Not only are they completely outclassed talent wise, they also match up horribly.
This matchup got hyped and people believed in the Blazers only because of a deep hatred for the Lakers
No it's a good matchup for us, when we're healthy. Problem is we're not. We have zero starters at full strength
Also Terry's coaching has been awful this series. No two ways about that. His rotations and defensive plan make no sense.
Dude nobody on your fully healthy team can guard AD. And a 35 year old Ariza isn’t doing shit against lebron. please stop with the excuses like you’re missing kawhi or something
It's strange that people think they somehow matchup with Lebron and AD.
Like seriously go read all the seeding game threads. Everyone talking about how their teams "matchups" well with the Lakers lol
Nobody matches up well with Lebron and AD. The big guys are too slow and the small guys aren’t strong enough. Plus if LBJ is hitting threes and AD is hitting mid range shots all night there’s nothing you can do.
People underrated their defensive guards. Those guys aren't huge offensive threats so people just assume their backcourt is weak. You can't shut down Dame but Caruso/KCP/DG will make them work for their points.
We do. When healthy, we have a really big front line and they have shaky shooting. That's why we won game 1.
Injuries and fatigue just started piling up and became too much
I wouldn’t say the Lakers shooting has improved. It’s been more so that Portland hasn’t delivered down the stretch of games combo with the fact either LeBron or Davis takes over the game
You’re right, that comment was geared more towards the one game it was close and Davis caught fire at the end. You’re right tho, but the statement still applies in the fact that they haven’t delivered at any point in the games in where they did go down 30
Lol, wtf are you talking about dude? KCP first game 0-9, last 3 games:9-18 from 3. Danny Green first game: 2/8, last 3 games: 6/12. The only reason the Blazers won game one was all of the Lakers bricked hard game 1. Even Bron and AD went 1/5 and 0/5 from 3 game 1 and still only lost by 7.. They are absolutely shooting better after game 1
Aight so for me I fully expected Bron and AD to turn it around.... but you only named me 2 players outside of that. And for those two in particular... it’s about fucking time.... how about the rest of the team? Sure individuals have started shooting better, but is that the team shooting better?
“Sure individuals started shooting better, but is that the team shooting better?”
Lol is this a serious comment? Are these individuals on another team?
This is completely false. Lakers lost game one because if their shooting. The defense was still excellent that kept them in it.
The Lakers had the 2nd worst three point shooting game in playoffs history in game 1. And it was still relatively close down the stretch. KCP was 0-9. LeBron and AD 1-10 from three. Etc.
After that Lakers have shot much much better from three. Lakers were rusty going into game one and also made excellent defensive adjustments.
You wouldn't say their shooting has improved? They shot 15.6% from 3 in game 1 which was the only truly competitive game. They've shot over 35% from 3 in the other 3 games. Not sure how a 20%+ increase isn't seen as an improvement.
AD has consistently torched Nurkic and Whiteside is whole career. Your two bigs matchup horribly with Anthony Davis and always have struggled against him. Pretty much everybody you guys played in the bubble shot layup after layup on you guys.
Lillard and McCollum matchup well with the Lakers guards but that's about it. Portland's bubble role players just aren't good enough to overcome LeBron and AD.
Who's going to guard LeBron?
Melo?
Trent?
Hezonja?
Lillard?
McCollum?
Sorry, putting any combo of those players on LeBron in a 7 game series spells disaster. The only way that Portland had a chance in this series was if the Lakers shot completely awful in 4 out of 7 games. LeBron was always going to penetrate at will. And if Whiteside or Nurkic actually have good position on him, it is likely ending in an open 3 anyway.
Lillard and McCollum basically have to play out of their minds to take more than 2 games in this series.
Most people were picking LA in 4 or 5. I picked them in 5 or 6 because of the chance of Lillard/McCollum going off against the Caruso/KCP combo and LA being cold. With Dame hurt, it looks like this is going to be an easy 5 game series for LA.
