GT: Houston Rockets @ Portland Trail Blazers 03/20/2018 10:30 CDT

[Mr. E]

LAYUP!!!

Sorry - I've been making lunches and taking out the trash.

[TMU]

James Harden is pretty good at this sports.

[Mr. E]

James Harden is pretty good at this sports.

Yeah, and he just had another LAYUP

[Mr. E]

Are these goofballs actually chanting "MVP" for Lillard? That's cute.

[TMU]

Are these goofballs actually chanting "MVP" for Lillard? That's cute.

I heard the Moda Center has awesome drink selection.

[TMU]

Someone stop this State Farm agent....

[Mr. E]

Someone stop this State Farm agent....

But you're in good hands!

[Mr. E]

This Rockets team can throw out so many different lineups that are all effective somehow.

[TMU]

Someone stop the Maestro.... too much orchestration.

[Mr. E]

Watch on YouTube

[MaxRider]

CP3 hurt

[TMU]

A lot of layups. Made me happy.

[PDXKnight]

Congrats on the win. Tough one

[Mr. E]

A lot of layups. Made me happy.

Did we see how many layups the Rockets had on #NoMoreLayups night?

I hope that someone kept count.

[PDXKnight]

Are these goofballs actually chanting "MVP" for Lillard? That's cute.

I heard the Moda Center has awesome drink selection.

Blazer fan here. Don't get me started on Dame, Very solid player but in my mind his defense is likely bottom 5 if not THE worst in the league for point guards. His offense is very solid so he''s an all star no doubt imo but he should never win an MVP unless he has a groundbreaking improvement on defense.

I think if we had a bigger SG who could play some semblance of defense to cover Dame's weaknesses it'd work better. It's getting quite obvious CJ needs to go at some point especially if we can get the right piece in return.

[TMU]

Are these goofballs actually chanting "MVP" for Lillard? That's cute.

I heard the Moda Center has awesome drink selection.

Blazer fan here. Don't get me started on Dame, Very solid player but in my mind his defense is likely bottom 5 if not THE worst in the league for point guards. He's an all star no doubt imo but he should never win an MVP unless he has a groundbreaking improvement on defense

Lillard's a very very good player and I actually think that his defense is better than people give credit for. Aside from Chris Paul, John Wall and Jrue Holiday I don't see many scoring PG being labeled as good defenders. I think guys like Lillard, Isaiah and Curry are all splitting hairs when it comes to defense and Lillard just gets a lot of criticism because his team has never been good defensively until this year with the growth of Aminu and Harkless and the presence of an anchor in Nurkic.

[PDXKnight]

I heard the Moda Center has awesome drink selection.

Blazer fan here. Don't get me started on Dame, Very solid player but in my mind his defense is likely bottom 5 if not THE worst in the league for point guards. He's an all star no doubt imo but he should never win an MVP unless he has a groundbreaking improvement on defense

Lillard's a very very good player and I actually think that his defense is better than people give credit for. Aside from Chris Paul, John Wall and Jrue Holiday I don't see many scoring PG being labeled as good defenders. I think guys like Lillard, Isaiah and Curry are all splitting hairs when it comes to defense and Lillard just gets a lot of criticism because his team has never been good defensively until this year with the growth of Aminu and Harkless and the presence of an anchor in Nurkic.

Yeah he's very very good but defense is not his specialty. It is almost expected that opposing guards will go off on us on a nightly basis. His offensive skillset is such that it usually offsets his defensive weaknesses so we are more than willing to live with it usually but it does get irritating at times knowing the odds of Portland getting dumped on by opposing guards is pretty high. And I'm not just talking Harden's 48 points or Bradley Beal's career high (both this season), random guards dump points on us constantly.

Anyways props to having a nice team enjoy it while it lasts. I'll be rooting for Houston or whoever makes it to the WCF to beat the warriors as I truly cannot stand KD or anyone on that roster!

[ken6199]

Are these goofballs actually chanting "MVP" for Lillard? That's cute.

I heard the Moda Center has awesome drink selection.

Blazer fan here. Don't get me started on Dame, Very solid player but in my mind his defense is likely bottom 5 if not THE worst in the league for point guards. His offense is very solid so he''s an all star no doubt imo but he should never win an MVP unless he has a groundbreaking improvement on defense.

I think if we had a bigger SG who could play some semblance of defense to cover Dame's weaknesses it'd work better. It's getting quite obvious CJ needs to go at some point especially if we can get the right piece in return.

Time to let CJ go. He is not the type of player you want - not a lockdown SG who compensate Lillard's defense deficit, not an elite passer / offense setter that can lead the 2nd unit either. He is a pure scorer, the last thing you want as Dame's backcourt partner because of the overlapping skillset.

Double scoring combo guards is not a winning recipe these days. At least Paul is a 7 time all defense first team, and he is constantly coordinating our defense, giving out instructions, other than leading by example. That's why Dame and Matthews had bigger success than Dame and CJ, even though many still think CJ is a much better player in a vacuum than Matthews. That 13-14 Portland team that eliminated us, Dame-WM-Batum-LMA-Lopez was so balanced on both ends, too bad they were probably 1-2 years too young (especially bench, CJ, Barton, Crabbe), and hit a primetime Spurs.