Portland Trail Blazers 2019/20 Thread

[Duck07]

Blazers pull out the 1-point victory and get the 8th seed. Thanks to Dillon Brooks's monster game earlier, Blazers dodged the Suns and get the Grizzlies. That seems like a positive.

Yeah, with the injury to JJjr the Blazers should get the win on Saturday. I think the winner of the play-in would play the Lakers on Monday setting up 3 games in 3 days if you lose Saturday but win Sunday.

[Merganzer]

Blazers pull out the 1-point victory and get the 8th seed. Thanks to Dillon Brooks's monster game earlier, Blazers dodged the Suns and get the Grizzlies. That seems like a positive.

Yeah, with the injury to JJjr the Blazers should get the win on Saturday. I think the winner of the play-in would play the Lakers on Monday setting up 3 games in 3 days if you lose Saturday but win Sunday.

Fortunately, Game 1 against the Lakers would be on Tuesday. https://www.nba.com/playoffs/2020/first-round-schedule

[RanDux]

Blazers pull out the 1-point victory and get the 8th seed. Thanks to Dillon Brooks's monster game earlier, Blazers dodged the Suns and get the Grizzlies. That seems like a positive.

Yeah, with the injury to JJjr the Blazers should get the win on Saturday. I think the winner of the play-in would play the Lakers on Monday setting up 3 games in 3 days if you lose Saturday but win Sunday.

Fortunately, Game 1 against the Lakers would be on Tuesday. https://www.nba.com/playoffs/2020/first-round-schedule

Yeah, no back-to-back games in the bubble.

[Merganzer]

Blazers 126 Grizzlies 122. An "off" game for Lillard, he'd averaged 51 in the last 3. Portland started off hot, led 31-15 at one point. But after Memphis tied, and even took a lead, we knew it was going to come down to the end, like it has for every game for the Blazers in the bubble.

Nurk, after losing his grandmother hours earlier practically had a triple- double, 22 points, 21 rebounds, 6 assists. CJ, McCollum, broken bone in his back goes for 29, and Melo hits a big 3 and FT's at the end to seal the win. Gary Trent Jr. has seen his 3 shooting drop a bit, but he had some big plays on both ends. Now the Blazers have until Tuesday night for game 1 against the Lakers.

[Merganzer]

Game 1: Blazers 100 Lakers 93, Blazers lead, 1-0. A triple-double for Lebron goes for naught. 34 for Lillard, and 5 blocks by Whiteside were huge.

[Phalanx]

Nice win. Lakers 5 of 32 from long distance. I can't imagine that continues, especially against Portland's notoriously bad perimeter defense.

What happened to Anfernee Simons? I thought he was supposed to be the next big thing, and now he is a regular DNP-CD. It seems like Olshey screwed up last year when he was touting him as his most amazing draft pick ever. Got into the kid's head or something.

[Duck07]

Nice win. Lakers 5 of 32 from long distance. I can't imagine that continues, especially against Portland's notoriously bad perimeter defense.

What happened to Anfernee Simons? I thought he was supposed to be the next big thing, and now he is a regular DNP-CD. It seems like Olshey screwed up last year when he was touting him as his most amazing draft pick ever. Got into the kid's head or something.

While some are ready to bail on Ant, I am not one of them, in part because of Terry and his maddening rotations, such as finally playing Wenyen more after he was solid in the scrimmages. Also because of Portland's cap situation, I think they're better off trying to let him have some run with an actual 2nd unit coming back next season and if it finally all comes together for him.

[Merganzer]

Nice win. Lakers 5 of 32 from long distance. I can't imagine that continues, especially against Portland's notoriously bad perimeter defense.

What happened to Anfernee Simons? I thought he was supposed to be the next big thing, and now he is a regular DNP-CD. It seems like Olshey screwed up last year when he was touting him as his most amazing draft pick ever. Got into the kid's head or something.

Neither team shot well, both under 40% from the field. What bodes well for the Blazers moving forward in the series is 3 point shooting. The Blazers were, 13-34, 38.2 %, which is where they've been all season; likewise the Lakers 5-32, 15.6 %, their season average, 15.6 %.

https://stats.nba.com/teams/traditional/

LeBron got a triple double, the Lakers lost. Can AD do more? He had 21 points at halftime, finished with 28. That doesn't fit the narrative of him dominating the games moving forward.

[droop10]

Nice win. Lakers 5 of 32 from long distance. I can't imagine that continues, especially against Portland's notoriously bad perimeter defense.