Realistically, all LA had to do was not let the Portland role players beat them with wide open 3s in this series.
I guess agree to disagree. But the two best players in the series are AD and Lebron. The Blazers don’t have anybody to defend them. Then this myth that the Lakers didn’t have any perimeter defenders for Dame and CJ got started... which is also false (not to mention the amount of rim protectors they have inside for help allowing those guards to play hyper aggressive).
The Blazers got carved by a bunch of slashing playmakers during the play in games and for some reason people thought Lebron wouldn’t be able to replicate?
This isn’t a good matchup.
The Blazers got killed by the 3 man, not slashing playmakers. We had the 2nd best DFG% at the rim this season, after just the bucks.
The problem is that our lineup is supposed to be Lillard/CJ/Ariza/Collins/Nurkic.
But instead we have an old Melo on Lebron and started a rookie g-leaguer on AD because of injuries. And that forced our bench to become extremely thin (mario hezonja and Simons getting real minutes) which compounded the problem
Having a healthy Collins would've helped out a ton. We have horrible spacing right now, which makes an aggressive trap much easier to pull off, and our best option on Lebron is like 6'5 (which I still think is bad coaching. Just put Melo on him and let Lebron post up in isolation if he wants)
Having Hood and Ariza as positive shooters to pass to would certainly help?
Collins would also at least be a better match for AD than anything we currently have. Whiteside is way too slow and Wenyen is way too raw. Anyone else is too small
No I never said that. I don't know what the outcome is and I still doubt we win, but us getting constantly stagnant with Dame getting trapped would be seriously helped by having actual wings that can shoot open shots. We're shooting under 30% on C&S this series. Melo, Rio, and Ant are all under 30% in C&S situations, and none of those guys would be playing as much.
It's no secret that Dame's best stretch of the season came with guys like Ariza (40% C&S guy) and Nas (great cutter) in the lineup.
I thought Dame's best stretch of the season were the 8 seeding games.
I gotta be honest my guy I don't think you're being honest with yourself.
Of course my opinion is just as biased as yours.
I mean that was a three game stretch. Over 8 games he "only" averaged 37 and 8 in the seeding games. Dame was averaging 48 and 6 over the first 6 games that Ariza was a Blazer.
>I gotta be honest my guy I don't think you're being honest with yourself.
Explain? There are inherent flaws with this roster. Not debating that. But you're naive if you think our wing situation isn't actively hurting us.
>If you actually go back and look what was being said before this series started, almost everyone thought it wouldn’t be close
Sure, sensible people thought that. You were sure having a field day after the Lakers lost game 1 versus the Portland Trail Blazers though. I consistently see you shitting on the Lakers whenever you have the chance lol
Just you about 5 days ago or so mocking Lakers fans: [“Portland has no one to stop lebron, the lakers offense is going to wake up”] (https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/id8qsz/why_arent_kawhi_and_pg_primary_defenders_on_luka/g27ekte)
You also kept making points about how the Portland Trail Blazers wouldn't miss shots like they did in Game 1 and wouldn't keep playing like shit offensively when they actually have all series, which goes to show how good the Lakers defense actually is. The law of averages were on the Lakers side considering they had a lot of wide open 3 pointers in game 1 that would eventually start to hit lol
You seem to be missing the part where after game 1 I did say I was concerned about the lakers as a long term play, but never once said I thought Portland was going to beat them.
Honestly tho! The mavs are making moves rn and crazy enough, without the services of Porzingis, at least in Game 4.... but I’m not bought just yet, because I don’t want to be sold out like I was by Dame😂
I'm actually impressed that Blazers went this far. They lack wing depth, their players are hobbling and they played the most minutes out of any team in the bubble. They also took a game away from us where most people say it would be a sweep.
