Subscribe Feed (RSS)Obviously, one of the best games the Blazers have played this or any other season — at least through the first half. A great response to the poor game at San Antonio last week.
Some nights in the NBA it’s just hard to explain. Portland packed the paint and dared the Spurs to shoot from the outside and it looked like perfect strategy. Normally, it wouldn’t be. San Antonio came into the game as the leading three-point shooting team in the league and on a lot of nights will kill teams playing that sort of defense. But not Sunday night. It wasn’t that the Spurs didn’t shoot well from out there — they were a red-hot 8 for 13 — it’s just that they were so frustrated getting the ball inside that they didn’t take enough shots from the perimeter.
And it shows you how well the Blazers shot from the outside that even though Portland packed its defense inside, the Spurs had more points in the paint than the Blazers did through most of the game.
What I liked most was that the energy level was higher. The Blazers came out with more zip than they have shown in a while. Now THAT’S what a young team should be doing to teams at this point of the season — bringing that extra bit of energy and youthful enthusiasm.
Tags: Dwight Jaynes, NBA, Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs
This is why I get so irked with the Blazer offense and defense.
Defensively we were pretty good last night. Not as good as we may have looked, because SA was missing some shots. However, this is a 100% turnaround.
The offense was also much different last night.
The reason I gripe SOOO much about this sort of stuff, is that if we come with this every night – we are a championship contended.
Granted, I know we won’t win by 28 – as we were shooting the lights out. A lower shooting %, along with them making some open shots – we still win by about 10.
No reason we cannot do this every night.
Observations from the subterranean rumpus room:
Touche> Making the extra pass and not settling for quick shots. The Blazers have finally decided that moving the ball is a good thing. Why it took them all season is partly the “young team thing” and a bit of coaching weakness.
Dah> Keeping focus on team defense. Roy taking a leadership role and using the “shame name game” technique might get these guys to realize the kind of effort required to stop letting teams get easy buckets. I thought SA had very few wide open looks last night. Now if you played this game tomorrow- probably a different result, but I’ll take it because the effort was there.
The Blake Factor> You can pretty much tell if the game is going to be easy if Blake is making shots. Why? Because his replacements, Sergio and Bayless, usually can’t fill his shoes when he is having a rough night.