Plenty of Positives in Opener
posted: 10/27/2009 at 10:46 PM
On opening night at the Rose Garden on Tuesday, the positives certainly outweighed the negatives (there were a fair amount of both), and the ultimate goal was achieved. The Trail Blazers beat the Houston Rockets and got the season started with a win.
In the third quarter it looked like the Blazers were about to make this thing a blowout, as they built a 20-point lead, but the scrappy Rockets hung tough, cutting the lead to six very late, before falling 96-87.
There were also some odd things about this game, and that was probably expected. The Rockets, in their current state, are a very unconventional team. That will probably spell defeat for them on most occasions this season, but they also have the potential to cause people problems with how they play. It's so different that you really can't concentrate on how you want to attack them, or how at all times you can stop them. They'll be chippy at times, outwork teams on some nights, but mostly will probably see a lot of games like this one.
You could certainly argue that the final outcome of this game made it look closer than it actually was. The Blazers were in control most of the way, and there was never really a point where you felt like they would lose it. The Rockets did cut the lead to 6 with just over two minutes left, and that made some folks nervous, but it didn't exactly lead to finger-nail chewing.
One of the major heroes in this game for Portland came from the bench, and came from perhaps and unexpected spot. It's not totally out of character for Travis Outlaw to step up, because we've seen it on many occasions, but considering Portland's size advantage on the front line, I half expected the biggest numbers to be posted by a Blazer big man. Instead, LaMarcus Aldridge was hit with early foul trouble, the team never really went to Greg Oden, Brandon Roy struggled with his shot, and that left Outlaw the opportunity to have a huge impact off the bench.
Outlaw had a terrific first half, was active on defense and around the glass, and ended with a game-high 23 points, on a very efficient 9 of 14 shooting. He also hit three shots from behind the three-point line, and ended up playing 33 minutes.
Roy ended with 20 points, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds, but wasn't thrilled with his individual performance. He was just 5 for 18 from the field.
Aldridge, who had to come out of this game very early after picking up his second foul, ended with 11 points and 6 rebounds. Almost no offense came from the center spot, but Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla combined for 22 rebounds and 7 blocked shots, so that's certainly something to build on.
As for the point-guard spot, Steve Blake and Andre Miller ended up playing almost exactly the same amount of minutes. Blake had seven points, and hit two three pointers. Miller had a great run in the second quarter, against Houston's second unit, and finished with 9 points and 7 assists, but was just 3 for 11 from the field.
What kept Houston in the game were constant trips to the foul line, and Portland turnovers. The Blazers were pretty sloppy, and ended with 26 turnovers. That's very uncharacteristic for this team, which was among the league leaders in taking care of the basketball last season. We won't see many 26-turnover nights for this team this season, that's for sure.
So, there are some bugs that needed to be ironed out, but this team is good enough to win on nights when they're not at their absolute best. They certainly didn't need to be in this game.
It could be a different story on Thursday when the Blazers host the Denver Nuggets. One major thing the Blazers have in their favor going into that game will be the fact that Denver plays at home on Wednesday night, and will get into Portland very late after that game. Back-to-back situations are a huge factor in this league, and sometimes are more telling early in a season than late.
To listen to Nate McMillan's post-game comments, as heard on the Blazers Radio Network,
click here.Wrapping up the theme of this being an odd night, is the fact that Portland never turned the ball over 26 times in a game last season. As McMillan said, "that's probably the last time we turn the ball over 26 times and win." Portland also recorded 12 blocked shots in the game. Their season high for a game last season was 10.
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greg's game was really interesting. i for one loved it, he dominated. i was in the front row of the 300 level, and i should have kept track of the times i could see his jersey being pulled. 12 rebounds and 5 blocks that controlled much of the game. his two points came from a rebound put back that helped seal the victory. hopefully fantasy league folks and stat enthusiasts will watch the actual game, and saw what i saw.
we led in rebounds 40 - 20 at the start of the 4th quarter, at which point joel and greg had 10 each. they were great.
travis outlaw was great, and he took great advantage of all the pushing and holding that was going on under the hoop. he and martell were wide open while the rockets hung off of lamarcus and greg, and tried to swarm brandon when they could.
it wasn't perfect, but oh the potential. a few tweaks here and there, and we're on our way.
Great game, brought up a lot of concerns however.
Concern one is that the Blazers did a great team. The reason they had so many turnovers was because they became sloppy and it seemed they were just trying to relax and have fun the rest of the game. After all, when Houston got close, the Blazers made some big important plays and played smart.
Houston may be down, but it's their franchises fault for spending more money on the people sitting on the bench then the valuable players who are "underpaid" that are working for a win, and led the Flakers to 7 games in the playoffs. Their team has potential, just not motivation.
Concern 2 - Andre Miller needs to work on shooting. He's a great passer, but he had a lot of open looks that he missed. Great player however, I'm really glad we picked him over Hedo Turkaglue.
Concern 3. Monty whatever is still a referee in this league. When I saw he was officiating it, I expected our big guys to foul out. Joel did, Oden had 5, and LMA had 5. I'm not surprised. Oh, but did I also mention that a few of the turnovers were by stupid calls or the Rockets reaching in, but no call.
It seemed that the Rockets got most their lead with the officials help, and it's starting to piss me off, and this is just game.
Other than those concerns, I see improvement, and great ball movement. I forgot Batum was even on this team - the defense was incredible. 13 blocks? Holy crap! It's nice to see Greg know how to play inner defense and do it without fear of fouling. I don't care if he gets fouls when he tries that hard, it was amazing.
I was asked for predictions a lot of the time today. I said 57 wins, and at least in the Western Confrence finals. Other shoot for 80 wins, which is horribly unrealistic. Others shoot for 45 wins, which I think is giving up on your team.
Let's go for at least 55, but that doesn't matter to me. The Blazers could be 8th in the West for all I care, as long as they get passed round 1 of the playoffs.
Oh, btw. Since the west is always so tight, just though I shold let people know that 3 of the 5 Western Confrence teams *LOST* today, all being playoff contenders. Start counting the scoreboards folks.
Good game, I can't wait to see another exciting game against the McNuggets. It's time for the Blazers to start cooking!
I thought that we played over all well tonight it was the first game and the 1st quarter for me was horrible mostly cause of fouls but our defense started off sloppy and they were out of position a ton but they came out and in the 2nd quarter and played like we all know they are capable of.
Travis had a great night shot selection was good for the most part and playing the 4 makes him more active and puts him in position to block shots. If he can defend other bigs in the leauge then that is a good spot for him to get more minutes.
martell was very good for not playing for a year and i think he will have more nights like this.
oden did do what he needed to do tonight which is rebound and protect the paint but 7 turnovers better not be a common thing.
I will definitely take a win any day of the week, and if we play like we are suppose to our schedual has a set up for a hot start.
GO BLAZERS!!!!
Hey Mike - Again, I can't watch the games being out in in Europe, but I was just disappointed to hear about the TO's especially GO's 7, but I'm hoping that is "out of the system" being the first game and that we tidy things up vs. Denver. That should be a good early test for us.
I am very happy we won. Thankfully, the game didn't go on for another five minutes. The crowd was into the game and it was amazing the low FG% Houston had most of the game. Rebounds were great; turnovers horrible. All in all, we have nowhere to go from here but UP! I can't wait until Thursday~ Keep it hot, TO!
Playing time distribution is going to test Nate's coaching skills this season. If he doesn't do it right the locker room can become toxic when some players' attitudes degrade. The distribution in this game looks very credible, except that Outlaw's and Aldrige's should be the other way around (understandable due to LA's foul trouble). Blazers can definitely win a lot of games with this sort of distribution. GO could get more minutes if he's playing well without upsetting Przy and Bayless should get minutes without sacrificing too much of the other guards' PTs. Przy will be a much more aggressive and meaner player with GO able to stay out of foul trouble...that'll help erase Blazers' "soft" reputation.
Hey Mike,
Great post as always. It's so nice that you're so quick at posting these when it would be easy to wait until tomorrow. Thanks for that.
One thing that you didn't mention was how good Martell looked. If he can produce like that on a consistant basis, then we won't be too hurt by Batum's absense. That's the way I was hoping he would play last year until he was injured. Definitely a huge bright spot for me. He's letting the game come to him a lot more and it's paying off.
