NBA.com article on the Blazers Bench
As of the end of play on Nov. 26, the West is 55-23 head-to-head against the East. The domination is even more stark if you count just the top 11 teams: Grizzlies 4-2 Warriors 4-0 Blazers 7-0 Rockets 5-0 Spurs 5-0 Mavs 5-2 Clippers 4-1 Suns 5-2 Kings 1-0 Pels 2-1 Nugs 4-2 TOTAL: 46-10! Precisely TWO East teams have winning records against the East: the Raptors (4-0) and the Bucks (an improbable 3-0). Maybe those realignment ideas aren't so crazy.
The Oregonian's Joe Freeman seems to think so: "When general manager Neil Olshey shrewdly snatched Lopez in a trade for next to nothing, he didn't just nab a starting center entering his prime, but also the 21st Century version of Buck Williams, a player plugged into an established core at just the right time that helped catapult the Blazers to the next level."
From Tom Ziller: "Under this plan, Portland would face the Kings and Warriors five times each, the Lakers, Clippers and Jazz four times each, the 12 teams in the Big West and Lakes regions three times each and the 12 teams in the Southeast and Atlantic regions twice each. Next year, the schedule against the other Pacific teams would remain, but they'd get three games against each of the 12 Big West and Southeast teams and two games (a home-and-home) against each of the 12 Lakes and Atlantic teams."
the long two is often derided as the "worst shot in basketball." This is a shame, because it tends to lead to people devaluing players like LaMarcus Aldridge, who is the king of the 18-foot elbow jumper, and combined with point guard Damian Lillard, the Trail Blazers have one of the best 1-4 pick and pops in the entire league (and their pick and roll game isn’t too shabby, either). Rounded out by Robin Lopez (aka Shaggy ‘Pez), Nicolas Batum, and Wesley Matthews, the Blazers took the league by storm last year when they cruised out to a massive early season winning streak, before coming down to earth slightly before a compelling series against the Houston Rockets last year. And, ok, they got completely dismantled by the Spurs in the second round, but the Spurs were running roughshod over everyone except the Mavericks during that playoff season. You can’t hold their loss to the eventual NBA champions against them too much. More importantly, they look to have locked into a comfortable core, and are starting to fill out a bench that was threadbare two years ago and simply serviceable last season. Things are looking up for fans of the PDX team, and the enthusiasm is infectious.
开拓者最有可能使西部季后赛在99.5%. Most likely to win their division in the West at 99.1%. 3rd most likely Western Team to finish with #1 seed behind Warriors & Mavs at 18.2%. 3rd most likely Western Team to make the Finals behind Mavs & Warriors at 17.5%. And 3rd most likely NBA Champion in the West (4th overall) behind Mavs & Warriors at 9.8%. Hollinger's Odds are based purely on stats (no subjective component) and derived from a 5000 trial computer simulation of the remaining games of the season.
Check out the graphs that track his improvement compared to other recent ROYs.
I'm glad we've taken advantage of OKC having a bad start to the year, it's looking like the salad days are coming to an end, relatively soon as Westbrook and KD are practicing...
Claver tells ACB.com that he can't go another year without playing and adds, "if it's not here, I'll have to find a solution to this issue."
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