96-76 Lakers.
The only thing that’s going to bug me about tonight are any cat calls from Blazer “fans” about this team and the smack talk coming from Laker fans.
Bandwagon…consider this your wake-up call.
I’m not surprised by this result at all. Not one bit. From my now ominous pre-game stream of random thoughts:
Yeah…I said it. There’s no result tonight that could surprise me, depress me or any of that. I could easily see the Lakers coming in and winning by 20. Don’t call be a Debbie Downer, I’m just being realistic it’s something that could happen. Think about it. The Staples Center is tough to play. Our guys are sure to have some nerves and excitement in this the first ‘real’ game. The Lakers are in full ‘Title or Die’ mode after coming so close last year. And they just went through a Mary J. Blige, No More Drama Training Camp. No Kobe antics means possible danger. They are a well-oiled machine, coming off a Western Conference title and looking for more. So yes a Laker blowout win is very much a possibility.
These are the Lakers. Not last year’s drama queen Lakers, but a very well-oiled machine mainly considered to be the favorite in the West. And they are considered that for a reason. While the Blazers were full of nervous injury and trying to feel each other out, the Lakers were battle tested and knew exactly what needed to be done to get the win. That’s why I got confused when Doug Collins and Kevin Harlan kept throwing compliments towards the Lakers. Yes they played well and were always in control…but I never got the feeling watching the game that they were completely dominant. You know that feeling when a team is just dictating everything. I never got that. I just felt the Blazers missed some good looks early, the Lakers converted in transition and eventually a hole was built up. Be honest with me, despite being talented, young and having a lot of potential…should the Blazers have stomped into the Staples Center and beat them? No. There were some encouraging signs and some discouraging signs, and as much as I’m sure everyone would have loved for the team in black to come out on top it wasn’t in the cards. The Lakers just kind of took their shots, built that lead up and never looked back.
In my eyes it came down to offense. The Blazers dug themselves a nice pit with that first quarter (14 points), that even a great run over the end of the 2nd quarter and beginning of 3rd quarter couldn’t do much. Plain and simple, the Lakers took away our big 3. Which shows that even though we have the depth and firepower, we still need those 3 to be rolling. I don’t care who we’re playing, if Oden/LMA/Roy combine to go 9-for-31 we are not coming out victorious too many times. Roy struggled (for the second straight season opener), LMA struggled and Oden…well he was Greg Oden. He’s very rough and raw offensively and we should all know that by now. As a matter of fact I think we did. If he’s close enough it’s an automatic dunk. If not we don’t know. He’s got to develop some post moves that’s all. He’s a rookie, he’ll have peaks and valleys but again he’ll turn the corner at some point and make us all forget about this game. So for those who are saying ‘Bench Oden’ and what not…take a deep breath and relax. And be thankful. Tonight, Greg Oden went down with an injured right foot. It could have been a lot worse. Didn’t play in the second half. It turns out that his foot was simply ‘tender’.
Again in my eyes it came down to making shots. The Blazers didn’t make enough shots to stay in this one. And they let the Lakers get a lot of easy, good looks. 7 three pointers, a lot of those wide open with a gracious amount of layups and dunks. That combination is not going to win too many road games, especially not against the defending conference champs.
And it’s not like one particular thing can be pointed out. I really think it’s as simple as the ball just did not go in the bucket enough. There were also a lot, lot, lot of jumpers. We tried to establish the inside game early with LMA in the post but went away from it when Oden went down. We then went to Oden reversing the ball from the top of the key and setting downscreens, instead of getting in the post. Those jumpshots created fast break opportunities for the Lakers who made us pay.
I highly doubt that LaMarcus and Roy will struggle that mightily too much more during the season. I may be optimistic but I just doubt they’ll both have Saw V like nights on the same night. It’s a shame it had to happen on opening night with the eyes of the basketball world fixated on the Blazers, but it did.
Positives! Big Joel proved he can still be a rebounding machine in limited minutes. Steve Blake was 50% from behind the arc (3/6). Travis showed he can still score while Rudy was great.
Negatives! The team body language. This is one of the instances where that ‘always steady’ approach can kind of back fire because it’s not like the Blazers looked completely defeated but they definitely didn’t look fired up. Also.. Channing Frye as a whole. *shudder*
This is going to be a season long thing. This team is definitely rough around the edges but the double edged sword is that they are going to play a lot of great competition, night in and night out for the next few months. Remember last year the Blazers started out 0-3 losing three road games at San Antonio, Houston and New Orleans. It’s not how you start it’s how you finish. And the potential is there, despite the fact that some lumps are going to be taken early on.
I’m still encouraged. And so should you.