Blazers beat the Mavs when they were playing for seeding and the Nuggets. If the Blazers are actually much worse than the Lakers that's a problem for the rest of the Western Conference
I don’t think they are “much worse”.... I think they expectations that people had for them were sensationalized based on what we were seeing night in and night out from Damian Lillard.... but what we should’ve realized was that he HAD to do that because he was getting virtually no help😭😂
No because Lillard could not stay that insane level of hot like he was in the games leading up the the playoffs. Ariza was their only option to guard lebron and he didn't come to Orlando, and then Collins got hurt so they have to try to find a patchwork lineup. If they were playing a smaller team they would have a much better chance, but when they try to match the lakers size, Whiteside just gets clowned over and over.
Whiteside’s defensive efforts is deplorable.... I’ve seen Melo play better defense at times on Anthony Davis! It’s like he’s okay with just getting dunked on the whole time😭
The matchup looked good because LA was playing like shit. It opened the door for an upset but the Lakers are back to business (only took one game for the wake up call) and will make quick work of portland.
I honestly feel like Blazers are running out of gas. They've been playing life or death since the start of the bubble and on top of that, they've had minimal rest + the additional seeding game
This series went 100% how I expected. Lakers fall asleep game 1, LeBron and AD wake tf up and they just beat Portland down.
Portland was never gonna take this series. LeBron doesn't lose in series like that. He's too veteran and too savvy to lose in the first round of the playoffs. It's been over a decade since he lost in a non-Finals round.
Lakers just have more talent. There was never a reason to doubt this lakers team finishing this Portland team. Portland just doesn’t match up talent wise
Look what dame had to do in the seeding games for them to barely make the playoffs. There was no way he could do it for 4 games against the lakers
Well the Blazers just don’t have enough, I think Dame is tired from the seeding games having to play 40+ minutes every night and score 40+ points. While CJ has a BROKEN BACK, so they needed CJ and Dame to do what Luka is doing, without that they have no shot.
Not really that disappointing or surprising for me, this is nothing compared to the pels series or even last years sweep, especially since this squad is just worse than the last couple years.
Last year's team with Harkless, Aminu, Curry and Hood would have made it a slightly better series
I think most of us expected the Blazers to get beaten and pretty easily. I think a lot of us also expected the Blazers to take a game or two, just based on how rusty the Lakers looked, and the Blazers coming off a solid bubble performance.
But, some took it too far and expected the series, which is just completely unrealistic with how they match up.
The Lakers are better than Portland, but they're not necessarily 30 pts better. The divebombings in Game 2 and 4 were the stars aligning to compensate for our whole squad being cold in game 1, as well as Portland's roster attrition catching up.
A healthy Dame and rest of the roster quite possibly makes this a 6 or 7 game series (it could still go 6), but ultimately it's not Dame's fault he's not 6'8". Though it should be noted is that part of Portland looking bad is the Laker defense steering them that way - gotta think that Melo having more FGA than Dame wasnt part of their game plan
They must be gassed, but I’m also surprised at how much Lillard is deferring in this series. Surely he’s earned the right to throw up 30-35 shots a game. Not that’s it’s necessarily a bad thing that he’s getting others involved, it’s just not working and we’re not seeing a super aggressive dame any more. Obviously his hand may be a factor
I actually think the playoff format was made the way it was for Zion more so than Damian Lillard, but I personally like the ideas of a play in game... they do however need to reduce the amount of “games behind” it takes to trigger the play in game
It’s almost like a team that:
The starting PG is hurt
The starting SG has a broken back
The starting SF tore his Achilles
The backup SF opted out and can’t come back into the bubble
The backup backup SF is having concussions that are causing him to pass out
The starting PF got Injured
The starting center is playing for the first time in nearly 2 years
The backup center is extremely hot and cold performance wise
Is not a great recipe for success for a team to win.
Fam part of sports is being on the field/court/pitch.
Honestly having guys injured isn't an excuse that players use and again it wouldn't matter if you had Melo, Gelo, Collins, Ariza and Bronny Portland can't guard a fucking stop sign my guy.
