孟菲斯灰熊队在星期二在Moda Center击败了Portland Trail Blazers，98-81，将波特兰的记录落到33-13。
周二在Moda Center击败了波特兰赛·布拉泽，98-81，将波特兰的纪录落到33-13。
在他们最糟糕的赛季最糟糕的情况下，波特兰并没有让它走向帕尼科维尔的高速公路，但他们确实受到问责制大道，挫折农场，灵魂搜索城市和信任镇。情绪性的公路旅行是可以理解的，也许是有必要的，鉴于一切与计划相反的程度。
燃烧者设定了一个新的季节低点（81），燃烧者得分低于90这季节的第二次（但也是第二次在两场比赛中）的点，西装外套的替补队为点（6）奠定了新的赛季，连续第二个晚上拍摄了低于35％以下的盛会西装外套为失败的缘线设定了新的高度（17），燃烧者在本赛季的第三次失去了至少15分（但也是两场比赛中的第二次），这一季节第一次迷失了对手不到100分，燃烧者在上个月下跌至9-8，并且只要任何人都可以记住，他们第一次就可以记住，他们每NBA都会陷入困境中的进攻效率的2号。COM /统计数据。
“我们之前没有丢失这次许多游戏，所以是的，”一个简林斯阿尔德里奇当被问及本赛季被问到这是波特兰的第一个真正的逆境。
这是跳跃的粗糙和生气的表现，因为教练特里斯特斯不得不在游戏中使用110秒的超时孟菲斯拿到8-0领先之后。波特兰直到第四季度，甚至在游戏中作为与当地MLS俱乐部的交叉促销的一部分的木材乔伊甚至是木材乔伊，都有麻烦让他的T恤大炮妥善发射。 Joey fiddled and fiddled with the trigger before flashing a thumbs down to the crowd; it was that kind of night.
"Maybe I shouldn't pick Bruce Springsteen for the warm-up song any more," Robin Lopez joked, but that bit of levity was rare in the locker room afterwards, both for the Blazers center and his teammates.
An unstoppable offense has been this team's calling card for the entire season and, for the second time in as many games, it looked mortal. Worse than mortal, really. The defense was even worse, as the Blazers conceded 61 first-half points and got down by as many as 18 before halftime, later getting buried in a 24-point deficit in the third quarter.
There were a few scattered boos from the Moda Center crowd, a number of fans headed to the exits early, Twitter outrage arguably hit a high-water mark for the season, and even two die-hard Blazermaniacs like Young Thug and Bloody Jay decided to turn off the game early in the fourth quarter so they could salvage their night by twisting one up and playing a little "FIFA 14" on the X-Box. You couldn't blame them; it was that kind of night.
No matter what your particular complaint or concern about this Blazers team, it was an issue in this game, the Grizzlies made sure of it. That list of irritants started with Portland's inability to defend the point of attack, as Mike Conley looked like the All-Star point guard in this contest, gliding his way to 19 points (on 8-for-14 shooting) and 7 assists.
"Mike Conley was absolutely fantastic tonight," Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger gushed. "He set the tone early, he ran guys into people, he set people up off the dribble, he got his jump shot going, he got to the basket, he dropped it off. I mean, I like my guy. I won't say anything about anybody else's guy, but I love our point guard."
The 26-year-old Ohio State product, in the midst of a career year, played with the quickness of a 22-year-old and the mind of a 30-year-old. He did everything Joerger mentioned, and more, helping his team shoot nearly 60 percent in the first half by prodding into danger zones, playing a half-step (or more) faster than his opposition, and starting the chain reaction passes that wind up breaking a team's defense later in the shot clock. His presence opened the door wide for Memphis's burly bigs -- Zach Randolph (23 points and 10 rebounds) and Marc Gasol (15 points and 8 rebounds) -- and that outside/inside combination was overwhelming and disorienting for Portland.
"We didn't do a very good job of controlling the ball," Stotts admitted. "We were caught scrambling sometimes when we shouldn't have been scrambling, we should have been a little more solid with our stunts, not get into rotations, that was some of it. We got off to a bad start from the jump. We had some bad execution offensively, get down 8-0. I don't know if we were quite ready. That's on me."
The coach wasn't alone in falling on his sword.
"I wasn't giving the effort I should have been," said Lopez, who posted 14 points (on 4-for-10 shooting) and 5 rebounds. "We shed a little blood, [Memphis] lunged for the jugular. Those were really self-inflicted wounds. We cut ourselves in the throat."
The defensive issues and slow starts have been recurring problems for Portland, but the impotence on offense is a new wrinkle. So many times this season, simply playing 48 minutes of offense has been sufficient to cover up warts on the other end, weak stretches of effort, and patches of slow or sloppy play. Not the last two games.
