Dallas Preview

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is having a great day with their families! But, it’s time to take a break and catch up on some Blazer news. First off I want to say sorry to everyone, I have been extremely lazy lately, and as I am sure you have noticed, I have not posted I the last couple of days. But I am back baby! First off let’s touch on some links, and general Blazer news. 

David Thrope is a writer for ESPN and issues a weekly rookie report and rankings. He has Rudy Fernandez rated #3 and Greg Oden at #6. Here is what he had to say about both of them:

On Rudy: “When Fernandez sets his feet and holds his follow through, he's a top-notch 3-point shooter. When he doesn't do those things, he's not. Electing to shoot step-back 3s off the dribble is not smart. If he's dribbling, I'd rather see him attacking the rim or pulling up for a midrange jumper.”

On Oden: “Two season ago, I watched Nene give Tim Duncan fits in the Spurs' half court offense because the Nuggets' center is long and strong. So seeing Greg Oden getting open and maneuvering with ease for some post buckets over Nene on Monday night was a special sign. Oden is still lost on defense sometimes and he is a long way from being totally comfortable on the court (he air-balled a simple, 7-foot jump hook in Denver), but his low-post offensive game is showing signs of resurfacing. He has hit 22 of his past 33 shots (66.7 percent).”

I like both of these thoughts, especially on Rudy. It is always nice to hear a neutral opinion of someone who analyzes rooki

es and talent for a living. I think Rudy is still trying to figure out what his role on this team is. At the beginning of the year Rudy was looked at as more of a 3-pt. specialist. I feel that Rudy is much more then that, and we have seen flashes of that. As he gets more and more comfortable, he will start to expand his game into other areas. 

Oden continues his inconsistency, especially with the foul trouble. His learning curve seems to be a little slower then expected. I still think that it will take until at least February for us to figure out what exactly we have with Oden.

Game Preview

After a rocky start, Dallas has come back to achieve a respectable

 16-11 going into the New Year. They have won 7 of their last 10. However only two of those teams were over .500 (Phoenix and Atlanta). They lost to San Antonio, Denver, and New Jersey. So do not let the last 10 games fool you, I am still skeptical that Dallas is for real. I definitely think Denver is a better team then Dallas, so if we can replicate our win the other night, then I think we will be in luck. 

So what do the Blazers need to do to get a win over Dallas tomorrow? Well lets see…:

1. Score 100 points.

a. The Mavericks are a lowly 1-10 when allowing 100 points or more. This is going to be fairly difficult to do, as the Mavericks are 11th in the league in defensive efficiency. What helps is they play at 13th fastest pace in the league. We need to take advantage of that and get some easy baskets.

2. Brandon Roy Needs Help

a. It is no secret that Roy is the key to our offense, especially late in games. Teams are sending doubles at Roy continuously these days, so someone else needs to step up and keep the defense honest. Roy also needs to keep being patient and not feel like he has to shoot, just because he hasn’t in a while.

3. Crisp and Quick Ball Movement

a. Even though we won the game against Denver, we had a ton of lazy passes. What I also noticed is when Roy would pass out of a double team, the receiver of the pass would hold the ball rather then keep swinging it and making the defense pay for doubling Roy. This cannot continue, otherwise we become a very easy team to stop.

4. Win the Rebound Battle

a. Dallas is only 2-4 when facing one of the top 10 rebounding teams in the NBA. If we dominate them on the boards it will help tremendously.

5. Aldridge Needs to D up Nowitzki. 

a. Aldridge needs to make sure and at least get a hand up on Dirk, and block out. If he spends all his energy on D, that is fine as long

as he takes care of Dirk, he is the key to Dallas, and is their leading rebounder. Let’s hope LaMarcus boards up.  We need to put Dirk in his place just like LeBron did.

Even though many people have written Dallas off as a legit contender, it does not mean they are not a dangerous team. Jason Terry is having one of his best statistical years in his career, and Josh Howard is always dangerous. If we limit Dirk and suppress Terry off the bench, I think the Blazers will have a great shot at winning.

A side note, Dallas starts Eric Dampier at center, so it should be a good night for Oden (foul trouble wise), and let’s hope he takes advantage of not having to go against a top tier center. I would like to see him stay out of foul trouble and be tough on the boards. Let’s see if it happens!

Gamblers Corner

The spread for the game tomorrow is Blazers by 4.5 and O/U of 193.5. I really like the Blazers in this one. I think Vegas’ expectations have come down a little for the Blazers and are a little closer to what I think they should be. I look for the Blazers to come out with a lot of energy tomorrow night on national TV and win by 7-9 points. I am going to take the under, as I think it will be a slower paced, half court type game.

Goose is going to take the Blazers and the Over.

So Far…

Kyle vs. Spread 2-1

Goose vs. Spread 2-1

Kyle vs. O/U 1-2

Goose vs. O/U 2-1

And Yost won the score for the Phoenix game, so he is the only one on the board so far, post what you think the score is going to be tonight, and see who gets the closest! If you have the most wins at the end of the month, you can either write your own entry on the blog or pick a subject for Goose and I to discuss, good luck guys!

Redemption against the Suns!

MVP MVP MVP! Yes the MVP chants were definitely being shouted in the Rose Garden tonight as the Blazers beat the Suns 124-119 with the help of Brandon Roy’s 52 points. This was probably one of, if not the most, exciting game of the year for the Blazers. The game started out with both teams hitting what seemed to be every shot they took. Shaq immediately attempted to establish his presence down low and was successful early on as he had numerous three point plays including a dunk on Oden with Aldridge also coming in for a missed block attempt. Blake matched the suns early hot offense as he drove the lane and dished to Oden on back to back almost identical possessions resulting in two strong Oden flushes. (Dont'cha wish your point guard was like Steve Blake!)