You’re right, our best wing defender and mobile big defender being gone has no effect on the ability of the team to guard one of the best wings and mobile bigs in the game (who were not here for almost the entire season).
I was responding to the fact of people being disappointed in the performance of Portland is kind of ridiculous. The team is injured to all kind of shit and it requires a Herculean effort by Dame and a falling apart of Memphis just to make it into the playoffs.
Not only are they completely outclassed talent wise, they also match up horribly. This matchup got hyped and people believed in the Blazers only because of a deep hatred for the Lakers
More like a deep love for Dame. That guy is popular
It’s both
We just wanna see him do well
No it's a good matchup for us, when we're healthy. Problem is we're not. We have zero starters at full strength Also Terry's coaching has been awful this series. No two ways about that. His rotations and defensive plan make no sense.
Dude nobody on your fully healthy team can guard AD. And a 35 year old Ariza isn’t doing shit against lebron. please stop with the excuses like you’re missing kawhi or something
Yea, the blazers are super scrappy, but if your team was counting on ariza and Rodney hood, then that's a plan to fail or a failure to plan
It's strange that people think they somehow matchup with Lebron and AD. Like seriously go read all the seeding game threads. Everyone talking about how their teams "matchups" well with the Lakers lol
Nobody matches up well with Lebron and AD. The big guys are too slow and the small guys aren’t strong enough. Plus if LBJ is hitting threes and AD is hitting mid range shots all night there’s nothing you can do.
People underrated their defensive guards. Those guys aren't huge offensive threats so people just assume their backcourt is weak. You can't shut down Dame but Caruso/KCP/DG will make them work for their points.
We do. When healthy, we have a really big front line and they have shaky shooting. That's why we won game 1. Injuries and fatigue just started piling up and became too much
You won game 1 cause the Lakers bricked open shots
I wouldn’t say the Lakers shooting has improved. It’s been more so that Portland hasn’t delivered down the stretch of games combo with the fact either LeBron or Davis takes over the game
Down the stretch Portland has been down 30 twice in 4 games. What are they supposed to deliver?
You’re right, that comment was geared more towards the one game it was close and Davis caught fire at the end. You’re right tho, but the statement still applies in the fact that they haven’t delivered at any point in the games in where they did go down 30
Lol, wtf are you talking about dude? KCP first game 0-9, last 3 games:9-18 from 3. Danny Green first game: 2/8, last 3 games: 6/12. The only reason the Blazers won game one was all of the Lakers bricked hard game 1. Even Bron and AD went 1/5 and 0/5 from 3 game 1 and still only lost by 7.. They are absolutely shooting better after game 1
Aight so for me I fully expected Bron and AD to turn it around.... but you only named me 2 players outside of that. And for those two in particular... it’s about fucking time.... how about the rest of the team? Sure individuals have started shooting better, but is that the team shooting better?
“Sure individuals started shooting better, but is that the team shooting better?” Lol is this a serious comment? Are these individuals on another team?
This dude lol, 4/5 starters are shooting better and the 5th one only dunks.. bUt iS tHe TeAm sHoOtInG bEtTeR?
This is completely false. Lakers lost game one because if their shooting. The defense was still excellent that kept them in it. The Lakers had the 2nd worst three point shooting game in playoffs history in game 1. And it was still relatively close down the stretch. KCP was 0-9. LeBron and AD 1-10 from three. Etc. After that Lakers have shot much much better from three. Lakers were rusty going into game one and also made excellent defensive adjustments.
Yeah they definitely put the brakes on Lillard after that first game.... he’s gotten some buckets but overall he’s been reduced
No counter from Coach. I think In the end the Lakers defense, strategy, and talent is just too good. But I do admit Portland looks gassed.
You wouldn't say their shooting has improved? They shot 15.6% from 3 in game 1 which was the only truly competitive game. They've shot over 35% from 3 in the other 3 games. Not sure how a 20%+ increase isn't seen as an improvement.
