Bubble game 5: Portland vs LA Clippers 10am Saturday

Roy The Natural · Post #21 » by **Roy The Natural** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 6:48 pm

DaVoiceMaster wrote:Gotta get back to what they did in the first half. Nurk with 8 assists in the first half, 0 in the 3rd quarter.

Yup... they stopped making the easy play.

Roy The Natural · Post #22 » by **Roy The Natural** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 6:50 pm

In a lot of ways I really like what Simons is doing out there. Since the bubble started he's really playing under control. I keep expecting him to get more aggressive, but that's maybe something that should happen next year.

monopoman · Post #23 » by **monopoman** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 6:57 pm

Roy The Natural wrote:In a lot of ways I really like what Simons is doing out there. Since the bubble started he's really playing under control. I keep expecting him to get more aggressive, but that's maybe something that should happen next year.

Despite his flaws he has shown flashes of greatness. The day he puts it all together he will be a dangerous scorer.

Post #24 » by **DaVoiceMaster** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 7:02 pm

Nurk with 5 fouls is not good. Lazy foul that time.

Post #25 » by **DaVoiceMaster** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 7:07 pm

Paul George goes out?

Blaze the Nugz · Post #26 » by **Blaze the Nugz** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 7:12 pm

DaVoiceMaster wrote:Paul George goes out?

Clippers right now: "If we win, so be it. But ideally we lose this game and try to get LA get matched up with Portland."

Post #27 » by **The Sebastian Express** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 7:26 pm

Oof. That's a brutal sequence.

Post #28 » by **DaVoiceMaster** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 7:28 pm

Clippers can't even hand the Blazers a win.

Roy The Natural · Post #29 » by **Roy The Natural** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 7:32 pm

Man that was an embarrassing loss. I'm honestly just ready to move on to next year. I just don't trust this team at all. They need to move McCollum and invest in some wings. McCollum's defense is just unconscionably horrible and as the offensive options have increased, his iso-ball has looked worse and worse.

JasonStern · Post #30 » by **JasonStern** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 7:32 pm

Well, that was an embarrassing loss.

Bill Shonley wrote:You've got to make your free throws!

And now we play our back-to-back. X-)

d-train · Post #31 » by **d-train** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 7:33 pm

That was unfortunate loss.

Dzon Dilindzer · Post #32 » by **Dzon Dilindzer** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 7:35 pm

d-train wrote:That was unfortunate loss.

there is nothing unfortunate about this

d-train · Post #33 » by **d-train** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 7:44 pm

Soulyss wrote:
Blazinaway wrote:Good news is that Kawhi is out, "load mgmt" with sore knee, works for me

Also convenient that Portland taking the 8th seed is very much in the Clippers best interests.

PG sat out crunchtime. So yeah, Clippers didn't do all they could to improve their chances.

zzaj · Post #34 » by **zzaj** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 8:04 pm

This one was pretty ouchy and a waste of a decent offensive game from Melo...

Lillard had an off night, which isn't ever a good sign...but it's going to happen. If the Blazers miss the playoffs I think the thing that will stick out for me (so far, at least) are those two missed FTs.

It sure would be nice to have this be the 9 man lineup right now:

Lillard/CJ
Trent/CJ
Ariza/Hood
Collins/Melo
Nurkic/Whiteside

It's a shame CJ will never get to play the offensive 6th man role he was born to play.

I'm still confident the Blazers will win a couple and the Griz will hold on. Phoenix is really the only team that scares me...

Sinobas · Post #35 » by **Sinobas** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 8:30 pm

Not trusting Zach to be our PF of the future anymore. I know he's young, but you've got to show something. He reminds me of a guy like Martell Webster, who seemed to have good potential but could never be more than a scrub, for years we kept giving him a "youth pass". Look at Gary Trent, he's already showing it.

zzaj · Post #36 » by **zzaj** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 8:47 pm

Sinobas wrote:Not trusting Zach to be our PF of the future anymore. I know he's young, but you've got to show something. He reminds me of a guy like Martell Webster, who seemed to have good potential but could never be more than a scrub, for years we kept giving him a "youth pass". Look at Gary Trent, he's already showing it.

He's definitely going to have to be better on both sides of the ball to be a starting caliber PF in the NBA. My wish for him on draft day was for him to be come Dale Davis with a .375 3pt shot and solid, mistake free team basketball. He'll have to be a MUCH better defender in order to approach that.

Zach has been getting a pass, because he's been out with an injury. I buy that in a lot of ways. But his defense is overrated at this point.

Epicurus · Post #37 » by **Epicurus** » Sat Aug 8, 2020 8:58 pm

Rivers had a advantage at the end with that lineup. If it didn't work, so what, as the game was not critical. Yet it might work as fresh players, even subs, may just be too much in crunch time for a fatigued oppositional lineup. The crunch time Clipper lineup was much quicker than that of the Blazers. Those thinking that Rivers or his players were just giving the game away just don't get NBA coaches or players.

GEE · Post #38 » by **GEE** » Sun Aug 9, 2020 1:29 am

zzaj wrote:This one was pretty ouchy and a waste of a decent offensive game from Melo...

Lillard had an off night, which isn't ever a good sign...but it's going to happen. If the Blazers miss the playoffs I think the thing that will stick out for me (so far, at least) are those two missed FTs.

It sure would be nice to have this be the 9 man lineup right now:

Lillard/CJ
Trent/CJ
Ariza/Hood
Collins/Melo
Nurkic/Whiteside

It's a shame CJ will never get to play the offensive 6th man role he was born to play.

I'm still confident the Blazers will win a couple and the Griz will hold on. Phoenix is really the only team that scares me...

I'm totally with you on this. GTJ is not a SF, and CJ is too small to guard the PG13s, Tatums and Klays of today's NBA. We get beat by it EVERY TIME!!! Your comment about CJ being a 6th man are spot on, but has been used mostly as someone Dame can hand the ball off to with 8 seconds left and get bailed out.

Dame(36) / Simons(0)
GTJ(28) / CJ(32)
Melo(20) / Gabriel(14) / GTJ(4) / RIO(0)
Collins (28) / Melo(14) / Nurkic(4)
Nurkic(26) / Whiteside(22)

I made this a bit messy on purpose to show the versatility and options, but to mostly emphasize how scary that bench unit is. I would like to bring this with a couple minutes left in the 1st, and not have it written in stone that Dame MUST play the whole 1st quarter, every game, no matter what. Being predictable is pretty dumb. CJ / GTJ / Gabriel / Melo / Whiteside... YIKES!

Epicurus · Post #39 » by **Epicurus** » Sun Aug 9, 2020 4:31 am

From 2:58 in the game the Clipper lineup of less used guys beat the Blazers top line up(s) 12-2, and in every phase of the game--shooting, rebounding, and assists. I am willing to bet controlling for fatigue, the Blazer lineup then would have beaten the Clipper lineup then ten out of ten times. But the Blazer lineup was spent. The Clipper lineup of the crunch time was much fresher and faster. Also Rivers and the players of that lineup had nothing to lose,risk free.

Sinobas · Post #40 » by **Sinobas** » Sun Aug 9, 2020 2:24 pm

Epicurus wrote:Rivers had a advantage at the end with that lineup. If it didn't work, so what, as the game was not critical. Yet it might work as fresh players, even subs, may just be too much in crunch time for a fatigued oppositional lineup. The crunch time Clipper lineup was much quicker than that of the Blazers. Those thinking that Rivers or his players were just giving the game away just don't get NBA coaches or players.

Yeah, because coaches bench their best players when they're trying to close out a close game all the time.