Subscribe Feed (RSS)Oh, don’t worry… I’m prepared to give the Trail Blazers a lot of credit for their 42-point win over the Chicago Bulls Wednesday night. Portland finally showed some interest in defending, moved the ball around well and scored at will against the Bulls. And for a team last in the league in points in the paint, took the ball to the basket with power. For a time, it was a layup and dunk fest.
But come on — why isn’t anyone mentioning the pathetic effort of the Bulls? Talk about packing it in, there were several periods in this game when Chicago just flat-out quit. About halfway through the third quarter, it got totally embarrassing and if I’d have been Vinny Del Negro I think I would have been screaming at my troops.
It was the worst defensive effort I’ve seen from an NBA team in quite a while. Awful.
But speaking about the Blazers, there was a lot to like in this game. Everyone played, everyone scored — and a lot of team stats got turned in a favorable direction. Finally, after 11 games, Portland has outscored its opponents for the season.
Nobody seems to notice him, but I continue to be impressed by Nic Batum’s improvement. He gets overlooked because he’s seldom on the floor in the fourth quarter and gets few minutes past the opening ones of the first and third quarters. But the kid does a lot of things that help you win. He defends, rebounds, passes and makes the responsible play. For a teenager, he’s fitting in very well in an environment that’s well, very foreign to him.
There is no such thing as a bad win, but this one was better than most. Teams need blowouts. Lopsided wins allow everyone to feel better and bolster the confidence level. Portland has had to scrape and scramble for a lot of its victories over the last year or so. This was a welcome respite.
Dwight,
I agree with you on Batum. Kid looks great. I was thinking about why he doesn’t get more minutes, since it seems like good things happen every time he’s on the court. My conclusion? I think Nate might be trying to limit his minutes purposely, so that when Webster gets back they don’t decrease drastically. No one likes their minutes cut, so maybe he’s just protecting Nic from Martell’s return. What do you think?
Also, I noticed how you said something about the point differential finally being positive. Someone else noticed to; John Hollinger. In one day, due solely to point differential, the Blazers jumped from 16th to 5th in his standings. That is ridiculous. This only reaffirms my belief that his system is laughable and relies predominantly on +- stats.
THANK YOU for mentioning Chicago’s pathetic effort. I was surprised to see a professional team quit that way. The post over at their team blog seemed to say “Hey, we started Gray and Hughes, what do you expect?” What you expect is professional effort!
At one point I was wondering whether some of the Blazers’ show-you-up plays would meet with some flagrant retaliations from the Bulls, and it almost looked like Gooden tried to jump on Aldridge’s back, but in the end, no, the Bulls just quit.
How well do you think the strategy of LaMarcus shadowing the opposition’s point guard would apply to other teams? Did the Blazers just discover their defensive identity? Could they apply the same strategy against other opponents? Could or should they apply it regularly?
Projecting two seasons down the road, do you have enough time for Webster, Outlaw, and Batum, especially if Rudy and Roy are predominately spending time on the wing? As a fan, it breaks my heart to part with Webster or Outlaw. It seems to me that unless Rodriguez or Blake leave the equation, at which point Roy would move from the wing to primary ball handler, there is far too little time to spread around on the wing. You can’t keep cheating that Outlaw is a big when you have a healthy Frye, Aldridge, Oden, and Przybilla. I can’t see burying Batum for more than two years.
Jarrett Jack leaving town was clear about a half-season in advance, and I was pleased to get Bayless back in return. However, I having a tough time seeing how you add to this team. Do you try to trade Outlaw, Rodriguez and the Lafrentz contract for a top-flight point guard? As crazy as it sounds, it might be a good idea to keep acquiring long-term prospects to stash on the bench to keep the rotation stable.
It does feel great to have more starters than starting positions. Do you think Chicago or Miami would like Przybilla dropped in their lap? How many teams would be starting Rudy or Outlaw? The Blazers haven’t been so injury proof since the day before Whitsitt traded for Shawn Kemp and Dale Davis.
Was that a professional basketball team playing the Blazers? Holy cow the Bulls looked terrible and they didn’t care.
The Blazers played well. Joel Pryzbilla is outplaying Greg Oden right now. Oden looks a little sluggish, a little heavy, and a little confused on offense.
It will be interesting to see how the Blazers are doing in late December. I like this team.