I couldn’t help myself.
We’re joined by….two guys who aren’t Kamla and Snapper.
Me: Who the hell is doing this game by the way?
Coup: Someone better than Kamla and someone worse than Snapper. But neither are exciting. They sound like typical TV voices..we’ll see if they have typical insight.
They sound borrrrrring.
7:13: It’s 4-3 early as Koponen has a couple buckets and Love has a couple trips to the line. Who does he think he is Bayless?
7:14: I already miss Kamla. Coup agrees.
7:15: Speaking of Bayless he sticks a college three ball from the top of the key. And he’s pressuring Drew Neitzel full court.
7:16: Bayless blows by Neitzel and finishes with the left hand. Yikes.
Coup “The play by play guy might get muted soon.”
Agreed. So serious…so non Summer League like.
7:17: Coup “That shot by Brewer shows the difference between Bayless and the typical Summer League standout…Jerryd would have gone right to the hole. And he just got hacked doing so.”
Coup “Is this the first time we’ve seen any rhythm in a summer league game this year?” I’d agree.
7:20: 8-6 Blazers early. Bayless and Koponen with 4 a piece while Love as missed a couple layups but has 3 free throws.
Me: Oh my gosh Randy Wittman on commentary. Could this get any boring?
Coup: Would you rather have Kevin Love’s dad?
Me: *shudder*
7:24: Love with a two hand tip jam…he cocked it back it got the fans on their feet. Coup “K-Love…just proved he has some ups.”
7:25: Batum and Koponen with back to back nice finishes….they’re so European.
Coup “We need a nickname for Koponen” Hell yeah we do but I can’t think of anything.
Coup “Finnish Chocolate?”
7:26: K-LOVE VS. THE MOUNTAIN MAN STEVEN HILL…..K-Love wins with a finish right over him. 12-12 with 2:30 left in the first quarter. Love has 7, Koponen has 6, Bayless has 4 and Batum has 2.
7:28: Play by play guy says we’re getting Sonic fans. Uhhhh. No. Why do people keep saying this? It’s just beyond me.
7:29: The Mountain Man travels. That sentence made me chuckle. Get it he’s a….ah forget it.
7:30: Got nothing on the nickname front for Koponen and I have been trying hard. Coup “Might as well just call him Finland.” Hmmm…that just sounds like the type of lazy nickname a basketball player would give their foreign teammate. “What up Finland?” I feel like Ricky Davis would come up with that as a nickname so we might be able to use that.
7:33: Finland misses a baseline jumper. Still feeling it out. First quarter is over with the Timberwolves up 16-15. For Portland it’s been the JB & Finland show…Bayless with 7 and Koponen with 6 while Batum has 2. Minnesota has gotten 7 and 3 from Love and Corey Brewer has been completely non-existant.
7:36: Pops Mensah-Bonsu!!! GETS REJECTED BY THE MOUNTAIN MAN!!!!! But then he scores. Tear.
7:41: Coup here taking over for SJ and his problem-child internet again. The announcer guys are currently making excuses for the officials, saying they are D-League officials trying to take the next step? Wait, so it’s OK for them to make poor calls?
7:44: Dean Demopolous on air right now, talking Koponen. He likes his size and his feet (on defense). Meanwhile Finland hits a J and K-Love gets blocked by the Mountain Man. Demos tells us he expects Batum to be better the last few games as he’s been efficient in practice.
7:51: Love’s jumpers all look very flat. Going to have to learn how to bend those knees to hit the NBA three.
7:52: Demos still on talking up Martell and Travis while Bayless almost flips in a falling and-1. With a few seconds left he almost shows up Mayo with a tip-steal and heave from halfcourt, but it hits the backboard just to the right of the rim. Halftime, 40-36 Minny.
8:06: Batum with the travel but it was a decent up and under move…and he banked it in anyways. Couple plays later Batum cuts left wing to middle on the break and makes a nice drop pass as he floats across the lane. The play didn’t result in a bucket but it’s plays like that that make you think the kid does know what he’s doing.
