Gotta Hand It To Portland

[Solid D]

This is an unacceptable loss. I don't care what their record is, there's no way the Trail Blazers should beat a well rested Spurs team. Now this team has to beat what will be a motivated Lakers team (that's due to beat an elite team) to avoid back to back losses. They're right on track to not only piss away home court to the Celtics, but do so by the All-Star break.

The genius coach bears a lot of responsibility for this one. He talks about not overplaying McDyess, then proceeds to run him into the ground, because heaven forbid Splitter get a chance. Why would you possibly put a 6-11 guy on another 6-11 guy? If Splitter wasn't brought in to guard long, mobile post players like Aldridge, then why the was he brought in at all? Completely inexplicable that he didn't get a turn on him. There might not be a player in the league he theoretically matches-up better with.

Give the Blazers credit. They played great defense, they mixed it up and they hit their shots. Plus they got some great bounces and calls down the stretch. It's the NBA and winning in Portland is tough (5th straight loss for the Spurs there?). Aldridge always plays fantastic against the Spurs. Stuff happens.

[TD 21]

Give the Blazers credit. They played great defense, they mixed it up and they hit their shots. Plus they got some great bounces and calls down the stretch. It's the NBA and winning in Portland is tough (5th straight loss for the Spurs there?). Aldridge always plays fantastic against the Spurs. Stuff happens.

Typical Spurs fan.

When you're significantly better than another team and are well rested and should be highly motivated to win the game (given what's upcoming), there's no excuse to lose. I'm not going to bail this team out by going "give the Blazers credit". Obviously, they deserve some, but that doesn't make this loss acceptable. I'm not chalking this one up as "just one loss" This one's going to be felt later in the trip and down the stretch of the season. Mark my words.

Of course Aldridge always plays fantastic. He's generally being guarded by guys either way smaller, way less mobile or both. Funny thing is, the Spurs have a guy who theoretically matches up very well with him. But why give him a chance? It's fun to watch Aldridge play as if he's a first ballot Hall of Famer.

[maddnezz]

Im not gonna give the blazzer nutin and screw aldridge.
Nobody made him play any D! The er had 1 foul the whole game, 1. You make a scorer play some d and he gets in foul trouble. Everybody fouls. Shooting jumpers wont get you to the line. It's the same for A'mare and Dirk, go at them hard the first 5 plays in a row they get into foul trouble and a little tighter on d when the player is on O gives him more pressure and as we all know pressure busts pipes!

[Solid D]

Typical Spurs fan.

When you're significantly better than another team and are well rested and should be highly motivated to win the game (given what's upcoming), there's no excuse to lose. I'm not going to bail this team out by going "give the Blazers credit". Obviously, they deserve some, but that doesn't make this loss acceptable. I'm not chalking this one up as "just one loss" This one's going to be felt later in the trip and down the stretch of the season. Mark my words.

Of course Aldridge always plays fantastic. He's generally being guarded by guys either way smaller, way less mobile or both. Funny thing is, the Spurs have a guy who theoretically matches up very well with him. But why give him a chance? It's fun to watch Aldridge play as if he's a first ballot Hall of Famer.

Some teams don't match well with other teams. Why else would the Spurs have lost 7 of their last 8 games against Portland? It certainly isn't because Portland is better, now is it?

[ALVAREZ6]

Typical Spurs fan.

When you're significantly better than another team and are well rested and should be highly motivated to win the game (given what's upcoming), there's no excuse to lose. I'm not going to bail this team out by going "give the Blazers credit". Obviously, they deserve some, but that doesn't make this loss acceptable. I'm not chalking this one up as "just one loss" This one's going to be felt later in the trip and down the stretch of the season. Mark my words.

Of course Aldridge always plays fantastic. He's generally being guarded by guys either way smaller, way less mobile or both. Funny thing is, the Spurs have a guy who theoretically matches up very well with him. But why give him a chance? It's fun to watch Aldridge play as if he's a first ballot Hall of Famer.

I could not agree more with this post. Exactly my thoughts.

However, I did not watch the game and that may or may not matter. But yeah, you would think a Spurs team that hasn't played in days would be ready and motivated to get off to a good start on this much anticipated RRT. You would also think that given two of the team's best players are out and their starting lineup, they should have been crushed.

Guards: did Miller cover Parker??? I would think that that would be a suicidal assignment from the Blazers, but they can't put him on Manu either, obviously, even though Matthews wouldn't be too bad in covering Parker compared to old ass washed up Miller.


Oh well, maybe this explains the loss...seeing the starters, the Spurs probably believed they won this game before ever leaving for Portland. Whatever the reason, it's....just.....I know we can't expect everything from the Spurs but................. .

