NBA/Blazers 2026-27 Thread

[pezsez1]

Yeah, Dame is cold tonight. That travel call was lame, that's my least favorite call in basketball. They let guys get away with walking into the paint, but the smallest little stutter at the start of the dribble gets called every time. Either Dame or Ja needs to heat up in this fourth quarter, or someone else needs to help Deni out.

[Phalanx]

Man, that was a terrible game. Lillard was just awful. I know he said he took 100,000 shots last summer, but I didn't realize they were tequila shots. He looked like he needed an intervention or something. I was just watching him miss terrible shot after terrible shot and begging someone, ANYONE to make it stop.

The rest of the starters looked okay, but they couldn't make up for Lillard's awful shooting like they did the last few games. He is a liability and he should be coming off the bench. I've been saying to put him in at the end of games for free throws, but since he is only 73% at the charity stripe this season, I'd say just bring in Clingan or RWIII instead.

Clingan was good tonight until the 4th quarter. I think he got tired. This team really needs RWIII in the lineup. Hopefully he comes back soon.

[pezsez1]

but they couldn't make up for Lillard's awful shooting like they did the last few games

Dude.

Dame played great in the first game and was good against the Lakers. Tonight was a stinker, but a few extra makes by Dame (to exceed Ja's production, which also wasn't great at 6-14) wouldn't have made a difference in this one. The bench sucked and the Grizzlies killed us on the boards, especially offensive rebounds. Not having RWIII was the difference. In fact, Clingan was the only Blazer with a positive +/- rating, with the two worst (by far) being Jrue Holiday and Toumani Camara.

Jrue has been a bit underwhelming this season. He's doing a great job of facilitating, but his ability to create shots seems to have diminished from last season. With Scoot struggling the second unit doesn't have a whole lot of punch right now.

[Phalanx]

Dame played great in the first game and was good against the Lakers. Tonight was a stinker, but a few extra makes by Dame (to exceed Ja's production, which also wasn't great at 6-14) wouldn't have made a difference in this one. The bench sucked and the Grizzlies killed us on the boards, especially offensive rebounds. Not having RWIII was the difference. In fact, Clingan was the only Blazer with a positive +/- rating, with the two worst (by far) being Jrue Holiday and Toumani Camara.

Yeah, 6/14 is bad production. That's nearly identical to Lillard's field goal percentage for his entire NBA career. If Lillard went 6/14 tonight, you would be trumpeting his praises from the rooftops.

+/- is basically a worthless stat in judging an individual player. It should be embarrassing for anyone to say that Lillard was better than either Toumani or Jrue tonight.

By the way, Jrue came into this game tied with Lillard in +/- for the season. This is multiple times you have called him underwhelming. What does that say about Lillard?

[pezsez1]

What was Jrue's +/- tonight though compared with Lillard? Just curious, maybe I saw it wrong when I looked. He didn't really do a whole lot. Just because he didn't shoot as much doesn't mean he played better. He's been underwhelming on offense this year, maybe age is finally taking a toll.

Ja was 2-5 from 3 and just 4-9 from the inside the arc. That's not bad, but not great either. He needs to be getting to the rim and finishing at a higher rate if he's not going to take more 3s. Needed more from someone, and when Dame can't give it, someone else needs to step up. Simple as that.


EDIT: Looks like the Grizzlies bench outscored our bench 56-30 or something close to that. That probably matters just slightly more than Dame being 3-13 instead of 6-13. (And apparently shooting 6-13 is fantastic.) Unless, of course, you just irrationally hate Dame, in which case it's all Dame's fault lol.

[Everythingsducky]

Blazers bench did them no favors tonight. Seems like coach wanted to test, and go deep, and it was futile. Dame’s FT shooting is off to start the season unfortunately. But they have been awful from the line as a team so far. Hope this loss sparks a better effort. How Vit wears an NBA uniform is amazing. I think the Congo or North Korea is calling more for someone of his abilities. Blazers lost almost every stat category, assists, rebounds, TO’s, steals…total team loss.

[pezsez1]

Blazers bench did them no favors tonight. Seems like coach wanted to test, and go deep, and it was futile. Dame’s FT shooting is off to start the season unfortunately. But they have been awful from the line as a team so far. Hope this loss sparks a better effort. How Vit wears an NBA uniform is amazing. I think the Congo or North Korea is calling more for someone of his abilities. Blazers lost almost every stat category, assists, rebounds, TO’s, steals…total team loss.

Dude, Vit only missed two shots, that makes him better than the entire starting lineup!

[Boom]

Cedric Coward would have been the perfect SG for this Blazer team. He's everything Shaedon isn't.