tlongII
03-29-2011, 09:32 AM
http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index.ssf/2011/03/trail_blazers_4.html
http://media.oregonlive.com/blazers_impact/photo/9430367-large.jpg
Spurs backup point guard George Hill, thrust into a starting role, torched the Blazers for 27 points Tuesday.
Well that ... was ... unusual.
In a game that embodied the cross purposes opposing teams often bring to games this time of the NBA season, the Trail Blazers beat the Spurs 100-92 in San Antonio last night.
For the Blazers, the main goal was to get a win that would bring them a step closer to a playoff berth. Simple as that. The how and why were secondary. That's why coach Nate McMillan, in his postgame news conference, said of the win, "Of course we'll take that."
But for San Antonio, there was more subtlety going on. The Spurs have banked a big lead for the top spot in the Western Conference -- even with Tuesday's loss, they're still 3.5 games ahead of the Lakers. Coach Gregg Popovich could afford to cash some of it in to buy his starters some rest and assure better health for the playoffs.
The Spurs -- who rested starters Tony Parker and Antonio McDyess, even list injuries for them, as well as legitimately injured starters Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili -- lost for the fourth consecutive game. But in the big picture, who cares?
The lineup change created a fascinating dynamic in which the Blazers went from a team trying to scrap for a playoff spot to one that faced a game it should win. McMillan even used the phrase "trap game" -- the same one he used before playing Cleveland, which has the worst record in the league.
The Blazers (43-31) did indeed win, hanging onto sole possession of sixth place in the West, whereas a loss would have brought New Orleans (42-32) into a tie with them. The victory also was a conference win, which could figure into seeding tiebreakers.
Next comes a crucial game at New Orleans on Wednesday, which has direct seeding implications, especially with the Hornets holding a 2-1 series edge this season.
New Orleans will not rest any starters.
Other notes, tidbits and links:
• The Spurs' lineup change came to light about an hour before the game, and the Blazers fell into the trap game mentality of thinking they should prevail and had to rally late to pull out the win, The Oregonian's Jason Quick reports.
• After watching point guard George Hill torch the Blazers, Nicolas Batum asked forcefully for the assignment of guarding him late and slowed him down, the O's Joe Freeman reports.
Hill still finished with 27 points after scoring 30 the night before at Memphis. And remember, he's the Spurs' backup point guard, a guy being paid $1,157,160 this season -- less than 12 Portland players are earning, including rookies Luke Babbitt and Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Lu ck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_ Williams. There's good reason the Spurs are such a strong organization.
• LaMarcus Aldridge finished with nine points, just the fifth time all season he has not scored in double digits. It was also just the third time in which he was the Blazers' low scorer among the starters. The others were in the season opener against Phoenix, when he had eight points, and the Dec. 5 game against the Clippers, when he had four.
Here's the odd thing, though. In all three games in which Aldridge was the low scorer among the Blazers' starters, they won the game.
It's a sign of the Blazers' progress that they can win games now when Aldridge isn't dominant. There was a long stretch before the All-Star break when that was not the case.
• Wesley Matthews had been in a minor scoring slump before breaking through with 19 points Tuesday. In his four previous games, Matthew has averaged 8.5 points and shot 31.0 percent from the field (13 for 42).
Matthews scored Tuesday not so much by chucking up threes (he was 1 for 3 behind the arc and 4 for 8 overall from the field), but by getting to the free-throw line, where he shot 10 for 12. The attempts and makes were season-highs.
In fact, Matthews' free throw attempts and makes were both career-highs for a regular season game and second only to a 13 for 15 free-throw shooting game he had in the playoffs with Utah last season. That effort came in the Jazz's first-round-series-clinching Game 6 victory over Denver in which Matthews scored 23 points.
• The Blazers have all 14 of their contracted players with them after the team recalled rookie forward Luke Babbitt from his NBA Development League stint. He was dressed and available, but did not play against the Spurs.
• From the Spurs' locker room, Popovich's make-shift lineup gave the Blazers all they could handle, the Express-News' Mike Monroe reports. Popovich, in fact, was very pleased with he effort.
"It was a great game," he said. "I thought our players were fantastic, super-competitive. We just didn’t shoot the ball very well from three or from the line. If we could have added a little bit of that to the competitiveness and the heart they showed, we would have been in great shape."
• Could the "injured" Spurs have played if the stakes were higher? The Express-News' Buck Henry writes that Parker, McDyess and even Ginobili could have played if necessary. Instead, Popovich flipped the script and took some of the pressure off the losing streak.
