Trail Blogging Blazer Fan

Hedo Turkoglu Giving "Eff You" to Toronto... Kevin Pritchard Dodges Another Bullet...

2010-05-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've had a good long piece of writing/rant probably because of me being lazy and that I usually summarize my stuff just on Twiiter, but I thought this deserved my two cents...

Blazer fans (and Kevin Pritchard) have to be ecstatic that they don't have to worry about Hedo Turkoglu and his shenanigans for the remaining 4 year contract with the Toronto Raptors. "Turkeysoup" as I have previously nicknamed him, is quoted with these remarks from ESPN, "When the circumstances turned against me, I lost my enthusiasm for this city. My lawyers have talked to the front office recently. Honestly, I do not want to go back to Toronto. My lawyers talked to Mr. [Bryan] Colangelo and I hope that they will come up with a solution soon." The larger than life turkey must be delusional if he hasn't thought the Raptors haven't made any pitches to Turkeysoup. Who wants an aging, soft, declining big man that has already given up on his team, had his best season 2 years ago, and is due $43.8 million in four years?! Not even Chris Wallace of the Griz is that moronic to take that on...

Video of that assclown Hedo Turkoglu being an asshole to once of the Raptor's play-by-play commentators:

Hedo quote continued, "I promised him that whether he starts me or not, I will do my best on the court. However, if I had a more temperamental personality, I would have left the team. Yet, I did exactly the opposite. I did my best. I told him that I have no problems with him. I am not a young player, so it's not a big deal for me to come off the bench." Of course you don't care if you come off the bench or not... You've given up!! Get the big contract and then take a dinosaur size turkey dump...

Blazer fan's lost in this debacle of course was Kevin Pritchard offering this jackass a 5 years and $55 million contract before Turkoglu HIMSELF bolted last minute to the Raptors thankfully. Blazer fans don't seem to get why Pritchard's head is on the chopping block but I don't blame management for making KP sweat...

First of his downfall was that he drafted Oden over Durant, but I guess he gets a pass for that because "everyone" would have done that except me and Bill Simmons.

Second, he overpaid soft forward, I LaMarcus Aldridge 5 years for $65 million!! With the salary cap coming down after this season, there is a chance that Aldridge could make more money than franchise player Brandon Roy!! WTF?! You don't pay your second best player more than your best player AND you don't pay somebody that much money for being such a soft player. Look at the Orlando Magic... They won't win a championship because they paid a max contract to their 4th best player in Rashad Lewis (#1 Howard, who is still somewhat soft, #2 Nelson #3 Carter), and he is the definition of soft!!

Third, he retained Coach McMillan and probably will after this bizarre season of injuries which alone will save his job. McMuffin is just like Coach Brown... great talent on team that can win tons of game but held back in reality because of the coach... When will Blazer management realize this??

And finally, and luckily for KP, this Turkeysoup curve ball. Technically, the saying is "three strikes and your out..." This is #4... Don't be surprised if Kevin Pritchard gets the boot. I liked what he did at the beginning getting rid of Zach Randolph, trading for Roy and Aldridge in the 2006 draft, and trading for Rudy Fernandez (until this year... dammit Rudy!!)... Your only good as your last impressions and so far, the only thing Pritchard has nailed these last 2 seasons was the Camby trade... Thank you KP!! It was fun while it lasted...

5 Things I Learned or that were Reinforced from Gambling

2010-01-11T20:36:00.000-08:00

The next time you go to Vegas to blow your money at the casinos, here are some things that I learned or things that were reinforced that I was taught before:

1) Never sit at a table that has an (uptight) Asian dealer. I'm not a racist and I am saying a lot here because I am Chinese. This was the case for my dad and I on numerous occassions at either Blackjack tables or Pai Gow Poker tables. Somebody that just deals the cards and doesn't mutter a word for the entire session is a serious downer and for some reason, it rubs on you and the cards you get as well. Pay close attention to this next time. If you stay too long, there will be a hole in your wallet. This also applies to the fat bitch that probably is stuck up because she has been on shift too long and hasn't eaten in 3 hours...

2) In handicapping a sports game, when in doubt, take the points. I avoided the Ravens/Pats Wildcard game because I was "in doubt". The Patriots were undefeated at home in the reg. season and hadn't lost a home playoff game in over 30 yrs, but w/Wes Welker out, would that be their downfall... For the Ravens, they had previously lost a game @ New England in the reg. season and shot themselves in the foot in numerous games this season (i.e. missed FG vs. Vikings, the 2 Bengals game, the game vs. the Steelers to name some). So I figured the best thing was to stay away even though after weighing all these decisions out, I thought the Ravens would have been the best bet...

3) If a line moves too much before a game, you should bet the other way. I knew this and put this to use on the Packers/Cards game. The original line for this game was Cards (-3). By game time, the line was Cards (+2.5) and was as high as (+3). Although this game almost gave me an ulcer as it looked like the Cards would choke this game away, the rule of going the other way by the Vegas gods played out and Vegas and I raked in the money.

4) A team with a major injury in the NBA or NFL that plays their next game without their superstar always covers or wins as an underdog its next game. I learned this about a couple years ago when I stumbled upon the then new South Point Casino. I happened to see this juicy line between the Sacramento Kings (then one of the worst teams in the league) hosting a pretty good Orlando Magic team. The line started out at Magic (-4) in the early morning. I did my homework and found out that not only would their best player Kevin Martin would be sitting out of this game after playing the previous, but so was Fransisco Garcia (arguably their 2nd best player at the time). I jumped on the Magic in a nanosecond when I heard about this and was lucky enough (or so I thought) to get the Magic at -4. As for the Tip 3 above, the line moved too much as by game time, it was Magic -8. Easy money right... The Kings grab an almost 30 point lead in the 1st half and although the Magic come back, they fall short. Everybody was pissed off but I noticed one young kid that looked no older than me celebrating with glee. I approached him and asked him, "So you got the points right" and he said, "No are you crazy, I had the Moneyline!!" Holy shit!! I thought he was plain retarded or drunk and got lucky so to make sure he wasn't, I asked for his logic on making this bet and ever since I heard this, I've paid attention to this advice and you know what, it's probably the best way to make easy money. This year alone, I can recall the Mavs beating the Cavs after Dirk got his teeth knocked out in the game before; Brandon Roy missing a game and then the Blazers playing as a (+13) dog @ San Antonio and winning at a place that they rarely win at; Carmelo missing a game vs. the Cavs as well and the Nuggets pulling it out to name a few.

I also found a pro handicapper this time when I was at the Venetian and told him this very intriguing fact that I heard and he justified it. Teams play hard after a superstar gets injured. Other teams think they can walk over them and don't play hard. People get the misconception that oh, Team A has no shot without all-star against good Team B so the public jumps on Team B's bandwagon making the line jump for Team B, when in essence, this is an easy bet on Team A. I spent the longest typing about this one. What does that tell you? Try it next time your in Vegas!

5) Bill Simmons makes his weekly football picks, but for some reason, he not very accurate with them until the Championship rounds. Just look at his picks this week: Bengals win, Cowboys win BUT Eagles cover, Patriots, and Packers... 0 for 4!!

Friendly Hello

2009-11-11T10:19:00.001-08:00

Hey all,

Haven't been blogging much. The Twitter bug has bitten me and am an avid "Tweet" there (Facebook as well) so if you'd like to follow me on Twitter or add me on Facebook, please do. :-)

Belated He-don't Thoughts

2009-07-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the late post but it was the 4th of July Weekend and I had other obligations to fulfill.

Hedo "Turkeysoup" not coming to the Blazers is immaculate news, BUT because of Kevin Pritchard's dubious decision making in pursuing this life-size clucking Turkey, the Blazers will missed out on key free agents steals of (gulp) Ron Artest and Trevor Ariza. I hate to tell you so Blazer fans, but your boy KP "muffed" the ball on this one and if you don't look at just all the great things he has done by ignoring some of the unholy things he has done (like most Blazer fans), well than you are a stubborn, blind, BUT die-hard Blazer fan! There's nothing wrong with being a fan and spitting out the truth and the truth here is that KP has now earned his third strike. That's right and here they are:

* Not firing Coach Muff
* Failing to pull the trigger on Devin Harris in exchange for Blake and Outlaw
* Overrating and overvaluing He-don't to miss out on bargain FA like (gulp-gulp) Artest and Ariza.

AND keep this in mind: The Blazers finished 4th in the Western Conference last year (tied w/Nuggets for 2nd but lost tiebreaker)... With teams like the Lakers and the Spurs improving and with a healthy Utah and San Antonio team this year, don't assume the Blazers will be contending for a title this coming year. I easily can put the Lakers, Cavs, Spurs, Celtics, Jazz, and maybe the Nuggets all ahead of the Blazers right now w/no improvements to the team. Until some more changes are made, that's the bald face truth...

I have a Bad Feeling But Please Just Say No to the Turk...

2009-06-29T22:30:00.000-07:00

If you have been following me on Twitter, then you probably already know this...

That's right... Free Agency season will be open and my stomach is churning because I have the notion that Kevin Pritchard will overspend on the likes of Turkish overrated geiser Hedo Turkoglu aka "Turkeysoup". This guy peaked two years ago and I hope that ridiculous, lucky, UNREAL bankshot three from the straight on that he hit against us isn't on the Blazers' minds in making this decision. Did you see this guy choke in the NBA Finals? Normally an 80%+ FT shooter pulling a Nick Anderson right in front of the "Ghost of June Past." So let's pay this guy $10 million a year and be the real turkeys to match the Turk...

Or better yet, please Joe Dumars aka Dum(b)-ars(e), beat the Blazers like you did in the 1990 Finals by paying Turkeysoup Rashard Lewis max money that nobody in their sane mind would match for the team's third best player...

Bill Simmon's Thoughts on Coach Muff...

2009-05-05T16:32:00.000-07:00

The great Bill Simmons agrees with yours truly about Coach Muff. Previously, Simmons gave way TOO MUCH credit to Muff on his podcasts saying he was probably a Top 5 Coach today, but after reading this and getting the National Exposure about the Blazers, he realized the truth and wrote about it in his latest column:

It's amazing how many coaches miss chances to make superior teams bend to them. Like Nate McMillan ignoring his biggest advantage in Round 1 (going small against Houston and forcing Yao to come out to guard LaMarcus Aldridge) and stupidly playing right into Houston's hands... Someone needs to explain how it's 2009 and yet coaching and officiating are getting worse. I can't figure it out!

How much more proof does KP and the Blazer Nation need that Muff is not the solution??

The End...

2009-05-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the late post but I just got access to a computer after a hellacious weekend in Boardman, Oregon...

Nothing else needs to be said that I've posted in the previous games below vs. Rockets but if the Blazers want to become future contenders, they need to do a few things:
(1) NO MORE TRAVIS OUTLAW!!
(2) Upgrade at PG
(3) Fire Coach McMuff!!

Kevin Pritchard has dropped the ball a couple of times, and I must remove him from my GM of the year list for these reasons:

(*) KP drafted Greg Oden over Kevin Durant. See my post here achieve here.
(*) KP declined a trade 2 seasons ago that would have packaged Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw out of Portland (2 of my least favorite Blazers) for Devin Harris...
(*) KP could have fired Coach McMuff 2 seasons ago after a 5-12 start and a fight started off during practice that involved Jarrett Jack... Instead, he trades Jack and Jack has his best season yet...

Blazers Somehow Pull Away in the 4th

2009-04-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

It wasn't pretty last night. Every time the Blazers would build a double digit lead, it wouldn't last a single possession and the Rockets would battle back and go on a run almost immediately after.

The game was tied going into the 4th and Houston would eventually score the 1st four points in the 4th and the Blazers didn't get their first points of the final quarter until the 8:30 mark. This game definitely felt like it was going to be the last of the season...

Somehow, a switch just went off and what quickly was a 4 point deficit (Houston's biggest lead of the game) became quickly a Blazer double digit lead again!! Talk about a seesaw battle!! Roy, who had been playing bad all night and had flu-like symptoms started to get it going w/drives and a very difficult 3 falling down w/Battier in his face to give the Blazers a nice nine point lead.

To my surprise Steve Blake was efficient tonight. The few times he penetrated to the hoop seemed to discombobulate Houston's defense (Where was that in the previous games Coach Muff??) and his huge fake and driving layup over Yao in the 4th sealed the deal.

Another surprise was seeing Rudy be the first man off the bench and he also started in the 2nd half. Rudy was instant offense when he came in. Rudy did everything tonight. He found the open man, grabbed 4 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks!! It only took Coach Muff 86 games to figure out that Rudy > Outlaw (Speaking of 86, Coach Muff should be 86'ed)!!

Speaking of Outlaw, Coach Muff continued to (over) play Outlaw in 27 minutes. Although he hit a huge three in the 4th, he put up another stinker. Please tell me why this clown is still playing a majority of minutes. He took 13 shots and only made 4 of them... I still can figure out Muff's rationale on this...

Feel like Vomitting

2009-04-26T20:53:00.000-07:00

First off, sorry for the delay. I was without a computer until tonight and was able to get back home to catch Game 4.

A sidenote before I start, if you haven't noticed by now, I have given Coach Nate McMillan's nickname a nickname from now on of Muff. It's not right to the (McDonald's) McMuffin. Personally, I love the fast food. Coach, on the other hand, I can't stand his coaching tactics. Nothing personal... AND, if football, "muff" is defined as dropping a punt/kickoff and in "Coach Muff's" case, he is dropping the ball as a coach...

Game 3 thoughts 1st... Steve Blake took a page out of Travis Outlaw's book in bonehead shooting in jacking up a Level 12 degree difficulty shot from a scale of 1 to 10 down by 3 IN TRANSITION without making a pass WITH a hand in his face WITH 13 seconds left!! The previous play before, my man Rudy hit a fade from the corner WITH a hand in his face and was really the main catalyst for the Blazers being in the game. Glad Jeff Van Gundy was on commentary as he called Blake's knucklehead play out (which probably Coach Muff did not as he only scrutinizes bench players)...

Oh, speaking of Muff, what's up with taking Rudy out in the 4th. If you were watching the game on ESPN, you saw a camera shot of Rudy exploding thinking to himself, "Fuck, we're going to lose this game because my coaching is a moron and just took out the hottest player on the team (in that game)". It took a Roy foul out to get him back in the offense...

On to Game 4: Muff leaves Blake in the 4th and produces a donuts across the board. And if you haven't learned by now, Blake is probably the worst transition PG in the game. A team under 25 that averages the least amount of fast break points?! That's unreal. Partially, that's on Muff too for not preaching it because if he did, then Bayless would be starting. When the Blazers had a chance to tie or lead in the 4th where Steve "Choker" Blake was running in transition, he pulls up and gets stripped unsurprisingly...

The Battle of two overrated coaches in Rick "I Always Collapse in the Playoffs" Adelman" vs. Coach Muff in who's coach is worse was epic (in Games 2 and 4), but in Muff's case, he makes Adelman look like Einstein (Did people not notice when the Rockets where up 2 with 41 seconds left that they should have shot the ball w/28 to 30 seconds left so they would get one last look in case the Blazers scored instead of shooting w/24 seconds left?!). Don't forget the Blazers down 3 with about 9 seconds left and Nate draws up a fade Outlaw 3 IMMEDIATELY: Shades of Steve Blake's beautiful disaster the previous game...

Alright there goes my stomach and my head, I can't type anymore, but I leave you with this: It's not to late to start getting long "The Notorious J.V.G. and JBAY next season and sell (short) Coach Muff and Blake!!

The Great Escape

2009-04-21T22:19:00.000-07:00

Wow sort of a scary ending... Could have lost too w/Rudy getting bailed out and then Brooks would have probably hit another 3 to win (hit 2 in a row prior). McMuffin had two 20 second timeouts there and didn't use any... And I normally criticize him for using stupid early timeouts... This is a first... Mind-boggling isn't it?! This qualifies as "The Great Escape" but, we go into houston w/NO momentum.

It was a close game throughout and what I thought was a good momentum changer for the 'Zers in the 2nd quarter was Nate using The Twin Tower lineup of "The Vanilla Gorilla" Joel Przybilla and Greg Oden. I was actually going to give Coach Muff credit for making that move BUT Blazer sideline reporter Rebecca Haarlow reported that Nate accidentally found the lineup because some Blazers had foul trouble... I should have known!!

Off course, it wouldn't last long as Oden would either commit another knucklehead foul or Joel would get called for some bogus foul by Joey Crawford and his stooges...

Houston was able to catch up after this BUT then Portland started to "run 'n gun" and took control at the end of the 1st half to build some momentum into the 2nd half. It got us easy looks at the basket which was uncommon compared to all the easy and/or open looks Houston had. BUT I knew better this time. Mike Rice even made a remark that Houston was 30th in fast breaks and doesn't like to run... The 'Zers average age is under 25... Should McMuffin be running this team to death, especially Yao who has a bad footsy (What do you the readers think we should do and what did Nate do? See my post below about Game 1)? I even texted my friend James that I wouldn't be surprised if Muff abandoned the run 'n gun completely... Nate did and Houston was able to build a nice lead to start the 3rd but the game would be deadlocked at 72 going into the 4th...

Roy and Aldridge (minus LaMarcus' 3rd quarter) were spectacular and if they have to do this the rest of the series, I don't see Portland making it past the 6th game. I mean, Roy put up an incredible 42 vs. the normally stellar defense of Shane Battier and Ron Artest...

Although Outlaw hit a big shot and had a nice steal that led to a dunk in the 4th, I don't like Muff's decision of putting Travis in over Rudy and/or Batum. Prior to the 4th, Outlaw had shot 1-6 FG... Who in their right mind puts someone in clutch 4th quarter minutes who has played piss-poor on offense and lacks defense?! Oh, wait, that's Nate's MO... Yet somehow, no matter how abysmal and unfathomable the decision McMuffin makes, he is lucky enough with this deep and talented Blazer team to win just like Mike DUDleavy did... Ladies and Gentlemen, "The 2nd Coming of DUDleavy!"

Ben Gordon

2009-04-21T07:58:00.001-07:00

Here was my Facebook/Twitter status during the final minutes of Game 2 of the Bulls/Celts series: Ben Mothereffin' Gordon!! Looks like the Blazers might overpay him next season once he leaves Chicago...

Bingo Bango Bongo Van Gundy!!

2009-04-20T10:21:00.001-07:00

Before Game 1 of the Blazers/Rockets series, DA MAN Jeff Van Gundy predicted that Houston would BLOW OUT the Blazers... Even I thought that was a bold statement as Portland was going into the playoffs on a nice winning streak and held a 34-7 record with those 7 loses being close and contested games...

Apparently, "The Notorious J.V.G." knew what I knew. The Blazers don't match up well with Houston as Houston won the season series 2-1 and the Portland one win was the miracle heave from 35 feet from Roy. The Blazers haven't won a game in Houston in decades and normally games at Houston are blowout dubya's for the Rockets while games at Portland, games are tighter.

AND then, there is my "x-factor" of coaching. McMuffin got it ALL wrong!! NOT Putting Bayless in (at all until garbage time) to try to stop Aaron Brooks was a ghastly mistake. I mean, Steve Blake was abused like Danny Bonaduce. I mean, Brooks ONLY finished with 27 points, 7 assists, and 4 rebounds in his first Playoff game start... Oh, and on a sidenote, I am glad ESPN commentary touched on the Oregon Alum Brooks destroying Steve Blake, which you wouldn't get from Blazer play-by-play suckup Mike Barrett (but I still love you Mike Rice!!).

Yao Ming was going into the playoffs with a ton of mileage on him and a bad foot, YET Coach Muff would not run him to death and let him have his way on offense. I mean, Yao went through the Olympic experience in his home country and played INJURED (Wait, didn't Coach Muff see this 1st hand from the U.S.A. bench?), AND then played 77 games this season which is like a blue moon because he is injury prone and misses at least 2 dozen games a season. Normally, Yao is pulling his shorts, gasping for air at the 8 minute mark in the 1st quarter, but Yao would rest his injury comfortably only playing 24 minutes. Oh, he ONLY scored 24 points on 9-9 FGs and grabbed 9 boards to go as well... Well done Coach McMuffin!!

Refs Blame Overshawdows DiLeo Outcoaching Nate

2009-03-24T14:07:00.000-07:00

(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

2009-03-08T11:25:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-01T21:16:00.000-08:00

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.

Outcoached... Once Again

2009-02-25T22:26:00.000-08:00

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...

Free Shavlik!!

2009-02-25T07:57:00.001-08:00

Shavlik Randolph has played two straight games and I must say, I've been impressed with him. He even got some "non-garbage" time against a top Western Conference team Houston Rockets (only b/c Aldridge picked up 2 quick fouls and Frye who picked up a quicker 3 fouls).

Against the Clips on Sunday, Shav played 8 minutes in garbage time, but managed to score 9 points on 4-8 FGs (1-1 from distance) and grabbed 7 boards. Pretty efficient don't you think. If he plays 10 minutes, I think he gets a double-double in David Lee like manner.

In his short stint vs. the Rockets, Randolph played a mere 4 minutes. He hit one FT and grabbed 3 rebounds and a floor burn from diving for a loose ball. I love the energy and hustle this guy brings. At times, I wonder why this guy doesn't get minutes over Frye or Outlaw.

I also remember Mike Barrett saying that Shavlik was once a guy who started for a 76er team that made the playoffs. Shavlik is no fluke. If a particular player coming off the bench is struggling, I think Randolph would be a great energy sub-guy off the bench. So McMuffin, if your boy Outlaw stinks it up, deattach from him and give Shav the opportunity dammit!!

Phoenix Fires Terry Porter!!

2009-02-15T22:36:00.000-08:00

To borrow a line from Marv Albert, "YESSSSSSSS!! And it Counts"

Terry Porter totally ruined this the Suns. Basically the same roster as the previous year and Porter's change of style disgruntled his players and thus, they gave up on him. Sort of like the Clippers giving up on Mike "Dudleavy" for the past two + years (Only they aren't smart enough to fire their Coach/GM).

If you don't know by now, go through my achieves to see the story of Porter and my father. This will probably put a dagger in Porter's hope to ever become a head coach again as he couldn't manage a team with 3 All-Stars. I mean seriously, how can somebody coach a team and have Steve Nash and Amare Stoudamire UNDERPERFORM and QUIT on you?? One word comes to mind now Porter... KARMA!!

Rudy Fernandez Gets the Cold Shoulder from Dunk Judges

2009-02-15T10:01:00.000-08:00

Our man Rudy Fernandez totally got the shaft by those Phoenix Suns alum where I have a conspiracy theory that their owner Sarver told them to "readjust" his scores. Remember, Sarver is the guy that made a HUGE mistake (one of many as you see their team self-destructing as I type this) of selling Rudy to the Blazers for a mere $3 million...

There are also conspiracies of the contest being rigged for a "Krypto"Nate Robinson and a "Superman" Dwight Howard final like in the movie... but only this time, the Kryptonite... I mean KryptoNate would come up on top.

Seriously, Dwight Howard's first two dunks should NOT have gotten him 50's and Nate Robinson's dunk off Wilson Chandler's back was unspectacular that should have gotten him 6's or 7's...

Say whatever conspiracy you want, but let me say this... Tom Chambers, Dan Ma-jer-le (still don't know why it's pronounced "Marley"), Kevin Johnson, Cedric Ceballos (and your see-through blindfold, and Larry Nance... You guys can kiss my ass for that piss-poor shitty judging of yours!!

I'm on Twitter Now Too

2009-02-14T23:50:00.000-08:00

Updates of what the hell I'm doing or thinking at Twitter.com. My name is here.

DUUUUUURAAANNNTT!!

2009-02-14T12:09:00.000-08:00

Remember when Kevin Pritchard said Kevin Durant is going to be an assassin? Well, not only is Durant sniping teams for 25+ point a game along with 7 rebounds. While Greg Oden, the person drafted in front of him, is racking up the injuries, KD is racking up the points and with the assistance of All-Star Weekend showcasing Durant in not only the Rookie/Sophomore game, but also the H.O.R.S.E. competition tonight (Since his team is atrociously bad, they don't get any National TV exposure, BUT they are young and showing signs of the Blazers from a few years ago). Oh, did I mention, he was the MVP of the Rook/Soph game with a record 46 points on 17 of 25 FGs (4-8 from distance) and grabbed 7 boards and 4 dimes...

Greg Oden, on the other hand, sat out the game because of yet another injury...

Remember, before the 2007 draft, I was one of the few that said we should take Durant

And keep this in mind for those of you that think Greg Oden was still the right choice for Portland... I've been saying it since the beginning of 2009, "In 5 years, Kevin Durant will be the 2nd best player in the league behind LeBron James... With Greg Oden's injury and slow progress thus far, where do you think he'll be ranked at?"

Knicks Deserved Win vs. Blazers but Choke

2009-02-08T23:11:00.001-08:00

After falling behind by as many as 17 during midway through the 3rd quarter, the New York Knicks made a dramatic comeback that made it look effortlessly thanks to the piss-poor coaching of Nate McMuffin's zone defense by the Knicks's from long distance by Chris Duhon, Nate Robinson, and yes, Tim Thomas. Thomas was luckily guarded by Travis Outlaw who alone gave up at least 3 three pointers to Thomas and had at least 2 more open looks that wouldn't fall. New York was able to turn the 17 point deficit into a lead in the 3rd but would settle for a tie going into the 4th.

Momentum had turned and the Knicks would build a 13 point lead in the 4th thanks to once again Nate's continuation of the zone defense on the shooters mentioned above. Luckily for McMuffin', the Knicks started to miss WIDE OPEN shots, which left the door open for the Blazers and somehow, managed to pull off the buzzer beater eek out the win.

The Knicks definitely deserve this game as they once had a 30 point turn around as D'Antoni outcoached Nate, but I guess I'll take this (undeserving) win that'll keep us in 5th place.

B-Roy Gives Cheikh Samb a Facial

2009-01-27T22:06:00.000-08:00

Smile Cheikh Samb... You've been posterized by Brandon Roy!!

Cavs Game Thoughts

2009-01-22T20:36:00.000-08:00

You can look at once again poor free throw shooting in the 1st half, or Coach McMuffin' poor decision to continue to play zone on sharpshooters Mo Williams and Wally Z, but the thing that stuck out the most for me was the piss-poor job the officials did last night. How many non-calls/favorable calls did Monty Mccutchen and Derrick Stafford give LeBron and the Cavs? And how many non-calls/bad calls did they whistle on the Blazers (i.e. Joel Przybilla's charge taken on LeBron with a no call and then out of the set LBJ hits a three, or any of Jerryd Bayless' fouls)?

I immediately thought that the refs were trying to CTS (Cover the Spread for all you non Sportsbook handicappers). The Cavs were a only giving 1.5 (originally from 1.0 in the mourning) and who wouldn't be all over that? If I were in Vegas, I would have taken the Cavs. One has to wonder if Monty Mccutchen or Derrick Stafford had something in this game as well as I CERTAINLY thought so after watching the Blazers comeback to take a temporary lead in the 4th... Rewatch the 4th if you can stomach it and tell me that this game was rigged...

UNREAL Comeback vs. Detroit

2009-01-07T22:08:00.000-08:00

I have to admit, the Blazers deserved to lose the game tonight vs. Detroit. And it was all because of Nate McMuffin'. McMuffin' did everything possible in the 4th to TRY to lose that game. I'm not joking...

A VERY stellar Jerryd Bayless tonight and to not see him in the final 8 minutes or so in the game was unexplainable. Did Nate not see the FIRE and PASSION J-Bay displayed out there? Did Nate not see us turn a 14 point deficit into a lead with J-Bay or is he blind or that moronic?

The fact that McMuffin' tried to sub in an uninspiring Greg Oden during the final minutes of the game with a 2 point lead that eventually turned into a 3 point deficit before resubbing Joel Przybilla back in (probably because somebody in the front row yelled that to him because Nate doesn't normally like to resub Joel for some idiotic reason)...

AND, let's just ignore Travis Outlaw's game winning bucket... If Travis wasn't playing in the 4th quarter at all, the Blazers run away with this one. Just look at the dozen (or more) points he surrendered to Tayshaun Prince and the numerous rebounds he failed to box-out or got out-hustled on... McMuffin', didn't Nicolas Batum's performance vs. Lakers earn him those 4th quarter minutes you gave to Outlaw?? Not to mention Batum is probably the best forward poistion defender on the team that would have a great chance at stopping Prince...

BUT because the Blazers won, the media will praise McMuffin' on the comeback win when all he did was make the game more exciting to (ignorant) fans along with giving me an ulcer and gray hairs, and this will also cover up Outlaw's horrific flaws on anything but his act of taking insanely difficult shots...

More of Kevin Garnett's Dirty Antics

2008-12-31T13:07:00.000-08:00

Remember the days in the WWE "Attitude" era where evil boss Vince McMahon got the reserved "ass-hole" chant from the fans... We'll the Boston Celtics' Kevin Garnett is doing is best to receive those infamous chants (well deserved may I add), but instead, he gets the predictable, but I guess never too old "Garnett sucks" chant. Courteously from Basketbawful, here are just a couple of KG's asshole-like tactics:

(1) After getting a facial from Travis Outlaw, KG tries to give Outlaw a facial with his elbow. Watch closely on the replay at the 1:02 mark

(2) Two elbow attempts at LaMarcus Aldridge and then to have the audacity to put your filthy hands up and then do the hands out and say, "What did I do wrong" look after the refs copped out and gave a double technical (in which both the T's should have gone to KG)...

Nate's Greatest Offense Scheme: 6 on 5!!

2008-12-30T22:09:00.000-08:00

You may be laughing now about that call/play/outcome at the end of the first half, but if you look at it, it played a vital role for the entire game.

Now, you all know that its suppose to be 5 on 5. Once the refs realized (after Kevin Garnett pointed that out) that the Blazers had 6 players on the court after an Outlaw dunk, the refs huddled together and decided to give the Blazers a technical foul BUT they also counted the bucket. Shouldn't they have waived off the bucket and then gave Boston the technical free throw??

That's a 3-point swing and with 22 seconds left in the game, Paul Pierce connected on a driving runner and was fouled and hit the FT to make the score 87-86 Portland. Subtract two from Portland and Boston has the one point lead and who knows what happens at the end (probably Nate would have found some way to lose)...

All in all, I really can't complain. The Blazers won and Nate really did one hell of a job tonight. I especially like the twin tower lineup of Oden and Przybilla together (although I would of liked to see more of that in the 4th)...

Bill Simmons on Mike D'Antoni and Don't Forget to Vote 4 Rudy!!

2008-12-30T11:47:00.000-08:00

For the 1st time in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, the NBA fans will get to vote the for the final entrant into the contest and Portland's Rudy Fernandez is one of three players on the ballot. Watch the clip below and then vote for Rudy!!

Bill Simmons has a great article up on Mike D'Antoni's "Seven seconds or less" offense relating to that of past PG Steve Nash and current PG Chris Duhon with the Knicks. A very good read making me once again wonder what the Blazers would have been like with this genius using Sergio and Rudy who are built for his system rather than McMuffin's slow and (at times) sloppy pace... Just look at all the Knicks from last season and you couldn't find a reliable fantasy basketball player other than Zach Randolph... Now D'Antoni has people like David Lee, Chris Duhon, Nate Robinson, Wilson Chandler, and even Quentin Richardson putting WAY above average numbers than they are accustomed to and they are no longer a joke and fun to watch.

Mavericks Receive Christmas Gift from McMuffin

2008-12-26T08:28:00.000-08:00

A Christmas downer for the Blazers and yours truly an fans had to suffer through one of the worst coaching forth quarters this year. That's right. Nate McMuffin did his best to try to bring his worst coaching game to the table. For Dallas fans, it was joy.

