[Post Game Thread] The Portland Trail Blazers (4-8) defeat The Minnesota Timberwolves (6-5) 122-108

30 comments

  1. We’ve figured it out. Just shoot near 60% from three as a team! In-Season championship here we come!

    For real though, that was cathartic and we all really needed that.

  2. I just repaired my TV in front of 30 guests at my party because of the Blazers big NBA Cup victory. My wife just took our smiling kids and said she’s booking us all a hotel in Vegas for the championship week. This team has made my life and my party amazing. I can handle this all the time. Hello Blazers. I am a life long fan.

  4. You know, just when I thought the Blazers couldn’t get any worse. Then they go and do something like this… AND TOTALLY REDEEM THEMSELVES!

  9. I won’t lie, it was a fun game. I need at least a few more games with this dog lineup to make sure it works.

  11. Robert Williams III is fucking incredible

    Scoot can still be the man we want him to be

    Toumani and Grant getting in Ant’s head was a thing of beauty

  12. Here are my thoughts on the game tonight. Much more fun to watch, that’s for sure.

    The positives:

    * You won’t lose too many games when you shoot >60% from three, and tonight was no exception. Insanely hot shooting night after an insanely cold shooting night the other day.

    * I thought our team defense was awesome today. Clingan was a huge presence at the rim, and the lack of Simons was pretty clearly felt too. Toumani and Deni were awesome on defense, and were rotating all over the place getting deflections and taking charges. Especially when Ant isn’t out there, you really can’t hunt any mismatches against our big lineups, and you really saw that bother the Wolves today. (I think it helps that Clingan went up against Gobert instead of their second unit with Naz Reid like last time we played Minnesota where he got torched).

    * I really like how we pushed the ball in transition more. Easy offense is always good especially when our halfcourt offense struggles as much as ours does. Plus, we have the roster to run well in transition.

    * Timelord was absolutely insane tonight on both ends of the floor. Firstly, it’s awesome to see that he still athletic and quick even after all the knee injuries. But I think the best adjective to describe him today was fearless. He set great screens and rolled hard to the rim, and made some nice passes from the elbow, something we’ve been desperate missing from some of our centers *cough*, and was super disruptive on defense. There were a couple plays where he seemed to go rogue and sensed an opportunity to blitz the ballhandler in the PnR, and he was active with his length in the passing lanes. You definitely feel his 7’6 wingspan every time he’s on the court, and he really knows how to use it. awesome to watch.

    * Deni had his best game as a Blazer. I don’t really think he did anything too differently than what he’s done to this point, process-wise (pushed the ball in transition, made good passes, drove aggressively to the rim) but the shots were just falling tonight. Hopefully this helps him break out of his shooting slump because he was awesome tonight.

    * It’s kind of gone under the radar so far because of Deni and Toumani, but I thought Grant has been awesome on defense the entire season – and tonight was no exception. Plus, he had 8 assists and most of them were good passes too and not just passing it to the guy next to him who happened to shoot it. If this is the version of Grant that shows up consistently, I really wouldn’t mind him on the team for the long haul.

    * Sharpe shot the ball well, got to his spots (even if he missed a couple shots at the rim and a wide open dunk), and generally looked comfortable. He also had a couple good plays in the passing lanes, which is nice to see.

    * Scoot was efficient from the field. He wasn’t perfect and had a couple ugly turnovers, but it was nice to see him get to the rim and finish – not the easiest team to get to the rim against, and I think he did an awesome job. Also, he continues the trend of being efficient without Ayton on the floor, lol.

    * Banton with a good Banton game. Not much more to say here.

    The negatives:

    * It’s gonna be a long season with a lot of negatives, so I won’t harp too much. Like I said, shooting 60% from three can cover up a lot of flaws.

    * Hopefully Ant is okay. That injury looked kinda weird (and a bit worrying tbh).

  15. All I want from this season: win the NBA Cup in this style and get the number one pick. We can be the worst team in the NBA, I do not give a fuck, give me those two things, and I’m a happy camper. This night, everybody was pretty much hitting all cylinders.

    Now, I hope Ant is okay, a non-contact chest injury is definitely scary, I rather have it be a phantom/precaution designation and not a legitimate injury.

  16. We can all agree that’s the most fun we’ve had watching a blazer game in a long time I’m sure

  19. Rob Williams III
    19 PTS, 9 REB
    9-10 FG
    3 AST, 3 STL, 3 BLK
    +16

    Timelord reminded everyone that he’s a DPOY candidate when he’s healthy.

  22. What having no DA does to a mf! Seriously though, it’s insane the difference when having defensive minded, screen setting bigs on constant rotation. It’s not a coincidence that the two games without DA, we’ve looked so so so much better.

  25. I hope simons is ok. I will say this the team looked so much better without simons running the offense.

  26. IDGAF if he’s a big trade asset, I don’t want RobWill to go anywhere. He’s a vocal leader this team needs, especially for developing good habits.

  27. Trade Ant and Ayton simply for the opportunity to watch tonight’s lineups more often.

    Such a better, more exciting brand of basketball

  28. This game is actually the most optimistic I’ve been about Scoot since he came out slow his rookie year. I think a new, modern coaching staff would do wonders for him. Whenever they run an iso for him, it’s just setting him up for failure. His finishing has been wack so far but I noticed this game that his weird broad jumping wild layups seem to be when he is either in an iso or gets a head of steam at the rim with zero actions other than a simple PNR that the opposition team reads and keeps their big out of it.

    Scoot is my favorite player on the team but I remain a Scoot realist. He hasn’t been what I wanted or expected, but I would LOVE to see what someone like Mark Daigneault or Will Hardy could do with Scoot and this young team.

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