RealGM

So even though the Blazers lost and played pretty poorly, I guess I'm not too disappointed or concerned. I felt like winning G1 against a rested Warriors team was always going to be a stretch after that emotional G7. There's things that can definitely be cleaned up. The defence against Steph/Klay off screens and in the PnR being one of them, this will surely be something the Blazers will adjust before G2. And then on the offensive end, the TOs and the poor shooting is something you'd hope the Blazers could turn around in G2. The Warriors defence certainly played a part, but there were a lot of poor decisions and just wide open bricks by the Blazers.

That was a boring game. Portland played like total crap in every facet of the game. We could have lost by 40. I hope the at least are able to win 1 or 2 games at home. Or at least be more competitive.

One team got 48 uncontested shots and made 50% of them. The other team got 46 uncontested shots and made 30.4% of them. Guess who won?

The Sebastian Express wrote:Let's put in a transfer for some of their Curry threes to become our Curry threes. Who disagrees? No one? Good? Good.

We have the wrong Curry.

He may try to do that.. but I seriously doubt that's the best way for blazers to finish a possession

You've never watched Kanter before ...he has great hands and was terror doing PNR with Westbrook and even though NY had poor PG's showed he could roll to the basket BUT that's not done with Portland . We've all seen Kanter wide open on the roll and never get a pass and it's starting to look like Lilliard's height is a factor in not delivering a pass. Not saying it should be the main focus but at least let GS know you can run a PNR where you pass to Kanter for a layup instead of everybody playing for a Lilliard drive.

Games like last night are the reason I laugh when people claim Klay Thompson isn't a max player. His defense is tremendous when locked in. He was just embarrassing CJ all night.

We should have lost by quite a bit more, GS had us beat everywhere except attacking the paint. I think we need 25-30ppg each from Damian and CJ to compete and both guys were just not getting it done. Damian was forcing it, and has not really played well as a scorer since Denver G1.

CJ is going to have a really tough series trying to win 1-v-1 matches with Klay, who is a tremendous man defender. We need to adjust the gameplan on offense to run CJ around screens for shots. He isn't going to win 1-v-1 matches with Klay or Iggy often enough to justify that iso gameplan.

On defense we were atrocious. I have never seen a WCF where one team was getting so many open looks so easily. Splash Bros made some tough shots, but for the most part they were just so, so wide open.

It was a gross, boring game to watch and basically the tone was easily the lamest since the playoffs started.

And, honestly, IDK if this GSW team is going to be much easier to beat without Durant. When they are playing their flowing, off ball movement based old school GSW offense the Klay/Curry combo is just insane. With Durant there is much, much more ball watching as he goes ISO. Its a pick your poison and either way, IMO, we have no chance.

BlazersBroncos wrote:Games like last night are the reason I laugh when people claim Klay Thompson isn't a max player. His defense is tremendous when locked in. He was just embarrassing CJ all night.

We should have lost by quite a bit more, GS had us beat everywhere except attacking the paint. I think we need 25-30ppg each from Damian and CJ to compete and both guys were just not getting it done. Damian was forcing it, and has not really played well as a scorer since Denver G1.

CJ is going to have a really tough series trying to win 1-v-1 matches with Klay, who is a tremendous man defender. We need to adjust the gameplan on offense to run CJ around screens for shots. He isn't going to win 1-v-1 matches with Klay or Iggy often enough to justify that iso gameplan.

On defense we were atrocious. I have never seen a WCF where one team was getting so many open looks so easily. Splash Bros made some tough shots, but for the most part they were just so, so wide open.

It was a gross, boring game to watch and basically the tone was easily the lamest since the playoffs started.

