Blazers vs. Raptors - Preview

Take your pick. Plenty available in all sizes.

To boo? Or not to boo?

That is the quandary the Rose Garden faithful face as the Toronto Raptors make their lone appearance in Portland. The boos in question will not be aimed at Chris Bosh (everyone loves Chris Bosh), or are they directed at former Blazer Jarrett Jack (he’ll be too busy stepping out of bounds while shooting a three). Instead the crowd has their sights set firmly on the mangled mug of Hedo Turkoglu.

On one hand, Hedo deserves the Rose Garden scorn usually reserved for Kobe Bryant or Trevor Ariza. One day last Summer, Turkoglu went from a free-agency signing coup, to a man who scorned Portland (allegedly) because his wife disliked our city. Then again, at barely 12 points a game (he has only hit double digits in the boxscore one time in his last six games) and in his first year of a mammoth contract (in his player option year in 2013-2014, Turkoglu will be making $12.2 million), we should be cheering Turkoglu—and Mrs. Turkoglu—for not enjoying their stay in Portland. In fact, a standing ovation might be in order. That man saved Portland’s season.

When Portland stopped by Toronto late last month, the Raptors were riding a win streak (without Bosh) and eyeing the home court advantage of the Eastern Conference fourth seed. But now, a few weeks later, the Raptors would be lucky to play Cleveland in the first round. Barely holding on to the final seed, Toronto has dropped four in a row, seven of their last eight. The team has fallen back to earth, saddled with a .500 record and Bosh has yet to fully recover from an ankle injury that held him out for seven games. Toronto is vulnerable, and an opportunity for Portland to dominate another Eastern Conference team at home for the second time this month.

Tip-off: 6 pm
TV: Comcast
Las Vegas Line: Portland -8.5
TrueHoop Network Blog: Raptors Republic

Blazers (Finally) Abuse Losers

It happened not once but twice—Old Man River goes coast to coast

Maybe it’s just Friday talking, but finally, I have nothing to criticize. No problems to harp on. No missed opportunities, blown schemes, or broken substitution patterns. The Trail Blazers walloped the Kings in their second meeting this week 110-94. It was nothing but luster—when the jump shot goes, everything else is gravy.

It was about time the Blazers demoralized an inferior team and in Sacramento they did just that. Portland stepped early on Arco Arena’s collective throat then swept the Kings right off the floor, exposing them as the chumps they are. For God sakes, even Travis Diener got to play.

Simple. Done. Brush your shoulders off—it’s what playoff teams do.

A night after raining 41 on the defense-adverse Warriors Brandon Roy proved it was no fluke, pouring in another 28 on 10 of 13 shooting from the floor. Finally Roy looks to be rounding into shape. These last two games are the best two the All-Star has put together since two 30-point+ nights back in the second week of January. (But before we all go driving off the cliff let’s wait and see Roy keep it going against a team with over 25 wins, alright?)

LaMarcus Aldridge overcame another slow start to finish with with 18 points on eight of 17 shooting. He was one of six Blazers in double figures. Andre Miller (15), Nicolas Batum (11), Rudy Fernandez (10) and Jerryd Bayless (10) all got in on the action.

Neither team played much defense Friday, as both teams shot over 50% from the field (54.1% for Portland, 50.6% for Sacramento). Still, the Blazers managed to collect 20 turnovers to their own nine. The Kings had worse than a 1:1 turnover ratio, as they handed out 19 assists (although the Blazers tallied just 15—ok, so maybe there is something to harp on after all…Andrew you lying bastard!).

Hosting the Kings last Tuesday, many were surprised at rookie star Tyreke Evans’ below average scoring output (just 17). But at home Friday, Evans was even worse. He finished with just 10, hitting only four of 12 attempts from the field. So it goes.

NOTES
- Portland scored 100+ points on the road for their 12th straight game, a feat the team hasn’t accomplished since 1991.

Warriors Breakdown

Are you into nuts and bolts, X’s and O’s? Our TrueHoop network pal Sebastian Pruiti of netsarescorching.com and nbaplaybook.com put together an AMAZING breakdown of the Blazers 17-3 that sunk the Warriors last night. Read it here—there’s video of EVERY ONE OF THE 11 STUNNING POSSESSIONS! Do it and you’ll know more than your mongoloid basketball watching friends who spout stupid things when you watch the games together. Put idiocy in its place!

