Trail Blazers Lose to Miami Heat in a Track Meet | Crunch Time Offensive Woes Continue

Trail Blazers Lose to Miami Heat in a Track Meet | Crunch Time Offensive Woes Continue

In today’s show, the Blazers kick off a fivegame road swing with a loss to the Miami Heat. Let’s talk about what went wrong at crunch time, Denny Odia’s excellence, and so much more. Welcome to Locked on Blazers. Let’s get into it. You are Locked on Trailblazers, your daily Portland Trailblazers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. What’s up world? It’s your past first point guard and trailblazers reporter Mike Richmond. Listen to another episode of Locked on Blazers, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, available wherever you get podcast and also on YouTube. Thanks for making this show your first listen. Coming at you each and every weekday, Monday through Friday. So make it a part of daily routine. Make it your first listen. Tell your friends to do the same. It’s locked on Blazers, your team every day. In today’s program, we’re talking a loss to the Heat. Blazers lose 136 131 in a game that just flew up and down the court. The two fastest teams in the league played one of the fastest games in the league all season long. A game that was that was won by pushing it and came down to the final two minutes and the Blazers just didn’t score when it mattered and couldn’t get um they had some opportunities but really couldn’t cash in on offense when it mattered. We will do our fastest recap in the West. We’ll talk about what went wrong in those final two minutes uh of the game because the Blazers were were right there. They were they the game was tied with two minutes left and and and they they they were unable to close. Um plus I want to talk a little about Shaden Sharp. I thought we got the full sort of Shaden Sharp experience from every every little bit of it basically uh in this game. Uh but we’ll get into that. I want to talk to Monty Kamara and I want to talk a little about Blazers playing this sort of like early rest advantage schedule as the as the end of this interesting run uh will come to a head against the Orlando Magic. They’ll find it’ll finally be done of four consecutive games where they have a night off and they’re playing a team on a backto back uh some some numbers to know and some just a quick look ahead to Monday night’s contest. You’re listening to Monday, November 10th program. Let’s get into it. Uh fast recap in the West. Blazers lose 136 131. They’re up 153 4 minutes into the game. It’s over, right? It’s like you you’ve watched enough of the NBA. 12-point lead with 44 minutes left. This thing is cooked. Um get out of here. No. Uh they they’re up three at one, 30 to 27. The Heat just lived in the paint in the second quarter. They lived in the paint. 13 of 15 in the paint, 26 points in the paint. Um like the Heat I mean the Heat have they’ve they took four non-p paint twos in this game, right? um they take threes, they push and take shots at the rim. They get shots at the rim in transition. Uh like and they run this offense where there’s no ball screens, right? They just kind of spread you out and cut and try to like beat your man one-on-one and then guys like intuitively cut off that. There’s very little on ball screening action. Um and and and the heat just and they play really really fast for kind of the first time ever in the in the Spolster era where they’re truly flying. I think for the most part his teams have been have been slow and below average in pace. Um and I think the second quarter of the Heat just found their rhythm just living in the paint. Blazers turned the ball over five times which is a lot but it’s not like an alarming number. They certainly had worse quarters. Um Heat shot 17 of 23 overall in the second quarter and all of a sudden they’re up seven at at halftime. You know it’s like you just have to find your footing at that point. But the game is flying, right? Like the Blazers have 65 points. Um, and I it’s like their offense hadn’t played great yet. He’d have 72 points. Uh, their offense playing well, but it’s just like there’s this is a it this game is flying. Uh, 197 Blazers trail after three. Uh, and then the fourth quarter, three-point game heading into the fourth. There’s 10 lead changes, seven ties in the fourth quarter. Heck of a basketball game down the stretch. Uh, but the Blazers tie this game up with 2 minutes and 16 seconds left at 123 all. And then uh there I’ll get into this in the second segment a little bit, but they get a shot blocked. They turn the ball over. They miss uh what eventually was three three-pointers. And you know, you shot shot block, miss threes, turnover, 0 for four with turnover in about uh you know, a minute and a half. Yeah, that’s that’s your ball game there. And they lose 136 131. That’s your fastest recap in the West. The Blazers took 109 field goal attempts in this game. 109 field goal attempts in a 48minute game. The second most by any team in the league this season. 