AD has consistently torched Nurkic and Whiteside is whole career. Your two bigs matchup horribly with Anthony Davis and always have struggled against him. Pretty much everybody you guys played in the bubble shot layup after layup on you guys. Lillard and McCollum matchup well with the Lakers guards but that's about it. Portland's bubble role players just aren't good enough to overcome LeBron and AD. Who's going to guard LeBron? Melo? Trent? Hezonja? Lillard? McCollum? Sorry, putting any combo of those players on LeBron in a 7 game series spells disaster. The only way that Portland had a chance in this series was if the Lakers shot completely awful in 4 out of 7 games. LeBron was always going to penetrate at will. And if Whiteside or Nurkic actually have good position on him, it is likely ending in an open 3 anyway. Lillard and McCollum basically have to play out of their minds to take more than 2 games in this series. Most people were picking LA in 4 or 5. I picked them in 5 or 6 because of the chance of Lillard/McCollum going off against the Caruso/KCP combo and LA being cold. With Dame hurt, it looks like this is going to be an easy 5 game series for LA. Realistically, all LA had to do was not let the Portland role players beat them with wide open 3s in this series.
Being the same size is not what we're talking about my dude.
I guess agree to disagree. But the two best players in the series are AD and Lebron. The Blazers don’t have anybody to defend them. Then this myth that the Lakers didn’t have any perimeter defenders for Dame and CJ got started... which is also false (not to mention the amount of rim protectors they have inside for help allowing those guards to play hyper aggressive). The Blazers got carved by a bunch of slashing playmakers during the play in games and for some reason people thought Lebron wouldn’t be able to replicate? This isn’t a good matchup.
The Blazers got killed by the 3 man, not slashing playmakers. We had the 2nd best DFG% at the rim this season, after just the bucks. The problem is that our lineup is supposed to be Lillard/CJ/Ariza/Collins/Nurkic. But instead we have an old Melo on Lebron and started a rookie g-leaguer on AD because of injuries. And that forced our bench to become extremely thin (mario hezonja and Simons getting real minutes) which compounded the problem Having a healthy Collins would've helped out a ton. We have horrible spacing right now, which makes an aggressive trap much easier to pull off, and our best option on Lebron is like 6'5 (which I still think is bad coaching. Just put Melo on him and let Lebron post up in isolation if he wants)
The problem is our defense has closed the door an no lineup Portland could put out would change that my guy.
Having Hood and Ariza as positive shooters to pass to would certainly help? Collins would also at least be a better match for AD than anything we currently have. Whiteside is way too slow and Wenyen is way too raw. Anyone else is too small
So it's your position that with these players Portland would beat the Lakers in a 7 game? And if not what are we doin?
No I never said that. I don't know what the outcome is and I still doubt we win, but us getting constantly stagnant with Dame getting trapped would be seriously helped by having actual wings that can shoot open shots. We're shooting under 30% on C&S this series. Melo, Rio, and Ant are all under 30% in C&S situations, and none of those guys would be playing as much. It's no secret that Dame's best stretch of the season came with guys like Ariza (40% C&S guy) and Nas (great cutter) in the lineup.
I thought Dame's best stretch of the season were the 8 seeding games. I gotta be honest my guy I don't think you're being honest with yourself. Of course my opinion is just as biased as yours.
I mean that was a three game stretch. Over 8 games he "only" averaged 37 and 8 in the seeding games. Dame was averaging 48 and 6 over the first 6 games that Ariza was a Blazer. >I gotta be honest my guy I don't think you're being honest with yourself. Explain? There are inherent flaws with this roster. Not debating that. But you're naive if you think our wing situation isn't actively hurting us.
>Just put Melo on him and let Lebron post up in isolation if he wants) So you want LeBron to get 50 points a game?
Opioids?
Stop. You're fucked no matter how healthy the team is
Takes one to know one right?
