real turner. He’s never going to live up to the contract but seriously it’s rough to jump on him after ONE game. I’d be pretty happy if he plays 70 solid games and 12 stinkers over a season.

One other thing to consider... Boston's second unit is ELITE... it's better than Portland's, and the best one our second unit has played against.

This is simply the case that hasn't happened much this season. They played well enough to hold the leads for the most part that the starters built. I wouldn't stress this, you could tell Turner was mad at himself... I think he was pressing a bit too.

[bigdavid]

Another fact to consider! When Turner was in with the 2nd unit it included Leonard. Although Leonard had one or two good shots he is still a liability. He is very wooden and Turner is still playing 4 on 5 with Leonard in the mix. He has only 3 players who he can depend on.