• It's always nice to see the respect McMillan and Popovich have for each other. The two coaches greeted each other warmly at midcourt after the game, certainly not a common occurrence.
http://media.oregonlive.com/blazers_impact/photo/9430367-large.jpg
Spurs backup point guard George Hill, thrust into a starting role, torched the Blazers for 27 points Tuesday.
Well that ... was ... unusual.
In a game that embodied the cross purposes opposing teams often bring to games this time of the NBA season, the Trail Blazers beat the Spurs 100-92 in San Antonio last night.
For the Blazers, the main goal was to get a win that would bring them a step closer to a playoff berth. Simple as that. The how and why were secondary. That's why coach Nate McMillan, in his postgame news conference, said of the win, "Of course we'll take that."
But for San Antonio, there was more subtlety going on. The Spurs have banked a big lead for the top spot in the Western Conference -- even with Tuesday's loss, they're still 3.5 games ahead of the Lakers. Coach Gregg Popovich could afford to cash some of it in to buy his starters some rest and assure better health for the playoffs.
The Spurs -- who rested starters Tony Parker and Antonio McDyess, even list injuries for them, as well as legitimately injured starters Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili -- lost for the fourth consecutive game. But in the big picture, who cares?
The lineup change created a fascinating dynamic in which the Blazers went from a team trying to scrap for a playoff spot to one that faced a game it should win. McMillan even used the phrase "trap game" -- the same one he used before playing Cleveland, which has the worst record in the league.
The Blazers (43-31) did indeed win, hanging onto sole possession of sixth place in the West, whereas a loss would have brought New Orleans (42-32) into a tie with them. The victory also was a conference win, which could figure into seeding tiebreakers.
Next comes a crucial game at New Orleans on Wednesday, which has direct seeding implications, especially with the Hornets holding a 2-1 series edge this season.
New Orleans will not rest any starters.
Other notes, tidbits and links:
• The Spurs' lineup change came to light about an hour before the game, and the Blazers fell into the trap game mentality of thinking they should prevail and had to rally late to pull out the win, The Oregonian's Jason Quick reports.
• After watching point guard George Hill torch the Blazers, Nicolas Batum asked forcefully for the assignment of guarding him late and slowed him down, the O's Joe Freeman reports.
Hill still finished with 27 points after scoring 30 the night before at Memphis. And remember, he's the Spurs' backup point guard, a guy being paid $1,157,160 this season -- less than 12 Portland players are earning, including rookies Luke Babbitt and Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Lu ck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_ Williams. There's good reason the Spurs are such a strong organization.
• LaMarcus Aldridge finished with nine points, just the fifth time all season he has not scored in double digits. It was also just the third time in which he was the Blazers' low scorer among the starters. The others were in the season opener against Phoenix, when he had eight points, and the Dec. 5 game against the Clippers, when he had four.
Here's the odd thing, though. In all three games in which Aldridge was the low scorer among the Blazers' starters, they won the game.
It's a sign of the Blazers' progress that they can win games now when Aldridge isn't dominant. There was a long stretch before the All-Star break when that was not the case.
• Wesley Matthews had been in a minor scoring slump before breaking through with 19 points Tuesday. In his four previous games, Matthew has averaged 8.5 points and shot 31.0 percent from the field (13 for 42).
Matthews scored Tuesday not so much by chucking up threes (he was 1 for 3 behind the arc and 4 for 8 overall from the field), but by getting to the free-throw line, where he shot 10 for 12. The attempts and makes were season-highs.
In fact, Matthews' free throw attempts and makes were both career-highs for a regular season game and second only to a 13 for 15 free-throw shooting game he had in the playoffs with Utah last season. That effort came in the Jazz's first-round-series-clinching Game 6 victory over Denver in which Matthews scored 23 points.
• The Blazers have all 14 of their contracted players with them after the team recalled rookie forward Luke Babbitt from his NBA Development League stint. He was dressed and available, but did not play against the Spurs.
• From the Spurs' locker room, Popovich's make-shift lineup gave the Blazers all they could handle, the Express-News' Mike Monroe reports. Popovich, in fact, was very pleased with he effort.
"It was a great game," he said. "I thought our players were fantastic, super-competitive. We just didn’t shoot the ball very well from three or from the line. If we could have added a little bit of that to the competitiveness and the heart they showed, we would have been in great shape."
• Could the "injured" Spurs have played if the stakes were higher? The Express-News' Buck Henry writes that Parker, McDyess and even Ginobili could have played if necessary. Instead, Popovich flipped the script and took some of the pressure off the losing streak.
• It's always nice to see the respect McMillan and Popovich have for each other. The two coaches greeted each other warmly at midcourt after the game, certainly not a common occurrence.