[tlongII]

Some teams don't match well with other teams. Why else would the Spurs have lost 7 of their last 8 games against Portland? It certainly isn't because Portland is better, now is it?

Actually it is.

[ALVAREZ6]

Some teams don't match well with other teams. Why else would the Spurs have lost 7 of their last 8 games against Portland?

Because they're a bunch of clowns.

[Solid D]

Enjoy your ulcer.

[TD 21]

Some teams don't match well with other teams. Why else would the Spurs have lost 7 of their last 8 games against Portland? It certainly isn't because Portland is better, now is it?

Well, the past two seasons it was fairly close. The Spurs were always better, but not in a landslide like they are now. Look at the Trail Blazers personnel at the moment. They're not talented or versatile enough to cause anyone serious match-up problems. I give them a ton of credit for remaining a playoff team with a skeleton crew, but they're a severely limited team and given the situation, the Spurs had no business losing this game.

Now, one of the inevitable losses to a team won't be okay. Because if they lose to them and lose to at least one of the Lakers or Bulls, they could come out of this trip a game up or tied with the Celtics. Given how well they've played and the fortune they've had to this point, that's unacceptable. They shouldn't have to be fighting it out with them coming down the stretch.

It's getting way ahead obviously, but having home court over them could easily be the difference between winning the championship or not. That's why this team needs to value every game, especially ones like the one tonight where they definitely should have won.

[Capt Bringdown]

Actually it is.

Ha ha, has Portland crawled into Pop's head? Does Pop mistake Nate for AJ?

Pop was certainly in deer-in-the-headlights, pull defeat from the jaws of victory mode tonight.

Rather than assert an advantage, we rolled with small ball...why?

[SenorSpur]

This is an unacceptable loss. I don't care what their record is, there's no way the Trail Blazers should beat a well rested Spurs team. Now this team has to beat what will be a motivated Lakers team (that's due to beat an elite team) to avoid back to back losses. They're right on track to not only piss away home court to the Celtics, but do so by the All-Star break.

The genius coach bears a lot of responsibility for this one. He talks about not overplaying McDyess, then proceeds to run him into the ground, because heaven forbid Splitter get a chance. Why would you possibly put a 6-11 guy on another 6-11 guy? If Splitter wasn't brought in to guard long, mobile post players like Aldridge, then why the was he brought in at all? Completely inexplicable that he didn't get a turn on him. There might not be a player in the league he theoretically matches-up better with.

Personally, I agree with every point made here.

Furthermore, Blair was absolutely ruling the glass, and the coach elects to glue him to the bench for a substantial portion of the 2nd half. Had Pop turned to Splitter, that would've been understandable. However, his decision to go small was preposterous...and to not have even give Splitter a shot at Aldridge was just downright stupid.

Think Lamar Odom wasn't watching this? Maybe George Hill will be successful picking up Odom off of unnecessary P&R switches than he was against Aldridge? Or perhaps, that's what Pop is thinking to himself?

[jjktkk]

well all I can say is ive seen the spurs play better teams and play good...like the utah game they played last week in utah.....there no excuse I know but the only reason the game against the t blazers got out of hand is cuase of the refs

Give the Blazers credit. Their a good team that plays hard and Alderidge is a bad matchup for the Spurs.

[Sean Cagney]

I don't. The Spurs have been playing over their heads. I predict a sub-.500 Rodeo Road Trip for them.

You always post negative in here bro, damn you are hater on the Spurs it seems........ Just an observation.

Actually it is.

Yep like the Suns in 03 over us until the playoffs, which you will definitely lose if you see us there bruh! Peace.

[Hoops Czar]

Will their be a gotta hand it to L.A. thread on Thursday? Give me a break.

[crc21209]

On another note...you just know the Blazers now are going to go to Denver tomorrow and get their asses handed to them. It never fails, the Spurs lose one night to someone, and that same team goes and gets spanked the next game...

[itzsoweezee]

Damn, I was at the game. Spurs never win when I see them live.

Pop's rotation was mind-boggling.

McDyess was downright horrible. He was a step slower than everyone, he couldn't do anything on offense, and he missed free throws. The Blazers ability to take the game over was directly attributable to McDyess's poor play.

Blair, on the other hand, was absolutely dominating the paint in the first half. He was outmuscling both Aldridge and Przybilla. His dominance of Pryzbilla was especially surprising. Not surprising, the Spurs played well when Blair was in the game.

Neal was also horrible. The guy couldn't do anything right. I think he made one three, but didn't do much else.

The Spurs were just plain slower than the Blazers. I don't recall Tony running out on a single fastbreak.

Oh, and Popovich's use of small ball this game may quite well be the worst ever use of a small lineup in a game, ever. It's like the guy wants to see his players humiliated. Embarrassing.

