Outcoached... Once Again

A depleted San Antonio Spurs team going into a back-to-back missing two of their "Big 3" players of the great Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, the Blazers had their best shot in two decades to escape the Alamo Dome, errr, I mean the AT&T Center with a dubya... And with the Blazers depth, that should have made the task more reasonable to accomplish....



BUT... their is a thing called an "x-factor" that I factor in and that my blog followers is COACHING! In one corner, the Spurs arguably have the best coach in the game today in 4-time champion Greg Popovich. And in the Blazer's corner, you probably have the MOST OVERRATED coach today in Nate McMillan, errr, I mean McMuffin. A man before last season had one great season and that was his CONTRACT season in Seattle where he miraculously and somehow led the Sonics into the 2nd round of the Playoffs.

McMuffin said the game plan was to stop Tony Parker (uh... duh when Duncan and Ginobili are missing), yet he couldn't figure out how. Parker only finished with 39 points on 17 of 27 FGs (63%), 9 dimes, and 5 boards. Parker played last night too, but that didn't stop him from dissecting Nate's incompetent scheme. Nate left Blake and Sergio to guard Parker for most of the game in whom the All-Star blew by them both with relative ease.

Oh, did I mention Blake went an incredible 0-9 tonight and only managed 1 assist, which was worthy of 24 minutes according to Nate...

As the 4th quarter ticked down, Nate ended up in desperation and tried putting Travis Outlaw on Parker. Every Blazer fan watching this game on TV was probably yelling at their TVs to put Batum back in... Unfortunately, we have a coach that is a blithering idiot.

The best options IMO for stopping or at least slowing Parker down were probably Nic Batum and Bayless. I recall the few times that the Frenchman guarded his fellow Frenchman, Nic was effective in slowing Tony down... BUT then there's Nate's motto of "If it works, ignore it" went into effect as Batum would get his commonly (1st quarter) 3rd quarter sub out and not return in the (2nd qtr) 4th quarter. For the 2nd night in a row, Batum was very efficient in 8 points on 3-7 FGs (2-3 from distance) and of course, the intangibles on the defense, yet McMuffin somehow inexplicably thought he was only worthy of 16 minutes, which was the least amount of minutes for any Blazer that did not have a DNP by his name...

J-bay, on the other hand, didn't see a second on the floor...

I still am mind-boggled in what Kevin Pritchard sees in Mr. Sonic...

What the Blake Was That?!

Edited: 8:20 PM on 12/15/02 (scroll down to final paragraph)



Or more like What the (Bleep) was that?! Steve Blake, a CAREER 77% FT shooter shoots five FT at the end of the 4th quarter and goes 1 for 5 and the Clippers are able to force a tie and end of beating the Blazers. If you can't make your FT's, you don't deserve to win the game. My beef is still with McMuffin'... When you have Rudy Fernandez who is about 93% who had already missed his "one", why not Rudy?

And once again, what about the bad timeout management by McMuffin'. You even had Mike Rice saying on TV commentary that he'd save a timeout because you know what you're going to run and you might need it later... Well, once again, McMuffin' ignores the thought of saving timeouts and out of the timeout, the Blazers run an iso-Roy... Really?! You needed a timeout for that?!

And the fact that the Clips had 8 seconds to get a final shot off where Mike Dunleavy was dumb enough to milk the whole clock so that if the Clips were to miss, they wouldn't get a second chance. Barron Davis was probably 10 feet away from the three point line milking the clock and the Blazers had ALL the time in the world to foul and make the Clips do IMO the more improbable thing of making the first FT and then having to miss the second and then get the rebound and score... Doesn't that sound a lot harder than LETTING B-Diddy having a nice look at a three McMuffin'?
It was a double overtime classic game indeed of two most god-awful coaches of today in the NBA...

Ladies and gentlemen: Mike "Dunleaky" and Nate "McMuffin"!!

Sergio Wanting to Be Traded... Say It Ain't So!!

Down with Coach McMuffin' and his stubborn and retarded tactics!!



