-The Blazers will be without Travis Outlaw, Jeff Pendergraph & Nic Batum.

-The Jazz will be without Price, Korver, CJ & Harpring. And maybe Fesenko, who missed the Chicago game with an illness or something.

-The Blazers, as you might know, gave 'Sap a contract that the Jazz matched this off-season.

-Of course, it's not like they needed 'Sap.

-The only stats where the Blazers aren't in the top-10 in the L are FG%, 3PT%, steals and... PPG?

-The Blazers come in with ex-Ute Andre Miller on the squad.

-Typo in the Chicago thread... Okur passed Hornacek to become 3rd in franchise history for 3-pointers made, not 1st. Oops.

-Boozer was solid against the Bulls. On TNT. The Bulls, as you know, might want Boozer.

-Regarding the TNT graphic from the game, I don't care how strong the "opposite's attract" thing is... AI is not coming to Utah. He seems likely to be going to Philly though.

The Blazers spent this off-season chasing players like Paul Millsap, Hedo Turkoglu, etc... and ended up with Andre Miller. Nothing against Miller, but he's not the same caliber guy. And (like 'Sap would've) Miller has been coming off of the bench. They have a strong top-4 (Roy, Aldridge, Oden, Webster) and a PG-duo that occasionally seems to be hit or miss. 5-on-5, the Jazz/Blazers would be really close. But, given the injuries & slow's hatred of the bench, the bench battle would seem to go in Portland's favor, though you can never be certain. (Blazer's Edge has a good breakdown of things, while Bust a Bucket has a position-by-position comparison of the teams.)

The Blazers are coming off of a loss to the Grizzlies last night (at home, no less), something the Jazz have not done. Yet. The simple strategy to follow?

• Shoot over 50% from the field.
• Hold the Blazers to 40-ish% from the field.
• Make 50% of your treys, taking more than 6.
• Hold the Blazers under 50% on threes. Especially if they shoot 24.
• Block a lot of shots.
• Make your FTs.
• Get Oden in foul trouble.
• Hold the Blazer's bench relatively quiet (17 points from 5 guys last night).
• 5 guys in double-digits, and 1 guy with 9 points.
• Get rebounds.
• Avoid turnovers.
  
• Addendum (not seen last night): Stop Martell Webster.

See? That's not too hard.

Name

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment