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Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Sat Aug 1, 2020 2:32 am
by monopoman
Pattycakes wrote:Very redeeming moment for a lot of reasons, Whiteside and the refs were taking Ls all over the place today, but a win is a win, and holy moly did Melo and Nurk come to play in this bubble. Let’s go!!

Yep, I am blown away at how good Nurk looks despite losing more than an entire calendar year to this injury. He looks like he is in playoff mode and he has only played a handful of minutes in scrimmage games and this game. I was expecting some rust but he must have been busting his ass during the break to get ready.

Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Sat Aug 1, 2020 2:48 am
by Myth
Great 2 day start. Blazers beat Grizz, and losses to Pelicans and Kings.

Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Sat Aug 1, 2020 3:39 am
by Norm2953
DaVoiceMaster wrote:Nurk's grandma has the Covid and is in a coma. Pray for her.


Everyone will pray for his grandmother

Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Sat Aug 1, 2020 4:04 am
by Goldbum
This game is a perfect example of what makes Nurkic so special. His screens meant more to our offense than CJ's 33 points, he was our best interior defender and second best defender in space. His passing changed possessions and his presence made his team mates better.
ZC was also a plus player on our front line. I really hope he continues to grow into his role as he is one of those players who can change a game without registering much on the stat sheet.
GTJ continues to be a revelation. He's better than just a next gen Wes Mathews. Gary is a floor spreading dynamic 2 way player. A legit modern starting SG masquerading as second year, second round pick that disappointed in his one year of college.

Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Sat Aug 1, 2020 4:18 am
by Sinobas
Goldbum wrote:This game is a perfect example of what makes Nurkic so special. His screens meant more to our offense than CJ's 33 points, he was our best interior defender and second best defender in space. His passing changed possessions and his presence made his team mates better.
ZC was also a plus player on our front line. I really hope he continues to grow into his role as he is one of those players who can change a game without registering much on the stat sheet.
GTJ continues to be a revelation. He's better than just a next gen Wes Mathews. Gary is a floor spreading dynamic 2 way player. A legit modern starting SG masquerading as second year, second round pick that disappointed in his one year of college.


Yeah, Nurk's stat line was very good but he affected the game even more. He's like the anti-whiteside, whose stat line overstates his actual impact.

Trent has been awesome as well, much better than Simons.

Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Sat Aug 1, 2020 10:17 am
by Tim Lehrbach
Whoa, that was a terrific game. Very impressed by both teams.

Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Sat Aug 1, 2020 12:47 pm
by Blazinaway
Sinobas wrote:
Goldbum wrote:This game is a perfect example of what makes Nurkic so special. His screens meant more to our offense than CJ's 33 points, he was our best interior defender and second best defender in space. His passing changed possessions and his presence made his team mates better.
ZC was also a plus player on our front line. I really hope he continues to grow into his role as he is one of those players who can change a game without registering much on the stat sheet.
GTJ continues to be a revelation. He's better than just a next gen Wes Mathews. Gary is a floor spreading dynamic 2 way player. A legit modern starting SG masquerading as second year, second round pick that disappointed in his one year of college.


Yeah, Nurk's stat line was very good but he affected the game even more. He's like the anti-whiteside, whose stat line overstates his actual impact.

Trent has been awesome as well, much better than Simons.


This, when you seen what Nurk brings in a game and see what Whiteside brings it is night and day, and just renforces my view that I don't want Whiteside back, would rather pickup a better fitting FA (or via trade) backup big this offseason

Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Sat Aug 1, 2020 2:09 pm
by JasonStern
RIP CITY!

Fun game. Other than Grayson Allen, I like Memphis' young core. Duck homer, so love to watch Dillon Brooks. Still hate that we ended up with Swanigan over both Brooks and Bell in 2017. And Morant is obviously electric. Not liking Portland's chances if they're the 9th seed facing a play-in. Hard to beat a team like that 3 times straight in a short time span.