A nice piece by Jason Quick of the Oregonian and apparently, Blazer fans responding to Mr. Quick's work also disagree with Nate's decision of underusing Sergio (What a surprise. Kevin Pritchard, I love what you've done with the team, but dammit!! You have to remove McMuffin'. Look at the potential of this team and realize if anyone can f*** this up, it it Nate).

Other than Rudy Fernandez, Sergio Rodriguez is the most flashy, razzle-dazzle player on the team. Oh, and the fact that when Sergio and Rudy play together, we get some wicked alley-opp reverse layups and dunks. Sure, Sergio is turnover prone, but usually when he is in on offense, he is the major reason why we get open shots, more points in the paint, and of course the flare spectacular passes of the Spain sensation.

Other than Brandon Roy's 1.9 seconds of the Houston OT, Roy has been less than the All-Star form he was last year. Could it be because he is playing out of position more at the Three (aka small forward) or PG?

Steve Blake at PG?? Sure he'd make a great backup. I don't even know why Steve resigned with Portland in the first place. He was the backup/3rd PG under McMuffin' originally but now you want to start and play Blake 30+ minutes?! We are going nowhere with Blake (or Nate for that matter).

Ideally, I'd love for Sergio to start and Jerryd Bayless to backup. Kevin Pritchard has three months to make the anticipating blockbuster deal that Blazer Nation pondering about. Make the right one KP!! Right now, I wish the league was allowed to trade coaches... Again, I've said it before, McMuffin' for D'Antoni!! You see how much better the New York Knicks are this season?!

Coach Nate McMuffin': Mark my words and kiss my @$$! If Sergio Rodriguez is traded because of your bullheaded, two-cent incompetent brain of underusing him every game, I guarantee you'll regret it and he will be the next Jose Calderon!!

Batum with the Kaboom!!

I didn't have the stomach to comment about the Laker game, but this game vs. the Spurs was definitely a nice treat on Halloween. And again, it supported my theory to start anyone but Zach Randolph Jr. (aka Travis Outlaw) in the starting lineup.My quote/status on facebook before the Laker game:

Joey is WTF Coach McMuffin'?! your gonna start Zach Randolph Jr aka Outlaw over a team player in Batum?! Sportsbook it now ppl, Lakers will cover! 4:14pm
- 1 Comment

Any what was Nate thinking not evening play Nicolas Batum in the Laker game until the final 3 minutes of that game?!

I have to be thinking that Nate then listens to the local sports radio show (95.5 The Game) in which many people call or answer in poll question that they'd like to have Batum or Rudy as the starter instead of Outlaw... BUT what does McMuffin do again last night... that's right, he starts Outlaw. But with this probably in his mind, he gives Batum a chance and hotdamn, this kid Batum is GOOD!! Long length, stifling defense, team player that shares the ball, strong attacks to the hoops and range from long distance!! This Frenchman did it all last night!!

And Coach McMuffin will look like a genius for playing him last night BUT here is something that will get overlooked because the Blazers won... It looked like the only thing scary about the Spurs was Greg Popovich's creepy, white beard when the Blazers had built a 12 point lead or so in the 4th quarter but when it got cut to 8 or so, Nate subs Batum and puts back in ball hog Travis Outlaw... WTF McMuffin?! And from there on, the Spurs go on a hellacious run with Tony Parker having his way with Steve Blake (WTF was Blake doing in there? Every play, Parker penetrated him for a layup or a dishout to an open three point swingman. Remember Batum's defense on him before the end of the 1st half Nate... I guess not)... So the lead now becomes a range of "down 1 to up one" and when Nate finally realizes Batum (or probably Dean Denompolis, the assistant coach), he puts back Batum in the final 35 seconds or so of the game...

It ended well last night, but people please... See through this Nate McMuffin garbage!! And remember how he declined his extension which you thought was a terrible enigma... It's not. REMEMBER, this guy bolted from Seattle FOR THE MONEY to come to Portland and REMEMBER, this guy really only had ONE winning season of coaching which was the last year of his Seattle tenure and has done anything since (last year was the players).