The Blazers started off the 4th quarter with great momentum as Rudy just had a monster tip in to conclude the 3rd. Sergio Rodriguez was in the game who had a brilliant first half of 9 points on 4-4 shooting with just one turnover... Well, just 2 minutes into the quarter with Portland not scoring, McMuffin subs out Rodriguez for Blake and Sergio finished with the exact numbers as he did from the line above... Maverick's coach Rick Carlisle had to be thinking "It must be a Christmas gift because no coach can be that dumb." Well, let me introduce you more to McMuffin...

Also, early in the 4th after a "McMuffin-signature-panic-timeout", for some reason, he found it wise to sub Przybilla for Oden... During the commercial I was telling my dad and texting my bud Jeff that if Nate subs Oden back in, we'd have a greater chance of losing... Back from break, there is Oden and I'm thinking, "Oh SHIT"!!
Oden starts off the 1st position with a travel and I'm thinking, yup, somehow, Portland is going to lose this game all thanks to its beloved ignorant coach. The signs don't be telling me otherwise as (gulp) Brandon Bass embarrasses Oden on another play for a huge dunk and that right there told me that yup, the Blazers were going to lose this game.

And to top it off, Dallas backup PG J.J. Barea was an incredible 4-13 from the field but was a MAJOR catalyst for the Mavs in the 4th. He 5'9" guard finished with 8 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 0 turnovers. 8 rebounds from somebody 5'9"!? I guess that stat alone should get a team a win, which it did. And it proved that you can have a bench finish games if they're playing well (cough-cough) Sergio and Joel (the main reason you beat Denver the game before) McMuffin...

Way to put a damper on this Christmas to Blazer fans Nate...

The Power of the White Guys

2008-12-24T09:12:00.000-08:00

Without Rudy's spark at the end of the first quarter, without Sergio's creativity to drive and dish the ball, AND without "Vanilla Gorilla" Joel Przybilla's (10 and 19) hustle, defense, rebounding, and dear I say it free throw shooting (no thanks to Nate McMuFFin) thanks to Greg Oden being foul prone, the Blazers were able to avenge their loss to the Nuggets last night.

Aldridge was gravy again tonight going for 20 or more two nights in a row despite a humongous performance from Nene (17 and 13), 20 off the bench from Linas Kleiza (thanks to Travis Outlaw's piss-poor defense on him and luckily, Kleiza missed an open one after McMuffin subbed him in with less than 4 minutes to go), the ever so solid Chauncey Billups.

Oh and for those of you that attended the game and were happy that Travis Outlaw did NOT run out the clock so the Blazers would have a chance at scoring 100 for the Chalupas, that might not necessary be a good thing. (No, I'm not trying to save billionaire Paul Allen some pocket change). Whenever a team runs up the score against the opponent, you better believe that they will remember this, and that they will probably not only beat you the next time we play them, but they most likely will blow you out...

So thanks a lot Travis Outlaw for the Chalupas... Not only does your 8 out of 10 times you dribble once to the right and shoot an awful fade from 20 feet kill us, but so does your 8 out of 10 times you don't pass the ball once you pass half court. You may have the Basketball IQ of a McNugget, but you made 20,000 people happy with a free $1.50 from Taco Bell, but you can almost guarantee a LOSS on March 5 when the Blazers next play the Nuggets...

And for those keeping track...

McMillan and McMuffin... Outlaw and McNugget... = Same Basketball IQ

"All-Star Numbers" for 52!!

2008-12-19T16:45:00.000-08:00

Greg Oden may wear number 52, but teammate and NOW (hopefully people around the nation realize) Brandon Roy is a superstar!!

Phoenix and their coward and awful coach Terry Porter had this thing in the bag leading by 12 points but Roy was unstoppable and everything he touched seemed to be magic. Draining threes, driving over three defenders for a layup, EVERYTHING!!

Roy has scored 30+ points in the last 4 out of 5 games now and last I checked, he was 10th in All-Star voting for Western Conference guards while somebody of the likes of Allen Iverson, who has stunk up the Piston, is 2nd in the Eastern Conference... No justice... People, get online and votes yours asses off for Brandon Roy!!

P.S. STOP voting for a washed-up Allen Iverson, who is getting outplayed by the likes of not only Roy, but in the Eastern Conference, by the likes of Dwayne Wade, Devin Harris, Joe Johnson, Rajon Rondo, and my man, Jose CALDERON!

Nate's Pitiful Excuse to John Hollinger

2008-12-16T06:51:00.001-08:00

McMuffin gives his lame-ass excuse for the Clipper debacle from ESPN's John Hollinger:

I talked to McMillan about the decision afterward, and he said he didn't believe in fouling in that situation. Among other things, he pointed out that the only way you can lose is by fouling, because the player can get a four-point play.

Um... did he not see the final score???

(Repost of last paragraph from last entry):

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"!!

What the Blake Was That?!

2008-12-15T08:59:00.000-08:00

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"!!

The Taste of McMuffin... Bitter!!

2008-12-09T21:32:00.000-08:00

Feels like a Bill Simmons's like diary... cue Adam Carolla... (Dear, Online diary...),

Remember Mike Dunleavy's timeout in the 2000 Western Conference Finals vs. the Lakers after the Blazers built a 15 or 17 point lead in the 4th quarter after Phil Jackson refused to call a timeout going down as the "Worst timeout called in Blazer history..." You all know what happened and I'll leave it at that... Well, number "# 2" happened tonight:

With a 5 point lead with 53 seconds left DRIBBLING past halfcourt, McMuffin' calls a 20 second timeout leaving the Blazers with one 20 left... Now, I can maybe understand a timeout if you're behind a bucket or two, or even up one, two, or three points.... but 5. (I notice McMuffin' loves to do these timeouts which is pure stupid and also, his calling 20 sec. timeouts after one FT so you can't advance the ball to halfcourt). I immediately told my dad that that was a terrible timeout for those reasons I mentioned above the parenthesis. Then, when the Blazers had to call a second timeout, I knew we had a great possibility of losing the game... Then, cue Mike Rice on you want to have one of these timeouts down the stretch in case of a f*** up and then a really Kevin Pritchard mind-boggled face... And what happens off the timeout... you guessed it... a turnover that turned into 3 points for Orlando to cut the lead to 2 with 29 seconds left and NOW with no timeouts, we get off a corner prayer three by Roy with a hand in his face that airballs and now Oralndo calls timeout... I tell my dad that YES, we are gonna lose this game now and low and behold... Turkoglu hits the 3 to give Orlando the one point win...

Not even with all the bloggers and forums out there that have expressed their (smart) opinions of playing Joel in the 4th quarter (McMuffin' failed to realize this until after mid season last year), to playing Sergio more, starting Batum or Rudy over Travis at the start of the season, whatever it may be... I still can't get the bitter taste of McMuffin' out of my mouth after this one...

KG vs. Jose Calderon

2008-12-06T10:50:00.000-08:00

Another reason to hate (the most underrated asshole in the NBA) Kevin Garnett and love (the most underrated PG today) JOSE CALDERON!! I'll tell you what, if this was Rasheed Wallace taunting, not only would he have been ejected in a nanosecond, but probably fined and suspended as well...

Brandon Roy and "Four Horsemen" Blazing a Trail Late in New York

2008-12-03T07:31:00.000-08:00

The Blazers stepped into "The Mecca" of NBA stadiums aka Madison Square Garden last night and things didn't look stellar early. The open shots weren't falling, Greg Oden put of a stinker and missed a couple of easy dunks, the Knicks were getting to the FT line w/ease, Chris Duhon was once again a super beast with 23 points and 13 dimes, and the Blazers would somehow only find themselves only down by as much as 9.

Brandon Roy would be a catalyst getting to the rim on numerous occasions to get easy layups versus New York's second worst rated defense. Roy finished with 23-6-5 (and 3 steals).

Roy had help in the second half by what I call the "Four Horseman" aka The Four White Guy (Team) consisting of Steve Blake, RUUUUUUUUUDDDYYY Fernanadez, "Spanish Chocolate" SUUUUURGIO Rodriguez, and "The Vanilla Gorilla" "Przyilla" Joel Przybilla. That's right!! This is a rare thing as I can only recall 2 other teams in my era (1983 to the present). Now you can compare us to the Jazz of the 1990s (John Stockton, Jeff Hornacek, Mark Eaton, and Tom Chambers) and the late 90s to the Kings of the early 2000s (Bibby, Peja, Brad Miller, and "Floppy D" Vlade Divac)!!

Rudy got the 4th quarter started with a few threes including a sick stepback three against the shot clock. Sergio was finding the open man and finished with 4 assists (hence the bad FG%), and hit a huge three in the 4th. Rudy and Sergio had the best "Plus/Minus" ratio of +14!!

Blake hit some timely shots when the Blazers trailed that never ballooned NY's lead to double diggits...

AND then there's Joel!! Joel got the crunch time minutes over an ineffective Oden. Joel was doing everything from rebounding and getting a number of tip in points. And on defense, when we needed a stop against a high powered D'Antoni offense, he was the man!! A great article from ESPN's Henry Abbott about Mr. Przybilla's performance on the right corner of the page. Joel finished with eight points, 14 rebounds and two HUGE blocks.

Next stop, D.C!

"Little Sheed" vs. "Big Sheed"

2008-12-01T09:52:00.000-08:00

As during the Blazers broadcast, Mike Rice and Mike Barrett referred to LaMarcus Aldridge as the up and coming star of the potential of Rasheed Wallace, whom the Blazers played last night. They are mirror images of each other. Both about the same height with long arms. Both have good outside games, which makes these too unique since big men aren't usually skilled from distance. And what's great about their outside game is that their long arms when they release make it very hard for opponents to block, yet alone defend. Aldrdige was on fire!! He has rediscovered his outside shot that past 3 games after an abysmal stretch. Because of the catalyst of LaMarcus's HUGE game of 27 points and dominance over my man Sheed, the Blazers moved into 1st place of the NW Division and are off to their best start since the 01-02 season!! Man, that seems like ages ago doesn't Blazer fans?

As of Right Now, Joel > Oden

2008-11-25T23:24:00.000-08:00

An interesting piece that could be found here from ESPN. about the effectiveness of both that includes the "+/- Ratio". Looks like I wasn't the only one to have noticed this in last night's game vs. the Kings as I was screaming for McMuffin' to put Joel back in...

The season is young, but right now, Joel is the man as it's not just last night's game that Joel has been "The Savior" at the center position...

If It Works, Don't Continue It

2008-11-23T11:58:00.000-08:00

That's the Nate McMuffin' strategy of losing. When you have Nicolas Batum knocking down threes, batting down and stealing passes, his stifling defense (+5 on the +/- Ratio), and Joel Przybilla blocking shots, stealing balls, doing all things defensive (+8) vs. the Suns and everybody else is a massive "-" on the +/- Ratio, and they play around 25 minutes a game and kept you in the game while playing and inexplicably leave them out of the 4th quarter, that is the signature of Nate McMuffin' (sigh sigh)...

Totally Pissed Off by McMuffin'

2008-11-18T22:09:00.000-08:00

Not only did Don Nelson totally outcoach Nate in tonight's game, but McMuffin' did something completely mind-boggling and unforgivable. Sure you can blame the refs for their piss-poor job officiating especially near the end when Anthony Morrow clearly raped Rudy Fernandez, BUT you CANNOT ignore this fact: With 11 seconds left, trailing by 3 with NO TIMEOUTS LEFT, Nate diagnoses a really poor and discombobulated 2 POINT PLAY(was it a quick 2 and foul play)??!! It doesn't take rocket science, a college education, or even 3rd grade education to figure this out goddammit!!

The Blazers had more talent and depth compared to the Warriors, yet we lost by the "x-factor"... coaching... That's right. The so-called Coach of the Year favorite McMuffin'... For all those NBA analysts that predicted that this award should have gone to him last season or favored him to win this season... Watch this game and kiss my ass!!

Video of the Day

2008-11-14T13:56:00.001-08:00

Courteously from The Main's Domain. A person known as "tuff fish" plays Mario while playing online poker (I believe on a seperate monitor as you'll hear him cuss out not only Party Poker, but him constantly dying in Mario).

I think I almost died laughing from this so be forewarned about that and the language... Enjoy!!

Soooaring with SUUURGIO & RUUUUUUDDDYYY!!!

2008-11-12T20:09:00.000-08:00

First off, my cousin Victor had the quote of the night in regard to Terry Porter's number being retired:

We shouldn't retire Porter's number simply because Oden, Roy, Aldridge and Rudy will be better!

That's all I need to say about the Miami game tonight. Reigning triples, slashing alley-opp lob, driving "spin-cycle" rainbow, and clutch 4th quarter!! Interview with the lovely Rebbecca Haarlow after words, all you needed to hear from him was his 1st remarks: "I don't care about my points. I care about the win." Bueno Mr. Fernandez.

I was happy to see SUUURGIO get some extendo minutes in the 4th and for the second game in a row (and second of the season), it worked and are 2-0 now w/"Spanish Chocolate". Rodriguez had a nice, clutch drive, spin and baby jumper to keep the Blazer's lead sufficient. The assists were there again tonight for Sergio and he kept his turnovers to a minimum.

I liked Nate's approach early by pounding the undersized Heat team to oblivion in the first quarter. Miami had no answer as we racked up the offensive rebounds and points in the paint, which is a obscurity normally because we're a jump shooting team, but I wish we'd be more of a inside team in the paint. Nate seems oblivious as the team went away from what worked in the first quarter and Miami was able to catch up and like Orlando, was able to take the lead into the 4th quarter, despite being behind for most of the game. Fortunately, the same outcome of a Blazer victory repeated itself thanks to large part of "Spanish Fly" (SUUURGIO and RUUUUUUDDDYYY)!!

Terry Porter's Number to be Retired... My Disgust with "The Real Dirty-Thirty"..

2008-11-11T23:48:00.000-08:00

A sad day for Blazer history as it was announced today that they will retire slimeball Terry Porter. I have previously written why and just sent a letter to Oregonian writer and 95.5 The Game's personality of the Bald Face Truth: John Canzano about my thoughts of Mr. Porter that also includes the situation between him and my father:

Terry Porter Comments and Dark Story...
Joey Wong
to JohnCanzano

show details 11:48 PM (5 minutes ago)

Canzano!!

Caught your podcast and wanted to comment about the Terry Porter (and Bob Gross) # 30 retirement. I'm not going to get into depth of the obvious stuff you talked about with there already being too many undeserving numbers being retired, Porter's numbers not being phenomenal enough...

I want to let you know the OTHER SIDE of Terry Porter: Back in the early 1990s, Terry Porter brought his new Mercedes to my father's auto body shop called New Dimension Body & Paint. He wanted to get his moldings and bumper painted to match the rest of the body of the car (about an $1,800 job). Terry was recommended to me by an acquaintance of mine named Eddie, who was a car salesman.

According to Porter, part of the deal for the new Mercedes was for Eddie to pay for the paint job of Terry's car, but Eddie never informed my dad of that... Porter than said that my dad (name So Hin) should ask Eddie to pay for the job and he INSURED my dad that if Eddie would not pay for it, then he would come back and pay for it. My father called Eddie and Eddie said to have Porter pay for it as he wasn't aware of that stipulation. When my dad tried to call Porter back, he would not return my dad's calls and messages. My father even got Kevin Duckworth (Duck, Jerome, and Damon were all customers of ours. The three were genuine people to us with Duck and Jerome being repeat customers and Duck being the most closest to my father) to leave messages to Porter about the situation and still to this day, 16 or 17 years later, not a damn thing. What is $1,800 to somebody of Porter's caliber??

Mr. Canzano, I am a big fan of your radio show and column and respect what you do. The next time you get a chance to interview Mr. Porter (or anyone from 95.5 The Game), I'd like you to bring this situation up to him and see how he reacts to this. He has no excuses!

The only numbers I recognize in the rafters of retired numbers are Walton and Drexler, and it bugs me that there are so many undeserving numbers hanging... However, the one that would bug me the most would be the familiarity of Terry Porter...

Radio friendly as you say, "jackass" is a word that I would best associate with Terry Porter.

Kind Regards,

--
Joey Wong
http://trailbloggingblazerfan.blogspot.com/
503-975-2623

Oh So Sweet on Orlando!!

2008-11-10T20:14:00.000-08:00

Woah! What a refreshing way to start a long road trip for the young Blazer team. I have to admit that I didn't think we had a chance against a hot Orlando Magic team who have won four straight coming into tonight.

As the last two road games vs. the Suns and Jazz, the Blazers were able to build a nice lead early but then fade somewhere in the middle to the end. As eerie as this game was as the momentum shifted to the Magic as they headed into the final quarter with the lead, the Blazers wouldn't let the fourth quarter happen tonight.

Shutting down Dwight Howard to 6 points and 7 rebounds in the second half after
his first half one-man wrecking crew performance of domination of drawing fouls on Joel Pryzbilla in a total of nine minutes (although 3 were chicken poo calls) and scoring 23 points and hauling in 12 rebounds. Good-grief!! That's a phenomenal full game line, let alone a 1st half!!

I hate to admit this, but I liked what Coach McMillan (yes, he deserve his name to be called right after tonight) did. For once, he stuck with the bench team that helped pull away in the fourth quarter adhering from the normality of taking them out after the first couple minutes even if things were working. I also liked that Nate tried a lineup that included Roy, Rudy, Sergio at the same time, even if it was only for a minute. I don't like the fact that Nate likes to slow things down when you're the second youngest team in the NBA and you could easily have an advantage of running the elder teams around to death. A team can only stay young for so long as injuries, trades, etc happen so I think it is best that he experiment with it while he can.

Next up, Miami! If we can beat Orlando, which I didn't think could happen, I am definitely more optimistic about the Heat game. Keep Blazin'!!

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

2008-11-08T15:52:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-11-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

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).

The Celtics Cut Darius Miles!!

2008-10-20T15:03:00.000-07:00

The title says it all as the C's kicked Miles to the curb and our cap space is spared... for now... Thanks again to Danny Ainge for taking out our garbage (cough-cough Sebastian Telfair and Theo Ratliff)... I guess he realized he didn't want the jinx and plague that is known as Darius Miles like the Blazers, Cavaliers, and Clippers once did (he still has failed to make a single playoff with any team)... So I guess that's why we didn't make the playoffs the past 3 seasons and now were "D-Miles" away from Darius Miles!!

Rumor Mill on Blazer's Starting Five

2008-10-17T11:39:00.001-07:00

My cousin has a friend and reliable source (who shall remain annonymous) from Blazersedge.com that the starting lineup come regular season for the Blazers will be as this:

C: Oden
PF: Aldridge
SF: Roy
SG: RUUUUUUDDDYYY!!
PG: Blake

Well, you could think my cousin is blowing gas from his ass with this but the last few times he's given me a headups on who the Blazers were drafting before it happened, the prediction came true. Even going back to the preminission of the dreaded "Sebass" Sebastian Telfair nightmared true so with his track record, I think I'll take his word for it...

Ideally, I'd love to see Sergio Rodriguez used more especially with his keen chemistry with his Spainard teammate Rudy so they can run the "Spanish Fly" spectacle of ally-opps and insane dishes. Move out of the way Phoenix and Golden State, because its "The GO" (Greg Oden nickname) time on the "Spanish Fly"!!

Get in My Belly!!

2008-10-13T16:38:00.000-07:00

Curteousy of Basketbawful, the Houston Rockets' mascots (what happened to Turbo Man?) has a "fetish" for devouring cheerleaders:

Preseason Opener: RudyMania!!! Oh Yeah!!

2008-10-08T14:46:00.000-07:00

The basketball world was anticipating the long awaited debut of Greg Oden, but I was even more antsy for one RUUUUUUUUUDDDYYY Fernandez!! (Rudy was drafted 2 years ago, but choose to stay in Spain one more year and you could say, it was very beneficial), especially after Rudy's phenomenal performance against the U.S. during the Gold Medal match.

Although Rudy only had a mere 6 points and 5 assists, he was the spark-plug and the catalyst for the team last night vs. the Kings. It seemed like everything he did should have made SportsCenter's Top 10 Highlights itself!! Don't believe me... Check the highlights here: http://www.katu.com/sports/30608489.html?video=YHI&t=a

Also, I am glad Sergio got some good PT. His shots were going down and was able to manage a great assist to turnover ration (7-2). He was flashy with the ally-opps to Rudy (see highlight link above) and drained the majority of his shots, esp. the long ball.

All I have to say from this is I hope Nate uses a Sergio-Rudy combo when the regular season comes around...

RudyMania!!

2008-09-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

A nice article about the arrival of Spanish basketball great Rudy Fernandez to Portland and what it could mean to the team.

I agree that he is (younger) "the second-coming" of Manu Ginobili (said this a few times before) and that although Kevin Pritchard and Blazer Nation are strong believers in him, Nate isn't 100% behind Rudy... Just interviewed by radio station 95.5 The Game, when asked about his role by John Conzano, he said that he'd let decide on that. If Nate learned anything at the Olympics is that Rudy is ready (and Martell Webster is not)! How many times will Webster be an Olympian or go against the likes of Kobe and LeBron and have monster games like Rudy did...

Video of Rudy's arrival to Portland:

Rudy Fernandez

R.I.P. Kevin Duckworth

2008-08-26T08:34:00.001-07:00

Friend of the family and of the Blazer community, the late great Kevin Duckworth has passed on August 25, 2008. I will always remember meeting you at my father's shop and treasure the picture I got to take with you back when I was seven or eight years old. Thanks for being the standup, gentle giant that you were to not only us, but the whole Oregon community. You will be missed.

Gold Medal Match US vs. Spain - RUUUUUUDDYY!!

2008-08-25T10:41:00.001-07:00

The US Men's basketball tem received a scare and me almost an ulcer in their champion match with Pau Gasol and RUUUUUUDDYY Fernandez's Spain team. Rudy almost single-handedly brought Spain back but, foul trouble plagued him throughout the game and when he fouled out on a questionable foul call on a three point shot by Kobe that turned into a 4-point play and the dagger, I knew Spain had no chance (22 points in 17 minutes... still don't know why he didn't start the game). Not only did Rudy demonstrate his great touch from the floor whether it be the long ball or slashing, he was "Team Spain". Imagine if he wasn't in foul trouble... Does Spain go on to win the Gold?! The highlight of the whole Olympic FIBA had to be his facial dunk on normally potent defender Dwight "D" Howard (just wanted to type "Dwight D" for Dwight D Eisenhower for Al Bundy repeating his name constantly on the Name the President game on Married with Children)

If Blazer coach and assistant coach of the Redeem Team Nate McMillan had his doubts before of Rudy Fernandez (remember Rudy's interview about questioning to play for the Blazers becasue of Nate), he better think hard (oh wait, not a hard decision) of not only playing RUUUUUUDDYY, but putting him at the starting lineup as the SF or SG (moving Roy to PG if that's the case). One thing is for sure (or should be if Coach Muffin can figure this easy thing out...) Step aside Martell Webster!! Look out NBA for another "Spanish Chocalate" name Rudy Fernandez!!

This Week in Rage aka Gold Medal Madness: Olympics Addition

2008-08-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

Don't get me wrong from the title. I love the Summer Olympics and the 29th Olympia from Beijing didn't disappoint. A plethora of standouts from Michael Phelps' 8 gold medals, to the insane speed of Usain "Lightning" Bolt, to men's volleyball success (3gold and 1 silver), to the "redemption" of the US Men's b-ball team (Oh, BTW, future Blazer Rudy Fernandez definitely proved that he is no fluke and should be the future starting SF or SG for the Blazers), to Nastia Luiken's all around gold in gymnastics and Shawn Johnson's gold on the beam, and of course, Bela Karolyi going on a rant about the Chinese gymnist being underage and being overscored to the US, I could go on and on...

However, there are still some things that I am perplexed by at the Olmpics and thought I'd give my Adam Carolla attempt to (try to) complain about some of the things that you probably wouldn't ever think about complaining.

* Men receiving flowers to go along with their medal (from another man)

If competing in diving or gymnastics is considered "feminine" (Although I don't think that), then what do you call the gentlemen that present flowers to the men that win a medal? I mean seriously, all you really need is the medal. Right after the medal presentations and photos from the swimming events that I saw Michael Phelps dominate, he would either throw his flowers into the stands or give them to his mom or one of his sisters. Also, post medal ceremonies... I don't ever recall seeing anybody keeping the Goddam flowers to showcase! You know how some athletes like to bite on their medals... Well, instead of giving out the flowers, how about them something else to bite on like food, especially after a marathon or decatholon event!!

* Removal of Perfect 10 score in Gymnastics along with no gold medal ties (and questionable judging favoring China's underaged athletes)

The removal of the Perfect 10 score was chaotic and perplexing enough adding more conflict to the Gymnastics portion of the Olympics to go along with the unfair scoring toward the US and favoritism toward China. All around women's gymnist Gold medalist Nastia Liuken probably was screwed out of 2 other gold medals (Yes, her beam performance was better than Shawn Johnson), most noticable, the uneven bar (her best event). Not only was she unfairly underscored, but fellow 12-year-old Chinawoman named "He" of all things, was overscored after a so-so landing in which it was equivalent to Luiken's socre but becasue of this bull shit tie breaker, Luiken would receive the silver lining and "He" the tainted gold.

What wrong is there in not awarding two gold medals here or going into a Goddam sudden death?! In a sport where there are no ties like basketball, tennis, or soccer, there are overtime periods until there is a winner. But in swimming or running, there are medal ties for the unoccassionl ties. What the F is up with this idea of no tie or no tie breaker?! The committee that came up with this preposterous theory can eat my shorts and kiss my ass!!

On a sidenote, a great thing coming out of this was more "Belavision" with Bela Karoyli and his classic rants on the "underaged" Chinese gymnist and the "generous" scoring for the Chinese and unfavorable scores toward the US.

Sidenote: his cheerleading from watching Nastia Liuken was classic and so was Bob Costas' face of fear of a crazy gymnist coach. More Bela Karolyi, less Tim Dagget...

* Athletes eating at McDonalds everyday or eating like Sumos and having 8-pack-stomachs

I know Michael Phelps and other swimmers along with the US Men's b-ball team didn't want to touch the Chinese delacacies for the two weeks they were there... Well, first off, when I go out of state/vacation, the last thing I want to do is eat at a local fast food place let alone Mickey-Ds. I am also not a big fan of eating the same thing over for numerous days, although you can't go wrong with the Egg-McMuffin for breakfast! But listen, how is the Olympian experience a real experience eating at McDonalds everyday? That could be a person's experience here in the states that will have his or her arteries clogged by age 40. Grab a squid, chicken feat, scorpion, something that you'll remember goddammit - thank you

Feel free to leave your comments and vote for the gold medal rant of the three!!

Back Posting: 2008-2009 Schedule Out Today: Brutality

2008-08-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

Well, not to put a downer on the hype that the Blazers are receiving, but the first five games (Let alone the first 2 months) of the 2008-2009 schedule are what you could call "murder's row". Here are those five games:

* @ Lakers
* vs. Spurs
* @ Suns
* @ Jazz
* vs. Rockets

I wouldn't be surprised if the Blazers went 0 - 5 during this stretch. The Lakers and Jazz are almost unbeatable at home, although the Blazers did manage to steal one from Utah last season (one of only 3 teams to do so). The Spurs and Rockets seem to always dominate the Blazers as the we seem to never match up good against teams with superb defenses.

Well, the only good I can see from this is if that the Blazers where to somehow start 5 - 12 like last season or numerous games under .500 like the underachieving Bulls did this last season, and with Coach Nate McMillan rejecting an extension from last month, I wonder if we just let the OVERRATED coach go (prays to the basketball gods of Nate's departure)... I'm a big fan of Jeff Van Gundy and his commentary, but I would love it even more if he were the next Portland Trail Blazer coach.

Rudy Fernandez Questioning Coming to Portland...

2008-03-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

Interview transcript at Oregon Live: http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2008/03/lost_in_translation_did_rudy_c.html

Of course, he fears that Nate will mess up the situation and not properly use him (I don't blame him for thinking this)...

Word is Kevin Pritchard is going to fly to Spain and talk to Rudy after the NCAA Tournament and this raises an intriguing question:

What happens if Rudy says he isn't coming unless McMuffin was to be removed... I say we def. take Rudy and we better hope Phoenix really collapses and fires D'Antoni b/c his system would really favor Rudy and Sergio AND we'd finally be able to use Aldridge's speed and agility like they do w/Amare to run down the court and score in 5 seconds. And Oden should be a younger Shaq that Phoenix lacked on on defense from their previous playoff pushes with a damn good backup in Pryzbilla...

Of course if, D'Antoni isn't available, I still wouldn't mind a change at the helm... Jeff Van Gundy... there is no reason for you to be not coaching (Although your commentary is grade A stuff and would miss you if you left) and you would be da' man the Blazers could use!!

Something to think up Blazer fans and Blazer management...

Cavs Game

2008-03-10T21:26:00.001-07:00

Another blown double digit lead resulting in a loss for the Blazers...

Apparently, Nate didn't make the adjustments in the 2nd half... Numerous times the Blazers used too much of the shot clock which resulted in terrible shot selection. Mike Barret made a great comment about it and it seemed to frustrate him as well me... Get in there Coach Barrett!! Hell, sign me up Kevin Pritchard!!

Von Wafer Debut

2008-02-27T21:07:00.000-08:00

So Coach McMuffin decided to play Von Wafer tonight after everybody in all the forums wondered why the hell he didn't play last night after that 10-40 FG shooting in the 2nd half... AND now he plays 32 minutes and is off the "hizzy" scoring 11 points and 5 rebounds!? The same could be said about Joel Pryzbilla as his time has FINALLY increased... Once again, my theory is Coach McMuffin has no clue and/or you, Mike Barrett tell Nate to read the blogs and/or forums...

Nate McMuffin, WTF are you thinking?! You're lucky but luck can only get you so far... You should be embarrassed and fired!!

Laker Game Thoughts

2008-02-26T23:44:00.000-08:00

Lakers pulled away late and overcame an early 16 point deficit to beat the sinking Blazers. Surprisingly, the Blazers hung tight through 3 quarters without their leader B-Roy and still had a decent chance of shocking a red-hot Laker team, if only not for poor shooting and yes, needless to say, "Coach McMuffin" poor coaching... Yes, I am saying this game was winnable if the coaching was legit and I'll tell you why:

Lamar Odom picked up his 4th foul in the first 30 seconds of the 3rd quarter... He stayed in the game after that and finished the game w/4 fouls... The question I ask is why the hell didn't "Coach McMuffin" attack Odom more?! Or better yet, why didn't we just attack more period... Portland was almost flawless from the free throw line (until Webster missed 2 straight at the end of the game), and since you are shooting 10-40 FGs or so in the 2nd half, why not attack the paint and Odom, and get to the foul line... At the end of the 1st half, the reason the Blazers were ahead by 7 was because of the FT line (13-13) vs the Lakers (5-5)...

We finished the game w/23 FTs... Although there were some bad no calls, Mike and Mike said it best, "The teams that are more aggressive get the calls" and in the second half, McMuffin couldn't relate that to the team... Unbelievable McMuffin... Oh, and you getting tossed put the nail in the coffin...

Coach McMuffin Blows 17 Point Lead to Celtics and Cripples Roy

2008-02-24T17:49:00.000-08:00

Just watching a little of the tidbits of the post-game and they just mentioned that Brandon Roy didn't take a shot or assist in the 2nd half before coming out because of an ankle injury... I also remember Mike Rice jokingly saying "You gotta listen to the trainer".

BUT this also got me thinking, WTF was Coach McMuffin doing leaving an inefficient Roy in the game?! The stats don't lie... He didnt' shoot or dish out any dimes in the 6 minutes he played in the 2nd half and Nate still leaves him in?? Your halftime lead of 7 is now a deficit of 7 and it takes the trainer to make that decision over Coach McMuffin?? If Brandon is out for a serious amount of time or plays worse/crippled, you can put this one on McMuffin as well...