Refs made watching the game a grind sometimes. I don't think they were overly biased either way, but the sheer amount of ticky-tack fouls made the game a boring free throw competition for stretches.

Love having three healthy bigs. Let's them be more aggressive on defense without having to worry so much about foul trouble. Also provides more versatility on going overly big or overly small depending on the matchup.

That said, the defense wasn't as improved as I was hoping given Nurk and Collins returning.

Hope Dame gets his shot back. Game could have been a blowout if he wasn't ice cold from long range. CJ, Trent, and Melo were great. Balanced game offensively.

Not seeing why people think that Stotts was tightening the lineup. Once you hit Hezonja, there's a pretty big drop off in NBA-ready talent. "The Blazers really miss Hood and Ariza" is the nice way of saying "ugh! Hezonja is getting playing time!" Sad part is that he can be a decent role player at times, but the Blazers remain stubborn on using him as a ball handler.

Totally agree that Kent was more enjoyable than Calabro.


Norm2953 wrote:For all of the people without CSN, they are not back. Seems nuts to black out the games when all of the
games are 4000 miles away just so they can make a few bucks televising their "home" games to the
local market.


NBCNW charges $25 for 8 games. If you think that is bad, try living outside of Oregon. With all of the sports bars closed, I have to spend $20 for NBA TV for the Memphis and Philly games, either $60 for League Pass or $6 per non-televised game, and will still miss the Rockets and Clippers games due to them being TNT exclusives. And then NBA TV and League Pass become useless once the playoffs start. Still rooting for Portland to get the 8th seed, but if ever a year for them to miss...

Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Sat Aug 1, 2020 4:19 pm
by zzaj
JasonStern wrote:RIP CITY!

Fun game. Other than Grayson Allen, I like Memphis' young core. Duck homer, so love to watch Dillon Brooks. Still hate that we ended up with Swanigan over both Brooks and Bell in 2017. And Morant is obviously electric. Not liking Portland's chances if they're the 9th seed facing a play-in. Hard to beat a team like that 3 times straight in a short time span.

Refs made watching the game a grind sometimes. I don't think they were overly biased either way, but the sheer amount of ticky-tack fouls made the game a boring free throw competition for stretches.

Love having three healthy bigs. Let's them be more aggressive on defense without having to worry so much about foul trouble. Also provides more versatility on going overly big or overly small depending on the matchup.

That said, the defense wasn't as improved as I was hoping given Nurk and Collins returning.

Hope Dame gets his shot back. Game could have been a blowout if he wasn't ice cold from long range. CJ, Trent, and Melo were great. Balanced game offensively.

Not seeing why people think that Stotts was tightening the lineup. Once you hit Hezonja, there's a pretty big drop off in NBA-ready talent. "The Blazers really miss Hood and Ariza" is the nice way of saying "ugh! Hezonja is getting playing time!" Sad part is that he can be a decent role player at times, but the Blazers remain stubborn on using him as a ball handler.

Totally agree that Kent was more enjoyable than Calabro.


Norm2953 wrote:For all of the people without CSN, they are not back. Seems nuts to black out the games when all of the
games are 4000 miles away just so they can make a few bucks televising their "home" games to the
local market.


NBCNW charges $25 for 8 games. If you think that is bad, try living outside of Oregon. With all of the sports bars closed, I have to spend $20 for NBA TV for the Memphis and Philly games, either $60 for League Pass or $6 per non-televised game, and will still miss the Rockets and Clippers games due to them being TNT exclusives. And then NBA TV and League Pass become useless once the playoffs start. Still rooting for Portland to get the 8th seed, but if ever a year for them to miss...


The play-in is only two games long. If it’s Mem/Port then the Blazers have to beat Memphis twice, or Memphis only needs to win once to advance.

Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Sat Aug 1, 2020 11:04 pm
by GEE
WOW! That was a nail biter. Couldn't watch the game live this time, but agree with most said already. A few major takeaways from this game:

- Officiating was suspect. Competing against them also in the bubble, may make the uphill clime too steep. We were doing an excellent job of playing through it; the obvious frustrations of the players had due to the questionable officiating. We clearly lost some of that focus in the 3rd quarter. In short, can't do that.

- Whiteside needs something. A pep talk, A hug... something. He's crucial, and we wouldn't even be in Orlando if it wasn't for him. Get motivated big fella. We need you to dominate for 20-28 minutes.

- I'm feeling I may have been horribly wrong about giving Melo free reign to lead and make smart decisions. He needs to be better. We need Olympic Melo, and I saw flashes of it, but I also saw some NYK Melo. How badly does he want to face Lebron? How badly does he want a ring? What will be his legacy?

- Why no Gabriel? He excites every time he steps on the floor... much like Gary has does. With that, too much Mario for my eyeballs. A veteran swiss army knife all year long and a great insurance policy if the younger guys can't get it done, but I'd try using the younger guys at least some, first, before going vanilla.

In all, everyone played hard, grinded off their rust (I hope) and got the HUGE win. Nice job.

Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Sun Aug 2, 2020 12:06 am
by DaVoiceMaster
Hezonja had a decent first half, but didnt do much in the second half. I thought about Gabriel in the third quarter when the team needed an shot of energy.

Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Sun Aug 2, 2020 5:07 am
by monopoman
DaVoiceMaster wrote:Hezonja had a decent first half, but didnt do much in the second half. I thought about Gabriel in the third quarter when the team needed an shot of energy.

Getting even half of a game from his is good enough, he is not some solid bench player that every team wants a piece of. If he can give me half of a good game every two games or so I will say he is well worth his minutes.

It's not like Stotts is giving minutes to Mario at the expense of another player.

Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Sun Aug 2, 2020 7:37 am
by zzaj
The whole reason Mario gets in games is because he can handle the ball and match up length against opponents. The only other player who has the ball handling is Simons, but he lacks the length and other things to be an effective defender.

Both are pretty terrible at running the team. The Blazers would be much better with a 3rd, SF ball handler that was good at running the team. Those don't grow on trees...

Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Sun Aug 2, 2020 7:45 am
by Village Idiot
DaVoiceMaster wrote:Hezonja had a decent first half, but didnt do much in the second half. I thought about Gabriel in the third quarter when the team needed an shot of energy.
Hezonja didn't bother me this game. He was passable.

Agree on Gabriel. When Memphis didn't have Valenciunas in the game Gabriel would have been a better option than Whiteside who gave up some easy second chance points by not bothering to box out or jump on rebounds and whose defense is 100% close to the basket.

Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Mon Aug 3, 2020 4:17 pm
by JasonStern
zzaj wrote:
JasonStern wrote: Not liking Portland's chances if they're the 9th seed facing a play-in. Hard to beat a team like that 3 times straight in a short time span.


The play-in is only two games long. If it’s Mem/Port then the Blazers have to beat Memphis twice, or Memphis only needs to win once to advance.


Right. Game 1 + Game 9 + Game 10 = 3 straight wins needed should Portland be the 9th seed.

Re: Bubble game 1: They're back Portland vs Memphis

Posted: Mon Aug 3, 2020 10:09 pm
by zzaj
JasonStern wrote:
zzaj wrote:
JasonStern wrote: Not liking Portland's chances if they're the 9th seed facing a play-in. Hard to beat a team like that 3 times straight in a short time span.


The play-in is only two games long. If it’s Mem/Port then the Blazers have to beat Memphis twice, or Memphis only needs to win once to advance.


Right. Game 1 + Game 9 + Game 10 = 3 straight wins needed should Portland be the 9th seed.


Gotcha...I see now where you were going with that. Yeah, to beat Memphis 3 times in a row would be difficult. But they won the first one so :dontknow: