Likes and Dislikes: Blazers Beat Lakers 116-106
If you live under a rock and forgot about the Blazers opening night, you might have missed the most positive result of the season. If the season ended today, the Blazers would be in the Western Conference Playoffs while the Lakers would miss them completely. Also, the Blazers project to be undefeated going into the playoffs, while the Lakers likely will secure the most number of lottery balls as they project to go winless. Just a little perspective.
Likes:
1. Nic Batum’s aggressiveness on both ends of the floor. Hopefully, this is the Nic we see 2 out of every 3 game versus 1 out of every 7. Nic finished with 26pts and 6 rebounds. As usual, Portland Media overhypes his play against a woeful Laker defense.
This is as aggressive and active on both sides of the ball as I have seen Batum play in his #Blazers career. #funtowatch
— Joe Freeman (@BlazerFreeman) November 1, 2012
Nicolas Batum is doing the James Harden new contract thing, 19 points, four rebounds, all offensive.
— Mike Tokito (@mtokito) November 1, 2012
Love you Mike Tokito but Nic is not James Harden.
My man Manzell puts this one game in perspective.
Not gonna rain on the parade, but @nicolas88batumhas for years to “live up to” his contact
— Manzell B (@ManzellBeezy) November 1, 2012
2. Damian Lillard. The one characteristic of Dame that I didn’t realized while watching his clips against Portland State basketball is that he is clever. (I stole that from @TimRoperNz). Along with his amazing finishing skills, Dame has great court vision and reacts well to various situations. This display is somewhat unexpected from any rookie—As fans, this has become unexpected of any PG in the red and black. PGOTF meme actually works on Dame. Dame ended up +16 for the night. Crazy comparison stats below but imagine what a rookie LBJ would have done against this defense!
Damian Lillard joins Oscar Robertson and Isiah Thomas as only players in NBA history with at least 20 points and 10 assists in NBA debut.
— Trail Blazers PR (@TrailBlazersPR) November 1, 2012
Damian Lillard is the first NBA player with at least 21 points and nine assists in his first career game since LeBron James on Oct. 29, 2003
— Trail Blazers PR (@TrailBlazersPR) November 1, 2012
3. LaMarcus at the rim. I was concerned with his preseason jump shooting ways but he established the low block early then closed it with varying pick and roll plays with Dame. That will be a fun recurring theme this season.
4. Sasha Pavlovic’s tan. For being in Portland since training camp, Sasha’s uncanny ability to keep a nice glowing tan is impressive. 20,000 people in the Rose Garden and he is the only one rocking a tan.
5. Lakers’ awful defense. BBR showed a 123.7 ORtg and 93.8 pace for the game. This means both team sucked on defense but especially so for the Lakers. Lakers will get torched nightly until Dwight is fully healthy, they reduce their turnovers, get a new offense, find the fountain of youth, and hire a new coach. I like.
Dislikes:
1. Sasha Pavlovic. Yes, I saw that little hot streak he went on but I’m ignoring that because he sucks. How does Sasha, one of the worst Sasha ever in the history of NBA, get playing time ahead of Will Barton and Victor Claver? (Yes, Barton sucked in preseason but he’s at least young.) Our new slogan, “New Team, New Dream” should immediately eliminate Sasha from playing time.
The NBA should ban all players named Sasha #thesucks
— Hemingway Empire (@HemingwayEmpire) November 1, 2012
2. Free Throw Guy and the Blazers affinity to showing him all the time on the broadcast. He created his own Super Free Throw Guy costume, need I say more? (pic courtesy of @jose3030)
3. LaMarcus with 3 Rebs, none offensive. Hopefully this won’t be a trend but it’s already an alarming sign.
4. JJ Hickson. He is not our COTF. JJ was a -7 for the night. We saw better decision making skills from Travis Outlaw.
5. Meyers Leonard’s Impact. He had a rough night but he played hard, scrapped, and did some things. He got schooled multiple times by Dwight but that’s a given. It’s probably not fair to put him on this list but he was being a rookie while Dame looked like a veteran All-Star. The good news is that he didn’t do much worse than JJ.
