PG: Clear Path FTL

[Son Goku 25]

What I learned is that the blazers aren't that good of a playoff team. Are they a good team? Yeah, they got a lot of fire power and rely too much on the 3 to ever be a great playoff team. Before the game started, I was thinking Aldridge may have changed his game up and started going inside more but I was wrong, they kept taking so many dumb 3's and I realize that's part of their game plan but that won't take them far when its not dropping and you're facing a fully healthy Raptors esq team without the help of refs. I felt we contained Lillard and did a decent job on him all night, we didn't let their shooters get going for the majority of the game and Aldridge got a few calls in his favour. If we had DD/Fields, we wouldn't be seeing Vasquez as much, he's obviously decided that he wants to focus on offense and be that spark off the bench, he doesn't like passing the ball and just pounds the ball for 2 0 secs to either shoot or pass for a bad shot. If he had it going and wasn't terrible on defense, i wouldn't mind but that obviously wasn't the case. The other issue is that Casey uses him as the "PG" so Lowry can play off the ball and he doesn't have to put so much energy into bringing ball up every time and creating a play, Vasquez has been terrible at that and Lou had nothing going for him after that 1st Q. That's when you need a guy like Demar who would open up the floor so much and attract attention, you really gotta give Lowry respect though for going inside on so many occasions but didn't get 1 foul call in his favour, the refs decided they wanted the blazers to win I guess.

Also, like I've mentioned before the Loss is not just the refs fault but our guys didn't make shots as well when it mattered and the rotations weren't good at all, if you replace Hansbro with Hayes we might not even get to the OT, if you bring in JJ earlier and sit V's a** down earlier for either jj/ross then the same thing applies. Casey brought JJ in too late when he got cold and he didn't bring us anything in the OT, why did we shy away from posting up JV/JJ, that's what I don't like.. Casey still needs to improve in that regard. I don't blame him that much though for sitting JV down because he wasn't getting any calls but at the same time, you gotta stick with him as he could have gotten them late and he needs to go through this now for betterment of long term. If anyone brings up how the game was reffed fair, look again. It's the same story all the time, the Raptors were winning and needed to go off in order to win or else the refs would bring back the blazers like they did. They got us in early foul trouble in the quarter which wouldn't allow us to be as aggressive on defense and it would cost us free throws the rest of the way, its not how many fouls there are its when and who the fouls are called on which is the key you guys need to understand about the refs. They aren't dumb, they know when and how to shift the momentum.

[rapz101]

ok reffing was bad both ways tbh, and the clear path call was probably what did us in...

But have people noticed, when JV goes for a board, more often than not his weak side arm is always getting tugged on by the opposing player. This isn't just last nights game, im talking regularly...now i don't wanna blame the refs because playing through ish like this is part of the game, but sheesh not one game have i watched except this ish happens to JV....it doesnt even happen much to anyone else but JV, and he never gets a call in his favour for it.

this happens atleast once every game.

[BballFan2014]

This was not on kyle; he worked his but of . This was on casey and to some degree the officiatin . I stopped watchinf the moment Casey put Vasquez, Lou, kyle, Patterson and amir on the floor towards the end of the fourth. LMA was owning amir; I'm sorry but amir should not have been guarding lma. Any other coach in the league would have tried jv on lma; jv forced lma to turn the ball over and lma would have had to deal with jvs length. But Casey's logic doesn't make sense sometime

Also why was JJ sat on the bench when he gave batum match up problems and scored us a double double? A rookie coach would have never missed this. What does Casey do? Buts vasquez on batum when we needed size strength on batum.

Sorry such decisions frustrate me and I cannot understand Casey's logic at throwing games like this with not logic or reeason to his offensive play calling and or looking at the match ups logically. Reminds me of that home loss against Chicago .

Anyways with officiating + casey we are on que for another first round early exit. I am really loosing interest in basketball

[Zebsterama]

I thinks the Raps win, if the reffing was more consistent on both ends.

