Tony Parker, Devin Harris etc... All of them made the same mistakes AB made. Check the tapes get off the young man's back.
I hate to pile on, but this is exactly what I feared we would miss once Rafer got traded (no, I'm not saying "we need Rafer"). Rafer shot like crap, but people just never could get that the point guard's primary duty isn't scoring. It's providing structure to the offense, directing and facilitating plays. Brooks is a nice scorer (if streaky) but he's deficient in running the offense. I'm stunned Lowry isn't seeing more time right now, as he "gets it" on a level that Brooks simply does not. But there's a lot more going on right now beyond Brooks: 1. that was a classic "not in our house" game. It's tough to close out a close series (aside from Game 1, each game has been contested) on the road. 2. Artest has been morphing into bad Tracy McGrady (terrible shot selection, not staying inside the offense, below 40% FG, below 30% 3pt). And he's been drifting this direction the past month and a half. 3. Landry going MIA - he's a major X-factor for us, and we're getting squat from him. Only 1 game out of 5 has he hit his season averages. 4 and 3 doesn't cut it. 4. Yao, at this stage of his career, simply cannot be held to under 16 in the playoffs. I don't care who he's facing. You can't pin this all on a defense, or coaching, or the PG. It's happened 3 times this series, and Yao deserves a good bit of the blame. He has to actively want it. He has to yell at people in the timeouts to give him the ball. If he can't do that, than maybe the Ric Smits comparisons really are fair.
I agree Aaron was bad in this game, that is a fact. But where he really hurt was in not guarding his man for 4 quarters. The Blazers got that early lead because Aaron was making dumb mistakes on defense. He corrected himself in the 3rd quarter but by the fourth everyone started to self destruct from the starters to the normally reliable bench. Although, Wafer was wide open on one failed possession in the fourth. Aaron mainly shot the ball last night since everyone but Scola either couldn't get the ball or didn't seem to want to take the shot until they had to after missing once. His shot selection was horrible and I can't believe the one time Yao was not being fronted no less then five feet in front of him, he decides to pass the ball to Battier but I am willing to chalk up that bad performance to just a bad game, in front of his family and friends going against the local team he once supported. Hopefully everyone gets their heads on right for Thursday, because that was painful.
It was a rowdy crowd, their backs were against the wall, and they played good defense. It made getting good looks and passes very tough, and AB didn't handle it great, but you have to give Portland some credit. They played well, especially when it mattered most. There were lots of smaller factors, and others who played just as poorly, but I think this one is more just a case of 'we got beat' than anything else.
I'm putting a large share of the blame on Carl Landry. He played horrid defense and kept picking up stupid foul after stupid foul. He was personally responsible for the blazers being in the bonus with over 7 minutes left in the 4th. That is simply p*** poor basketball. Brooks and Artest were not good last night. Landry, in limited minutes, may have actually done more damage.
They should have kept riding Scola. They should have kept getting him the ball in his spots until Luis passed out, was knocked out, or started missing the backboard. Brooks was awful, but Lowry lost it upstairs when we needed him to steady the offense. Maybe the first time both guys had bad games. Agree that Landry was a non-factor and largely continues to be. That has to change. Artest was sleep-walking through the game. Don't know what's up with that. Yao played 40 minutes, but they couldn't manage to get him the ball. If they were having trouble with that, they should have used him as a decoy and had him help set up Scola. Luis should have had at least 30 last night. 10-13, yet idiot Brooks jacks up 20 shots. I was yelling at the TV.
Agreed w/ everything here. Most losses cannot be pinned on just one person. All your reasons are spot on. I am also a bit surprised how ineffective Landry has been.