An Excerpt:

This match-up zone that the Blazers were running really gave the Warriors a ton of trouble the final 6 minutes of the game. Up until this point, the Warriors were getting into the lane whenever they wanted, whether it was in transition or in the half court. Right before this play, Stephen Curry tried to drive the lane and throw a kick-out pass. It was deflected out of bounds. It really had an effect on him, because the next time he caught the ball, he pulled and shot a bad three. He had no interest in trying to get into the paint. 6-0.

Pick and Scroll, back to back edition.

 Your daily (Mon-Fri) roundup of links from around the blogosphere, typically Trail Blazers related.

• It might not have been a pretty win, but Mike Barrett will take it:

Okay, now as for this win. I realize some of you are wondering why it took a huge turnaround for the Blazers to beat a team that came into this game with 17 wins. Clearly, it would have been more enjoyable had Portland blown this team out. But, considering our recent history in Oakland, and keeping in mind their awkward style of play that always seems to cause the Blazers fits, I wasn’t complaining after this one. And, nothing right now is taken for granted. There are no “easy wins.” Look around. Golden State has had many games just like this one. They just can’t win the close ones. And, you hope they don’t get well against you.

• Bust a Bucket’s Sophia Brugato agrees with Mike Barrett.

• From the Motherblog, Henry Abbott relates the Tao of Roy-Jitsu:

It’s like a martial arts movie: Can the hero really win a one-on-five battle? Not normally. But if the five are going to fight (or not) like that … well then, maybe.

• The Rip City Project has a detailed possession-by-possession look at how Portland came back to overcome the Warriors.

• For the Oakland perspective, check TrueHoop Network sister blog Warriors World.

• Joe Freeman of The Oregonian thinks that we can finally stop asking questions about the Blazers’ performance in Oakland. I disagree. Portland was still pathetic and won the game in a largely unsustainable way. The victory provides a nice band-aid, but there is a nasty wound underneath. The Blazers (sans Roy) played terribly and got their act together just enough in the fouth quarter to pull out a win.

• The Oregonian’s Jason Quick reports that the Blazers have each other’s back, Roy doesn’t care about Monta Ellis’ defense, and he just “had to hoop”:

“It was one of those games where I was just hoopin’,’’ Roy said. “That’s what I said to the guys on the bench: ‘This is one of those games where you just have to hoop.’ You know? Because (Golden State) makes it so funky. So once we stopped thinking and worrying about the refs, we started to hoop. And that’s the way I was the whole time, like, ‘So what.’ Just play. Go back to when we were just kids. Hoop.’’

• Nic Batum blocks, they rock, they rock…

• What is Rudy Fernandez plotting?

• Dave from BlazersEdge answers some mail.

• And for tonight’s game, be sure to head on over to TrueHoop Network sister blog Cowbell Kingdom, where they like PRS’s take on the ROY race.

Blazers vs. Kings - Preview (Again)

Wait, didn’t we just do this? The Blazers’ second meeting this week with the Sacramento Kings should be infinitely tougher than Monday’s 88-81 victory. Portland’s seven point win was respectable, but hardly the thumping many Portlanders hoped for when facing a seven road win Kings team. Sacramento followed that loss by going home and dispatching the Toronto Raptors (now with 100% for Chris Bosh) by 23 points. The Kings have a bone to pick with Portland, they have a winning record at home (73% of their wins have come inside Arco Arena), and the Blazers are exhausted from coming back in dramatic fashion against the Warriors… you can see where I’m going with this…

IT’S A TRAP!!!

Coach Ackbar is right, this game has all the makings of a trap. After exorcising their demons in Oakland, this matchup is the other game in Portland’s roadtrip, and that’s a dangerous thing. Tyreke Evans was Batumed (you know what I’m talking about) and held to a quiet 18 points on Monday, he then took out his frustrations on the Raptors with a triple-double. He might not repeat that performance against Portland, but on his homecourt he’ll surely have more of an impact for the Kings. Tread lightly Portland, this game might not be as easy as you think it is…

Tip-off: 7 pm
TV: KGW
Las Vegas Line: Portland -2
TrueHoop Network Blog: Cowbell Kingdom

It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

In Oakland Thursday, the Blazers played the tortoise to the Warriors’ hare. Golden State ran laps around Portland through three quarters building a lead that swelled to 16. But their sharp shooting, high-octane offense eventually flamed out. After holding the Warriors to a dismal nine fourth quarter points—tying an all-time best—the Trail Blazers finally squeaked away to steal a 110-105 win in Oracle arena. It was Portland’s first victory in Oakland in 10 tries, and the first for any current member of the Blazers roster, save for Joel Przybilla.

