Glenn
02-13-2006, 09:52 AM
Three straight losses by 30 points or more? Ratliff and Przybilla both injured, leaving Ha Seung Jin as your only center?
This is ugly.
http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/exclude/1139804726122130.xml&coll=7
Blazers' 'spirit is gone,' says McMillan
Portland loses by 33 points to lowly Toronto following two 32-point blowouts on the road, and makes history
Monday, February 13, 2006
JASON QUICK
The Oregonian
TORONTO -- Never before have the Trail Blazers been so bad.
For the first time in franchise history, the Blazers have lost three consecutive games by 30 or more points, the latest coming Sunday when they followed back-to-back 32-point losses with a stunning 33-point loss, 114-81, to the lowly Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre.
And guess what? It doesn't figure to get any better.
Already without starting center Joel Przybilla, who is at home with a sore knee and for the birth of his first child, the Blazers lost center Theo Ratliff to a major sprain of his left ankle in the third quarter, which he said will likely keep him out for at least two weeks. That leaves the Blazers with only one center -- Ha Seung Jin, a 20-year-old project.
"Man, it ain't going to get any easier," Juan Dixon said. "We don't have a center."
Perhaps more importantly, the Blazers (17-32) have shown they don't have any heart.
That became evident to coach Nate McMillan midway through the fourth quarter, when he came unglued during a timeout with 8:34 left and the Blazers trailing 95-63. McMillan fired at his team, several times nearly falling out of his chair as he spit, stomped and screamed, until finally he slammed his fist against his clipboard, shattering the plastic board, which sent his red felt pen spinning upward and backward onto the court.
It was the first clipboard McMillan has broken this year, but there figures to be more as long as the Blazers continue to show no defensive resistance. In the three games this trip, the Blazers have allowed 101, 115 and 114 points. On Sunday, they allowed a hapless Raptors team (19-32) to shoot 58.5 percent from the field and grab 48 rebounds.
"We are just giving in to being outworked, we are not competing," McMillan said.
The most fight the Blazers showed all night came from point guard Steve Blake, who angrily chased off the Toronto mascot, Raptor, during a fourth-quarter timeout. The mascot was mocking the Blazers huddle while belly-dancing behind Blazers assistant Monty Williams, and Blake shooed him away with a red-faced barrage of expletives.
If only that much energy was spent on the rest of the game.
"It just looks like the spirit is gone," McMillan said. "The fire is not there."
It has become a familiar refrain from McMillan over the past week, but it is one that is falling on deaf ears. Once again, the Blazers were buried early, falling behind 31-18 after the first quarter as the Raptors did what Indiana and Boston had done before them: post-up and shoot over the smaller Blazers guards and frustrate the inside game of Zach Randolph by double and sometimes triple teaming him.
Shooting guard Morris Peterson made 8 of 13 shots en route to 22 points, following a trend that was set in Indiana by Stephen Jackson (25 points) and in Boston by Wally Szczerbiak (21 points).
Meanwhile Randolph was held to 10 points and six rebounds in yet another game in which he was reduced to a non-factor. In this three-game trip, Randolph is averaging 16.3 points and seven rebounds -- below his averages of 18.3 and 8.6 -- with disappearing acts in the second half, when he has been held to four points against Indiana, four points against Boston and two points Sunday.
"When you have teams that have the bigger guards, they really expose us in that area, as far as posting our guards up," Ratliff said. "We have to figure out how to take that on. And then teams are double teaming us and triple teaming us, and we have to figure out how to play in that realm as well. We have been doing a poor job in both."
However, these are not new concepts. The Blazers have gone with their small starting backcourt of Blake and Dixon -- both of whom are listed at 6-foot-3 -- since mid-December, and Randolph has been double-teamed since last season. Before this trip, they were able to compensate in both areas, winning seven of 11 at one point with a blend of hard, scrappy play and unselfishness.
Where has it gone? That's the million-dollar question.
"Everybody is trying to put a finger on it," Ratliff said after emerging on a pair of crutches. "I think we lost a little focus on what we were trying to do as a team. We gotta try and get that focus back, and play together and give 100 percent."
And while McMillan continues to plead for someone to step up and light a fire under the team, Dixon made a concerted effort Sunday, at one point standing in the middle of a huddle to urge Randolph to play defense. Before the timeout, Randolph let Toronto guard Mike James (19 points, six assists) drive right past him.
"You gotta play defense," Dixon said, both hands extended toward Randolph. "Everybody out there has to play! It just takes one guy. We gotta work!"
The effort never came, even as McMillan tried every gimmick at his disposal -- inserting a half-court trap and starting the second half with Charles Smith in place of Viktor Khryapa. Smith was the lone bright spot, finishing with a team-high 11 points, which included three three-pointers.
The half-court trap used in the second quarter whittled a 23-point deficit to 52-38 at halftime, but again the Blazers were flat to open the second half. Toronto opened on a 20-4 run, eliciting memories of a 10-0 run by Indiana and a 12-4 run by Boston at the start of the second half.