Things are looking good. Well...good-ish...I really don't like turnovers. That will get tightened up as everyone gets more comfortable in their roles though.
Good game. Also, I have a very tough time not rooting for Aaron Brooks. He's just so much fun to watch. It was a lot easier to dislike him in the playoffs.
Seemed like a great game.
We got many many turnovers (most to Oden and to some OFF fouls), but outrebounded the Rockets.
I just saw game comments and play-by-play, but it does looked like Travis and Martell had a great game.
Of course, as other posters says, that was because of our 4s and 5s drawing attention from Houston's small lineup.
Let's see how we do against other great teams, starting against Nuggets next game.
Oh, and Celtics beat Cavs at their home... I wanna see how do we do against Celtics, Cavs, Lakers, Spurs, Magic.
Then we'll shut up the criticizers, and those who still think we can't get there.
GO BLAZERS!
No mention on Rudy, 'was not there yesterday?
It's unfortunately the same old story with him
He's not a three poinst specialist. He can do more, many more thinks, so give a chance to him. Give him the ball...please
I'm typically happy after wins regardless of the quality of play, but I can't help but feel nervous after this game.
Positives:
Travis played really well. Actually, he played like he did during the regular season last year when the Blazers faced less-athletic opponents. As long as he can get the right matchup, he will continue to be lethal, despite what Travis haters post on this blog.
Despite a tough shooting night, B-Roy looked like a star, which confirmed my suspicion that he was taking it easy during the preseason.
Andre Miller is the point guard this team has been looking for. Anyone who watched that game (who doesn't have a poster of Steve Blake on the ceiling above their bed), has to admit that Andre was the better PG last night. And yes, B-Roy can adjust and play with Miller. Great players always player better with more talented players regardless of "style".
LA looked great, despite his foul trouble.
Negatives:
Oden looked awful on offense. They stopped "going to him," because he looked really bad in the 1st quarter. His blocks and rebounds were great, but they came with 5 fouls and 7 turnovers (7!). I hope he was just getting the 1st game jitters out.
Sloppy play... enough said.
Just like last year, most of our points came from jump shooting. Only 32 of our points came on fast breaks or in the point. This is not a winning recipe (as we showed last year in the playoffs). We have to find ways to get easy points. LA not getting in foul trouble early will help this stat, but Oden has got to produce on offense, and both B-Roy and Rudy need to take it to the rim more.
Hey MB: hello from Florida - wathced on NBA League Pass & got to hear you guys announce....But, the game - man, I was impressed with Andre...the spacing of the offense seemed out of sink all nite. Since this was the first time I've seen them this year - it was exciting! Gotta do the inside out more often. GO will be huge - use HIM! See ya Thursday!
Hey Mike,
Nice job calling the game last night, it feels good to be back. I have to say over all I was pretty happy with the W. I wish that they had gone to Oden a little more offensively, but I am happy he was the defensive powerhouse he was. Gotta work on the ball handling though...7 of those turnovers were his.
Quick question: Why does the streaming of Blazers games only work within a 100 mi radius of Portland? Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose? My buddy in NY tried to stream the game last night, no luck. Wouldn't people who live within 100 miles get KGW on their TV's?
Anyway, keep up the good work.
Well lke they say, a win is a win. There were some positives from last nights game however i still see the same ole problems on defense for the most part. For whateveer reason we cant seem to keep the ball in front of us and are always playing from behind chasing the ball. I saw on numerous occasions players driving right around us and to the basket. That would help explain why we had so many block shots but its not gonna win against the top teams in the league.Our defense has to be a #1 priority now. We have enough offensive weapons to beat anyone on a given night but untill our defense improves we wont achieve our maximum potential and win that championship.
Mike: great post as usual.
I got to watch the game while bowling, but no sound. I was told that a pack of fivehundreddogs eating my bowling shoes was not good enough the House had plenty of shoe rentals. Darn!!! I really have to add this though; because I opened my big mouth about if I bowled badly they would blame it on the Blazers. The first game I bowled was before the game started and I bowled a cool 200 on the nose. After the game started, I bowled a 150 then 158. We were bowling against our rivals that we were tied with and split with them two and two. That put me in line for a lot of smack which I got. I preach when I bowl much like I do when I post, I am always preaching concentration wins games. Guess what? You guessed it.