109 field goal attempts. This was the fastest game in the uh NBA this season in terms of pace. Uh tying a another uh Heat game from early in the season on uh they played Memphis on October 24th, second game of the year for both teams. And uh that game matched this in pace. Flying teams are flying. I think for the most part the Blazers just offense wasn’t very good in this game. I’ll get into that more in a moment. Um, but like you look at the you look at the box score, right? You look at the the raw box score, you say they scored 131 points. How could that be the problem? Because the volume, right? They took 109 shots. Uh they just like they they’re playing really really fast. But uh you know, neither team shot well from three. The Blazers took 51 threes in this game. I thought they got coaxed into taking some in transition. they want to take threes in transition. Um, but I I thought there was a couple early. Uh, that’s that that just like you you could probably edit those out. They they took 45 threes in this game. It’s not going to not like the difference in winning and losing, but I I do think they uh I do think they they fell in love with chasing this pace a little bit and they didn’t shoot particularly well. Um, you know, they they shoot under they shoot 14 to 51. That’s 20 28% from three. Uh the the Heat uh took only 35 threes cuz again they just live in the paint. Um and they they uh but they shoot 29% from three. Like um this was the Blazers crushed them on the offensive boards. 22 offensive rebounds plus 10 the offensive boards. Um they shot 13 fewer free throws, but they took 13 more uh shot attempts. So the the possession game in terms of shooting possessions was neutral. The Blazers, I guess, took an intentional foul, some intentional fouls at the end of the game. So really they probably had in the run of play before the like fouling in the final seconds they probably had a very slight edge in uh in sort of possessions but like I think I just don’t think the offense was very good. Denny Avia was great. It was the other guys right. Um Denny had 33 11 and eight assists. Um he had just three turnovers with those eight assists which is three is a pretty is is below season average. Um you know he’s 12 of 21 from the floor six of seven for the free throw line. An efficient game. a a big box score game. Denny was a monster. This game suits him, right? A team that was going to play wide open. They didn’t play with a neither team played with a bunch of centers. I thought the Blazers could have I thought I thought that was kind of a mistake um that they that they went away from, you know, Don Mclling really struggles on offense and this isn’t a perfect game for him um because of just the speed. But I thought they could have leaned into playing him a little bit more. I thought Rob Williams, he only played about seven and a half minutes. Thought he maybe it’s not a good game for Rob, but I thought I thought you could have tried that out a little bit. you know, they went with um do brief because they just they needed they need that shooting. They want that look with his shooting. Um and he just really struggled with the speed of this game. It just the def the with the Miami was just able to score on him basically at will. Um again, Miami spreads you out. I think Nicole Yoic for the Heat played the best. I know it was a careerhigh for him. Um but I’ve I I ain’t never ever seen you act like that. It’s the best I’ve ever seen him play by like a lot, right? Um he’s he was he was really good in this game. And the Heat play to their identity. Blazers have a similar identity. I thought they played to that well, but just the final two minutes got away from them. Let’s talk crunch time and a foul out from Jeremy Grant right before that that I think informed and made crunch time probably worse than it otherwise would have been. Join me in that second segment, won’t you? First though, I want to tell you that today’s program is brought to you by Robin Hood. Your ambition just met its match. With Robin Hood, you play for the win. Not just on game day, every day. Locking in on every opening, beating your PR, beating it again. Channel that drive into your money. Robin Hood puts you in control of your money. Trade stocks and ETFs, options, futures, and crypto all on one platform. 