Archive for November, 2009

Keeping this short tonight since, well, this game was almost a carbon copy of the previous two. “Insert adjective similar to godawful” team hangs around for a little bit and then the Blazers pull away in the second half with good ball movement, an inside-out game and possession control. All good to see but very familiar. It can’t really be impressive that the Blazers are beating these teams, but on the plus side it’s not like the things Nate is trying are not working. There’s only so many ways you can say it, but the Wolves, whether it’s due to [...]

Back to back games against 1-win teams is a pretty nice way to start a 5 game road trip, eh? After last night’s victory over Memphis, the Blazers take their show to Minnesota to take on the T-Wolves. Remember back in the day when the Blazers going to the Target Center felt like a loss waiting to happen? Honestly, I’m starting to forget those days as well. For the second night in a row, Portland will enter a game as the favorite. And for the second night in a row they will have to find a way to show up [...]

This was a weird game that the Blazers sort of won by default because they were the only kids in class who raised their hands when the teacher asked, “Who wants to play some defense?”. I don’t say that to diminish the efforts of Portland, but other than a 15-1 run through the middle of the third, they weren’t particularly sharp. Good teams are capable of putting a game away with one second-half good run on their not-so-good nights, so good on Portland for that, but lets not give them credit for winning on the “road” when Memphis had less [...]

Coming off some of their best basketball of the season, the Blazers embark on a 5-game in 7 days road trip tonight in Memphis. It’s funny that just when it seems as if Portland might be putting some things together, they have to take their show on the road. One of the big issues coming into this year was the Blazers ability to improve their record on the road. Despite early struggles at the Rose Garden, we know Portland can win at home. We don’t know if they can win on the road yet. This next will show us where [...]

Remember when people were freaking out about the Blazers? Tonight — and the expected optimism of tomorrow — was a good example of why it’s best to remain patient with the day-to-day of the NBA. Feels like we’ve had quite a few disclaimers, as the early season tends to provide us, in the last few games, and tonight wasn’t very different. With Kevin Love out and the Timberwolves turtle crawling their way to an understanding of the triangle offense, Minnesota doesn’t always resemble a professional basketball team. They made their shots against Boston the other night and stuck with them, [...]

That’s a little more like it, no? Less ball watching on offense, ball movement was crisper leading to team scoring contributions and the term “help defense” actually existed on the court. A lot of the problems of the last few games weren’t problems anymore. They weren’t perfect, either, but much closer to what the Blazers need. The little disclaimer is that we caught San Antonio on the second night of a back-to-back and they lost Tony Parker for the second half. That helped last night but it didn’t have much to do with most of the positives we saw. The [...]

After all the talk of the Spurs’ new additions — Richard Jefferson, Antonio McDyess, DeJuan Blair — it’s important to remember that they haven’t transformed them into some juggernaut. The Spurs have been very good for a long time. They are still very good. The offseason moves haven’t as much made them much better as they have kept them from getting worse, which it appeared might happen as injuries began to take their toll last season. The championship window in still open, and as such the Spurs’ story will not be told until next spring. The Spurs have a slow, [...]

This game was a bit of a mess. It was also a tightly contested, back-and-forth affair with each team exchanging sequences of good and bad. The Blazers led by as much as 12 early in the second quarter but, despite neither team having much in the way of scoring bursts or runs, the Hawks put together enough baskets at the right time. The bad news is the Blazers didn’t look like they were anywhere close to putting things fully together. The good news is that they continue to be in position to win games while they figure things out. No [...]

After a short trip to the Southwest, the Blazers return to the cozy confines of the Rose Garden to begin a three-game homestand. At 2-2, these three home games are key not so much because of the .500 start but because of what lurks behind it: a good old fashioned, nasty, 5-game-in-less-than-a-week road trip. As stated earlier it begins tonight with a visit from the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks are a very interesting team, in that they’re very talented yet it feels like there is something holding them back. They’re the most dangerous beatable team in the NBA. For the [...]

Not sure how much the Blazers actually won this one as much as the Thunder just handed over the win and said, “Here, we really don’t deserve this.” We think the Blazers have defensive issues, but at times OKC players didn’t even seem to know where the ball was much less their own men. Portland wasn’t much better, but at least the radar was working. As opposed to the prior two contests when Denver and Houston exposed certain weaknesses in Portland’s game for us to look at, there really wasn’t much to learn from how OKC played. They were either [...]