Back to the importance of the night, the game. It was a lot more exciting game then it appeared to be with the big lead we had. From interrupted viewing it appeared that we didn't explode on them, but slowly assassinated them. That was different in my view. As in the last pre-season game, we usually get together little runs that explode on them and game over. The 20 point lead was deceiving because Houston never did quit fighting. In fact when we missed a few outside shots they always kept storming back. It appeared like we plug one hole in the dam and another leak would appear. On the other hand they had the same problem, they didn't have enough hands to hold on to all the jerseys that were coming at them from all angles.
Travis the player: If you read this I thank you for putting out the outstanding game. I would keep on defending your play regardless, but this will help me fight the Travis abusers.
Travis the Poster: I thank you for the insight on Greg. I saw one great play and I couldn't tell from the little screen I was watching if it was LMA or G.O., but they was holding the jersey he banged the ball off the backboard, rebounded and slammed it home. That should have been on a highlight film. Clyde the Glide did that quite often.
Vinnie you will have to get some help reading this post as it is rather long and I know your attention span is lacking. You had also better sit down, because I think BRoy and Andre played ok together. It was just the first game so we know it will even get better. How is that for being a good loser? Just don't expect it often. In my defense, Andre was a instrumental impact coming in with the second unit.
hg
Ahhh..1 down 55 to go Way to go Travis Outlaw..........way to step up.I have said as much negative about Travis as anybody.He really showed his value last night .On a night where the cohesiveness wasn't there,he carried us.Plus he rebounded and played good D. .Other than Trav,no one had a stellar performance,but every one pitched in.It was good to see the Rudy/Roy combo.Dre played well with Roy,Played more like a point guard,ran the break like We knew he could. On D..... 6 blocks from GO, including the stand in the last 2 minutes was awesome.He was a little stiff on offense, but that will come, sooon. Not to mention 10 rebounds It was nice to see Martells energy,The block on Scola was Nic-like plus it made #3 on Sportscenter.A little sketchy at the end, but a great TEAM effort .Once again The foul dicrepancy between us and Houston was ridiculous.Glad we have the real Refs back,,Oh wait.......NOT. 26 turnovers was Ugly,though
Oh yeah What about Dre hitting the three? Looked like an old school set shot.When Dre starts hitting threes you know its a good night!Herr..The Refs flat sucked,We almost fouled out all three of our bigs.It was ridiculous.
hg.It was satisfying to see Dre not only play well, but play well with BRoy.Some might say Dre outplayed Blake but ,Blake hit big threes at crucial times and showed his value running the team like the Steady Eddie that he is.
To Victor (The Spaniard who always whines about Rudy needing to be the B-Roy of the team),
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! This is the NBA. It's not Eurpope. You do realize that all of these guys were the "go to guy" on their teams before coming to the NBA right? Winning teams have players who know and do their individual roles. Portland needs Rudy's energy and supplemental scoring. He's going to be a really nice player, but I'm tired of hearing people like you cry about his role and not even concerened with how it effects the team. This is a team blog not a "Rudy" blog.
Murphy-
The KGW stream is only available to those living within a 100 mile radius, because NBA League Pass has the broadband rights outside of the Portland area. If your friend wants to watch, he should cough up the 90 bucks for NBA League Pass Choice. You get to choose 7 teams to follow (full League Pass is about 170 bucks I think).
Amazingly, I woke up this morning feeling no ill effects from the ailment that made me miss class last night. Fortuneately there was something to watch on TV.
Nice job of stepping up by Travis. Hopefully this start will carry on for him and he will continue his hot shooting. Looks like he will get plenty of minutes now with some time opening up for him at the 3.
'Dre was solid. There were several times that he backed away from the schitzophrenic pace and sloppiness of the game to calm things down and get us into our offense. Dude is money and will pay huge dividends for us this year.
This was the kind of game that good teams win and bad teams lose. Our bench is stacked and I never once during this game felt dismay over who we brought in to substitute. It's nice to be able to say that.
RIPCITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was nice getting a win out of the starting blocks. I was really glad that Travis stepped up and had a really good game. Martell looked comfortable on the court, and it is good just to have him back. Andre made some nice transition passes. Steve got himself into position for some nice threes. Brandon made some nice moves. Greg looked active, and Joel was solid.
We are lucky to have depth in each position, but Joel and Greg both can't sustain fouls like they did for the remaining games of the season. We would be too vulnerable.
Hopefully Brandon and Andre will be able to shoot the ball more effectively in the next games. Fewer fouls and turnovers are a must that need to be remedied now.
All in all the team looked like that they were having fun during some stretches of the game, and both Steve and Andre were able to create plays in their own styles. It was fun to see Rudy flying down the court after making his three.
Now the coach and players will have a better idea as to the adjustments they will need to make for the next game.
GO BLAZERS
I thought the game was a success. We saw a glimpse of what Portland can do within a few weeks. Games like that will be blowouts in a few weeks. I can't stop thinking how great it is to be a Blazer right now!
Oden will add scoring, Dre will space the floor and Rudy will get to showcase what we brought him in for. Roy and LA will hit their groove. And lets not forget that even on a bad night, our bench will slaughter any bench in the league and keep us in games.
I've also watched the Webster/Outlaw debate as to who should play. From what I saw last night, why not play them together? They created space and knocked down big shots all night. Welcome back Webster and keep stepping up Outlaw!
Go Blazers!
MB thanks for the post.
This seemed like an average kind of game for an opener. Sloppy for sure by both teams, with the more talent laden team pulling inexorably ahead. I am not concerned at all by any of the negatives of last night, at least that have been mentioned.
There are a couple of things that did bug me slightly. One was seeing the Allfather come off the floor at the end of the first half looking frustrated. Nice to see the vet Howard go right to him and tap his chest and say some words of encouragement. Second was that that same vet did not get in the game at all and we went with a 3 guard lineup that was not really clicking. My big concern here, and I am just guessing, is that Coach was worried more about managing Blakie and Dres minutes than matchups. While I feel you should be loyal to your players, I have felt that Coach has really gone out of his way to protect Blakie, since the moment of Dres signing.
The main reason I was disapointed to see the Allfather frustrated was because I thought he was absolutely dominant last night. That was a game very reminiscent of
those of Joels that have made the Thrilla so beloved in Portland.
Martell looked fantastic! To me I thought he was a no brainer to be a starter. Batum is a nice young player but I feel has been vastly overrated by many Blazer fans. Certainly he is years away from being able to do the things that Martell can do. Anyone remember 25 points in a quarter?
I hope everything works out for us, and I think we are so talented that we will win regardless but I would have gone a different route.
I think if you polled people who do not have Rose Garden colored glasses the starting lineup should be The Sandman, The Allfather, Hollywood, L-Train, and Richard Pryor. Should have been that way for every preseason game, should be it next game and every game thereafter. Truthfully I think it is fairly obvious.
Love ya MB and the whole crew too. Feels a little more homie to have you all back in full swing.
RIP CITY!
great game great win!!! I think dre is going to help travis alot this year after watching the game. trav runs the floor well and when he plays 4 he will beat his defender down the floor.he is going to get oops alot same with webster. speaking of webster he looks like he jumps off of a spring board.
rudy did get the ball alot and ran point more then i have ever seen him.
denver come on down
Vinnie; I agree it was not only satisfying to me but relieving.
Remember our debate was not as to who is the best PG. That could be debated forever. Our debate was where Andre should play. I am thrilled that he came off the bench and leaded the charge with the second unit. I am thrilled that he came in early and played with BRoy,LMA and Greg.
I know you believe the best players should be first and I believe the players should play where they best fit. That is just a matter of opinions. Since we are both happy and The Blazers won, it is time to stuff bird man in the net.
hg
I don't complain or brag, I am just glad for the win.
Houston regardless of the loss of many good players is still well coached and has pride. They are like a zillion of ants.
It was said on one of the talk shows that big men has trouble with littler men because they are built like a bowling ball and can roll into you. They also plugged the middle, hung on to jerseys and made life miserable for our bigs. That accounts for the lack of points in the paint.