ESPN and NBA.com Fantasy take on Joel Pryzbilla

2008-02-22T19:40:00.001-08:00

A found Joel Pryzbilla's fantasy value intriguing from ESPN and nba.com (same fantasy analysts)... How ironic that I think that not only are these great fantasy remarks/predictions, but this would be a good real-time game player as well. Have you finally gotten a clue Coach McMuffin'?!

ESPN/nba.com Fantasy analysis:

Analysis: Przybilla is Portland's best interior defender and usually gets little help when it comes to defense in the paint and hitting the boards. However, that hasn't been enough to keep him on the floor for the kind of playing time he got Thursday. As it is, he's averaging 7.2 rebounds and 1.20 blocks in just over 21 minutes a game. With more run, he could be a better fantasy contributor in the rebounding and blocked shots category.

Where's Joel Pryzbilla Nate?

2008-02-19T21:10:00.000-08:00

Again, this game was lost by Coach McMuffin. I still don't understand McMuffin's strategy when he plays Joel for the 1st five minutes of the game and then another 3 or 4 minutes in the 2nd quarter. When Joel is out, the team has been inefficient on defense, and most recently, terrible as Portland relies to much on jump shots (BTW, my man Charles Barkley is right on with his analysis of Portland being a jump shooting team and they will not make the playoffs). Mike and Mike mentioned Joel had 9 rebounds in the 1st half and had a rebounding advantage (The Kings aren't even that good of a rebounding team but with Joel out for Portland, the Kings looked like rebounding magnets in the second half)...

BUT in the 2nd half, Joel would pick up his 3rd foul in like the 9 minute mark or so in the 3rd quarter and would not see action again... until it was to late... Why put him in down 6 with 2 minutes to go?? You needed those stops on defense before falling too far behind that late you dumbass!!

No All-Star Fluke

2008-02-19T11:15:00.000-08:00

Despite the West falling short to the east and missing one dunk, Brandon Roy was a shinning star during the 2008 All-Star game. I was surprised to see that he played the most minutes for the West squad (almost 29 minutes) over the likes of Iverson, Nash, and New Orleans hometown hero Chris Paul (16 points on 7-14 FGs, 5 rebounds and 14 dimes) at the guard position. B-Roy made the most of his minutes scoring 18 points on 8-10 FGs, 9 rebounds, 5 dimes, which was definitely a main catalyst why the west was almost able to surmount a huge double digit lead in the 4th no thanks to Ray Allen. A great article about Roy and his experience from New Orleans

AND... I must give my props to West coach Byron Scott. I was always a fan of him in his coaching days in Jersey and the Hornets were blessed by getting him. The thing I notice with coach Scott was that he was playing people in the 4th quarter that were the most productive in the game... and it almost worked if it weren't for Ray Allen's scorching three 3s in a row after the West took a 3 point lead (woah the 3 references, which is my favorite number along with 8!!). I wonder when or if Blazer coach Nate "McMuffin" will ever pick up on this simple and logical technique (aka common sense) to salvage the Blazer's chances of making the postseason this year...

Continuing the "NBA": No Balls Association - Bill Simmons

2008-02-14T18:44:00.001-08:00

Again, Bill Simmons never disappoints in his columns, as today, coming out with his thoughts of the Shaq trade making references to his definition of the NBA... BUT this time in controversy over what everybody else thinks in praising Steve Kerr's ballsy move... Check my previous post below and you will also find that I too agree with "The ESPN's Sport's Guy"...

Now if only he'd come out with an "truthful" article about Blazer coach Nate "McMuffin"...

Where's the Mojo Gone??

2008-02-13T07:19:00.000-08:00

Nothing really good to blog about the Blazers lately, especially with James Jones out for another 3 to 5 weeks and will probably be a HUGE reason why the Blazers don't make the the playoffs. Here is a nice article from ESPN titled, "Portland's Special Sauce" James Jones may not win The Sixth Man Award, but dammit, he is the main catalyst off the Blazer bench and a big reason why the Blazers won 18 out of 19 games one point this season...

Oh, and Bill Simmons' acronym of the "NBA" which he has translated is the "No Balls Association"... Well, I think journalists of the NBA (yes, even you ESPN) are the No Balls Association of writing if you can't depict the mind-boggling decisions of Nate McMillian. Go rewatch the 76ers game, the game at Toronto, and the game at Atlanta to see how god-awful his substations are. Nate has done that in MANY games but those 3 games were the worst! With a coach like a Jeff Van Gundy or a Mike D'Antoni, these wins on the streak and/or season aren't nail-bitters and the Blazers would have more blowouts victories in my honest opinion... Think about it...

P.S. From now on, Nate McMillan will be also known as at times as either "Nut" (Nate) or "McMuffin" (for McMillan) or both. I mean, what do him and a McMuffin have in common... the same IQ!!

Jarrett Jack-Ass Choke

2008-02-04T23:35:00.000-08:00

Blazer/Nugget could have been won and lost on many plays leading up to OT... AI's steal and miracle 3 at the conclusion of the 3rd quarter was huge and that shot alone to tie the game, made me think that Denver would win this game...

The Blazers were resilient though and still despite losing the momentum going into the 4th and trailed by 6 early on, they would rally to a 6 point lead for themselves... Again, I really question why Nate McMillan left Channing Frye out of the game in favor of a struggling LaMarcus Aldrdige... Just because Frye threw that bad pass to Iverson at the end of the 3rd was no reason to not play Frye in the 4th or Overtime...

Frye vs. Aldrdige

* Aldridge: 4 points on 2-9 FGs in almost 40 minutes (there was a play in the 4th where the Blazers had the 6 point lead and could have made it 8 but Aldridge missed an open jumper and Denver would go and a run from there)
* Frye: 10 points on 4-7 FGS in 21 minutes (hardly played in the 4th and didn't play in the OT)

Free throws played a big factor too... Outlaw missed a game winning FT in regulation and Martell Webster donked 2 of 3 FTs in OT. I swear, whenever I see him shoot FTs, he always seems to miss-one-make-one or miss two yet, he somehow is a 70%+ FT shooter... Thus, he reminds of Bruce Bowen, with the only difference is that Bowen plays (intense) defense)...

Jarrett Jack's breakaway with about 20 seconds left in the game where he could have held up or called timeout (or maybe Nate could have called timeout) and held for the final shot where either you win or have another overtime at worst was a "jackass" of a play as he turned it over inexplicably still mind-boggles me... Although Jack had 17 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists, he had 7 turnovers, none bigger than that one. When you are a point guard, there is no reason for you to have that many turnovers. Nate left him in too long and should have gone to Blazer who was fresh and playing just as well...

Blake vs. Jack

* Blake: 11 points on 4-13 shooting in almost 30 minutes with 9 assists and 1 turnover
* Jack: 17 points on 6-13 shooting in over 34 minutes with 9 assists and 7 turnovers (Jack probably played the final 15 - 18 minutes of the game while Blake was benched)

Sidenote: I guess Nate got the memo from reading the forums and/or Mike Barrett that Joel Przybilla on defense is a smart move... Really, how can this guy be Coach of the Month let alone a Coach of the Year candidate...

Z-boo'ed... Blazers Come Back

2008-02-02T10:59:00.000-08:00

The NBA... where amazing happens... That's what can be said about this current home stand... I feel that the games the Blazers lost to the Rockets and Cavs should have been wins and the wins against the Hawks and now, the Knicks from last night should have been loses, but no matter how you slice it, the Blazers are currently 2-2 on this 6 game homestand...

Zach Randolph got his boo's of course from the crowd, but it seemed to ignite his play earlier on as he and David Lee were big catalysts why New York was ahead early and for most of the game.

Aldridge's play early was a big reason why the Blazers remained close... If my memory serves me correctly, he made 4 of his first 5 shots and was the only person making any FGs in the 1st half...

Just after being announced to his 1st All-Star game yesterday, Brandon Roy didn't look like much of an All-Star early on in the game... His two index fingers on his left hand were noticeable swollen and it was definitely affecting his game, but by the overtime and conclusion B-Roy would notch his first ever triple double catapulting the Blazers back to victory!

If I were Nate in this game, I might have let Roy rest like Mike Brown of Cleveland did when LeBron injured himself, but its obvious that without Roy last night, the Blazers don't win. Let's just hope Roy's injured fingers get healed with this extensive break coming up...

Speechless (Updated 1/31/08)

2008-01-30T20:39:00.000-08:00

Updated: If you're a fan at a Cavs game, please don't taunt LeBron James... That was his catalyst from him bringing his team from a 20 point deficit at Toronto to win and was the case last night in Portland. I wish the camera would have gotten a picture of the "heckler" so we could give him the ol' Steve Bartman treatment (Remember, he was the guy that ruined the foul ball catch for the Cubs a few years ago)...

I am lost for words on how the Blazers just blew an 11 point lead with 4 minutes to go to Lebron James (oh yea, and the Cavs too)... The only thing I am thinking right now is why wasn't Joel Pryzbilla in the game on the final play on defense?? Remember those 2 separate block shots he had on Lebron alone??? Nate... Explain yourself???

Also, Martell Webster was playing some major crunch time 4th quarter minutes and to my memory, didn't so a thing in the quarter... He finished with 30 minutes, 3-9 shooting, 2 rebounds, and 0 assists... Why was he playing in the 4th when he hasn't had an okay game since Jan. 9th vs. the Warriors... that's 3 weeks!! Nate... explain yourself???

Gilbert Arenas Gives his 2 Cent (Brain) on Who Should Make the All Star Reserve Team

2008-01-28T17:54:00.000-08:00

In his recent blah-blah-blog from nba.com, Gilbert Arenas, aka "Agent 0" (Yup, he is a zero) gives his take on who should be making the Western Conference All Star Reserve Team... His take on who should be the reserves for the West caught my eyes... Below is a copy of "Agent Zilch's) remarks for (WC) pick Brandon Roy...

Here’s who I’d take to fill out the All-Star rosters:

WEST RESERVES
F - Dirk Nowitzki
F - Carlos Boozer
C - Amare Stoudemire
G - T-Mac
G - Steve Nash
WC - Chris Paul
WC - Brandon Roy (you’re averaging 20 and five, is that really an All-Star? I know your team is winning, but, come on), Marcus Camby (great defense), Baron Davis (that’s going to be hard with all those guards).

Remember Gil, your team was 0-5 with you in the lineup when u played this season showing you what a leader you are to your respective team... Your numbers remind of former Blazer Zach Randolph, who was and still is, 20-10 guy on a lousy Blazer team the last few seasons. Isn't that All-Star number material in your mind Mr. Arenas when you can't even help your team win most of your games?

Also, I read your blog on how you want to opt out of your contract by the end of this season... Either a long term, big pay deal with the Wizards, or take less money and go somewhere else deal to win a championship... Tells me what you really think about your team and that when it comes down to it all, you're a greedy pig!! Good luck with the new contract... Agent Zilch...

