Portland Trail Bloggers

Sorry for being a little late on this one, but I did manage to watch the game on TV last night so here we go with my impressions of the game.

Fernandez - This guy is ready to play NBA basketball. Any notion of him having to adjust to the skill or the speed of the NBA game is now completely baseless if you ask me. He’s athletic, quick, and just fun to watch play. He showed some great defensive abilities during the game with a lot of pokes at the ball but still could use some improvement. However, overall his defense is nothing to be really afraid of. If you need him to play some solid defense, he can lock it down.

The only one negative thing I can say about him is that he may get too flashy for his own good, leading to turnovers. He also often goes for those “all or nothing” steals where he’ll go for the poke but to no avail and get beat on D. Again, minor issues and considering this is pre-season, we might see him calm down a bit.

Bayless - Not a bad showing for Jerryd’s first start. However, I did notice a few things during the game that I hope will get ironed out as the season goes on. For one, he doesn’t pass. He ended the game with 0 assists. Second, he needs to drain those open shots. It may have just been the general nervousness of starting your first professional basketball game, but he had a lot of good looks but wasn’t able to hit the shots.

Oden - Again, this man is a freak. He basically demanded a double team, sometimes triple team, from the Warriors’ defense every time with good reason. He simply loves to dunk and he makes it very apparent to everyone. He doesn’t try to back you down and do a baby hook, or a turn around, he muscles his way to the rim and tries to slam it home. It’s fun to watch a guy like Oden with such physicality out on the court and I’m glad we never have to defend him.

However, his endurance and conditioning are again issues to me. When he looked tired, he looked tired. He often walked his way across half court. I know he’ll get in better shape as the season goes on, but I am adamant that he does need to lose 10-15 lbs. Right now he does look just a little too thick. I want the young Shaq, not the later-years bloated Shaq in that 20 year old body of Oden.

Outlaw - I’ll say it right now, I never jumped onto the Outlaw bandwagon last season. Call me a hater, but I still don’t think he has the fundamentals down and that was apparent last night. He doesn’t quite have the handles like he acts like he has and his shot selection is still near awful. Yes, he is capable of making those jumpers but people seem to only take the good and ignore the bad when it comes to his shooting. They applaud him for making those near-impossible “on the run with a defender in your face” shots but when he misses, people just ignore it. He’s a good player and a very capable scorer, I just wish he would choose more intelligently when it comes to his shot selection.

Aldridge - LaMarcus Aldridge will be an All-Star this year. Yeah. I said it. LaMarcus tends to get slightly overlooked with the arrival of Greg Oden and the leader role Brandon Roy has established for himself. It’s as if LaMarcus is the sometimes forgotten sidekick. This performance alone was not what convinced me to make such a claim that he’ll be an All-Star, but it has been his performance from his rookie year until now. This guy is consistent every night and is always a viable scoring threat and he’s going to be a sight to see for years to come.

Sergio - Wow. This is like a whole new Sergio Rodriguez. He’s a lot more confident and is much of a floor general than he has ever been in just two pre-season games. 8 points and 10 assists is not bad at all. I still have the same critique as everyone else when I say that I wish he would go to the rim with the ball himself instead of always kicking it out. I don’t know if he’s afraid of missing the bucket or simply likes to dish the ball, but Sergio would’ve had a double-double had he scored some points for himself instead. The other critique is that he needs to be more careful with the ball. He and Rudy tied for most turnovers on the team with 6 each. Again pre-season, but from what we’ve seen of Sergio in the past, you know that this is a problem he’s had.

Batum - I’m not exactly a Nicolas Batum hater, but not exactly a Batum lover either. The Batum-Raider looked a lot more comfortable in his second game out and showed some real court presence and athleticism. He’s still very much a project player but he showed off some real neat glimpses of his ability for Portland fans to awe at.

Overall, I liked what I saw last night. The Blazers had an odd mix of players out on the floor most of the game so you could tell there was some hesitancy among the guys who hadn’t played before in an unit together. The big thing to point out is of course the Blazers’ turnovers. They ended up with 26 turnovers in a pretty sloppy showing of how to handle and protect the ball. The Blazers are notorious for turning the ball over early in the season so this is not a big concern for me but you still hate to see it. Can’t wait for the next game!

Check out the box score to infer your own opinions off numbers here.

Random Game Notes:

1^st Quarter

10:57 - Nice jumper from Bayless at the top of the key, I still feel like he needs to work on his release

10:00 - Good finish from Aldridge with the feed from Rudy, Biedrins has a terrible free throw shot

8:41 - Oden Dunk #1 with a nice pass from Fernandez

7:25 - Oden Dunk #2

Rudy is showing some nice defensive skills and quick hands, he’s always looking to poke the ball away

Blazers showing some running ability

Dan Dickau is still in the league apparently…

4:16 - Nasty fade away three from Rudy in the corner

Blazers giving up a lot of non-shooting fouls, two defensive 5 in the key calls

2:37 nice feed from Sergio to rudy for the three

Sergio is looking a lot more confident and aggressive like last night - it looks like he’s out to prove the haters wrong (myself included)

Batum is showing some defensive capability with those long arms

2^nd Quarter

11:32 - Good finish from Luke at the basket

10:21 - Get rejected Luke Jackson

Nice blocks from Joel at the 10:37 and 10:00 marks

8:58 - Tight move from Sergio with the behind the back dribble and finish at the rim

3:22 - Sick pass from Rudy to Luke for the three

2:09 - Oden Dunk #3

Oden needs some finesse with finishing around the bucket. He’s grabbed a lot of offensive boards but wasn’t able to convert them into points

:05 - SWEET alley-oop from Sergio to Rudy - great way to finish the half

3^rd Quarter

11:38 - Oden Dunk #4

9:25 - Oden Dunk #5

8:48 - Nice three from Bayless via assist from Rudy

4:53 - A nice little float from Sergio in the middle of the paint

2:40 - Sergio sure likes to pass, nice feed to Aldridge on the break for the dunk

2:25 - Nice finish at the basket from the Batum-Raider

2:22 - Nice board from Batum with the feed to Aldridge

1:41 - Nice block from Joel

1:05 - Really nice pass from Sergio to Batum for the flush

4^th Quarter

11:17 - 3 ball from Bayless with the feed from Batum

9:28 - Dan Dickau took it coast to coast for the and +1

6:46 - Nice feed from Fernandez to Diogu for the and +1

4:42 - Nice pass game between Sergio, Batum and Fernandez for the finish

4:24 - Nice three from Rudy in transition

2:48 - Scary moment here for Rudy

1:10 - Outlaw has huge hops for the block