RealGM

monopoman wrote:Bucks have now won 5 in a row against us, whatever they are doing with their roster is a horrible matchup for the Blazers. In four of those five games the closest merging of victory was 8, every other game was a blowout.

Just to show that the streak was not a fluke, Bucks won 4 in a row before Blazers won a single game so out of the last 10 matchups Bucks have won 9 of them. I bet I would have a hard time finding a head to head that bad against other teams over the same last 10 games.

I think from this point on the Blazers should just rest all their starters against the Bucks. I bet Pop would agree with me on this just rest the players against teams that almost always crush us.

Seriously would make sense

I have no idea why Nurk was guarding Giannis. What's up with the bench? DJJ didnt play in the 2nd half and we never saw Little. Is he injured or something?

The Blazers were in this game for about 3 minutes. It was over after that. They just have no answer for Giannis. When is the last time Lillard missed 3 free throws?

Giannis is the most difficult guy to defend in the league. I believe the thinking behind having Nurkic guard Giannis was that Portland could live with his mid-range shot and Nurk's length would be the best defense against Giannis in the paint.

The Greek Freak is a generational talent and the Blazers had a chance to draft him. Dame + Giannis would win rings. And before anybody comes flying to defend Olshey for not drafting Giannis, my statement wasn't an indictment of the decision. It was pointing at the reality that a small market team has maybe one or two chances every 30-40 years to build a dynasty. The 2012 & 2013 drafts was Portland's chance. They could have actually had Dame, Giannis, and Gobert (affording all three is another matter); and yeah, the odds of them landing on all three players were very low. But it's been 44 years since everything broke right for Portland so they really needed a payout on those low odds

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at the all-star break, when Stotts challenged his team to make it to the top half of the league in defense, they ranked 29th in defensive rating at 116.4. Twelve games later, there's lots of chatter about an improved defense, but the Blazers are still 29th in the league and their rating has dropped from 116.4 to 117.2. And 10 of their remaining 24 games are against top-10 offenses, and 13 games are against top-15 offenses.

what are the chances Portland will be a top-15 defense by the end of the season?

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so far, Blazer magic at work: both Powell and Jones are playing worse since the trade than before. Powell as the long-term SF doesn't seem like a good idea to me. So far, it hasn't even been a good idea short-term

Does anyone know why Little didnt play last night? And no Jones Jr in the second half. Was that coaches decision?

DaVoiceMaster wrote:I have no idea why Nurk was guarding Giannis. What's up with the bench? DJJ didnt play in the 2nd half and we never saw Little. Is he injured or something?

The Blazers were in this game for about 3 minutes. It was over after that. They just have no answer for Giannis. When is the last time Lillard missed 3 free throws?

Nurk is the best rim protector on the team (faint praise, btw). Giannis attacks the rim often and Lopez plays far from the basket. Ergo, try Nurk on Giannis and hope he shoots his average from midrange and further. He didn't, unfortunately.

I get it, but once Stotts saw Giannis drive right past Nurk a few times, I think that would signal a change is needed. At least Covington and Jones Jr are quicker and perhaps can help keep him from driving the lane as much. I didn't like the game plan, but clearly Giannis did.

It'll be interesting to see the Bucks for the next three years with the Freak, Middleton and now Holiday
combined making $105 Million. Granted they are a championship caliber team with the Freak but that's a
lot of money for even the most wealthy of franchises.