"I'm searching," McMillan said. "We just don't have that guy who is able to grab this team out there and get that flame going."
This is ugly.
http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/exclude/1139804726122130.xml&coll=7
Blazers' 'spirit is gone,' says McMillan
Portland loses by 33 points to lowly Toronto following two 32-point blowouts on the road, and makes history
Monday, February 13, 2006
JASON QUICK
The Oregonian
TORONTO -- Never before have the Trail Blazers been so bad.
For the first time in franchise history, the Blazers have lost three consecutive games by 30 or more points, the latest coming Sunday when they followed back-to-back 32-point losses with a stunning 33-point loss, 114-81, to the lowly Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre.
And guess what? It doesn't figure to get any better.
Already without starting center Joel Przybilla, who is at home with a sore knee and for the birth of his first child, the Blazers lost center Theo Ratliff to a major sprain of his left ankle in the third quarter, which he said will likely keep him out for at least two weeks. That leaves the Blazers with only one center -- Ha Seung Jin, a 20-year-old project.
"Man, it ain't going to get any easier," Juan Dixon said. "We don't have a center."
Perhaps more importantly, the Blazers (17-32) have shown they don't have any heart.
That became evident to coach Nate McMillan midway through the fourth quarter, when he came unglued during a timeout with 8:34 left and the Blazers trailing 95-63. McMillan fired at his team, several times nearly falling out of his chair as he spit, stomped and screamed, until finally he slammed his fist against his clipboard, shattering the plastic board, which sent his red felt pen spinning upward and backward onto the court.
It was the first clipboard McMillan has broken this year, but there figures to be more as long as the Blazers continue to show no defensive resistance. In the three games this trip, the Blazers have allowed 101, 115 and 114 points. On Sunday, they allowed a hapless Raptors team (19-32) to shoot 58.5 percent from the field and grab 48 rebounds.
"We are just giving in to being outworked, we are not competing," McMillan said.
The most fight the Blazers showed all night came from point guard Steve Blake, who angrily chased off the Toronto mascot, Raptor, during a fourth-quarter timeout. The mascot was mocking the Blazers huddle while belly-dancing behind Blazers assistant Monty Williams, and Blake shooed him away with a red-faced barrage of expletives.
If only that much energy was spent on the rest of the game.
"It just looks like the spirit is gone," McMillan said. "The fire is not there."
It has become a familiar refrain from McMillan over the past week, but it is one that is falling on deaf ears. Once again, the Blazers were buried early, falling behind 31-18 after the first quarter as the Raptors did what Indiana and Boston had done before them: post-up and shoot over the smaller Blazers guards and frustrate the inside game of Zach Randolph by double and sometimes triple teaming him.
Shooting guard Morris Peterson made 8 of 13 shots en route to 22 points, following a trend that was set in Indiana by Stephen Jackson (25 points) and in Boston by Wally Szczerbiak (21 points).
Meanwhile Randolph was held to 10 points and six rebounds in yet another game in which he was reduced to a non-factor. In this three-game trip, Randolph is averaging 16.3 points and seven rebounds -- below his averages of 18.3 and 8.6 -- with disappearing acts in the second half, when he has been held to four points against Indiana, four points against Boston and two points Sunday.
"When you have teams that have the bigger guards, they really expose us in that area, as far as posting our guards up," Ratliff said. "We have to figure out how to take that on. And then teams are double teaming us and triple teaming us, and we have to figure out how to play in that realm as well. We have been doing a poor job in both."
However, these are not new concepts. The Blazers have gone with their small starting backcourt of Blake and Dixon -- both of whom are listed at 6-foot-3 -- since mid-December, and Randolph has been double-teamed since last season. Before this trip, they were able to compensate in both areas, winning seven of 11 at one point with a blend of hard, scrappy play and unselfishness.
Where has it gone? That's the million-dollar question.
"Everybody is trying to put a finger on it," Ratliff said after emerging on a pair of crutches. "I think we lost a little focus on what we were trying to do as a team. We gotta try and get that focus back, and play together and give 100 percent."
And while McMillan continues to plead for someone to step up and light a fire under the team, Dixon made a concerted effort Sunday, at one point standing in the middle of a huddle to urge Randolph to play defense. Before the timeout, Randolph let Toronto guard Mike James (19 points, six assists) drive right past him.
"You gotta play defense," Dixon said, both hands extended toward Randolph. "Everybody out there has to play! It just takes one guy. We gotta work!"
The effort never came, even as McMillan tried every gimmick at his disposal -- inserting a half-court trap and starting the second half with Charles Smith in place of Viktor Khryapa. Smith was the lone bright spot, finishing with a team-high 11 points, which included three three-pointers.
The half-court trap used in the second quarter whittled a 23-point deficit to 52-38 at halftime, but again the Blazers were flat to open the second half. Toronto opened on a 20-4 run, eliciting memories of a 10-0 run by Indiana and a 12-4 run by Boston at the start of the second half.
"I'm searching," McMillan said. "We just don't have that guy who is able to grab this team out there and get that flame going."