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Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code locked in NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. That’s code L O C K E D O NA for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. [Music] All right, let’s talk about this crunch time because I I I think this kind of speaks to where the Blazers are right now. Um they, you know, they’ve had a couple of these games. They they’ve, you know, they figured out how to get it done against Denver, right? Um they they you know, even even without like benefiting from from a a jump ball call that changed the complexion of the game like get out of here. They played really fast in that game. Um they got they got a they got a run out and a foul call and Denny had a really nice move past Cam Johnson who just could not guard him and they were able to like kind of play quickly um and and and figured out but in in some other games late uh scoring has been uh a bit of a a bit of a challenge for them. You know they made it happen against OKC but that was really more like holding off Oklahoma City. Uh you know they made free throws down the stretch against Utah. They’ve had some some games in the clutch, but when they’ve needed these need to score type of games, I think we’ve seen some of the rust come out early in the season against Minnesota, albeit with another head coach, but same same team, same plan, uh, for the most part. But, uh, I think importantly, the Jeremy Grant fell out of this game with four and a half minutes left. So, like, you know, this is, like I said, 10 lead changes, seven ties in the fourth quarter. Um, and it’s a three-point game ending in the fourth. You’re going to go back and forth. You’re, you know, it’s neither team has really pulled away. Blazers led by 12 early. Heat, I believe, led by as many uh you know, built built that lead up to 12 at some point uh in in the uh second quarter as well. But like this is this game is going to come right down to it. And Jeremy Grant fouls out with 425 left on a charge. I don’t think it was a charge, but like I I want to talk about I’ll talk about that in a moment. I I’m not going to whine about the refs. It’s not the reason why they lost. Um it’s it is Jeremy Grant committed three fouls in the first half and Thiago Splitter put him back in the game with three fouls in the first half. I like that. That is good coaching to me. The onus is on Jeremy Grant to not foul because sitting him all all sitting him is fouling him out anyways. Like you’re just you’re gonna miss that time with Jeremy Grant on the court if you sit him. Unfortunately, he picked up a fourth foul in the um in the first half which puts him in that’s you know you got to sort of trust a veteran player like Jeremy Grant to defend without fouling. And then he picked up a fifth foul in the third quarter and that’s what really hurt him. He only played three minutes in the in in the third quarter. Um they need Grant, right? like um he’s he’s been he’s been one of their best offensive players this year. I think he’s probably been their third best player overall. Like he’s just been he’s been uh they need him, right? He’s been good. So having him um you know, having him saddled with foul trouble in the second half was a problem. I don’t I I do not blame I like that move from Splitter. I straight up don’t believe in foul trouble. Um so uh I think I think maybe some people believe in it more than me and if you do, sure, go for it. But I just like don’t believe in it. Um but Jeremy Grant fouls out with 425 left. Blazers Blazers are still in in the mix and in fact um they get a they get a bucket their final like non game over level bucket with with 2 minutes and 16 seconds left. Denny drives gets in the paint. Little dump off to Donovan Klingan who like flips up a uh sort of right-handed hook. Um D is screaming and one when it goes in. Klingan was animated in this game. He did not like the whistle. Um, and uh, I don’t think he was alone on the Blazers bench, but he thought he he got called for a foul on Jamime Hakez in the previous possession. He felt like he, you know, he wanted that same thing. He had had another play in the third quarter. He’s yelling foul and one. Um, like it’s good to see uh, DC go back up with the ball. He he he um, that wasn’t an offensive rebound what the other one was. Um, but that’s a little flip in scores tie ball game. Um, then Denny gets called for a foul. Uh, this was a weak foul call and on the broadcast they said it was a shooting foul. even in the the referee um signals that it’s a shooting foul. In the in the official box score, it’s they call it a non-shooting foul. It’s called a personal foul. If it’s a personal foul, that’s the right call because he what what uh Norpal does is the sort of Damen Lillard special. Uh Jeremy Grant or excuse me, Denny Aia puts his hand in the cookie jar, right? He puts his hand over the top of Norpal’s hands when he’s in like that triple threat position and Norpal just throws his hands through Denny Oia’s uh palm, right? Uh Dame’s done that. I’ve seen Damon Lord do that 275,000 times. Chris Paul’s really good at it. Kevin Durant kind of made it such that they had to change the rule, but that’s supposed to be a non-shooting foul. The Blazers win the bonus, the foul regardless. If they called it a shooting foul, it’s a bogus nonsense call. If they called it a personal foul, it’s the correct call. The result is exactly the same because Norman Pal was inside the three-point line. It was a two be a two-shot foul or a personal foul. I’m not the Again, the official box score says personal foul. If if that’s the case, that’s fine. Um, uh, again, the results the exact same, but I’m a I’m a process guy, and I don’t want the refs to give to give Norm that nonsense. Um, I only want Damen Lillard to have that nonsense back in 2018. Um, so the Blazers all of a sudden they’re they’re they’re down two. Then they have a no pass possession. Drew Holiday. They run a they run a screen for Drew Holiday and there’s like an initial sort of um downscreen action to get like Shaden Sharp a look, but uh they really deny Shaden Sharp on that first look and uh Don Mccclean sets a screen and and after that initial action and Drew Holiday gets a switch, he gets Nicolovic on him. He just drives him to the rim and gets blocked. Zero pass possession. He didn’t get into the paint and kick. They didn’t they just like don’t run their stuff. Denny doesn’t get a touch. No one other than Drew Aldi touched the ball in the entire possession. He gets blocked at the rim. Tough. Don’t love it. Right. That’s that’s not a refing problem. That’s probably bad process. Blazers coming or he come the other way. Dave DaVon Mitchell drives on Denny. Kind of pivots, stops, kicks to Wiggins for to in the corner um as as Holiday kind of digs in a little bit on a on a weak drive to nowhere for DaVon Mitchell. Just stay home, make him shoot the ball. Wiggins hits a huge three. The he go up five. Big big swing right there. Right. You get blocked at the rim, you give up a three. down five though, you know, minute 30 left. Denny tries to post Andrew Wiggins uh kind of at about 19 feet. Wiggins slaps the ball away. Uh Denny was really good in this game. Um this is at that at that point when he’s posting up at with a minute 19 left with, you know, with whatever that is 80 seconds left. Um he has two turnovers and he has this massive usage rate and he has like 33 points and all and assists and everything like he’s hooping, right? I don’t really like Denny has had some turnover issues this year. This wasn’t one of them, but tough turnover down five. Heat go quick though and Haime Hawkins Jr. smokes a layup. So the Blazers get a chance in transition. So like the Heat are g are just keeping the door open for you by playing the way they play. This is they should not have gone fast. And when they do go fast, you smoke a layup at full speed. You’re you know when you miss a layup, you often give up points the other way. Blazers hit it ahead. Don King kind of catches a pass. He’s got, you know, he’s whatever seven feet from the rim. He has no can’t do anything. Dies way too far from the rim for him to do anything. So he kicks it back out to Tumani Kamar who gets about as good of a catch andoot three-point attempt as you could possibly imagine. Incredibly short, barely kisses the front rim. That would have cut it to two. So they’ve now had three possessions um down trailing down two and then down five. But a no pass possession where you get blocked, a turnover, and a wideopen no better shot than you could possibly ask for type of three-pointer that they missed. So, kind of like bad offensive possession, turnover that you just can’t have. Um, and just like you need to you need to value possessions there. And then like a like a perfect freaking a perfect freaking three-pointer that they just miss. Um, then the the Heat coming the other way. Nicoloic takes an absolutely bonkers like one of the worst imaginable shots I I could I could possibly dream up. He takes a nonsense 28t three-point step back with 5 seconds left on the shot clock that he airballs. The Heat wanted to give this game away. They gave up a fast break layup that they did not need to take and then Nicolovic shoots. Like if you take that with zero on the shot clock, sure, you’re just like bleeding the clock to take that with 5 seconds on the shot clock and airball it. Get out of here, dog. Like what is that? So the Blazers again are going to get the ball back with a minute left down five. Score, stop, score, and you’re