Credit due to both the Warriors, who are an excellent defensive team when both Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala are playing, and to the Grizzlies, who looked far more like the rough-and-tumble, playoff-tested menace that we've come to expect in recent years, rather than the below-average defensive unit that limped along during Marc Gasol's injury absence earlier this year.
Fatigue and schedule factors are also worth noting (and were noted in the locker room): the Memphis game marked Portland's eighth in 12 days, with little let-up from game-to-game in terms of the quality of the opposition.
Until Tuesday, though, the Blazers had exhibited a damn near pure faith in their offensive system. Rightfully so. The (formerly, for now) league-leading outfit has been fine-tuned to its players' strengths, it has been designed with contingencies upon contingencies, it has produced a seemingly never-ending supply of open shots, and it has generally found answers through a collective, rather than an individualistic approach. Against the Grizzlies, Portland registered just 18 assists, their fourth-lowest total of this season. This, after tallying just 16 against the Warriors on Sunday, their second-lowest total of the season. Assists spike when shots fall; shooting percentages spike when instinctive unselfishness is at its peak. It's a chicken and an egg thing, no doubt, but the farm has been empty these last two games.
"We've gotten away from some of the ball movement that's important for us," Stotts said, venturing out into uncharted waters for this season. "We need each other, to help each other on the offensive end. It's a hallmark of what's gotten us to this point. I think it's somewhat human nature for players -- everybody has a lot of confidence in themselves, when things are going poorly, they want to help the team. That's when you have to trust each other even more."
While a somewhat grumpy Aldridge stuck tightly to the "guys just missed shots" script, a number of his teammates reflected on Stotts' trust theme.
"That's when we're at our best, when the ball is flying around the perimeter, L.A. kicking it out, going around the horn, someone making a shot," Wesley Matthews, who finished with 8 points (on 2-for-9 shooting) and 5 assists, told Blazersedge. "But in order to do that, we've got to get stops. [These] teams can play defense, teams are loading up on us. Teams know what we can do. We've got to get stops to push our offensive tempo."
Even though he's a center, and usually last on the pecking order when it comes to both passing and shooting, Lopez understood Stotts' point, remembering a specific sequence against the Grizzlies.
"It's not out of selfishness," Lopez told Blazersedge. "It's us, in our minds, trying to help the team. One possession sticks out in my mind where I probably should have hit L.A. on a high-low [pass]. That led to me taking a left-handed jump hook. I think if we make that extra pass, we're going to be OK. We've done it all season long, we'll get back to that."
Damian Lillard, who is shooting just 38.9 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from deep over the last 11 games, said that while "confidence would never be a problem" for him, he does feel like the "flow of the game isn't coming for us" like it was earlier in the season. Conley handily won their match-up, but a productive fourth quarter helped Lillard finish with 16 points (on 7-for-16 shooting) and three assists, applying some lipstick to the pig.
"It's natural as a competitor to want to do something to help your team," Lillard told Blazersedge. "We catch ourselves doing that right now because it's kind of a tough situation. ... Everybody is trying to find out what they can do to help the team when things kind of get sideways."
Asked if he could think of recent plays where he, like Lopez, would have handled things differently, Lillard nodded but preferred to speak in generalities and in the second person.
"There are times when you can pass up a good shot for a great shot," he explained. "Or you just might not see [the right pass]. I [don't] think we're looking each other off, sometimes there's times we might not see each other. ... We've got to see it on film, get back to how we were playing."
Taken together, this wasn't panic, or really anything in the general genre of panic. Still, the intensity and variety of the self-critiques, combined with the fact that many of the thoughts focused on the offense, which has been the team's identity and biggest strength, left an impression unlike any other post-game setting this year. "Doubt" might be too strong a word, but there was a concern akin to an emperor who realized that he was, at least momentarily, clothes-less, or a hospital patient grasping for a crutch that was unexpectedly nowhere to be found.
The dream part of the dream season is officially in the past, and the present, everyone seemed to agree, is problematic enough that it requires addressing. "We've got to be willing to challenge each other," Lillard said. "The intensity wasn't there," Lopez added. "We've got to stop the skid, stop the bleeding," Matthews concluded.
As it turns out, the offense might not always be there for the Blazers; yes, it's impressive that it took until almost February for that to become a proven, repeated fact. Plenty of additional tests await between now and the All-Star break, though, including a number of road games, a number of games against staunch defenses, and (gulp) multiple road games against staunch defenses.