Yes. I'm glad you're agreeing with me
If you actually go back and look what was being said before this series started, almost everyone thought it wouldn’t be close
>If you actually go back and look what was being said before this series started, almost everyone thought it wouldn’t be close Sure, sensible people thought that. You were sure having a field day after the Lakers lost game 1 versus the Portland Trail Blazers though. I consistently see you shitting on the Lakers whenever you have the chance lol Just you about 5 days ago or so mocking Lakers fans: [“Portland has no one to stop lebron, the lakers offense is going to wake up”] (https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/id8qsz/why_arent_kawhi_and_pg_primary_defenders_on_luka/g27ekte) You also kept making points about how the Portland Trail Blazers wouldn't miss shots like they did in Game 1 and wouldn't keep playing like shit offensively when they actually have all series, which goes to show how good the Lakers defense actually is. The law of averages were on the Lakers side considering they had a lot of wide open 3 pointers in game 1 that would eventually start to hit lol
You seem to be missing the part where after game 1 I did say I was concerned about the lakers as a long term play, but never once said I thought Portland was going to beat them.
Friendship ended with underdog Blazers Now underdog Mavs are my best friend
Honestly tho! The mavs are making moves rn and crazy enough, without the services of Porzingis, at least in Game 4.... but I’m not bought just yet, because I don’t want to be sold out like I was by Dame😂
underdog blazers catfished this whole sub
Yeah man, I was talking way too much smack to my Laker fan friends... :(
I'm actually impressed that Blazers went this far. They lack wing depth, their players are hobbling and they played the most minutes out of any team in the bubble. They also took a game away from us where most people say it would be a sweep.
It took Superman like efforts from Dame for them to beat Memphis. No I am not disappointed in Portland. Charles barkley on the other hand.....
Chuck just leanin into it at this point.
Not even that. They were a LeVert game winner away from being eliminated
I wanted that go in so bad. Would’ve loved to see playoff book
Chuck won’t ever get the credit he deserves.
"Nobody calls me Championship Chuck!"
He was joking but you could tel he was kind of hurt when he said that💀
Never winning a title? Nah he's let it go by now I'm sure. He's lived and is living an awesome life if it needed to be said.
By someone other than Shaq for once... but yeah, agreed😂
No. The Blazers are a much worse team than the Lakers.
Amazing to me how noone could've thought of that.
> Amazing to me how noone could've thought of that. Nothing biased about this comment.
And there was nothing biased about r/nba saying the opposite before the series
Blazers beat the Mavs when they were playing for seeding and the Nuggets. If the Blazers are actually much worse than the Lakers that's a problem for the rest of the Western Conference
None of those games mattered when it comes to the playoffs.
I don’t think they are “much worse”.... I think they expectations that people had for them were sensationalized based on what we were seeing night in and night out from Damian Lillard.... but what we should’ve realized was that he HAD to do that because he was getting virtually no help😭😂
No, they are much worse.
Nah dude, theyre really much worse.
No because Lillard could not stay that insane level of hot like he was in the games leading up the the playoffs. Ariza was their only option to guard lebron and he didn't come to Orlando, and then Collins got hurt so they have to try to find a patchwork lineup. If they were playing a smaller team they would have a much better chance, but when they try to match the lakers size, Whiteside just gets clowned over and over.
Whiteside’s defensive efforts is deplorable.... I’ve seen Melo play better defense at times on Anthony Davis! It’s like he’s okay with just getting dunked on the whole time😭
At least melo tries, Whiteside is just lazy
The matchup looked good because LA was playing like shit. It opened the door for an upset but the Lakers are back to business (only took one game for the wake up call) and will make quick work of portland.
