"...why is his +/- an abysmal -6.4 on one of the worst teams in the entire league? Can a player as obviously good as Durant be secretly bad? (If you’re wondering if any other team’s best player has a negative +/-, the answer is no, unless you count Derrick Rose.) The issue here is Durant’s defense–he makes the Thunder 2.7 points per 100 possessions better offensively, but Durant costs the Thunder a whopping 9.1 points per 100 possessions on defense. This is consistent with last year, when +/- found him to be the worst defender in the League."-SLAM.com
" Portland (6) 37-22 Pace: 85.8 (29), Off: 114.6 (2), Def: 109.8 (18) Even though they've been playing without Greg Oden for the last two weeks, the Blazers' defense is starting to come around (103.3 over the last five games). Combine that with their usually efficient offense and you get a couple of easy wins. They were up 27 on the Spurs at the half on Sunday. " next to pace it has a (29) rank. WHOO!!!
they went jingle jangle jingle all over San Anton!
“波特兰——忘记年轻的开拓者消退down the stretch in the Western Conference playoff chase. If anything, it looks like they're just gaining steam. What other conclusion can we reach after watching Portland win by 18 or more points for the fourth time in six games? The Blazers raced out to a 25-point lead in the first 16 minutes en route to a 102-84 rout of San Antonio -- a team that itself is renowned for surging in March. Portland also got payback for the one stinker in this recent stretch -- a 99-84 loss to a Tim Duncan-less Spurs team in San Antonio on Wednesday. Duncan took the court Sunday, but his return after a three-game absence due to right quad tendinitis resulted in an underwhelming 14 points and four boards. "Call it rust or whatever you want," said Duncan, who said he felt much better physically. "It was just a bad night." Instead it was the Blazers' star duo of LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy who destroyed the Spurs with a medley of midrange jumpers. The two were 10-of-13 in the first quarter, and after the Spurs scored just one point in the first 5:33 of the second quarter, they were down a humbling 46-21. The Spurs didn't get the lead under 20 until the final half-minute -- putting Gregg Popovich into let's-see-what-Malik-Hairston-can-give-us mode by the middle of the second quarter and starting the Blazers fans doing the Wave in the fourth. With the outcome decided so quickly, it left us to ponder other questions ... like how long the Spurs can hang on to the West's No. 2 slot without Manu Ginobili? He was missed terribly during San Antonio's bout of offensive ineptitude in the second quarter -- the time he normally comes in off the bench and dominates opponents' second units. The Spurs had a similar drought to start the fourth, mustering only one point in the first 5:49; between those two stretches they went nearly an entire quarter with only two points. Or we can ponder what the Blazers will do when Greg Oden comes back in the lineup, because they sure seem to do well with Joel Przybilla starting. The Vanilla Gorilla set the tone for the whole evening when he stood up Duncan on a first-quarter drive and then blocked the subsequent shot. With Sunday's win, Portland improved to 13-6 when Oden plays 13 minutes or less. "He did a great job. I wanted to match Joel up with Tim, and he did a nice job of keeping him off the block and making him shoot over the top," said Blazers coach Nate McMillan. Regardless, he may be starting for a while. McMillan said Oden seemed nowhere near ready when he saw him running three days ago, and that he'd likely miss at least a few more games with a chip fracture on his knee. Finally, we might ask how a team on the first game of a road trip could look so exhausted. Between Duncan simply dropping a pass when he was wide open under the basket, Tony Parker air-balling an unmolested 3-pointer after taking ample time to line up the shot, or Ime Udoka needlessly whacking Rudy Fernandez on the side of the head to turn a 3-pointer into an and-one opportunity, the Spurs were both notably off-key and unusually devoid of energy. "It shows a laissez-faire attitude," said Popovich of his team's brutal start. "I'm not sure we came in with the approach or respect that we needed." What we don't have to ask, however, is whether these Blazers belong in the Western playoff picture. Their Playoff Odds -- 96.6 percent coming in and undoubtedly higher now -- are no accident, and neither is their recent string of one-sided wins. Whether they can hold off the likes of Houston and Utah for a top-four seed and home-court advantage remains to be seen ... but whether they belong in that conversation has been proven, emphatically, by their post-All-Star burst."
波特兰的缘故,波波维奇said he is happy the Trail Blazers have regained their status as one of the NBA’s top teams with a roster that represents the community in a first-class manner. "It’s a heck of a team, and only getting better, week by week," he said. "It’s great for the city to have their team back, a team that not only wins, but does it with class. They’re as important here as we are in San Antonio. "There’s not a whole lot of professional stuff going on, expect the Blazers and Spurs in their respective towns, so the people demand teams that compete hard and teams that operate with class, on and off the court. Now, Portland has that again, and I think it’s great for the town and great for the NBA. "They’re going to be a tough matchup for every single team in the league every single night because of the coaching and because of the system. They’re good. They’re back."
"The Spurs have lost four games by 18 or more points this season, all coming against opponents from cities starting with the letter 'P' (Portland twice, Phoenix, Philadelphia)." last I checked, Portland's last win overy San Antonio was by 1