Thursday’s Blazer victory shared some parallels with Tuesday’s over the Kings, as Portland again beat a vastly inferior team, but failed to do so convincingly. On one hand, any win in a tight playoff race is a good one. On the other, this is the time of the season that the Blazers should be playing their best ball if they hope to make waves in the playoffs. In fact, the Warriors are the one team in the NBA who’ve lost more games to injury than the Blazers. Don Nelson joked in an interview that he should be D-League Coach of the Year, as his team has so many NBDL call-ups.

Brandon Roy led all scorers with 41 points, the third most of his career (all three of which have come on TNT televised games). Roy was extremely efficient in getting there. He hit 14 of 22 attempts from the field, while racking up fouls on Golden State’s guards.

Monta Ellis, who would eventually foul out, added 17 points, but was limited to just 28 minutes largely because of Roy’s aggressive play. Warrior Corey Maggette also fouled out as Stephen Curry and former Blazer and D-Leaguer Anthony Tolliver each picked up five personals apiece.

The discrepancy in fouls, 31 to the Portland’s 17, played a critical part in the Blazers win. Portland piled up 31 points from the line to Golden State’s 19.

During the Blazers’ fourth quarter comeback, Rudy Fernandez buried two crucial, back-to-back three pointers that seemed to break the back of Golden State, tying the game for the first time since early in the opening quarter. Fernandez had 12 points, on four-of-six shooting from behind the arc. Andre Miller also had a fine all-around game. He added 15 points, seven assists, six rebounds and four steals. Marcus Camby, who was quiet offensively, pulled down a staggering 17 boards, leading the Blazers to 53 to 36 rebound advantage. Eight of Camby’s rebounds came on the offensive end, and Portland’s 22 offensive boards were twice as many as Golden State.

As the Warriors played three solid quarters before falling apart, the journey of LaMarcus Aldridge was the exact opposite. Aldridge was atrocious early, failing to make a field goal until the final quarter. But finally he came alive. With 10 fourth quarter points, Aldridge outscored the entire Warriors team in the period (they had nine).

But for Aldridge’s fourth quarter turnaround, his pitiful play early against the non-existent front-line cannot be excused. Through the first three quarters the Blazers power forward hit just one-of-10 attempts from the field, all while being guarded by the 6’6” small forward Corey Maggette.

In an in-game interview, Warriors coach Don Nelson announced that they had “found a chink” in the Blazers’ offense. From the looks of things, it seemed to be the exploitation of Aldridge.

Normally a large portion of Aldridge’s points come from his jump shot, a few feet inside the three-point line. Opposing power forwards are loathe to follow him out there, which leads to Aldridge getting spot up, open looks. When Blazer guards drive, Aldridge often drifts out—or runs the pick and pop—as his defender stays down low to provide interior help defense. This wasn’t so with the Warriors and Maggette, who would either switch or stick on Aldridge, thereby taking away his most consistent shot. The scheme also illustrated how uncomfortable Aldridge is with his back to the basket when he doesn’t have a quickness advantage—he picked up fouls and lost balls to help defenders. It should be interesting to see if other teams try putting their small forwards on Aldridge, piggybacking on the matchup issue Don Nelson seems to have unearthed.

In more ways than one, Thursday’s victory was reminiscent of last year’s Blazers. They overcame a huge deficit (16), and Brandon Roy looked like an absolute hero. Now only if this Portland team could find a way to crush these inferior opponents. Fortunately, Friday provides yet another chance, as for the second time this week, the Blazers meet the hapless Kings.

Pick and Scroll

Your daily (Mon-Fri) roundup of links from around the blogosphere, typically Trail Blazers related. 

 • Don Nelson is seven victories away from becoming the winningest in NBA history, and no one really cares.

• Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune covers everything—from Aldridge’s 4th quarter scoring and the battle at small forward, to analyzing Portland’s chance at home court advantage in the playoffs, and tracing their current losing streak in Oakland. It’s a great little article packed with good info.

• Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting story about Warriors’ rookie Stephen Curry putting in the work to become a great shooter. In the middle of the article, Ostler mentions that to this point, Stephen Curry has not yet had his jumpshot blocked. I’d love to see Nicolas Batum change that.