Game changed when JV got his tech. Portland was on the ropes. Not blaming JV, love the guy, but he missed a put back, and a short jumper that he really should be making. He NEEDS to learn to go up strong at crunch time. It takes time - he will get it.

[justinmacd]

Tough loss but lets keep things in perspective: We took a great team to overtime in their arena without our 2nd best scorer...

There is nothing to be ashamed about with this game. We couldn't make some shots down the stretch when we needed to... It happens.

Great learning experience tonight. Tuck this one away and move on to the next one.

[6ixth_Man]

[Strategist1]

great entertaining game... But unfortunately we came out on the losing end. This is a game where Val should've played crunch time minutes and in OT.

He was effective in the 1st quarter, and we inexcusably went away from that.

I guess this proves once again, that we need Derozan to consistently beat the better teams in the league...

[Strategist1]

and Yes, I agree,... James Johnson should've played more in the 4th.

[djsunyc]

w/o derozan, portland was able to put batum on lowry and hide lillard on ross. if derozan is in there, they couldn't do that, and if they did, we would be able to post up derozan every time.

[JonasVFTW]

Tough loss for sure, but some perspective:

1.) Lou shot awful.
2.) 3rd game in 4 nights in tough western conference.
3.) Missing arguably our best player (ok, second best before I get flamed)
4.) Played one of top teams, if not top team in West.
5.) Had a 13 point lead late and of course NBA happens and they came back, but we caused an all heart turnover similar to Brooklyn games last year to even get us to OT.

I think this team is elite and nothing wrong with a loss like this to keep us grounded! Brings out hungrier next game.

We the North!

[tdotboyy]

We need a scorer, someone other than Lowry. People clowned me when I suggested it earlier, we should seriously consider making a move for Melo.

We also need someone at the 4, Amir is just too soft and isn't what he was before on D.

we should try to trade for derozan, he averages around 22ppg

[snomeister]

This was not on kyle; he worked his but of . This was on casey and to some degree the officiatin . I stopped watchinf the moment Casey put Vasquez, Lou, kyle, Patterson and amir on the floor towards the end of the fourth. LMA was owning amir; I'm sorry but amir should not have been guarding lma. Any other coach in the league would have tried jv on lma; jv forced lma to turn the ball over and lma would have had to deal with jvs length. But Casey's logic doesn't make sense sometime

Also why was JJ sat on the bench when he gave batum match up problems and scored us a double double? A rookie coach would have never missed this. What does Casey do? Buts vasquez on batum when we needed size strength on batum.

Sorry such decisions frustrate me and I cannot understand Casey's logic at throwing games like this with not logic or reeason to his offensive play calling and or looking at the match ups logically. Reminds me of that home loss against Chicago .

Anyways with officiating + casey we are on que for another first round early exit. I am really loosing interest in basketball

Whoa man, you got to chill. Losing interest in basketball? This is our beat season ever. BY FAR. You can't win 'em all. Losing in OT to the 2nd best record team at their arena, and also have a notorious loud crowd, isn't such a bad outcome. Wiz just got blown out and the Bulls just lost to ****ing Brooklyn. Cavs lost again. Those fanbases should be more fed up than us.

[talosinc]

Bunch of teens and whiny kids on this forum blaming refs entirely for the loss. I bet they blame their teachers too if they fail an test.

[ATLTimekeeper]

w/o derozan, portland was able to put batum on lowry and hide lillard on ross. if derozan is in there, they couldn't do that, and if they did, we would be able to post up derozan every time.

They also have Wes Matthews. They would have just put him on DeMar and kept Lillard on Lou/GV/Ross. Batum was guarding Lowry no matter what. DeMar just would have been a nice option to take touches away from Kyle when he went cold.

[djsunyc]

w/o derozan, portland was able to put batum on lowry and hide lillard on ross. if derozan is in there, they couldn't do that, and if they did, we would be able to post up derozan every time.

They also have Wes Matthews. They would have just put him on DeMar and kept Lillard on Lou/GV/Ross. Batum was guarding Lowry no matter what. DeMar just would have been a nice option to take touches away from Kyle when he went cold.

then you play jj in there too but casey is more a reactive coach down the stretch of games.