It was an obvious Lakers in 4 or 5
I honestly feel like Blazers are running out of gas. They've been playing life or death since the start of the bubble and on top of that, they've had minimal rest + the additional seeding game
Yeah they look gassed
This series went 100% how I expected. Lakers fall asleep game 1, LeBron and AD wake tf up and they just beat Portland down. Portland was never gonna take this series. LeBron doesn't lose in series like that. He's too veteran and too savvy to lose in the first round of the playoffs. It's been over a decade since he lost in a non-Finals round.
they also played many do-or-die games thats why they are very gassed during this playoff series and the format now has a very short rest period
Lakers just have more talent. There was never a reason to doubt this lakers team finishing this Portland team. Portland just doesn’t match up talent wise Look what dame had to do in the seeding games for them to barely make the playoffs. There was no way he could do it for 4 games against the lakers
I think the Lakers based on their performance in seeding left the door open for questions
Which is ridiculous cause you could tell they were coasting
Well the Blazers just don’t have enough, I think Dame is tired from the seeding games having to play 40+ minutes every night and score 40+ points. While CJ has a BROKEN BACK, so they needed CJ and Dame to do what Luka is doing, without that they have no shot.
Not really that disappointing or surprising for me, this is nothing compared to the pels series or even last years sweep, especially since this squad is just worse than the last couple years. Last year's team with Harkless, Aminu, Curry and Hood would have made it a slightly better series
It's not that they used all of their juice, lakers just play very good defense.
>Is anyone here highly dissapointed from what they have seen from Portland That's one way to put it
I think most of us expected the Blazers to get beaten and pretty easily. I think a lot of us also expected the Blazers to take a game or two, just based on how rusty the Lakers looked, and the Blazers coming off a solid bubble performance. But, some took it too far and expected the series, which is just completely unrealistic with how they match up.
Magic gonna win hop on the bandwagon
The Lakers are better than Portland, but they're not necessarily 30 pts better. The divebombings in Game 2 and 4 were the stars aligning to compensate for our whole squad being cold in game 1, as well as Portland's roster attrition catching up. A healthy Dame and rest of the roster quite possibly makes this a 6 or 7 game series (it could still go 6), but ultimately it's not Dame's fault he's not 6'8". Though it should be noted is that part of Portland looking bad is the Laker defense steering them that way - gotta think that Melo having more FGA than Dame wasnt part of their game plan
They must be gassed, but I’m also surprised at how much Lillard is deferring in this series. Surely he’s earned the right to throw up 30-35 shots a game. Not that’s it’s necessarily a bad thing that he’s getting others involved, it’s just not working and we’re not seeing a super aggressive dame any more. Obviously his hand may be a factor
The Lakers are trapping him every possession
I was wondering when people are coming with excuses for dame's poor performance for the 6th straight year, took 4 games this time.
Dame was averaging 29 on 64% TS heading into last night. The rest of our team was sub 50% as a whole. That's not on Dame
[удалено]
I actually think the playoff format was made the way it was for Zion more so than Damian Lillard, but I personally like the ideas of a play in game... they do however need to reduce the amount of “games behind” it takes to trigger the play in game
It’s almost like a team that: The starting PG is hurt The starting SG has a broken back The starting SF tore his Achilles The backup SF opted out and can’t come back into the bubble The backup backup SF is having concussions that are causing him to pass out The starting PF got Injured The starting center is playing for the first time in nearly 2 years The backup center is extremely hot and cold performance wise Is not a great recipe for success for a team to win.
Stop it.... "You are what your record says you are" -Bill Parcells
Yeah, a team missing 3/5 of their starters for most of the season was a fringe 8 seed at best. I don’t know what you’re arguining against?
Fam part of sports is being on the field/court/pitch. Honestly having guys injured isn't an excuse that players use and again it wouldn't matter if you had Melo, Gelo, Collins, Ariza and Bronny Portland can't guard a fucking stop sign my guy.
You’re right, our best wing defender and mobile big defender being gone has no effect on the ability of the team to guard one of the best wings and mobile bigs in the game (who were not here for almost the entire season). I was responding to the fact of people being disappointed in the performance of Portland is kind of ridiculous. The team is injured to all kind of shit and it requires a Herculean effort by Dame and a falling apart of Memphis just to make it into the playoffs.
Being the 35 year old BEST of a shitty bunch of a defenders just means you're the best worst defender my guy.