[Kool Bob Love]

Typical Spurs fan.

When you're significantly better than another team and are well rested and should be highly motivated to win the game (given what's upcoming), there's no excuse to lose. I'm not going to bail this team out by going "give the Blazers credit". Obviously, they deserve some, but that doesn't make this loss acceptable. I'm not chalking this one up as "just one loss" This one's going to be felt later in the trip and down the stretch of the season. Mark my words.

Of course Aldridge always plays fantastic. He's generally being guarded by guys either way smaller, way less mobile or both. Funny thing is, the Spurs have a guy who theoretically matches up very well with him. But why give him a chance? It's fun to watch Aldridge play as if he's a first ballot Hall of Famer.

Chill my dude. Just one of 82. No need to wild out about one loss in feb.
Portland played great. Now they can look ahead to LA thursday.

[8FOR!3]

This is the Blazer's starting lineup:

LaMarcus Aldridge, PF
Nicolas Batum, SF
Joel Przybilla, C
Andre Miller, PG
Wesley Matthews, G

Their bench scored only 12 points.





WHAT. THE. .


are these clowns doing...not a good start to the rodeo road trip. I wouldn't be surprised if the Spurs end up with 50% more losses after this single road trip.

It's a solid lineup that works really well together. Joel Przybilla is one of the best rebounders in the league, Batum can guard anybody at SF at an elite level, Aldridge is almost at the caliber of an all star big man and he had a career night against us, Andre Miller is one of the underrated point guards of our time, he really knows how to run the floor, and Wesley Matthews fits in well with them.

[ALVAREZ6]

It's a solid lineup that works really well together. Joel Przybilla is one of the best rebounders in the league, Batum can guard anybody at SF at an elite level, Aldridge is almost at the caliber of an all star big man and he had a career night against us, Andre Miller is one of the underrated point guards of our time, he really knows how to run the floor, and Wesley Matthews fits in well with them.

Alridge is def. AS quality.

Batum can guard anybody but that doesn't matter because RJ doesn't create for himself..he hits the open baseline jumper and runs around screens for alley-oops and receives passes on the fast break for an easy finish.

Miller is one of the slowest guards in the league. Tony parker is one of the quickest. I hear Tony struggles vs. Miller, I just don't get why...Miller isn't significantly taller, but he is significantly slower and older.


Bad loss overall. I anticipate they will beat the Lakers, however.

[TDMVPDPOY]

2-3min left pop pulls the white flag out of his ass down by 10....lol

[Solid D]

Typical Spurs fan.

When you're significantly better than another team and are well rested and should be highly motivated to win the game (given what's upcoming), there's no excuse to lose. I'm not going to bail this team out by going "give the Blazers credit". Obviously, they deserve some, but that doesn't make this loss acceptable. I'm not chalking this one up as "just one loss" This one's going to be felt later in the trip and down the stretch of the season. Mark my words.

Actually, your reaction is more akin to "Typical Spurs fan" in this Forum but, really, who cares? In my view, you blend-in quite well.

[024]

1. why does it seem every opposing team's pf or c seem to have their career nights against the spurs.
2. spurs can't afford to lose to have a "bad matchup" against the blazers because they will most likely be facing them during the playoffs.

[edgar]

Will their be a gotta hand it to L.A. thread on Thursday? Give me a break.

Lol. I dont know whether to mock your mediocre team on a 21 game losing streak or the fact that you are a cleaveland fan on a spurs forum.

[Hoops Czar]

Lol. I dont know whether to mock your mediocre team on a 21 game losing streak or the fact that you are a cleaveland fan on a spurs forum.

Well, mediocrity is a , and in a few years time, with the announcement of Duncan's retirement, mediocrity will come full circle. Oh wait, is that Tiago's footsteps I hear in the background? The "great white powderpuff" with smurf hands and Dumbo athleticism will be the centerpiece of Spurs basketball for years to come? Good luck with that.... I think when that day indeed comes, you'll sign out of Spurstalk for the last time never to be heard from again.

P.S. Its really hard to take a Spurs fan with such small minded intelligence very seriously when he/she in fact, can't even spell the name of the very city in which he/she is trying to insult. Its a pleasure to be affronted by an on again and off again closet Spurs fan like yourself... 292 posts in 2.4 years.

[TD 21]

Actually, your reaction is more akin to "Typical Spurs fan" in this Forum but, really, who cares? In my view, you blend-in quite well.

Actually, it isn't. With few exceptions, most seem to take one of two approaches every time the Spurs lose. 1) "Ah, it's just one game. Can't win 'em all", 2) "OMG, this team has no size and can't defend, they'll never beat (insert hype machines)!". I take neither, so I don't see how my view is typical?