Wrong Day to be Out of Town

2008-01-28T17:29:00.000-08:00

Was in Washington on Sunday and missed the Blazers and Hawks game... I checked the score at halftime and was stunned that the Hawks had a 15 point lead... But that wouldn't be the biggest surprise as the Blazers would rally and end up the victors by a point!!

Looking at the boxscore, ALL of the Blazer's bench that entered the game had at least a (+/- ratio) of + 5 with James Jones being the highest at +15. Sergio, who had a phenomenal 1st game vs. Atlanta finished with a +8, 3rd best overall and best out of the PG spot.

Martell Webster was once again, a no factor (5 points on 2-8 FGs; -14 on +/- ratio). His play has been reminiscent to that of Damon Stoudamire when he played for Portland... With the exception of the first 5 games this season or so, Webster had 1 good game for every 5 or 6 bad games...

Abysmal 3rd Quarter Carries Over to the 4th as Blazers lose to Rockets 1/25/08

2008-01-25T20:40:00.000-08:00

After such a great finish to the 2nd quarter vs. Rockets after sustaining there run, the Blazers would take not only an 8 point lead (50 to 42) to the 3rd quarter, but momentum as well... or so I thought...

But then turnover over turnover and missed shots piled up brick walls and by the 6 minute mark of the 3rd quarter, the Blazers would not have a field goal and the Rockets would start off with a 14-1 to take a 5 point lead. I was very unimpressed with Nate McMillan's decisions in the 3rd quarter and would like to here him explain his logic for leaving He left Webster (2-5 FGs after 3rd) and Blake (1-6 FGs after 3rd) in there WAY too long and were inefficient.

Also, Channing Frye was a + 20 in the game and am thinking, "How can a guy be a + 20 in a game and not even play 20 minutes...

Twelve points in the 3rd quarter and 29 total in the 2nd half doesn't translate to winning games... but then again, neither should any team with Nate McMillan coaching... The NBA... were amazing happens...

Classic Rasheed Wallace

2008-01-24T23:50:00.000-08:00

One of the best lines ever in the media room quoted by Rasheed Wallace. Sure, it's not as sublime or energetic as Jim Mora talking about "playoffs" or Denny Green's "They are who we thought they were!! We let them off the Hook" rant, but still, it's a masterpiece! Damn, I missed Sheed here in P-town...

David West and Jannero Pargo Ripping R.I.P City

2008-01-23T18:02:00.000-08:00

You know WWE's Randy Orton: Legend Killer... Well, David West is David West: Blazer Killer... It rolls of the tongue just right. I usually give

David West is joining the ranks of Bonzi Wells, Tyron Lue, and Wally Szczerbiak just to name a few. What do these guys have in common you ask? Well, they are simply average (or under) players that seem to always kill the Blazers. David West, though, has had a phenomenal season and is now above average but still, he normally produces more than his averages against us. David West: Blazer Killer... It rolls of the tongue like WWE's Randy Orton: Legend Killer... West was the reason in the 1st quarter why the Hornets weren't down by 20 dominating the paint and getting to the foul line.

The same could be said about Jannero Pargo... Even during his Laker days where he barely got off the bench. The last time we played the Hornets, he was a huge reason why we couldn't pull away and blowout the Hornets. Pargo wass the main catalyst for the Hornets in the 2nd quarter why the Hornets where able to pull away from the Blazers erasing a 6 point deficit from the start of the 2nd period for the team to be leading by 4 at halftime.

Second half to come...

Here is something Nate McMillan could learn from Byron Scott (my lead candidate for Coach of the Year)... Janerro Pargo is normally a dud and maybe relieves Chris Paul for 8 minutes a game... BUT when he is playing well, you let him finish out... Why couldn't Nate do that with Sergio?! In fact, Sergio only plays five minutes tonight and gets the hook in the 1st half after missing one shot... WTF Nate!!

Blazers vs. Hawks 1/21/08: Sergio Rodriguez Soars to New Heights and Ex-Blazer Steve Smith Appearance (updated 1/22/08)

2008-01-21T23:56:00.000-08:00

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 regulation and 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 as 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

Mike Barrett, the Blazers lead TV play-by-play commentator (and blogs here) made mention to former Blazer and Hawk Steve Smith, who I didn't know, was now doing the color commentary for the Hawks... Steve still looked like he did a few years ago, this time wearing a suit and tie compared to the casual attire of our commentators (which I prefer casual attire). Barrett had a great conversation with "The 6'8" great from Michigan State" about the young Blazers and Smithy brought up Sergio saying something in the likes that he was his favorite player and etc... Maybe he should play more (hint to Nate)... And when they showed the highlight of Sergio doing a fake on Josh Smith and then hit a bank shot, they cut to the ATL color commentary and my man Steve Smith and his jaw looked like it was going to hit his desk!! Great stuff!! If anybody can find a photo of that, please send it to me or post here...

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...

Welcome to Trail Blogging Blazer Fan

2008-01-21T23:38:00.000-08:00

First off, I'd like to welcome you to my trail of blogging and opinions of the Portland Trailblazers ongoing season... I know that I am a late blossom to this season as it is half passed, but then again, it took the Blazers the 18th game of the season to start playing some fantastic/sensational/stellar basketball! You're never to young/old or early/late to blog. So just like the Blazers slogan is for the season, slightly modified, "Rise with me" and enjoy the bloggin'.

A little background of me:
- Joey Wong
- West Linn/Portland, Oregon
- 24 years old
- 5'2... 108 pds.
- Lifelong and lifetime Blazer fan... Favorite Blazers past: Sheed, Uncle-Cliffy, Ruben Patterson, Clyde Drexler. Current Blazers: Sergio Rodriguez, Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, James Jones, Travis Outlaw
- I also love poker and have a separate blog for poker stuff

I'll start off with some of sampling two of my achieve blogs from earlier in the season... I'll blog the truth with what I see from my two eyes whether how great or terrible a player did or if the coach (Nate McMillan) made the correct decisions. You'll notice that despite Coach Nate McMillan's winning Coach of the Month in December award, you'll get my insights on why I think that it's a fluke and point out some of the flaws that Nate does throughout the season (I believe that on the Blazers 13 game winning streak, we could have easily blown out more teams, but b/c of Nate's poor decisions, most games were literally LeBron James nail-bitters in that being too close to stomach and made you bite your nails like he often does when shown on the bench)... Feel free to argue or support me and post your comments here.
Now onto the blog archieves:

Sample #1 from November 18, 2007;
"This Week in Rage: Nate McMillan"

I'll borrow this title from my favorite radio show's segment: The Adam Carolla Show. I won't have a top 5 like he does... I just have one thing in mind and if you read my last post or scroll down, you will know it's on none other than Blazers coach Nate McMillan...

I'm angry:

After the last two Blazer road games (a heart-breaking choke to the 76ers followed by a massacre to the Gilbert Arenas-less Wizards), I think its time KP (Kevin Pritchard) scrutinize really hard on who should be coaching this team in the future...

Having a 25 point lead vs. a very unimpressive 76ers team (minus there second best player Kyle Korver too may I add) and a 17 point lead going into the 4th quarter, a coach must think, "ok now, we have a 17 point lead on a team that just shot 70% in the 3rd quarter (and eventually in the 4th quarter too), what do we need to do to stop these guys?? Well, Joel Przybilla is a great hustle guy, my best defender, and best rebounder and the 76ers keep crashing the boards and are still shooting 70% from the field... "I think I'll let him sit the entire 4th quarter" thought said Nate in his mind while I'll let the 76ers come back and beat my team... Job accomplished... WTF!! This isn't rocket scientist Nate... And then to go into the post-game conference to say that we need to do a better job of rebounding... UUUGGGHHH!!

Now if that wasn't enough, onto the game vs. the Arenas-less Wizards... Let's continue with the same lineup of having 3 guards in at the same time and have our opponents crush us on the rebounds again... Well-done... Oh, and let's bench Sergio Rodriquez for Taureen Green after Sergio made a couple bad plays in the 4th quarter last night... WTF Nate?! How dare you bench the most electrifying point guard "Spanish Chocolate" after the 76ers game... Did you ever realize that everybody was making bad plays last night in the 4th quarter (with the exception of Aldridge and Roy)... Did Nate ever think, "Well, maybe this is my fault and not just Sergio so I shouldn't bench him b/c of my terrible substitutions and brainless coaching abilities...

Oh, and this comes to mind... Nate McMillan is a big "blowhard" (as Adam Carolla would say)... Remember last week after the Pistons game where he praised Sergio letting him play deep into the 4th quarter... Well, I guess his memory isn't the best either...

Just imagine a few years ago, when we had a chance to hire the Suns assistant coach Mike Ivaroni where we could have adopted this successful blueprint and have the flashy Sergio running the show...

Sample #2 from January 13, 2008
"Blazers vs. Raptors"

Unfortunately. I missed the first 3 quarters of this game but turned in just in time when the action was getting wicked. Blazers had a 6 point cushion going into the 4th and basically, Nate McMillan, coach of the month or not, blew this game for my Blazers. Chirs Bosh was absolutely having his way with LaMarcus Aldridge and was the main catalyst behind Toronto's comeback. They turned a six point deficit into a 7 point lead with about 4 minutes to go. But, with an all-star game from Brandon Roy and great shooting from "Mr. 4th Quarter" Travis Outlaw (Mike Rice's nickname for "T-Law" aka "Trout"), the Blazers would mount a comeback of their own. I wasn't too happy with Nate's usage of timeouts... He burned 2 timeouts around the 1:25 mark in the 4th quarter after the team had advanced the ball past half-court of all things too and ran out of timeouts by the 45 second mark or so, thus the Blazers would not have extra timeouts to advance the ball. Way to go dumbass, but because of Travis Outlaw's sick 4 point play to force OT, he bailed Nate out.

You figure that after getting dominated by Chris Bosh that Nate McMillan would redeem himself in overtime by putting his best rebounder and defender into the game to guard Bosh... Nope... Blazers played well and maintained a 2 point lead throughout most of the 1st OT, but in the end, Bosh and Calderon were too much... Again, it took another bailout three, this time by Roy, to salvage Nate and the Blazers...

2nd OT starts off w/Bosh winning the jumpball again and scoring a quick 4 points that would catapult the Raptors to victory... Again, after the timeout, no Pryzbilla...

I am still mind-boggled by the Blazers winning streak w/McMillan as the coach... the guy seems to be clueless in matchups and substituting players in the right situation, yet the team keeps unbelievably winning and thus, somehow, gave him Coach of the Month honors... Maybe this current road trip will test Nate's coaching ability, but its scary to think how great this Blazer team can be with Greg Oden and Rudy Fernandez coming next year, and/or getting a coach that knows what he's doing...