in the game. You win the game or you know you go in overtime. They take uh they there’s a timeout. They run out of the timeout. They they run a play to to got to get Denny the ball on the wing and Denny just turns and shoots right away. I don’t know if that was the play call. I doubt it was, but if it is wild if but but to me it was Denny reading um he felt like he got fouled and he was getting a shot up quickly. But he just it was just way too quick to take that shot. It was way too it was like it’s not his shot. It’s not like Denny is a Denny has shot the ball very well from three, but that like flying off a screen catch, moving, shooting three, it’s just like not this is not a shot you It’s not your quality look. They initially called a foul, three-shot foul. It’s like, oh boy. Uh but it just wasn’t a foul. They looked at the replay, not a foul. Um correct call. Like he didn’t foul. It’s just he’s he’s playing defense. Uh but the players got the rebound uh in in during the challenge. They so they get rewarded the ball back. And this is just the play of the game for me. You have the ball back with 45 seconds left. You’re down five. Danny drives, draws attention. Tummani cuts from the baseline. He finds Tumani on the baseline. Now you’ve got a cutter under the rim. The defense, all the eyes turn to him and Tani fires a pass out to Shaden Sharp who is wide open for a corner three-pointer down five with 40 seconds left. And he passes it up to pass to Chris Murray. Chris Murray doesn’t want to shoot cuz he’s he he’s not a believer either. He swings one more pass to to Drew Holidayiday and Drew Holidayiday has to pump fake, get a fly by, shoot a three, just like not nearly as good of a shot. He misses. They’re forced to foul uh with under 30 seconds left. Make two free throws. D’Von Mitchell hits two free throws. You’re down seven. That’s the ball game. That minute and 30 seconds decide the game. The fouls, the the frustration, all that matters in close games. And I I don’t want to outright dismiss it, right? You have Jeremy Grant at the end of this game. Maybe it’s a little bit different. Maybe that pass from Shaden Sharp is to Jeremy Grant. Maybe Grant’s in the corner and he shoots that, you know, no hesitation, right? Like all these things. Maybe the trail three that Tumani took is Grant, right? Because of of just like positioning on the quarter just like another guy out there, right? All these different things. Shoot, maybe the hit ahead to because Grant is there is not to uh is not to cling who can’t do anything at seven feet, but like a normal NBA offensive player, and they turn around and dunk. Um and like and then uh then it’s a three-point game, right? Um, so with a minute left and it’s just it totally changes this whole tambber. So like Jeremy Grant fouling out mattered. Um, I mentioned this before and I’ll say it again. I don’t think it was a charge with 4 minutes 25 seconds left. I thought he traveled. I thought there should been a turnover. I thought he caught it and he and he did the Fred Flintstone feed and he just like he ran his feet a bunch of times like he was starting the the Flintstones car and then he ran someone over like Pel Larson I believe is who he ran into. Um, but like whoever it was I thought he walked. A turnover is still a turnover, but it’s not the foul out. Um, it’s he just totally changes the game. I thought he got punished for being out of control in the way that sometimes you do. But, so from the two-minute mark to the to the 25 second mark, about 90 seconds, um, Blazers, they get a bucket, but under two minutes to about 30 second mark, they had a no pass possession where they got blocked. They had a turnover, a missed wideopen three, um a too quick forced three that they didn’t need to take, and then a passed up wide open corner three. I I don’t love it. I like, as much as the refs kind of um were part of this story and part of this game, that process late, some of that’s execution. Tumani is a good shot. Uh uh Shaden Sharp is a really they they built a very very good look for Shaden Sharp out of that out of that play. He has to shoot the ball. Um like so some of his execution like the process on the Tumani shot and Sharp and Sharp’s attempt are fine. The other stuff I just don’t love. I don’t love it. Um and you can’t you know winning close games and winning winning when it matters. Um like some of it is is shooting luck, right? Sometimes the ball goes in, but but if your process isn’t any good, if you’re shooting threes too quickly or you’re running a possession without passing the ball or letting your, you know, best offensive player touch it, um best player in Denny obviously touch it. As good as Drew’s been, like I don’t really um I’m not I don’t really I’m not necessarily singling out Drew there. I’m just singing out the whole process in general, a no pass possession, right? Like Drew like freaking has saved their bacon sometimes this year. Uh he’s I I I wouldn’t be kind of want him to be aggressive, right? they they’ve needed him to to do his thing, but I just I just didn’t love the process in the finals two minutes. And I think it’s been a thing for him this year is like they’ve you kind of see when they need to score in the half court that they either um you know and like they pushed and Tummani missed a shot and like they try to go they you know it’s like um yeah I I I didn’t love the process. Let’s let’s talk a little about D. Let’s talk uh Shane Sharp Tumi Kamara and some and some other thoughts about uh playing teams on rest disadvantage to uh close the show. Join me in that third segment. First though, let’s talk FanDuel, America’s number one sports book and the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game, FanDuel has got you covered because they got live bets on everything from who’s going to score the next bucket to fourth quarter comebacks. Uh, plus you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay. If you want to get in on your sort of traditional money lines and point spreads and player props, FanDuel’s got all that, too. But if you are someone who is watching the game and you want to add another layer to your viewing experience, FanDuel’s got live betting on every sporting event you are watching and every NBA game every night. And right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, bet something you like, put that $5 down if you’re a new customer. Get 300 bucks in bonus bets to play with. Head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Today’s program also brought to you by the good folks over at Derer. They’re making the most comfortable pants. 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Trust me, once you try Doer, they’ll be your go-to. And you can check them out right here in Portland. Uh Der’s got a shop at 820 Northwest 23rd Avenue. You can pick up some clothes or a pair of really comfortable pants for yourself. Plus, all of Doer’s items make amazing holiday gifts. So, mention my promo code in store. When you’re there, you get 15% off your first order. Or, of course, you can check them out online at shopd.com/lockedonport for 15% off. That’s shopd.com/lockedonport. [Music] Still a pass point guard. I’m still Mike Richmond. And you are still listening to Locked on Blazers. I’m not going to get into it too much because I feel like um uh I talk about him all the time, but Denny was hooping. He was hooping. Denny was really good in this game. Um I thought Drew Holiday was fine. Um he wasn’t he’s been he’s had better games. Um but he also had 18 and 13. Like like he had a really good game in the box score cuz they played fast. Um but I but this wasn’t his best shooting nights and I just don’t think it was his just sort of broadly speaking I don’t think this was his best night. Um, you know, the dude had 18, 14, and four steals. Uh, but like I think those have been the two Blazers two best players, right? Um, I think this game was the full Shaden Sharp experience in almost every imaginable way. Um, I thought he was competitive on defense and then I thought he had one I thought he had one uh out- of-bounds play where he could totally lost his man and gave up a layup at the rim and it’s like, damn, we haven’t seen him do that very often. Um, I thought he struggled to shoot from from he makes his first three of the game, right? for like second second offensive possession of the game hits a three. Okay, he’s been he’s been a lot better lately, you know. Maybe not like excellent. Not probably not like capital G good yet, but he’s been a lot better lately. And so like he hits that early three. Like all right, all right. Shay uh didn’t make a three for the rest of the game. Finished one of eight, but like there were some uh some moments, you know, he got himself to the foul line. um you know uh not like a ton but at the end of the game I thought he had one early where he was aggressive excuse me he didn’t get himself to the foul line but I thought he was he was one drive early where he was aggressive but I thought at the start of the fourth quarter even though he didn’t get to the foul line um I thought he had a really nice stretch really nice stretch to be in the fourth quarter he had an one in there but like got to the rim got to the rim as a cutter got to the rim off the bounce got to the rim in transition like I I thought um just like sort of generally speaking I thought to begin that fourth Shaden was really good and like overall 21 points, nine boards. He turn he did turn the ball over too much, six turnovers, and just one assist. But like 21 and nine, if he did that every night, it wouldn’t be a problem. Nine of 19 is not it’s not like a a a horrific shooting night. Um he just didn’t make threes. It’s been a thing for him his whole career and certainly this season as well. Um, I just like I I think the end of the game was a thing that we just haven’t seen him do. And this is what this is like where I put up I don’t know if it’s a red flag, but it is like um imagine Okay, I’m going to use a phrase here for both Sharp and Tumani. Imagine um I grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Imagine you’re one of like my mom’s extremely southern co-workers and you’re saying this to me as a teenager. Like you’re on my worry list. Shaden Sharp is on my worry list. Um uh that is uh he just is he just like so he he plays this great early early fourth quarter great early fourth quarter right has has a really solid stretch driving to the rim attacking like I said um I know I I read my notes wrong he didn’t get to the free throw line very often in this game but I thought he was aggressive enough like that it’s hey it’s he he’s playing the right way particularly to close this game and particularly on night we’re not shooting very well but he he checks out uh like at the sevenish minute mark um and seven and a Uh he gets tied up on a jump ball. The the Chris Murray comes in for him. He takes like a two and a half minute break. 2 minutes 40 second break by the time he checks back in. Plays the final five minutes of the game, didn’t attempt a shot and passed up a wide openen three in crunch time. And that is a Shaden Sharp. A guy who is just like thinking about bricks. I thought he took some threes in this game to speaking of the full experience that were bad choices. Took a couple off the dribble off um high pick and rolls where the guy drops and he just like steps into a three. I thought he took one in transition in the fourth quarter that was just like, “Dog, what are you doing?” Um, took one of the corner off the dribble, kind of like a little handoff from Denny that I didn’t think he needed to to to take. Um, he missed some midies that he can make in this game. Um, and I and and I I’m not saying like just like only take um 17footers, but if you’re going to take a like I don’t mind most of the threes, but like um if you’re going to take like a pullup 25footer in transition and you’re like a shooting 28% from three, don’t do that. like don’t don’t maybe don’t do that. Um but just like not shooting. Sharp’s value is on offense. He’s just like he’s a he’s been competitive and whatever and improved on defense. Sure. Sure. Sure. But the value he and like and he on offense he mostly provides value via the ball going in. Like he hasn’t done that very well. He’s been very inefficient this year. But um uh he just they need him to be better. Um, and they need him to I am he’s on my worry list because passing up a shot because you are thinking about your bricks is a is is a thing to worry about. They need him to be aggressive. They need him to be smart and like judicious about the shots he takes in game. But they he in crunch time passing up a wideopen three. That’s that is worrisome for a guy who’s struggling with his outside shot. He’s got to shoot that. Uh Tumati Kamaro quickly. He’s on my worry list for sure. Um imagine again a southern woman. She’s probably in her uh late 40s, mid-50s, and she’s just uh using classic southern phrases that you don’t totally understand. And she’s like, “Toumani, you’re on my worry list as well.” Uh he was three of 13 from three. He got baited into taking a lot of of of transition threes. Those are wide open shots. Um I don’t hate him. Looking at Tumani shots all year. I don’t hate him. He’s shooting 6.7 almost seven attempts a game. Over over six and a half threes a game on average. He’s shooting 31.7% on threes, under 32%. He was a above average three-point shooter last season on like five and a half attempts a game. The number of attempts doesn’t bother me for Tumani. Seven or eight threes a night is fine for someone like him. In fact, I don’t want Tumani Kamar passing up threes and driving into nowhere. That’s the worst version of Tumani on offense. um straight line drives where he gets to the rim, but like when he gets stopped like he doesn’t pass well off the bounds, his handle’s not super strong and he often just, you know, turns the ball over driving into nowhere. I want him to shoot I particularly want him to shoot catch and shoot threes. I think mostly his diet of shots are quality looks and he’s bricking him. He’s on my worry list. Yikes. Um I I don’t I they just need too many money to be better. Sharp