• So Curry is getting some late season hype as a potential Rookie of the Year candidate, the dark horse to challenge Tyreke Evans. Well, let’s take a look at what Curry is: Imagine if last-season’s Rudy Fernandez was a point guard. Imagine he could put the ball on the floor better and shot long jumpers and three-pointers better, but couldn’t finish at the rim as well and had to create his own offense more often. That right there is Stephen Curry in a nutshell. What Curry isn’t, however, is a serious contender for ROY. The only reason to bring Curry into the discussion at all is to stir up discussion. Of course, the fast pace of the Warriors makes for some gaudy stats, but once you use a pace-adjusted metric like PER, it’s easy to see they don’t belong in the same discussion. The PER gap between Evans and Curry is roughly equal to the gap this year between Brandon Roy and Luke Ridnour. Curry is a fantastic spot-up shooter—better than Rudy, better than most of the league—but he only remains a decent rookie point guard. Tyreke Evans is a superstar in the making, joining an illustrious pantheon of Oscar Robinson, LeBron James, and Michael Jordan as the only rookies to average 20 points, five assists, and five boards. By any pace adjusted metric, Evans blows Curry out of the water. A vote for Curry would be nigh unto Chuck Swirsky’s infamous vote for Andrea “Soft” Bargnani—and against Brandon Roy—back in 2006.

• If the Blazers lose, Dwight Jaynes doesn’t want to hear any of that “excuses” crap.

• For the Oakland perspective, check TrueHoop Network sister blog Warriors World. In my heart, I will always think of the modern day Warriors as Baron Davis crushing it over AK47, “We Believe” T-shirts creating a sea of yellow in the Oracle, and shocking Dallas in the first round. It’s heartbreaking to see what has happened to a team that inspired so much passion. Hopefully, a new coach and front office will soon turn this storied franchise around.

• Geoffrey C. Arnold of The Oregonian chronicles Portland’s struggles in Oakland.

• Sheed from Bust a Bucket breaks down the matchups for tonight’s tilt.

• Over at TrueHoop Network sister blog, Harwood Paroxysm, Tom Haberstroh tackles the true value of an assist.

• I told ya’ll Nic Batum was shooting the lights out.

Blazers vs. Warriors - Preview

We Believe… in bandwagon fans from Southern California.

A few things in this life are certain: The Blazers always play poorly in Golden State, Don Nelson does not care what anyone thinks, and the Warriors will probably only have three active players (their remaining roster consists of a scarecrow perched under the basket, and a plus-size store mannequin) when they host Portland. Golden State is as close to this league getting a throwback ABA team: no rules, a boozy coach whose best days are probably behind him, little structure, mediocre attendance (to draw more fans, every night is Ronny Turiaf Wrestles a Bear Night), and a lineup littered with no-name D-Leaguers. In short, they are the most exciting team in the NBA.

The Warriors are the Nell of the NBA, a feral lineup that can make opponents forget months—if not years—of training and practice in a matter of minutes. They don’t adapt to your game, you adapt to theirs. Imagine a team with five Rudy Fernandez’s on the court at the same time. Yeah, that’s the Warriors.

While players like Anthony Tolliver only leave the bench to pick up Branon Roy’s towel during their days in Portland, they become scoring sensations in Golden State. The team’s current D-Leaguer du jour is Reggie Williams. You might not know him, but New Orleans does: he scored 28 points against them on Monday night. While the Warriors are impressive on the offensive end of the court, their defense is comical at best. Golden State allows a ridiculous 111 points a game, a stat that doesn’t help a Portland team that moves at a more deliberate pace.

The Blazers have lost nine in a row inside the house RUN TMC built, and very few of those games have even been close. Golden State’s margin of victory during this streak is over a dozen points a game. If there ever was a time for this run to end, it would be now. The Warriors have an injury streak that would rival Portland’s, and both of their token centers—Andris Biedrins and Turiaf—will probably not see action. That means Marcus Camby—who really came out of his shell for the first time in a Blazers uniform earlier this week—will be matched up against the household name that is Chris Hunter, who brings the pain with a gentle four points and two boards a game. If Camby doesn’t walk out of Oracle Arena with at least 10 boards, Portland should consider shipping him back to Los Angeles (I hope they kept the receipt).

Tip-off: 7:30 pm
TV: TNT
Las Vegas Line: TBA
TrueHoop Network Blog: WarriorsWorld (home of the best slogan ever: “We got suck, and salary protection”)