One of the worst efforts from an NBA team I’ve ever seen
OK, get all excited about the Trail Blazer “defense” if you want. I know, I’m going to sound like an old grump again, but really — the Wizards Saturday night were the poorest excuse for an NBA team I’ve seen in a long time. They really just phoned it in. Ben over at Blazersedge wrote about this, too, but Washington’s pre-game workout routine mostly consisted of a bunch of guys standing around goofing off and having shooting contests (for money) from nearly halfcourt. They might as well have been playing poker.
Seriously, someone in the league ought to fine the Wizards for not even attempting to look like they cared about this game. Talk about people in Washington not earning their money, these guys are classic examples.
And yes, the Blazers had a lot of “steals.” Brandon Roy had 10 of them. But the thing was, most of those “steals” were simply the Wizards just tossing the ball up for grabs or right to the Blazers. If you’d like to talk about that great Portland “D” that’s fine, but Washington cared so little about taking care of the ball it’s not all that accurate to talk about “steals” when you just mean unforced errors.
Yes, if you really want to talk about the Portland defense I will remind you that the Wizards shot 47.8 percent from the field, including 62.5 percent from three-point territory. That’s great defense?
Portland made up its mind early it could win this game any way it wanted on offense and it wanted to win this one from the outside. Oden, able to score at the post just about when he wanted, seldom saw the ball unless he went and got it off the board.
That’s fine, but some night the Blazers are going to need that inside scoring and they’re going to wish they’d have given him a chance to work on it Saturday night.
Oh well, the locals went home with big smiles on their face and the Blazers follow this one with a game Monday night against a team of no-name Clippers, who will, I bet, care about the game a whole lot more than the Wizards did Saturday.
NBA, Trail Blazers | Dwight Jaynes | January 25, 2009
Brandon Roy, Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, Portland Trail Blazers, steals, Washington Wizards
I’m not drawing many conclusions from this game aside from the Wiz are probably the worst team I’ve seen play so far this season.
How good would Caron Butler look in a Blazer Uniform?
fans are to stupid to see the big picture. As long as win it makes up for everything. Including Oden have next to no touches to score and the blazers firing jumpers all night long
Mike,
As a player, or team, it’s easy to lose some discipline when you’re far ahead and unthreatened. Apart from not getting the ball to Oden, I forgive them almost any general mistakes in this regard. It’s a LONG season and I’d rather they let up and still win easily then let up when down 8 heading into the fourth, or something.
Just a comment.
a win is better than a loss to that NBDL team we saw play last night.
I about threw up with all the Sergio praise last night…..he was playing against a third string shooting guard forced into the pg spot. He did great if taken in that context and is a decent backup pg. But man there was a lot of crazy talk in my section last night.
13th double double for our “draft bust” and his points were earned the hard way. Not only did Oden not get touches, but LA had 12 early pts and then nothing, no touches for long stretches.
Batum could be a monster in four or five years down the road.
Watched Juan Dixon and thought to myself…man this guy started for us for a short time. Blazers have come a long way.
I don’t understand why they don’t work on getting it inside to Oden. So many times he was open in the middle (on the roll and on the block), and our guards simply don’t even look. The way he is passing the ball, it makes the offense so much smoother when they get it into him. It’s better than a 50% proposition to get him the ball as far as him hitting the shot, and a good part of the time he get’s two shots at the line.
I laughed when people started saying we played great defense against the Wiz. Really? Because other teams hold them to like 40% or 42% shooting, we gave up 47%. That’s not good.
And once again can we get someone to pass the damn ball to Greg. I mean the two times they called a play for him, he did an easy hook shot the first time, then the second time easily passed out of a double team to find a wide open teammate. And why is LaMarcus not getting many touches? I mean this is ridiculous, I’m sick of Outlaw getting to put up 10-20 shots a game when LaMarcus is struggling to get 15 shots. Travis is not our best player and should not be taking as many shots as BROY or LaMarcus.
Nate needs to pull his head out of his ass if he thinks this was a good game. I said before the game if we don’t win by 15 it will be a crappily played game by us, and I was right. I mean I’ll take a win, but we played against an NBDL team last night. If they take this as a positive, there’s somethin wrong with that mindset. This should have been another 40 point blowout like Chicago.
Oh well, let Nate keep thinking he’s doing okay. I just hope at the end of the year when we are 41-41 again that people realize McMillan sucks.
Really the only good thing about saturday night’s game was Oden…Getting that double/double before halftime was great. His footwork is getting better and better, and his passing is improving too. He was vocal too last night and I saw him leading more than following…all good signs
The wizards are awful and playing against them feels like a game out on the blacktop. Outside of Butler, they really didn’t show me much
It was a game we were supposed to win and we did, but if there gonna do a 82 game season I wish they would give these guys a few weeks off before the second half of the season begins. These guys in January always have that tired feel to it
The Odenites singing his praises by getting a double/double against a NBDL team….
Oden is the best thing since sliced bread.
hey guess what???? we are going to beat the clippers!!! and maybe the bobcats too!!!! and guess what else??? we are going to lose to any team that’s worth a dam!!! Because all we do is shoot long jumper after long jumper…… it gets tiring doesn’t? Will Nate ever learn the ball needs to go inside to win against playoff teams? My guess is no and we all will be seeing a lot of fade away jumpers from travis outlaw. A 7 foot beast who will never fully develop because he has a coach who would rather see step back 3′s(RUDY) and MJ fadeaway(outlaw) See you in the playoffs when we get swept!!! chao
Fine the Wiz for phoning it in? I really hope that was a throw in line because that has to be the most absurd thing I have ever heard. The team is young, they were at the end of a long road trip, and was recently clobbered by the Lakers. I’m sure fining them would send the right message… If you go to enough NBA games, you’ll see EVERY NBA team play like crap at least once.
HEY! you don’t fine them for playing poorly, you fine them for not trying. Playing like crap is no big deal. Not showing effort, even in the pre-game workout, is appalling. And when I talk about that workout, I’m not talking about the layup line the fans see, I’m talking about the workouts on the court before the gates open. If fans had a chance to watch that, they’d have been laughing 90 minutes before the game at the Wizards,
— Dwight
I’m going to beat the dead horse a little more.
FEED GREG THE BALL!! Especially against teams that we can easily beat, these are the games where greg should get 20 touches. They might be sorry NBA players, but they are still in the NBA and Oden needs to polish the moves that he has, and try out some new ones.
The alley-oop from Sergio was nice to see since it is open about 3 times every game, and I just dont get why it is so hard to get him the ball (or why they dont want to) when he has his man sealed 5 feet from the basket. The same thing happened to him at Ohio State. They had 3-4 guys who were in love with the outside shot and one of the only games that Oden got the ball regularly was in the championship game against Florida. DUDE IS A BEAST, GIVE HIM SOM CHANCES!
so what you’re telling me is that professional athletes sometimes don’t put out good effort? holy cow, man. i had no idea. great insight.
seriously, these guys are young, tired, their coach is a player development front office guy with no coaching experience, they’re getting destroyed in every city they go into. it’s a crushing experience for their 2 real vets, not to mention their very young guys (rookie mcgee and a handful of 2nd and 3rd year guys).
and dont forget your blazers came to dc and won by 6, while our rookie center looked great against oden at times.