2nd Half impression:
Early dunking clinic opened the 3rd quarter. Matador defense was played by both teams. The 4th quarter was a very up and down for both teams, both teams could have won the game, Clingan just made key plays at the closing seconds (rebounding and forcing a turnover at the end), and got lucky the Sixers missed at the very end.
Clingan affecting the rim when he’s on the floor, has been great to watch. His ability to put the ball into the basket is still missing, he has made up for it by putting up assists that led to points. It was really apparent on both ends of the floor when Clingan was playing, he positively affected the team by doing the little things that impacted the game (contesting every shot that came his way, rebounding missed shots and not giving up on the play, dime passes).
Manaya contributed well in the 2nd half, dunking and spacing the floor. The Blazers wouldn’t have won without his contribution.
Murray and Rupert were pretty quiet on the second half.
McGowen was up and down the whole game, but redeemed himself at the last few seconds by being klutch.
1st Half impression:
Blazers started aggressive early by forcing 3 turnovers at the start.
Clingan on defense was still suffocating for the opposing offense. Also shown flashes of passing. I didnt see any of the Blazers bigs do any good boxouts.
Its great to watch the Blazers not force offense and wait for the opportunity to read what the defense was giving them to get a great shot. Egalitarian basketball is great to watch.
Jacky Cui entered the game at the 2nd quarter and contributed a three and a dime pass to Clingan in his floor debut.
4th Quarter impression:
McGowens kept the grove he found in the 3rd quarter and into the 4th.
Rupert and Murrary has been aggressive. Rupert on the catch and shoot was almost automatic.
Blazers was able to close the gap with 11 points in the 4:30 mark, which was surprising. Portland closed the gap to 8 points around the 1:30 minute mark by launching threes.
Clingan was able to collect fouls by attacking the rim, crucial free throws from Clingan closed the gap to 6.
3rd Quarter impressions:
Murray was more visible this quarter.
It was nice to see Clingan dive for the ball, and able to disturb shots at the beginning of the quarter. He phoned it in on defense at around the 5 minute mark,
They pulled all the Blazers big names around the 3 minute mark, and let the bench play.
2nd Quarter impressions:
The Blazers are able to pass the ball and create shots, Unfortunately they haven’t been able to capitalize.
Blazers didn’t score until the 6:07 minutes left in the 2nd quarter.
Clingan is not in NBA shape, he is visibly winded . He will need to work on his conditioning.
McGowens limited his mistakes in the 2nd quarter and was able to contribute better in this quarter.
1st Quarter impressions:
Clingan was disturbing all the shots near the rim. Early turnover with passing to a ghost. Cant finish very well on the rim. Offensively, he has been forcing his shots.
Murray was able to show some flashes of why he belongs in the NBA, He just needs to be more aggressive.
Ryan Rupert was able to show off some ball handling. He has a promising start so far.
Minaya was forcing shots.
Other Blazers were non descript. The whole team can’t set a proper screen, allowing the Spurs to blow by easily. Turnovers for the Blazers were plentiful, allowing the Spurs to keep pulling ahead.
Avdija will bring the necessary shooting to stretch the floor. Too many times our offense broke down and the opposing defense were able to suffocate and stagnate us, and allowed them to key in on our playmakers. As surprising as Toumani was last season, we need a credible release valve. Defenders were sagging off of our non offensive guys.
This is such a win for the Blazers. And only for the low price of Brogdon and the 14th pick of this draft.
I am grateful for them trading Toumani Camara to our team. I love his hustle and defense. Thanks Ishbia!
Brooke declared a win at halftime. Spoiler Alert, the Blazers lost the game.
We did it guys! We set a record for the game!
**Sobs in the corner
How are the blazers ahead by 16 at the Half?!?!?!
Blazers winning big against the Jazz and having Scoot back was not on my list of expectations. I’m stoked it happened. Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Scoot is back!!! Will probably be on minutes restriction. Let’s see how the game goes.
Shaedon as the focal point of the offense has been great so far
The heart attack Blazers are back! This blazers team missed so many shots this game. But their defense and luck bailed them out at the end. Also toumani was so good for the blazers altering the game.
Heart attack Blazers will send me to my grave early.
Simon’s going out might be the best thing for Sharpe’s development as a bona fide starter. And hopefully super star in the league
Blazers finally won a game!
It’s really slow on my older Chromebox converted to Ubuntu. Starting Firefox would take longer than 30 seconds to start when on snap vs native binary.
Snap caused me to move my older PCs from Ubuntu to Debian or Linux Mint