It’s Noon the day after and Blazer fans are still pretty heated about last night. I mean shoot it even got Coup wanting to pull a me and put his ranting boots on. Let’s take a deep breath and remember these faces:
- The Blazers just came off a winning road trip (3-2)
- The Blazers have a winning record (6-5)
- The Blazers are returning to the Rose Garden where they are undefeated (3-0)
- They play a game against an Eastern Conference foe (2-0)
- And the game is on ESPN (2-0)
- And Oden is continuing to develop.
You have to feel a little better now right? Throw away game against the Bulls..Home sweet home right?
Not so fast.
This may be a return home but the Blazers will take the court for their 6th game in 9 days. It’s also the second of an always tough back-to-back, although it is somewhat nullified by the fact the Bulls also played last night. As we do every game, expect to learn something about this Blazer team tonight. A loss like last night’s can be draining both mentally and emotionally. I’m interested in seeing how the Blazers respond in this situation. Will the frustration of last night be gone? Will there be an emotional hangover? Can the crowd give some energy or will both be flat? We’ll see. Also….HOW MANY TIMES WILL I WANT TO MUTE JON BARRY?
Onto the Bulls and their first year coach Vinny Del Negro. I want to just keep saying Vinny Del Negro is coaching this team, how could you worry..but that wouldn’t be fair or nice. Word of warning Blazer fans: do not count the Bulls out of this one ladies and gentlemen. As always I’ll start with the good news first. They have next to no inside game whatsoever. They have young talent in Tyrus and Noah…but come on now. They are not offensive threats and worse yet for Bulls fans both are inconsistent. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game where they both played well. It will be important to keep them off the boards and not let one explode for a double double. We should all thank our lucky stars we got LaMarcus out of that deal. At times the Bulls go small but I doubt they test Oden and LMA like that.
Essentially, the Bulls rely on three people for scoring: Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and Derrick Rose. It may not be intimidating on text but let’s all think people. Think real hard. And yes, here comes the bad news. This is not the best of matchups for the Blazers. Portland struggles with strong perimeter players. Chicago has 3, all who will be looking to put up shots left and right. Not only that but all three have the ability to slash and get points from the free throw line. None of the three are averaging more than 5-6 attempts a game but the potential is there. Giving the Bulls points from the line makes them about 15 times tougher. The Bulls may not run and gun like the Warriors but they did drop triple digits in LA last night. And the Blazers did give up 20+ to Maggette, Morrow and Jackson. And let’s not mention Nocioni who could easily get it going and become the most irritating player in the NBA for 30 minutes. He has a knack for doing it.
Speaking of Derrick Rose…boy was I wrong about him. In a discussion the other night I pondered if maybe Rose is just a player more built towards the pro game than the college game. Any thoughts on that?
Keys to success:
- Contain Deng, Gordon and Rose. That’s the heart of Chicago’s offense right there and if the Blazers want to win they need to learn the Five Finger Death Punch. Take one of the three away and things should be golden. Bulls are winless when Deng doesn’t score in double figures. Rumor has it he may not even play which means definitely don’t let Nocioni or Hughes get going.
- Get LaMarcus Aldridge going. He’s had 10 points and 10 rebounds COMBINED in the last two games. Not going to cut it. The Blazers need a big game from LMA and he should be able to deliver against Noah and Thomas. Someone needs to look him in the mirror and show him where that chip on his shoulder is. Seeing the Bulls and Tyrus Thomas should be more than enough. I expect a big bounce back effort from him and it will be needed if the Bulls 3-pronged attack gets going.
- Get back to not turning the ball over. Last night needs to be an aberration, just falling into Golden State’s run and gun trap and not becoming a sloppy team. The Blazers have deserved praise for not turning it over, they can’t give a team like the Bulls easy buckets.
- Energy, energy, energy. Very important in my eyes. To win this game the Blazers cannot come out flat. The last time the Blazers had a “winnable” game in the Rose Garden they came out flat and had to come back to win. In my eyes that simply can’t happen tonight. They won’t have enough left in the tank after last night’s comeback effort.
- Make Derrick Rose shoot the ball. I still don’t think he can shoot. Yeah I said it. The task is much easier said than done but if you look at his shot charts this year and you look outside the lane…more X’s than O’s.
Anymore thoughts on tonight’s matchup, feel free to drop a comment and talk me down from my fear of the Bulls stealing this one.