Spanish Sahara
Brownlow Medallist
This road trip will tell us a lot about the team this year. If we can go 2-2 I would be pleased
Portland Trail Blazers Thread
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We're one more strong bench wing away from being right up there. If we could land jeff green we'd be in it up to our eye balls. Will be interesting to see how we fare without rolo.
Yep i'd be pretty scared of you. When we played you earlier in the season I pointed out that I think your starting lineup is better than ours in terms of balance and flow. If you fix the deficiencies in your bench you'd be up there with the Spurs in teams i'd be scared of facing in the playoffs. As you can see from the Warriors example it doesn't take long to do this. Sometimes one player like a Jeff Green or for us a Shaun Livingston can do it.
Would help but I still feel it's defense of the paint that is just not quite there even with Rolo. Then you have LMA not quite shooting as well as last year and Batum way down on production. Must have it all going better to get anywhere near teams like the Warriors, Griz, Spurs over 7. Mavs, Rockets and Thunder probably have our measure too right now.
I have to disagree re:defense. This year our offense is yet to kick into gear properly yet were 21-7 largely thanks to our defensive improvements keeping us in games. The fact we've been so competitive with batum down on production gives me even more confidence
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Lillard is just an ice cold killer, 3-1 on this Road trip and 23-7 at Christmas.... 8 of our next 9 are in the RG, we could have 30 wins after 39 games.
Lilard has been amazing his this year. Handy while LMA is having so many games where he couldn't hit the side of a barn.
Dealing another loss to the Thunder is gold too. Really should be able to lock us in to top 4 now.
Dealing another loss to the Thunder is gold too. Really should be able to lock us in to top 4 now.
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- #58
Division leaders by 9.5 games we will be hard to topple for a top 4 seed.r
The Lillard/LMA 1-2 punch is so fun to watch. On a night when LMA is struggling to have Lillard take over is such a luxury. Throw in Mathews as a downtown sniper and if Batum can get over his various niggles and perform like last season then there is so much to like about this side. Had a quick look at the upcoming schedule for the dubs, we could be sitting in first place in a couple of weeks if Bogut remains out
Joel Freeland has been massive for us since Rolo went down. 10.5 games clear of OKC now with 49 games left, if we go at .500 from here on in OKC would need to go at 35-15 to catch us. Would be a very disappointing back half of the season not to close out with the division title now. Banking all these wins while missing Batum, LA and Rolo at different times shows how far we've come in 12 months
Batum has been missing all season... You'd hope he picks up soon
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- #62
This 7-1 without Lopez would have never happened last season if he missed games... The only way we don't win the division title is if one of LMA/ Dame miss majority of the rest of the season IMO. We are a lot better defensively this season and have the ability of winning games when we don't shoot well which didn't happen last year. I think if we have a pretty good run with injury 30-19 or 31-18 is about right from the last 49 so we could be looking at 56/57 wins.
Agreed. I think the $17 on offer for us to win the west is pretty generous when you consider dallas are at $10 and the Clippers $7.50 and we're a much more complete squad IMO. Hopefully we can bank enough wins over the next 6 weeks so that come the back end of the season Stotts can afford to play the starters a little less and get us ready for the playoffs. Could be a big advantage if a team like the Pelicans, thunder, clippers or spurs is fighting tooth and nail the last month to make it and playing heavy minutes
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Yeah Agree with what you have said. I don't understand how teams like the Clippers/ Rockets/ Mavs get rated so much more than us, Im not saying we are going to win the west as I think a healthy Spurs/ okc are still the teams to beat but we deserve more respect. Memphis are a team I really don't want to face in the post season we really struggle against them even at the Rose Garden.
We were very disappointing today, very reactionary both on defense and offense whereas Atlanta seemed to be able to get whatever they wanted on offense and completely took us out of our comfort zone with their D. If Freeland misses any amount of time it's going to provide an opportunity to both Meyers and TRob, here's to hoping one or both can step up. Luckily our next 5 games are reasonably friendly but I can't wait to get Rolo back!
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- #68
Freeland is missing the next 2 weeks minimum and yes I'm hanging for RO LO back. Our next few games as you said should still be wins even if we are shorthanded with the bigs.
Going to have to shoot well with Freeland and Rolo gone. Opponents will get whatever the hell they want around the rim.
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Spanish Sahara
Brownlow Medallist
I think Stotts will start T-Rob and have LA defending Cs. I think Kaman will still hover around the 20-25 mins per night (he has been decent for the majority of the season), with Wright and Batum playing at the 4 in a small ball lineupUgh. More Kaman I suppose....
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I think so too. Though who knows, on a game to game basis if TRob or Leonard will start.
I'm growing tired of Kaman though, his form has dipped big time since the start of the year. He's a massive black hole in the second unit and teams know it, leading to turnovers in the post when defenders swarm. He apparently passes it 21 times a game (which is more than Lopez in less minutes)... I must miss those though. Must be a lot of inbounding passes..
Spanish Sahara
Brownlow Medallist
ill admit i haven't had a chance to watch our last ~ 6 or so games. Kaman does struggle when teams double him down on the block. I dont mind him in the pick and pop situation from around 15 feet. At least he can score - something our bench lacks
Not perfect but I hope this happens. Can't have Kaman as our defensive anchor is like playing 4 on 5.
Spanish Sahara
Brownlow Medallist
Kaman starts
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