Refs Blame Overshawdows DiLeo Outcoaching Nate

(Sorry, it's been awhile but I'm back!!)

Sure the Leon Wood blew a bundle of calls in the end and when the fans started to chant "(Steve) Javie sucks", he wasn't going to help bailout Brandon Roy and the Blazers in the final stretch. Oh, and not the greatest night for Roy, who shot miserably and air-balled the potential game winner in regulation.

Let me scrutinize the coaching matchup between "Mike D'Antoni Jr." Tony DiLeo (also notice the 2 capital letters in both last names) vs. Nate McMuffin... You'd think an experienced coach like McMuffin would have the advantage over an interim coach like DiLeo, but if you haven't been following McMuffin or DiLeo, you wouldn't know it...

In the 1st quarter when the game was still even, Nate subs Outlaw into the game for... wait for it... Batum... as always... NOT noticing that Steve Blake was getting torched by Andre Miller. An average Joe (like myself) would know better that if you're going to sub Outlaw in, sub him in for Blake and move Batum over to guard Miller.... Sure Blake had a good run in the 3rd quarter, but pretty much stunk it up in the other periods. BUT you might not have noticed because commentator Mike Barrett's lips are stucked to Blake's you know what...

Once again, how the hell does McMuffin keep under-utilizing Batum with 16 minutes... Outlaw was terrible last night but I guess our genius coach didn't notice it.

Rudy was on fire in the 4th and I still don't know why Nate subbed him out w/3:29 to go; let alone he subbed Outlaw in for Fernandez instead of Batum...

Once again, and I guess no surprise, McMuffin doesn't know a how to create matchups/sub players in/keep a player in that is on fire but does everything he can to try to lose games that we should win/or win close games vs. bad teams that should have been easy blowouts...

Oh, and Nate's flip-flopping of backup PG's is just another mind-boggling situation. If you're a playoff caliber team or contender, shouldn't you have your rotation's down? AND by doing this, you give both Sergio and J-Bay the lack of confidence to succeed (i.e. J-Bay doesn't go to his strengths and plays like McMuffin)... BUT I think I figured it out: Nate McMuffin can't coach PG play because he himself was a underwhelming PG...

Blazers Escape with A Win Again No Thanks to Nate

Again, this game should have been a loss as Nate did almost anything in his power to try to lose the game. The fact that McMuffin got outcoached by Kevin McHale itself is sad and pathetic.

First off, Nicolas Batum was the man tonight. The only person not noticing this was Coach McMuffin. Did Nate not see his boxscore tonight of 12 points on 4-7 shooting, 6 boards, and 3 dimes in ONLY a mere 23 minutes. Can you imagine if he played 30+ minutes tonight?! AND were was Batum in the 4th quarter McMuffin? Why wasn't Batum in the game when Ryan Gomes hit a three with 10 seconds left? I would have to assume Mike Rice or somebody with some BB IQ told McMuffin to put Nic back in on the final play with 6.7 seconds left. Boy, Foye's shot looked damn good, but hit the back iron. Just like the Knicks game, no justice for the better coach...

And the next dilemma from the game was: Is it Sergio or Bayless? Sort of like when Mike Martz of the St. Louis Rams were deciding if they should start a struggling Kurt Warner or a rising Mark Bulger (boy he has fallen and Warner is the Phoenix that has risen). BUT in this situation, which is once again, mind-boggling and hurts my head trying to decipher it, McMuffin is casting both Sergio and J-Bay to question their games IMO. They have to be thinking why am I not TRUELY the guy...

Normally, Sergio will hit one shot, but once he makes a silly turnover or throws up an ugly shot, that will be Nate's cue to sub back Blake in. The ugly flat shot was the case tonight.

Bayless, on the other hand, is not playing towards his strengths. McMuffin is trying to have him play the way McMuffin wants and not the ways J-Bay is best at. Turnovers and some bad no-calls from the refs tonight pretty much doomed Bayless tonight but like Sergio, he got one nice driving layup...

I said it earlier, no justice for the better coach even if his name is Kevin McHale.

Blazers Surprise Me and the Spurs

Looks like the Blazers remembered what happened in San Antonio earlier this week and took this one personally. Not only did the Blazers beat this Spurs, they embarrassed them. AND with Tim Duncan coming back, this makes it even more shocking and thus makes my head spin and hurt.

The Blazers almost led almost wire to wire. Although I am a big fan of Greg Popovich's coaching, I thought he made a mistake early that probably cost them this game. Normally, Greg Popovich would start Bruce Bowen and have his first-class defense harass Roy. Roy normally struggles against the Spurs and Bowen is the main catalyst for that. Bowen is one of the dirtiest and most hated players in the NBA, or at least, IMO. BUT, Popovich now starts Roger Mason over Bowen. Mason did have a great game, but because he had to check B-Roy, Brandon was on FIYAHH early and never cooled off. Five minutes into the game, the Spurs are already trailing double digits and Popovich calls timeout to bring in Bowen, but the Spurs never recovered and drifted further away.

Aldridge ate up (Fabricio) Oberto Jerky and Matt Bonner. LA's and Roy's point totals combined in the first half was just about equivalent to all of the Spurs scoring!!

I still can't figure this one out. Mind-boggling. But early in the day when the have the Pistons pounding the Celtics in Boston (and on a Sunday, which their record on Sundays have been abysmal), the Suns beating the Lakers, and the Pacers coming back to beat the Nuggets, it shouldn't have been that surprising to me as this truly was Upset Sunday.