What happened to Anfernee Simons? I thought he was supposed to be the next big thing, and now he is a regular DNP-CD. It seems like Olshey screwed up last year when he was touting him as his most amazing draft pick ever. Got into the kid's head or something.

Neither team shot well, both under 40% from the field. What bodes well for the Blazers moving forward in the series is 3 point shooting. The Blazers were, 13-34, 38.2 %, which is where they've been all season; likewise the Lakers 5-32, 15.6 %, their season average, 15.6 %.

https://stats.nba.com/teams/traditional/

LeBron got a triple double, the Lakers lost. Can AD do more? He had 21 points at halftime, finished with 28. That doesn't fit the narrative of him dominating the games moving forward.

15.6% would be horrific over a season. Lakers shot 35% from 3 for the season. That being said, their perimeter defense is awful without Bradley, so this is a really bad match-up for them. We'll see how much LeBron has left in the tank, as he's willed worse teams through series like these.

[Merganzer]

Nice win. Lakers 5 of 32 from long distance. I can't imagine that continues, especially against Portland's notoriously bad perimeter defense.

What happened to Anfernee Simons? I thought he was supposed to be the next big thing, and now he is a regular DNP-CD. It seems like Olshey screwed up last year when he was touting him as his most amazing draft pick ever. Got into the kid's head or something.

Neither team shot well, both under 40% from the field. What bodes well for the Blazers moving forward in the series is 3 point shooting. The Blazers were, 13-34, 38.2 %, which is where they've been all season; likewise the Lakers 5-32, 15.6 %, their season average, 15.6 %.

https://stats.nba.com/teams/traditional/

LeBron got a triple double, the Lakers lost. Can AD do more? He had 21 points at halftime, finished with 28. That doesn't fit the narrative of him dominating the games moving forward.

15.6% would be horrific over a season. Lakers shot 35% from 3 for the season. That being said, their perimeter defense is awful without Bradley, so this is a really bad match-up for them. We'll see how much LeBron has left in the tank, as he's willed worse teams through series like these.

Well darn, now I know how Chris Webber must have felt after calling that time out, thanks Droop. Your points are well made about Bradley & the defense, Can LeBron keep carrying teams? Shaq insisted on the TNT post game show that it was up to AD to dominate the action, which he didn't do in game 1, half of his 21 in the first half were on free throws, and the 7 total in the second half.

[OregonFan4Life]

How does it always end up being the same story with LeBron where he doesn't have enough help? How do superstars suddenly get worse when they play with him especially in the playoffs? Maybe at some point people will realize, he's an awful teammate which makes him overrated. It just is funny to see that same narrative know matter what team he is on. Sorry to talk about LeBron in a Blazers thread, that's just always bothered me about LeBron and how the sports media babies him.

[Duck07]

How does it always end up being the same story with LeBron where he doesn't have enough help? How do superstars suddenly get worse when they play with him especially in the playoffs? Maybe at some point people will realize, he's an awful teammate which makes him overrated. It just is funny to see that same narrative know matter what team he is on. Sorry to talk about LeBron in a Blazers thread, that's just always bothered me about LeBron and how the sports media babies him.

He's a great teammate who had the chance to surround himself with shooters by coming to...Portland. Lol.

[droop10]

How does it always end up being the same story with LeBron where he doesn't have enough help? How do superstars suddenly get worse when they play with him especially in the playoffs? Maybe at some point people will realize, he's an awful teammate which makes him overrated. It just is funny to see that same narrative know matter what team he is on. Sorry to talk about LeBron in a Blazers thread, that's just always bothered me about LeBron and how the sports media babies him.

He’s made countless teammates better. I haven’t come across any superstars that he’s made worse. You may count Love, but I always considered him to be overrated in the sense that he was just a stat filler on a bad team. I don’t think anyone argued that he didn’t have enough help in Miami, but that was often the case with Cleveland. The reality is that free agents don’t want to come to Cleveland so it was always difficult to bring more stars with him. Leaving Cleveland and coming back helped him because they were able to draft Irving, which I’d argue had his best years with the Cavs. The Lakers were built to make a deep run this year, but lost their most valuable defensive player on the perimeter and they happen to be facing perhaps the strongest back court in the NBA. The Lakers’ weakness plays to the Blazers strength, which makes this a dangerous match up for them.

[StevensTechU]

I didn't watch game 2. Seems like that was for the better.

[Phalanx]

I didn't watch game 2. Seems like that was for the better.

That's funny. I didn't either. I more or less expected that the Blazers had reached their zenith with the game 1 victory, and that a decline from there was inevitable.