“What the hell was that?”
My apologies to anyone offended by the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks word, but I thought you all deserved to know my gut reaction to the last two games the Blazers have played. Everyone clear on how I’m feeling? Good. Odds are if you’re reading this, you’re empathizing with my present attitude. Let’s try and break this down, shall we?
A few days ago, fellow OSLer Stu Holdren postulated that the Blazers’ cupcake schedule thus far was going unnoticed, and that the team’s 12-5 record was a little misleading.
“Strongly disagree!!!” I shouted from my couch between giant handfulls of Smartfood popcorn.
Two games later, and I’m still reluctant to admit defeat. My thinking now, as it was then, is that the schedule is inconsequential. As it did last year, the team is playing down to the level of its competition. That’s something that needs to be corrected but is such an abstract coaching concept that it’s difficult to implement. Seriously, you try getting everybody on your team to play hard for 48 minutes with flawless execution. It’s tough.
What I took from the first 17 games of the season was this: the Blazers may be trying to give these easy games away, but they’re winning. Close games matter. Hard-fought games matter. You’re not going to be perfect every night, and you need to prove to yourself that you can beat Oklahoma City, even when you’re playing like the Swiss National Girl’s U-18 team.
But these last two games … I don’t even know where to start. The lack of effort, especially in Utah, was incredibly discouraging. Help defense was either slow or nonexistent. That beautiful ball movement we saw in the last five games? Adios. In the words of Bill Walton, “Exactly what IS the OFFENSE???”
The simple answer: Brandon Roy dribbling in isolation with the shot clock winding down (or, as we saw in both games, dribbling in isolation, unaware that the quarter is about to expire).
These two embarrassing losses could be blamed on any number of Blazer personnel: LaMarcus Aldridge got beat down by Z-Bo, Booz and Millsap. Nate McMillan, for some reason, refused to look to Greg Oden for offense when the rest of the team was sputtering. Steve Blake is still shaky with the ball. Andre Miller hasn’t been taking care of it much better. But pointing fingers isn’t the answer, nor does two games a season make.
I’ve said it before, so please forgive the redundancy, but there’s no need to lose your cool. The fact is, Utah is back healthy, and they blitzkrieged the bejeezus out of Portland. The Blazers never saw it coming, which was foolish, because underestimating a team like the Jazz is just bad for business. And Memphis? Man, if they ever figure out how to play together on a consistent basis, they are going to be scary. Jerry West laid a fine foundation for the Grizz, and they’re a talented team. The game they played against Portland might have been the best effort I’ve ever seen out of any Grizzlies team. Ever.
The most disconcerting aspect of the two beatdowns was the half-dead bodies slogging up and down the court in red and black. Die-hards who recall last year’s pitiful transition defense in Boston must be having some scary deja vu right about now.
The bottom line is this: the talent is there. We know that for a fact. Fix the problems in effort and execution, and this team can blow out anybody in the league on a given night. So no, Blazermaniacs, you don’t need to hit the panic button. Yet.
What do you guys and gals think? In your opinions, what went wrong these last two games, and how can the Blazers get back on track? Shout it out in the comments, Rip City.