For the remaining games in this series, if we are too take down Portland, Battier MUST step up on the other end. If Ron's production is slacking on offense, we must have Battier step up and take command of the scoring load that artest isn't producing. IMO, It will open up so much more for Yao and take the weakside baseline help that is coming at Yao nonstop out of the equation. If Battier can start dropping that wing 3pter, we are going too dominate for the remaining games.
i agree. however, if yao doesn't get the ball enough, he's not gonna get many chances to shoot his 3's. his drive off the dribble ability is limited and we don't have mismatches for him very often. (yes, almost all problems have to do with yao not getting the ball enough. ) if anything, i'd like to see landry up his production. not sure though how much his leg injury has to do with it.
If Battier or even Artest can step up and make the Blazers respect the longball... Yao will get more touches.
Or if he isn't scoring and unable to contain Roy (like last night) sit him on the bench and bring Von in. At least Von can help offset his poor defense with some buckets and by drawing fouls on the Blazers. It's at least worth a look.
i thought so, too. but ron had an awesome 1st quarter last night (6 for 8, 15pts). did yao get his fair share of touches? just a thought.
let's call out lowry while we're at it. Landry too. c'mon now, this horse has been beaten 6 feet below the ground. To start with, it's been TWO games. One of which we destroyed them, another where we almost had it and missed a lot of freebies, had deke go down unexpectedly and yet still almost pulled it out. why are we looking elsewhere for a pick me up? Is Yao not the #1 guy? Let's worry about him getting it going, battier "stepping up" isn't going to make up for yao's 20 and 10. As for Roy, neither shane or ron could stop him because THEY WERE GETTING PICKED OFF most of the night. You could put stretch armstrong on him and he's not going to do much better. usually it's not a big deal because we have yao or deke waiting for him and he's got to worry about them (he himself said this prior to the series), with deke out and yao in foul trouble he didn't have to worry about it last night. If we would have pulled it out last night, this thread wouldn't exist.
thats my point exactly. Artest had 15pts in the first quarter, then ended the game with ONLY 19 on 8-20 shooting while Battier went 1-2 with 3pts on the night. We NEED Battier too step up and start hitting shots when Ron starts being Artest and going crazy jacking up shots. Battier isn't doing much on the other end and it is hurting our chances. If he can start dropping some shots, it's going too make it so much easier on the rest of the team instead of them trying too make up for his lack of production shooting the ball.
no he didnt who is portland going to leave open if they double Yao? Brooks? Nah uh, Shane? nah-uh. Ron? Bingo.
I just don't understand how anybody can criticize Battier for scoring 3 pts in over 30 mpg. They don't realize how hard that is to do.
lol cops are r****ded lol nah uh to shane? shane is GARBO . he needs to gtfo off the court n give his playing time to Von
what exactly is he "hurting"? Our 50% FG %? Like i said wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy before the playoffs, fix the big problems first, save the small stuff for later because that'll come naturally. I dont care how aggressive Shane is, we're not winning many games if yao is 3 of 6, we'll win more if Yao is Yao and shane is shane, than trying to make shane into a scorer to make up for Yao's lack of touches.
agreed, in principle. but let face it. shane, as much as i like him, has limited ability to create his own shots relative to wafer, lowry etc. plus there aren't too many plays called for him. if he scores about 10 a game, i'd be pretty happy. his cut and dunk off of a hayes pass was awesome last night. i hope to see more of that. do i wish to see more output offensively from him? SURE. but shane's lack of scoring wasn't the problem last night.
Lowry is doing his job on offense, he was brought in too draw fouls.. extra shots is a plus on offense for him. Nobody can complain about Lowry has done off the bench. And if Shane is gonna remain a starter, he must get more than 2 shots a game, plain and simple. And then the hardest part of that, he has too start knocking them down if we are going too keep up with a Young Portland team who has a lot of firepower too bring to the court.
And can someone explain why this thread wasnt started after game 1? Afterall he shot much worse in that game? why wasn't it a problem then? Oh right, because we blew them out by 30, expect this thread to go away when we win game 3 and 4, and a new one to pop up when we lose game 5, along with the usual "is brooks really a good pg" and "we need to change brooks into Jason kidd" threads...
I seen shane open A LOT lastnight, and not one time got passed the ball. I am aware that Shane can't really create his own shot. But when you are standing at your hot spot wideopen, who needs too create shots when you can just pull up?
so Lowry gets a pass for not scoring much because "he's doing his job", but shane gets bashed for doing his? Lowry had 2 pts in game 1, no FT, why wasnt there a thread started for him? If his job is to draw fouls, and he had 0 Fts, then he must not be doing it, so why no thread? Oh yeah, we won. switch lowry's game 1 stats with his game 2 stats and this thread is about lowry. The point is y'all are focusing on the little things that go wrong in losses. Notice how it's always a different thing, one game its shane, another it's brooks, then it's lowry, then it's von, then it's landry, etc...but the fact that those change from game to game tells me they arent significant issues and usually take care of themselves. Why not focus on the black and white of wins and losses? the BIG problems. Like yao gets the ball= win, yeao doesnt get the ball =loss. that's the most efficient and biggest issue of all. You can fix your suspension all you want, but your car still aint running if the battery doesn't work...