[Lord Eder]

w/o derozan, portland was able to put batum on lowry and hide lillard on ross. if derozan is in there, they couldn't do that, and if they did, we would be able to post up derozan every time.

Which was why I didn't understand why James Johnson wasn't in the game. He took advantage of the mismatches and backed down for a bucket or dished off to an open man when the double come. And even if the double didn't come everyone on the Portland side was watching and thinking help, that makes it easier for them to lose track of their matchup and for our guys to find spots in the defense un noticed.

But Raptors went small and tried to match Portland 3 for 3 instead

[scopy]

My wife came downstairs for a bit, then randomly said "see that coach on the bench in the navy blue suit and brown shoes? you should get shoes like that for your navy blue suit" then she left.

what job do you have that you wear a navy blue suit?

lol, nice....

Pimpin’ ain’t easy, pimpin’ ain’t dead; the ho’s are just scared

When Im not out cockin' back joints and bangin', I run my own business...but I never wear a suit for work.

BTW Navy blue is pretty conservative colour .

[RokoLeniUkic]

What's with people saying Amir's basket was bad and they would rather have taken a three? That's pretty stupid, the shot went in and there is very much no guarantee of hitting a three at all, especially with portlands perimeter defence. Shots in the paint versus threes have much higher percentages, and a chance to win in overtime > no chance to win at all. Oh, and we were shooting 18% from deep... keep your stupid opinions to yourself, please. Hindsight is 20/20, regretting Amir's shot when he made it is blasphemous.

I agree. But it was also obvious that the play broke down. I think that Amir was supposed to drop the ball and set a pick for the inbounder. Was Probably worried of another call. So he kept the ball and went one on one against LMA whos not that good of a post defender.

Was alright as far as I'm concerned.

Also, Casey had a few coaching mistakes in the 4th, but that's nothing new.

Refs sucked, but they were awful on both ends. More on our end than theirs, but they were not blatantly pulling for Portland.

Before the game I told my friend that we'll miss DeMar in this game, moslty because they'll throw Batum on Lowry and that we'll need a big game from JV. He should have played on JV a lot more. He wanted it.
There was a few times LMA ended up on JV in defence. My friend was yelling at the tv. Never once did they take adventage of that missmatch.
Sent from my C6506 using RealGM Forums mobile app

[BballFan2014]

w/o derozan, portland was able to put batum on lowry and hide lillard on ross. if derozan is in there, they couldn't do that, and if they did, we would be able to post up derozan every time.

They also have Wes Matthews. They would have just put him on DeMar and kept Lillard on Lou/GV/Ross. Batum was guarding Lowry no matter what. DeMar just would have been a nice option to take touches away from Kyle when he went cold.

then you play jj in there too but casey is more a reactive coach down the stretch of games.

This; I was totally puzzled why refused to play JJ who gave them match up problems scored a double double for us and opted to go with a shototing line up that wasn't doing welll

[BballFan2014]

w/o derozan, portland was able to put batum on lowry and hide lillard on ross. if derozan is in there, they couldn't do that, and if they did, we would be able to post up derozan every time.

Which was why I didn't understand why James Johnson wasn't in the game. He took advantage of the mismatches and backed down for a bucket or dished off to an open man when the double come. And even if the double didn't come everyone on the Portland side was watching and thinking help, that makes it easier for them to lose track of their matchup and for our guys to find spots in the defense un noticed.

But Raptors went small and tried to match Portland 3 for 3 instead

Well said but casey is too smart for that. Whenever things like matchups too our way he has to break it and fumble the ball with his queationable rotations.

It was very frustrating to watch; JJ was exposing batum and was doing a good job on grabbing boards to helping our our big guys but Casey's answer was to bench him in the crucial 4th. Unbelievable!!! I think JJ did a better job on batum than even demar would've.

I am not even going to point the finger as much on the officiating this was mostly on casey and his live and die by the jump shot attitude