Two plays later he makes an early pass to Bayless on a two-man break, and Bayless goes to the line. Batum probably could have finished it himself.
8:10: Lots of Blake Ahern love in the UNLV house. Bayless brings Portland within two with a nice lefthanded floater in a crowded lane. Whether he gets the Summer League MVP curse or not, I’m convinced Bayless will make an impact at least with bench offense this season — probably better than JJack was last season as well.
8:14: David Aldridge on the call now saying Love will have trouble scoring at times because of his size…right after that Batum hits a three from straightaway center. Aldridge says Portland has an embarrassment of riches with their talent (David, you would be correct, and we are grateful). He’s also talking up Finland, saying he can score in this league and will be a good player for somebody.
Aldridge: “They’ve got so much young talent in unbelievable…The sky is the limit for them.”
Then he mentions that with Seattle gone Portland can really create a Northwest brand of bball for the NBA. We’ll talk about that later.
8:21: Bayless with a two-handed jam getting inside, though he was wide open. Aldridge is saying the Lakers shouldn’t send Lamar Odom for Ron Artest. He thinks, like many others, that you can’t do much better than Odom as a third option. I have to disagree on that. I would rather have a less talented, but much more dependable guy as a third option than Odom. Or Greg Oden.
8:24: Nothing else to do but listen to Aldridge. “Denver’s window is closed,” he says. Amen. But was the window ever really open?
8:27: Bayless called for a charge, but moments before he showed good decision making pulling the ball back out on the break after probing the paint, so we’ll cut him some slack. This is turning into the David Aldridge show, which is much better than listening to these announcers.
8:29: OK David, he says he’s not trying to start any trouble, then says it would make sense for Portland to trade for Vince Carter. WHAT?!?! Then color guy (we haven’t heard from the play-by-play guy for awhile now) goes on with, “They have enough Koponen’s, they have to get a veteran.” Of course, nobody wants to explain why, so the only reason I have to go on is we have too much young talent, so we need to trade for older, overrated, slacker talent? David Aldridge, I was just about to give you serious props, because usually you are more logical than anyone else, but now they will be rescinded.
8:33: Still shaking my head over the the VC idea. I mean, really? So what, he starts over Roy at SG? You try and make VC a SF and ask him to rebound game-to-game? I’m going to lay off now, because I know Aldridge was on the spot on live television, but we still demand logic and common sense in Summer League. At least he said he hadn’t heard rumors or anything about it. Thank God. Not that I think KP would even consider that unless VC goes through some sort of mid-career crisis like Paul Pierce did.
8:36: The Blazers are down 13 and this game is pretty boring for the amount of fastbreak’s we’re seeing. Too sloppy on both sides.
8:39: Finland gets by three guys for a right-to-left and-1.
8:47: Meh, Portland can’t mount much of a comeback, but on the brighter side of things, the O-Live forum guys have pretty much universally panned the Vince C
arter idea, so our fans have that going for them tonight.
8:48: Even Nate looks bored as he lets out a yawn. Batum follows a three and is fouled cocking back the arm of dunk. For some reason the NBA.tv guys are saying Batum is going back to France, when most reports have Batum coming to Portland this year. Good research fellas. KP is sitting with one leg over the stadium seats with shorts and sandals.
8:50: Bayless gets stuffed by Mensah-Bonsu trying to hammer it down, but goes right back to the hole on the next play. Then Batum finger rolls over Love in the lane Iceman style.
8:52: Down 10 with 2:20 to go. Batum collects a baseline pass from Bernard Robinson and finishes a soft and-1. Demopolous was right, France is showing more this game. Love guns one of his outlet passes to a streaking guard.
8:56: Blazers lose, 88-78, and we can all run away from the man-love these announcers have for Kevin Love. Consistent showings from Bayless and Koponen, with Jerryd taking a few more jumpers and Finland going inside a bit more, while Batum showed up with some silky finished at the hoop. We’ll be back tomorrow, folks, with working internet.