Blazers vs. Hawks 1/21/08

Just got done watching the replay of the Blazers and Hawks game (damn the 11am start time) and wowzers!! What a game!! I don't know where to start but I must say my man Sergio Rodriguez is magnifico!! From driving layups to burying threes to pump fakes to razzle-dazzle no look passes, Sergio was firing on all cylinders... He only played 16 mins (I guess Nate is still a non-believer of Sergio) but made the most of his time going 6-7 from the field (with the only shot he missed was a shot being rejected by Josh Smith), 2-2 from the line, 2-2 from downtown, dished out 4 assists and had 2 rebounds... Without his play tonight, there was no way the Blazers would have come back from an early 11 point deficit.

How big has Travis Outlaw been on this road trip?! With the exception of that missed dunk "T-Law" aka "Trout" aka "TO" has been automatic with his outside sharpshooting! The game winner was pretty sick in which he was guarded by Superman-superhuman defender Josh Smith and with a hand in his face, Outlaw sunk the long deuce game-winning shot in OT.

This game could have easily been lost thanks to poor coaching of Nate McMillan, the so-called Coach of the Month in December... How can somebody play someone scorching hot as Sergio for only 16 minutes and not let him play in the OT at all?! Instead, Nate puts in a struggling Steve Blake in the 4th quarter, who air-balled a three pointer immediately after entering the game... Blake was completely removed from the OT for shooting guard that played the point Jarrett Jack, who by no means, was on efficient tonight as Sergio...

If the Blazers were to have lost this game, I'm sure the forums would be all over Nate for this... Even though the Blazers won, he still should be drilled for his incompetence of leaving Sergio out... I mean, did you see the Blazers blow a 6 point lead in the 4th with him out and not to mention, that we almost lost this game in OT because of Nate's mind-boggling decision... Need more proof... Here were the lines of guards of the night:

* PG Steve Blake: 7 points in 32 minutes going 3-8 FGs with 2 rebounds and 7 dimes. Overall +/- in the game was +5
* SG/PG B-Roy: 18 points in almost 41 minutes on 8-22 FGs with 2 rebounds and 3 dimes. Overall +/- in the game was -10
* SG/PG Jarrett Jack: 4 points in almost 17 mins on 2-2 FGs with rebound and 1 assist. Overall +/- was -5
* PG Sergio Rodriguez: 16 points in 16 minutes on 6-7 shooting; with 2 rebounds and 4 dimes. Overall +/- was +14

Another footnote that shouldn't be ignored is Nate leaving in a struggling LaMarcus Aldridge instead of a hot Channing Frye... Aldridge is one of my favorite Blazers, but when you're shooting abysmaly and getting outhussled on the glass, you need to benched in the crunch time. The main reason why Frye got to play the OT was because the same Atlanta crew that messed up Shaq's personal foul count (got fined $50,000 for that) and couldn't figure out how many foul's Aldridge had.

Aldridge/Comparsion:
* Aldridge: 8 points in 28 minutes on 3-12 FGs with 5 rebounds and 0 dimes/steals/blocks. Overall +/- in the game was -12
* Frye: 9 points in 25 mins on 3-8 FGs, with 7 rebounds, and 1 dime, steal, and block a piece. Overall +/- in the game was +10

And what about Joel Przybilla's almost no show in OT... He was subbed into the OT to rebound a possible FT miss but then was never put back into the OT... It felt like Atlanta had 20 offensive rebounds in the OT which second chance opportunities kept them in the game... Why would Nate put in his best defender and rebounder to limit their 2nd chances?! Mind-boggling isn't it yet somehow, this team young, inexperienced team is good enough to overshadow McMillan's questionable decisions...

Joel was effective in the limited 18 minutes he got... Ended with 7 pts on 2-2 FGs, 3-3 FTs with 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block (felt like more since he alters so many shots).

On to New Orleans...
(Sidenote: made a new blog: trailbloggingblazerfan.blogspot.com where I will now move all my Blazer blogs to from now on after today)