Everybody wants us to push the tempo, fast break and be a run and gun team. We don’t have lots of great ball handlers for fast breaks against a slap happy bunch of ants. When we tried that in the pre-season, we had turn overs that beat us. So, when you are playing up-tempo defense, trying to fast break there will be lots of fouls committed and turn-overs. But we need time to practice that against opponents and this was the type of game that we should practice on.
Therefore to me this was a game of cause and effect. We got many players involved and new players trying to get use to other players and we made mistakes. Do you think we will benefit from this in the future by keep trying or should we go back to the reliable slow half court game? I vote for keep trying until we become an aggressive defensive team and have a up tempo second unit.
hg
eclecticspider:
I am sure I have your starting five nicknames right. It is debatable with me of course. Also every game could and maybe should be a different line-up.
I still think Hollywood should be on the second unit to up grade Rudy and Outlaw. but I saw different players rotating at different times so I will not second guess anyone as long as it works
hg
It was really nice to get a win. Certainly there is room for improvement, but the bugs will be worked out over time.
I think there is too much fuss by bloggers about who is playing, when they are playing, or how much they are playing.
Players need to be added or subtracted during the game as the game dictates. Combinations need to be rotated in so that we will continue to have balanced strength. This needs to be evaluated continuously.
Advocating for a particular player is fine, but one player usually can't sustain a large amount of minutes during a game without wearing down. For example, Andre looked good when he came in initially, but he looked tired during the fourth quarter.
Since there are a lot of talks of Oden's turnovers. Remember he had Chuck Hayes on him. Chuck is way smaller than Oden, so he fought him with quick hands. Also his teammates didn't help him out much with communication.
Most turnovers happened in the first quarter.
Greg did great last night, and will continue to improve. Give him time. Game one is definently not the game to be worried about. We're still 8 or so months from the playoffs.
BTW sorry for the massive amount of typos in my first post. Reading what I said was just embarssing.
greg played great. he can learn from joel though. taking charges playing smart ball
a few other thoughts:
i wonder if the L.A. media will start calling blake griffin candy-man2 and all kinds of other silly sh!*
it was goods to see the mavs drop one against the wiz. they will likely miss brandon bass more than they thought. orlando will reap those benefits.
it was a little tough to see greg looking frustrated. it is good and bad. we won the game easily, and as e. spider stated greg was, "absolutely dominant." forget stats, in 26 minutes of play, greg was great. his frustration was a sign of even better, more dominating performances to come from him. hopefully big G.O. realizes that his team and the city has his back. if he didn't score in double figures all season, we'd probably still rack up a huge pile of W's. being able to control a game with blocks, rebounding and presence in the paint is truly rare.
chicken nuggets for dinner on thursday! i'd love to see travis outlaw follow-up his opening night outburst by getting physical with birdman or k-mart. i hope he asks coach for the defensive assignment of shutting down 'melo. hopefully the jazz and nuggets will beat the heck out of each other tonight in utah.
GO BLAZERS!!!!
Man oh man im glad the season is hear. I am even more excited about this team though, they played sloppy sure, but did you see them in the second quarter? Gosh they were good, and i started to think...how good will we they be when this is just a consistent thing?
Love this team, feel very good about it. And Greg, keep it up you Big son of a gun!! You are more of a factor then you realize!
And great post Mike, i have a question though, is there any way i can watch blazer games besides comcast? Its very frustraiting. All the front office people say, "thank you to the greatest fans in the nba". Well if thats true, then thank us buy creating a way for trail blazer fans to enjoy this team and watch them. I really think they need to fix this, alright all done yelling,
Fun game, even if it was a bit sloppy. I was lucky in that the quarter season tickets I got included the opener.
Overall, I was a happy fan last night. I got to see my team dominate the guys that threw us out of the playoffs, and got a free hat out of the deal. Not bad at all.
I was far enough away that I didn't see Old Greg's look of frustration that the cameras must have caught. I'll remember my binos next game. What really stood out to me was the fantastic play of our small forwards. They really brought it. I was so happy to see that defensively we didn't take as big a hit as I had thought we would.
Outlaw was a beast. I am as guilty as any of Travis-bashing, but I can't say an unkind word about his play last night. I hope it continues throughout the season.