6. Luke Babbitt’s Play. He didn’t play but he still sucks. While on the bench all night, he still manage to have a plus/minus of -17.
Tweets I liked:
For sure, now that Felton is gone RT @bigsportswriter: This Portland roster is miserably thin.
— Lindsay Mills (@lindsaymills) November 1, 2012
I don’t like fat jokes but I like jokes about Felton.
hahah @ baby giraffe
Meyers Leonard perfecting the tall white 7 foot bball player for Halloween
— Hemingway Empire (@HemingwayEmpire) November 1, 2012
Did I namedrop my own? Yeah, so?
I think my mom got lost getting a drink. She left at the end of the first and still isn’t back
— Tyler Stickler (@TylerStickler) November 1, 2012
I love tweets that have Mom, Lost and Drink in it.
Signs your team might be terrible – you have a Ronnie Price watch.
— Tim Roper (@TimRoperNZ) November 1, 2012
Females that play video games have more sex than females who don’t play video games.
— UberFacts (@UberFacts) November 1, 2012
Tweets I didn’t like:
Oh my. Love you, Kobe. Please don’t ever retire.
— Barbara Titus (@BarbaraTitus) November 1, 2012
How could you Barbara? SO GROSS.
Other things I liked and disliked last night:
1. Harden and Lin. So fun to watch.
2. Unibrow is the real deal
3. Jonas Valanciunas is goooooooood in Toronto while my man T-Rob with a terrible opener for the Kings.
4. No love and playing time for Drummond in Detroit? SMH
5. LOL @ extension for Demar DeRozan. It makes Nic’s contract looked like a steal.
Picture of the Night: Ludacris dressed as the Unibrow for Halloween
What did you guys think about opening night? Actually, I don’t really care.
Hit me up @hemingwayempire @snug_lee
Sorry I can appreciate great basketball when I see it, Snug!!! Blazer groupie!!!!
@BarbaraTitus or is it the old coby picture from the game thread? i think it is.
http://pic.twitter.com/HXieIulF
@prezofdeath This should get the likes record
I love our old alternate red jerseys, and even the retro Reds we wore a few years ago for the teams anniversary. Not a big fan of the font on the new redesign, thoughts?
@PhilNg1 the stripes look like some shitty ribbon decoration
@PhilNg1 I don't like the new jerseys at all. The font, stripe and trim stopping around the shoulders is all horrid. Rip City and red throwbacks were both much better.
@TiMB agreed
@PhilNg1 the red alts are dope. i didn't like at first, now i love
@PhilNg1 I'm just not a fan of the swingman jersey material. I miss the mesh.
That pic of unibrow on bottom left looks like ludacris
@PhilNg1 hahahaha
@PhilNg1 that is luda...
Is lillard really that good of a finisher or was that just luck yesterday? There was a badass and one yesterday that just dropped my jaw at how far he had descended before putting up his shot to avoid a blocker (Dwight?)
@PhilNg1 I was wondering that too. He had that one move over Steve Blake that looked pretty nifty until I remembered Steve Blake sucks. Also the play at the rim to end the half (or was it the 3rd) was not exactly "at the rim".
@ian21 @PhilNg1 3rd. It counted as at the rim but I know what you mean. He was only 2/5 inside last night, so while his two finishes were spectacular it wasn't all easy for him. The Howard swat was asking for trouble and he missed another one which I'd expect him to make eventually. There were good signs though.
@PhilNg1 He's good. Great body control and balance above the rim. He looks natural unlike JayBay that wanted to bowl over everyone
@Snug_Lee that's kinda my thought too....lillard seems focused on making the basket and while bayless was just intent on getting to the line. Lillard seems like he's looking for other opportunities as well when he drives, whereas bayless was just predicable.
I am surprised that there is no mention of ladygaga. I like this
This is a pretty awesome recap. You should do more with all that free time you have.
@TiMB someone had to do it
Tyler's tweet is great. Also FT guy was terrible last night. D12 was draining his FT's right in his stupid face. Time for the guy to give it up.
@ian21 I was legitimately concerned
first
YOU DIDN'T REALIZED HUH
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