At the end of the first quarter the game was close but it was obvious early that the tempo was going to be that of the suns (and yes I am talking about the old Sun’s not the new “we kinda play defense and try and post a lil” suns) as the score at the end of the first was 28-31 Portland. The second quarter belonged to Phoenix as the Suns bench came out firing as Barbosa and Barnes went on a 16-3 run including three 3’s by Barnes. The half ended with the Blazers down seven.

The second half was all B-Roy. Roy looked like a seasoned vet as he strapped the team on his back and at one point hit 15 points in a row for the Blazers. Portland won the third by ten points and played the Suns evenly in the fourth as clutch buckets by Roy and Outlaw accompanied by big offensive rebounds from Oden led the Blazers to their second straight victory.

Keys to the game:
Throughout the beginning of the game the first key of the game (stopping Shaq) was not going our way as O’Neal finished with 17 first half points. However, O’Neal was stifled in the second half, managing only 2 points. Advantage Portland.
Secondly, dictate pace of the game and do not trade baskets. Okay, this was obviously Phoenix’s tempo, but we got lucky that Roy played out of his mind to keep up with the Sun’s putting up 119. Advantage Portland. Lastly, win the rebound battle. The Blazers lost the rebounding battle by five, however, the bigger story was the Blazers leading the offensive rebounding battle by SEVEN. Seven extra possessions were a huge asset, especially late in the game as the Blazers attempted to match the suns shot for shot and got three big offensive boards in the fourth to help us keep pace with Phoenix.

Individual Performances
BRANDON ROY: Is a MVP for Brandon Roy really that ludicrous? When you look at his last five games he is averaging over 36 PPG, 5 assists and 5 boards with about a steal and a block per game. Granted he is on a ridiculous hot streak, nonetheless, if he can keep up this play (or at least somewhat similar play) and the Blazers stay hot, he at least has to be thrown in the consideration. Back to the game 52 points, 6 assists, 5 boards, nuff said.

Steve Blake: Blake played a great game putting up 22 and 10 dimes with four 3’s. He did a good job of giving the Blazer another option for scoring as well as handing a couple of dunks to Oden on a silver platter.
LaMarcus Aldridge: Lamarcus played a solid game putting up 16 and 5 (with an impressive 3 offensive). He also had a great shot selection going 8-12 from the field.

Greg Oden / Pryz: Oden was in foul trouble a lot of the night so grabbed 30 minutes while Oden only had 17, and combined they only missed two shots. Both played well although neither had out standing games.

Fruit Bat: Outlaw had a good after what seemed like a stretch of poor games. He had 14 and 6 and came up huge in the second half to take some of the scoring burden off of Roy.

Batum / Sergio / Diogu / Frernandez: This foursome combined for 7 points and all were relatively quiet, the biggest surprise being Rudy, who did not play horrible, but only saw 17 minutes and therefore saw his numbers diminished slightly.

*Diogu came off the bench to play the four instead of Frye as discussed earlier by Nate.

Game in One Sentence:
Brandon Roy had the best game of his career as he carried the Blazers past a high powered offensively minded Sun's team.

Possible topics to comment about:
1. What to do with Raefs contract (as mentioned in the previous artcile)
2. How you feel about Diogu getting Frye's minutes?
3. Is B-Roy a realistic MVP candidate?
4. Anything about the Blazers Defense...(kinda looked shaky lately)
5. Of course anything about last nights game!

-Goosen out

Suns Game Preview

Ahh, the Phoenix Suns. A team that is fighting their true identity and trying to keep in the running for a championship. They have an awkward combination of Shaq and Nash, two completely different system guys. It seems so far this season they have been doing decent, but anyone who reads NBA news knows that Nash for one is not happy with their system. Amare has complained about not being “The Man” already. The team is definitely in dissention, but they are still talented enough to beat a majority of NBA teams (including Portland twice in Phoenix). It will not be an easy game tonight by any stretch of the imagination, but it can’t hurt that the Blazers are coming off their 3^rd +30 point victory of the season, which is the most by any team so far this season. I’ll keep this short and sweet, here are the keys to the game:

1. Stop Shaq
1. Last game, the Diesel came out to prove that he was still the Shogun of big men in the NBA against Oden. Oden played very poorly and was in foul trouble the entire game, as Shaq dropped 19 and 17 on us. If we can limit Shaq this game and hold him under wraps, it would go a long way in securing a Blazers win.
2. WE Need to Dictate the Pace, Not Them
1. We cannot let Phoenix dictate the pace of this game. Nash is going to try to push the pace and get some easy looks and baskets. We need to slow down the tempo of the game by taking good shots, rebounding, and getting back on D.
3. We Cannot Trade Baskets With Them
1. In the previous two meetings this year, the Blazers found themselves down late in the games, and tried to make a run. However, we could not stop the Suns on offense. We seemed to just be trading baskets with them, and if you begin to do that with this team, it will almost always result in a loss.
4. Win the Rebounding Battle
1. In both losses we have been out rebounded by Phoenix. The Blazers have come to rely heavily on their superb rebounding this season, and it becomes even more important in a game where the other team is trying to push the pace.

Let’s hope that the Blazers get their touch back from 3 tonight, because we are going to need everything we can get.

Gambler’s Corner

The line on the game is Blazers by 4.5 and O/U at 203. I believe it is going to be a very close game, and look for Portland to control the tempo better at home. I am going with Phoenix and take the points along with the under. Now this doesn’t mean I think Phoenix is going to win, but I think it’s going to be closer then 4.5 points.

Goose is going with the Phoenix and the Over.

So Far…

Kyle vs. Spread 1-1

Goose vs. Spread 1-1

Kyle vs. O/U 1-1

Goose vs. O/U 1-1

-Kyle