I think is a bigger deal because it’s like his sort of you know his we’re we’re in some ways putting like his ceiling in question right because it’s like he struggled to money they just like um obviously his ceiling would be greatly changed if he um if if he’s a 32% three-point shooter and not a 36 plus percent three-point shooter like he was last season 37% three-point shooter right um but like Denny or Tumani does a lot of stuff um on the defensive end and he you have to worry about him he’s tone setter there. Sharp’s value is on offense and that’s has been a slo for him and I think he was like pretty good for the most part in this Heat game and they just had a really weird final five minutes. Um they’re both officially on on the worry list. Okay, real quick. The Blazers are going to close. They’re going to play the Magic on Monday evening. Um it is it is the fourth consecutive game when they’ve played teams with a rest advantage. Uh the Blazers are two and two. Their wins over Golden State and Oklahoma City, of course, their losses to the short-handed Lakers and the short-handed Heat. The Heat of course playing this game. I don’t know why I didn’t mention this till the 32minute mark of the show. But um without Bam Adabio, I don’t even count them playing without Tyler Hero. He hasn’t played all year. It’s not like he was added to the list. That’s he’d have been all all year a team without Tyler Herro. But but Bam Adabio’s missed the last two games and could miss more time. It looks like um so like the shortanded he the shortanded Lakers second night of a backto-back. You have to win those. Blazer 500 on the year and and and and this season according to teamranker.com the NBA uh in NBA teams through Saturday were exactly 500 in games uh played where where a team uh has a rest advantage. Uh and last year the uh the league average or the win percentage on on those games was 54% uh.540 in 23 24.52 in 2223.542. Over the last three seasons, teams with a rest advantage have won about 54% of their games. Obviously, bad teams are bad, right? Like the Wizards exist last year. It’s like, oh, that team’s awful. Like Brooklyn is it looks like they’re going to be pretty bad this year. Team’s awful. Like some bad teams are going to lose even when they have a rest advantage, right? You could be as tired and as as short-handed as you want. You might just thrash some teams. But but um the Blazers having these rest advantage games against teams that are also missing good players. This is the difference in winning 39 games and 43 games. This is the difference in winning 40 games and 36 games, right? Like these little marginy games. Obviously, like if you say, okay, they’ve played four of these and they should have won 54%. That’s a little over two. Like, right. It’s not like they they’re way under. But this Magic game is just is it is it closes out this stretch. The Magic who uh split a pair with the uh with Boston over the over the weekend. Um they lost on Sunday. So, like shout out to Afrey Simons for that win. But like it’s um this these are these aren’t I don’t think they’re like underperforming relative to expectations, but if you are going to be where the Blazers want to be. The league average the league average over the last three seasons says you win a little more than half of these games. Five of your first 10 games coming with a rest with a rest advantage against teams playing on the road with a rest advantage. playing teams under 500 now with Orlando with the rest advantage, the short-handed Lakers, the shortanded Heat. It’s like I I’m I’m this isn’t like it’s just the little the difference in what is going to be considered a successful awesome year from the Blazers is like 43 wins and a underachieving year is going to be like, “Oh, well, they won 37 games. They won one more than last year.” Like blah blah blah. and you drop three of these here and there and then some other, you know, random bad luck and random good luck sort of evens out. Three, four games is the difference in a totally different perception of this team. So, like finding a way to TCB take care of business in these games is is huge. Um, uh, Orlando Atlanta’s offense been pretty bad. Uh, it seems like a good get-right game for the Blazers on defense to just kind of lock a team up and see if they can play really fast against them. Uh we I’ll get you covered after that game. Come back and uh listen to the program uh five days a week where we get podcasts also on YouTube. I appreciate you listening. I will talk to you soon.

Recapping the Trail Blazers loss to the Miami Heat. The final two minutes decide the game and Portland’s crunch time execution remains an issue.

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