And so it ended in a split.
Before I get to any other re-thoughts, I have to talk about this home-and-home series. Tell me if you disagree but I feel a complete lack of a climax. Reading Dave’s report over at Blazer’s Edge he had a pretty money analogy when he said “if this was wrestling the two opponents would face off in a steel cage next month”. Unfortunately the steel cage match won’t happen until March. And then if you stroll over to Pickaxe and Roll and see the Denver POV, you can tell they felt like last night was an acceptable loss. Almost as if they gave it away despite being banged up. They were happy with the Denver effort. Kind of how I felt about Monday where our top guy struggled and the team was flat. There was nothing quite “decisive” which has been pretty rare for games this season. Maybe that’s more a sign that this is a bigger rivalry than I believed.
(I could tell the Nuggets were getting under the RG crowd’s skin a bit. I just don’t get amped up for Denver. Even though they’ve historically trumped us in their place a lot….I don’t know. I don’t feel any ill will towards them. Maybe Chris Andersen needs to clothesline Batum or something.)
Very pleased with the 180 that the Blazers turned last night. Looking at my keys to success from the pre-thoughts, the Blazers pretty much made every adjustment they had to make to win the game. Let’s take a gander, someone get the bullets from Plaxico.
- The offense was opened up. It didn’t hurt that Rudy and Blake were knocking down shots. Not only that but they were looking to knock down shots. Monday it was stand and watch. Last night everyone had a little attack to them. NBut again let’s not forget to give some praise to the engine. B-Roy made a key adjustment. He was less in attack mode and more in efficient mode. 6/13 from the field, 6 assists, 19 points with 12 of those coming in the 4th quarter. He didn’t force it, took what the defense gave him and the team and then made the shots when he could/should. It’s just fun to see his evolution as a player, it’s rare that you’re going to get him more than once.
- The free throw attempts went from a 39-19 deficit to a 32-27 deficit. I will take it.
- We were actually uncharateristically sloppy with the ball at home. I’m not happy with the 15 turnovers and it in fact kept us from breaking the game open in the 2nd and 3rd quarter but Denver coughed it up and equal amount so anything else would be Grade A nitpicking.
- The energy was there from the start to the end. Much better than the flat team that showed up the night before.
- Box out? Portland won the rebounding battle 41-36. Even though we couldn’t keep Nene off the glass (7 offensive rebounds), Joel Przybilla did his best to make up for Monday’s rebounding debacle. That’s the Big Joel I fell in love with a few years back. I don’t think there should be an argument that Joel Przybilla is the #2 Most Valuable Player on this team, think of what would happen if he went down.
- Shut down JR Smith. Kleiza still went for 20 (groan) but JR Smith was non-existant in a game where Denver needed him to be.
So…the Blazers corrected the majority of their errors from Game 1 and then just made big plays in the 4th quarter. I continue to love the character of this team. You have to like that ‘bounce-backability’ from this squad. Also impressive were that the correct adjustments were made to win. We all know how key adjustments are in the post-season, this was good practice. Now the Blazers have an interesting little 5-game stretch coming up. 4 out of the 5 games will be at home, but the competition will be stiff. Dallas, Boston, New Orleans and at the Lakers with a home game against the interesting Raptors mixed in between. The second mini Tour of Doom stretch in my eyes, I’ll have more to say about it tomorrow. But get ready to learn a lot about this team coming up.