And, honestly, IDK if this GSW team is going to be much easier to beat without Durant. When they are playing their flowing, off ball movement based old school GSW offense the Klay/Curry combo is just insane. With Durant there is much, much more ball watching as he goes ISO. Its a pick your poison and either way, IMO, we have no chance.

a minor quibble: Klay spent most of the night guarding Dame and Iggy spent most of the night on CJ. But on defense, those two are about the same size and the same level of defender. And unfortunately, we've seen over and over that Portland's backcourt has lots of trouble beating defenders with length. CJ was also introduced to what Dame has been facing: a defense paying attention to where he is and where his driving lanes are, and aggressively attacking his offense. It wasn't pretty

for the most part, the Warriors hid Curry defensively on either Mo or Seth. Mo responded with a pretty good game...Seth sucked

* it would be easy to blame Kanter for Portland's defensive issues. But seeing as how Zach gave shooters the same space that Enes did, it was clearly a scheme issue. I understand the notion that maybe Kanter's time might need to be reduced, but at this point, the Blazers may end up playing bop-a-mole because Kanter had more than 1/3 of Portland's rebounds; if he sits, the Blazers will get killed on the glass

"That was very poor execution defensively on our part," said Portland point guard Damian Lillard, who scored 19 points but was only 4-of-12 from the floor and committed seven turnovers. "Just having our bigs back that far; understanding the team we are playing against, they are not going to shoot midrange jumpers and try to attack the rim. If they see the opportunity to shoot a 3, they are going to tell you. They shoot it at a high clip. We've got to bring our guys up and run them off the line, and tonight, they were setting solid screens and coming off shooting practice shots.

"That's the last thing we need if we want to have any chance to beat this team."

Center Enes Kanter confirmed that the Blazers' game plan against Curry was for the on-ball defender to fight through screens while the big man dropped back in coverage.

"In the fourth quarter, we kind of changed it," Kanter said. "But I think it's going to change in the second game."

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26752118/testy-stotts-blazers-left-seeking-curry-solution

pretty clear signs it was scheme, and pretty obvious the scheme failed big time. Stotts was a lot more defensive and combative in the press conference after the game then the Blazers were during the game

Brian Windhorst is claiming several Blazer players were questioning the scheme. Apparently, Jason Quick is confirming it. I don't subscribe to the Athletic so I can't read the article. But it sure sounds like there's some friction between Stotts and the players about the defense

yeah, this is bound to work:

Seems the "scheme" worked pretty well for three quarters. Seems also like Thompson got his points from contested shots. Seems like Curry wasn't even on the court during most of the 18-8 run to start the fourth. Seems like his fourth stint wasn't that productive (as previous ones). Again the game was lost by the offense.

Maybe Lillard needs to explain why he was 3 for 8 on uncontested shots(37.5%), while Warrior Curry was 9 for 14 on uncontested shots (64.3%).

“We can’t sit back and wait,” Harkless said. “We don’t have that luxury, not against a team like this.”

The points of emphasis Wednesday will be the Blazers’ defense, in particular, the ease and the space in which Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were able to shoot, and ways to free up the burden on Lillard, who was once again muffled by an opponent’s kitchen-sink tactic.

The gist of the Blazers’ disgust and frustration from Game 1 resides in this: Why was it so easy for Golden State to double Lillard, but so hard for Portland to take away space or make things tough on Curry or Thompson?

“We let our stars get doubled, and let any other star go olly olly oxen free,” Turner said.

“I hope so,” CJ McCollum said when asked if the Blazers could all of the sudden start trapping. “I hope so. It looked like it was easy when they were doing it.”

“I feel like we can make it more tough on Steph in the pick-and-roll, for sure,” Harkless said. “Whether that be trapping or whether that be playing up a little bit more, we have to do something, because he can’t come off and get three, four clean looks like that.”

“Yeah, we might have to go small on they ass,” Harkless said. “Start ET at the five.”

Harkless chuckled, indicating he was joking about using Turner at the five, but his point was made: The Blazers’ defense was too soft, as in allowing too much space.

But later, he revealed that softness might include more than defense.

Lillard: “It’s tiring,” he admitted afterward. “But that’s part of it. You get attention. I mean, it’s clear they are trying to take me out.”

It’s similar to what he saw against Denver when the Nuggets sent two defenders up high — near the logo — to cut him off and try to get him to give up the ball.

