Game 5 Rd 2 Portland vs Denver 7:30pm Tuesday TNT

[Brandon-Clyde]

vs



Time: 7:30pm Tuesday
Place: Denver
TV: TNT

GLB of the game Kristen Bell

Spoiler:

[DusterBuster]

Not to be a wet blanket, but I've kinda come to peace that I think the Blazers playoff run probably ends in this round. WCF would have been fun, but I just don't believe that the Blazers can really compete with Denver right now. Well, they can compete with them obviously, but I think the Nuggets are just too equipped to be able to exploit the Blazers current flaws.

And to be clear, those flaws (namely the lack of offensive rebounding) are largely due to injury. If Nurk were healthy and Kanter wasn't playing with one arm, I think the Blazers would have been able to handle this series in 5 or 6. These teams are neck and neck talentwise right now - that's with Denver pretty much at full health and Portland with multiple key guys at important positions either dealing with major injuries or on the IRL. If the Blazers were at full health, I truly think this series would be a different story and who knows what could have been beyond that....

Painful what-if scenario, but man it's been a great run this year regardless.

[Norm2953]

Series is still in question. Nothing we can do about injuries but its clear Kanter is really
hurting and if Zach is not doing the job, we've got only Meyers size and bulk available.

Let's play it all out and leave it all on the court. If we lose in game 7, so be it.

[Matt800]

I'd like to see POR have at least one more good game where guys shoot well and there aren't major slumps or a lot of turnovers. Especially if Lillard can get his shot going, that'd be nice to see.

[bigdavid]

One glaring problem, our forwards play hard but neither one is a decent shooter. Harkless although plays tough just cannot shoot.
Chief under pressure is a poor ball handler, and even when not guarded cannot dribble.When Chief gets the ball it's always a crapshoot as to what happens.

Dame, even our best player holds the ball a little to long in the 1/2 court setup. This stops quick ball movement and players do not get open. These problems I believe helped lead to our loss. Denver does not have that problem which allows their 3 pt shooters to always seem and are open.
Stotts should be able to make an adjustment although Portland played this way all season.

[NBAFAN001]

biddavid:
Kobe Bryant disagrees with you. He thinks exactly the opposite - that Dame doesn't hold the ball long enough:
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1833864

[NBAFAN001]

Not to be a wet blanket, but I've kinda come to peace that I think the Blazers playoff run probably ends in this round. WCF would have been fun, but I just don't believe that the Blazers can really compete with Denver right now. Well, they can compete with them obviously, but I think the Nuggets are just too equipped to be able to exploit the Blazers current flaws.

And to be clear, those flaws (namely the lack of offensive rebounding) are largely due to injury. If Nurk were healthy and Kanter wasn't playing with one arm, I think the Blazers would have been able to handle this series in 5 or 6. These teams are neck and neck talentwise right now - that's with Denver pretty much at full health and Portland with multiple key guys at important positions either dealing with major injuries or on the IRL. If the Blazers were at full health, I truly think this series would be a different story and who knows what could have been beyond that....

Painful what-if scenario, but man it's been a great run this year regardless.

The series is far from over. It can be argued that every game played so far could've easily gone the other way around. Portland struggles getting offensive rebounds, but we've also seen Denver struggling shooting by long stretches of time.

[bigdavid]

biddavid:
Kobe Bryant disagrees with you. He thinks exactly the opposite - that Dame doesn't hold the ball long enough:
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1833864

I have watched 82 games plus the playoffs. Ask Kobe how many he watched.

[PDXKnight]

This’ll be interesting. It’s hard to imagine us coming back from a loss tonight so it needs to be backs against the wall mode from hereon out

[d-train]

Blazers haven't lost anything. The only thing that is lost is a hard fought advantage, which we get back with a win tonight. In fact, Blazers are the only team that has proven we can win 2 in a row.

[JasonStern]

Kanter observing Ramadan, while respectable, definitely puts Portland in a bad position. even if he doesn't cramp up due to a lack of hydration, he also stated he isn't taking any medicine throughout the day, which is concerning given his shoulder injury.

edit: looks like he'll be able to drink fluids and take medicine starting ~25 minutes prior thanks to the game being a late night game.

[Revived]

Dame is way too good to continue his recent stretch. I’m expecting some sort of crazy 40/50 pt game from the man tonight.

[ducler]

Read on Twitter

[Soulyss]

I think angry Lillard puts the pressure back on Denver and Portland wraps this up in 6... That was my original guess, I am not changing it now... GO BLAZERS!

[Klinky]

Go Blazers!

[zzaj]

I'll say it again, the secret to the whole series has been Milsap and his efficient play. Aminu, Harkless and Zach aren't cutting it. Has to try something else. If the Blazers play the dribble on Jokic and figure out how to force Milsap into bad shots, they'll win the remaining games by double figures.

I said it elsewhere (and I can't believe I'm saying it at all) but it might be time to try Meyers on Milsap for a stretch and see how it works. He's the only person besides Kanter on the team with the mass AND height to bother Milsap at all.

[Brandon-Clyde]

1st quarter GLB pic

Spoiler:

[GEE]

I'll say it again, the secret to the whole series has been Milsap and his efficient play. Aminu, Harkless and Zach aren't cutting it. Has to try something else. If the Blazers play the dribble on Jokic and figure out how to force Milsap into bad shots, they'll win the remaining games by double figures.

I said it elsewhere (and I can't believe I'm saying it at all) but it might be time to try Meyers on Milsap for a stretch and see how it works. He's the only person besides Kanter on the team with the mass AND height to bother Milsap at all.

I thought Turner actually did a great job on him defensively. Turner has been getting very few minutes lately, and I know I'll be on a lonely island saying this but, when he WAS the backup PG recently, he got teammates easy buckets, but with others handling the rock when he's in the game, he looks pretty bad on offense. But I'm confident he is the best to defend Milsap.

Here goes the tip... 25 Assists = Win

[Moonbeam]

Not the start we wanted. Nerves or fatigue, perhaps?

[d-train]

CJ was alone against 3-4 defenders on that break. He went too far before trying to pull out.