Really though, the highlight was the return of Martell. He seems to have worked through all that pent up energy and gotten back to the business of delivering, and last night he was right on time.
Nuggets are going down. Birdman will get plucked.
Pretty good win considering we're still learning how to play together. I'm pleased as punch to see Outlaw bring his A game right out of the gate. This is not what I expected from him so kudos to him.
Good win blazers!
go blazers!
I woke up this morning, stepped on my dog's half eaten, razor sharp bone, tripped, and fell face first into two tickets to tonight's game. Man, I love that dog!
It's strange to say that the second game of the season is a big game. It's great though, to have a team that warrants that kind of conversation. This is a great opportunity for the Blazers to get a leg up on the Thuggets in the ever growing importance of the tie-breaker scenario.
This one is even more crucial because everything stacks up in Portland's favor. It's a home game, Dver is playing the second night of a back to back, and J.R.'s probation officer apparently refused to let him leave the state. I expect the Blazers to get a fairly easy W in this one.
Anyway, look for me on TNT tonight. I'll be the one in Blazer gear. Good dog!
RIPCITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I watched the thuggets last night and they lived up to their reputation. They remind me of utah when malone and stockton played. the ol slip an elbow to the face while driving to the rim trick. taking intimidation to the next level. throwing players down high 5's after words then loud out bursts. this is going to be a test to see if we can get tough and handle getting bumped, pulled and pushed.
the blazers need to act like this is basketball on the black top get physical draw first blood and then back it up with hard nosed play. If they wannna use gansta scare tactics we dunk harder, drive faster, never give them an inch, they get in our face we get in theirs. If they cross the line we throw them back across. its on!
baddawg: I have seen you at many of games before, multiple personalities with your Blazer geer all over the place. You could put baddawg being chased by fivehundreddoys. than I would know which personality you were in.
Denver has another major player out besides Smith but I forgot who.
I know if you go to K-Mart you can get a bird-man Mc Nugget and a Creme marshy-mello. Be sure to buy some anti neusia medicine to keep the awful consumption from coming up all over your sharp doggy bones and your tickets. Oh they were your dog's doggy bones, not baddawg bones.
I never consider any game easy. We need to fight for every score. I will look for you in the Blazer maze.
hg
My poor wife,I blog about the Blazers,Watch 60 or so games ,and any other games that are on.I'm obsessed ,I can't help itShe is a sports fan by Proxy but not by choice.Being somewhat of a feminist ,she thinks sports are useless to life .I,however have somewhat of a different opinion,obviously.But 15 yrs of putting up with me goes a long way.So we find a way to cohabitate,I go upstairs ,watch Blazer BBall ,scream as loud as I want.Diane watches CNBC, or issue oriented programs.I guess Shes a warrior,the sports guy's wife.Gotta love her. Its gonna be a war tonight,good early season test for us.We need to take care of business at home.Might be a GO night,he's ready,Me,too. Hope I didn't bore you guys,Just thought she deserved a shout out,too! DomiNATE
Man Travis really surprised me, not with his offense but he was aggressively pursuing rebounds and active on D! That was nice to see. Also Oden's rebounding and his defense were real nice to see. Miller played great in the second quarter. The only thing that was disturbing to me besides the turnovers, was after the game someone interviewing Brandon said Andre did pretty good and Brandon didn't even acknowledge Andre and answered "I thought Blake did just as good." I mean it was really obvious that Roy doesn't want any one to get too excited about Miller. So maybe it's not all Nates fault for starting Blake. I don't know what is going on but maybe there's some rift between Roy and Miller? If there is hopefully Roy can get past it because Miller made everyone better in that game, including Travis' offense. Dre made some real nice passes to open people around the hoop, completely opposite of what Blake does. Also while Roy was in the game too. And I am so disappointed Batum is going to be out for so long!!
Someone mentioned we picked Miller over Turkeyglue, but I think Turkeyglue bailed on us, which I was REAL happy for because though he is a good fourth quarter offensive threat, he plays terrible defense, and we need more defense!!! We have Roy and Outlaw, I just wish we could get some more quality defensive minded players. One reason why I wish Bayless could get some minutes.
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