“You are going to be tired. I just played seven games where they were sending bodies at me,” Lillard said. “OKC was sending bodies at me, but the floor was just more open. And today, it was worse than Denver. There were three people guarding me.”

Lillard said he had already talked to Stotts and scheduled a film session so they could devise a plan.

“Just to see how I can break free just a little bit,” Lillard said. “If I can just break free a little bit, get some space to get a quality shot. Because they are loading up and not letting me be the one (to beat them). They don’t want me to get a shot up. Like, you see tonight, I didn’t even get that many attempts up because I couldn’t get a shot up. They wouldn’t allow me.”

“We just have to figure it out,” Lillard said. “The easy thing to do is for people to say, ‘Dame has to do this, Dame has to do that.’ But there’s nothing there. So we just have to watch the film and figure out where I can get some better opportunities.”

https://theathletic.com/978888/2019/05/15/tired-and-angry-blazers-leave-game-1-questioning-defensive-scheme-and-looking-toward-terry-stotts-for-answers/

that last part where Dame is talking about all the attention he's getting from the defense is kind of discouraging. That's what has been happening in the playoffs for 4 straight seasons now. Some teams, with back court length are better at it. But to not have an answer after 4 years sure seems be either coaching or roster construction; maybe parts of both

Ist step for Lillard may be to make his uncontested shots at a higher rate. 2nd step may be to stress that which works, such as taking the double team away from the middle and then passing to the cutter in the middle of the lane.

WIZ, I once again, couldn't agree with you more. Kudos to you, for having the brass to say what needs to be said. Worried a little about people arriving at your residence with pitchforks.

Some have such blind love for Dame, they simply can't be critical of him. He is the heart and soul of this team, no doubt, but he definitely looked like crap... but why?

Stotts' performance was what really stunk up the court. The matchup between Terry and Kerr was an absolute BLOWOUT! Kerr was even clowning Stotts, playing the end of his bench in the 1st half, and winning with those guys. No plan in game 1/Pure Vanilla, with no adjustments ALL GAME LONG! Stotts looked like a deer in the F'n headlights! Hope he apologized to the team.

Some wouldn't know an adjustment in an NBA game, if it was even announced to them. Nonsense above!

Epicurus wrote:Some wouldn't know an adjustment in an NBA game, if it was even announced to them. Nonsense above!

Are you kidding me? Lillard, Kanter, Turner, Harkless, everyone in this forum.... Everyone is seeing that the defensive scheme was an absolute trainwreck, throughout the entire game. You're on an island by yourself defending Stotts, and that includes the guys who were playing the game.

Curry made a career high NINE 3 point field goals (on 60%!!!!). That is not a coincidence

Maybe Harkless isnt so wrong, go smaller for defensive purposes, but also to have someone else bring the ball up court and facilitate the offense.

Fitz303 wrote:

Epicurus wrote:Some wouldn't know an adjustment in an NBA game, if it was even announced to them. Nonsense above!

Are you kidding me? Lillard, Kanter, Turner, Harkless, everyone in this forum.... Everyone is seeing that the defensive scheme was an absolute trainwreck, throughout the entire game. You're on an island by yourself defending Stotts, and that includes the guys who were playing the game.

Curry made a career high NINE 3 point field goals (on 60%!!!!). That is not a coincidence

yeah, I knew he'd go into denial-and-condescending-attack mode when Stotts started being criticized.

the 'condemnation' of Portland's defensive scheme last night is universal. Just about everybody who watched it thought the same things, and that includes Blazer players who watched and participated

the only people who liked the scheme were the Warriors

It's frustrating to see the contrast of how we struggle with other teams trapping Dame then on the other end, we give up wide open 3s. I don't know how Portland kept it so close through 3 quarters.

Also, the Blazers simply have to find a way to get the ball to an open man off the double team action.

Epicurus wrote:Some wouldn't know an adjustment in an NBA game, if it was even announced to them. Nonsense above!

When you are applying more pressure on us to defend Stotts than our scheme had our guys do to the greatest shooters in the world, yes, there is an issue.