Hard to imagine opening night going a whole lot better than that. Some thoughts on the game and other random bullety stuff:
Brandon Roy is fantastic. What else can you say? His first NBA game and he goes out and plays 35 minutes against Ray Allen, goes 10-16 from the floor, 20 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and if you watched the game you can just tell that it's already his team. Once it hit the second half and the game appeared to be win-able, they went with Roy and Randolph at the high screen and roll and just demolished the Sonics.
Zach Randolph, talk about two totally different halves. He was dreadful in the first half, doing everything I hate about him. He was taking only mid-range jumpers, not boxing out on the defensive glass, and letting a waste of space like Chris Wilcox beat him repeatedly. Then in the second half he was everything I like about him, low post offense, great rebounder, gets to the free throw line (14-15 from the line last night) and finished the night with 30 points and 10 boards, not to mention fouling out Wilcox, injuring Sene, and obliterating Collison and Petro.
Jarrett Jack is a solid, solid point guard. 13 points, 6 boards, 6 assists (to 3 turnovers), and 3 steals in 44 minutes running point. That's pretty good and I expect him to get better.
This team scored 110 points, and offensively they actually moved with a purpose last night. They legitimately have a half court offense (Roy and Z-bo), they swing the ball and get shots for guys, and they have an energy scorer off the bench in Dixon, good role for him.
The team allowed 106 points, not so good. They should have won this game by 20 if they didn't give up so many lay ups from just blatantly not getting back on defense after a made basket. This is infuriating to watch, just get back and make them set up, it's not hard. I know they're young and can space out at times, but if they fix that, this team could be better than we thought. I was going to rant endlessly about the rebounding, which was awful in the first half, but they abused the Sonics on the glass in the second half and outrebounded them 40-34 for the game.
And finally, it should be noted that The Loch is now 1-0 against the spread on the year picking Blazer games and your fearless Moderator is 0-1. Preview for the game against the Golden State Fighting Triangle Guys tomorrow. For now, enjoy it, the Blazers are 1-0 and just might not be that bad this year.
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It was a really good win. Nay, a great win. However, it was one win in a season of 82 games.
Now, to be sure, I do not seek to dampen this game in any way. Despite serious defensive lapses and what will probably turn out to be one of the three best shooting nights of the year, we EARNED this victory and the team should be proud that they won it on their own and not off poor referring...
But as I stand back and look at this team, there are still gaping problems (as we all know there will be) that are evident. Some will be corrected this season and some perhaps next season.
Some of you may be thinking, "humpf, some fan you are BP. Always looking for a negative in a positive". Au contraire! What I am saying is that for years this team was over hyped and had expectations placed on it that far exceeded reality. That was a major reason for the fans leaving their team support in the can. All I want to say is that we're still a work in progress and I hope people aren't going to start thinking, "gee, maybe we can make a run for the playoffs", and then get all upset and deflated when it doesn't pan out.
Let this terrific win sink in, but continue to have patience that we are a young team in need of a season or two before we start thinking playoffs.
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