"This is going to give us a chance to focus on other areas of the game we need to improve," Lopez said finally, finishing off perhaps his most candid locker room session of the season. "Just like somebody who loses one sense, all of their other senses improve. That's hopefully what will happen to us."
Random Game Notes
Terry Stotts' Post-Game Comments
Opening comments
It's a disappointing game. Needless to say. We got off to a slow start, we caught a team that's starting to put it together. They're on a roll. They're playing very well. They showed that in the first half. Defensively in the second half we did an excellent job but the offense couldn't quite catch up with it. The hole was too big. Give credit to Memphis, they're playing really well. They made their perimeter shots, penetrated, we could have done a better job defensively in the first half. They're playing very well.
Shooting struggles
Missed shots.
Anything different they were doing?
Not particularly, no.
Third quarter scoring
I don't know, twice in two games, I don't think that's enough sample size to say that there's a theme there. We've been a very good third quarter team all year. Things have a tendency to work themselves out.
Offense
I think we can move the ball better. I think we've gotten away from some of the ball movement that's important for us. We need each other, to help each other on the offensive end. It's a hallmark of what's gotten us to this point. I think it's somewhat human nature for players -- everybody has a lot of confidence in themselves, when things are going poorly, they want to help the team. That's when you have to trust each other even more.
Team's psyche
I'm always worried about the psyche. The NBA is a long season. You're going to go through rough patches. You can't get too high or too low. We've done a great job with that throughout the year. We have to continue to do that.
Concerned about the shooting?
I'm concerned in that I'd like to be making shots, but we have too many good shooters for it to continue. We'll get back on a hot streak. Percentages kind of work themselves out.
Slump? Fatigue?
Whatever the definition of a slump is, we've played a lot of games lately. We've done a lot of traveling. No one likes to use fatigue or the schedule as an excuse. But it is a reality. We need to catch our breath, get our minds and bodies right, and be ready to play on Saturday.
Eliminated from coaching All-Star
I was eliminated when we lost to Oklahoma City.
Can you talk about being in contention this late?
No. That's not even a story or an issue.
First-half defense
We didn't do a very good job of controlling the ball. They had five offensive rebounds to our five defensive rebounds in the first quarter. They made their perimeter shots. Memphis -- for us to be even at halftime at points in the paint, against a team that thrives in the paint, was a good thing for us, but they made their perimeter shots. They made their threes, they're not necessarily a three-point shooting team, they made their threes.
We were caught scrambling sometimes when we shouldn't have been scrambling, we should have been a little more solid with our stunts, not get into rotations, that was some of it. We got off to a bad start from the jump. We had some bad execution offensively, get down 8-0. I don't know if we were quite ready. That's on me.
LaMarcus Aldridge
LaMarcus was really the only guy we had going early. After the poor start offensively, LaMarcus really kept us afloat.
Damian Lillard, last few games
He's not making shots. He's competing, he's playing hard. He's trying to do whatever he can to help us win. I don't think you define a guy, how he's playing, by whether he makes or misses shots.
-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter
孟菲斯灰熊队解决了如何在NBA，双组合林马库中捍卫最佳进攻的难题Aldridge在没有放弃三角形或进攻篮板的情况下，因为它们粉碎了波特兰径燃烧器98-81，持有波特兰到一个季节低。
新闻闪存：孟菲斯灰熊是一个相当体面的防守团队。
其他新闻闪光：西兰花是绿色的，网络电视糟透了，和运动插图可能会出现在今年的泳装问题。
唯一的词来描述灰熊在今晚是精湛。他们组成了一个交响曲，从联盟中最适合的罪行中调整到沮丧的呻吟声。与此同时，西装外套通过果汁竖琴，两个哈普斯，以及“最好的嘻哈”歌曲。结果并不漂亮：波特兰的损失为98-81亏损，在过程中设置的分数是低的。 By contrast, the Blazers suffered from serious attention and energy deficits on defense. From the outset they defended screens ineptly. They got bumped off, ran the wrong way, or just slowed to a half-hearted jog when confronted with a pick. Memphis started the game hitting wide-open mid-range jumpers. Those soon morphed into rolls through the paint. It was a disaster. Then the Blazers started helping against penetration without rotating out to three-point shooters. That multiplied the disaster by 1.5. When Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph added insult to injury by popping multiple jumpers over LaMarcus Aldridge and Robin Lopez this game was over. The Blazers needed some kind of miracle--forced turnovers, a flurry of offensive boards, a landslide of foul shots--to have any kind of chance. The first two never came. Portland did manage a 22-10 advantage in free throw shots but even a extra-healthy +11 from the strip wasn't enough to save them from the blowout. Portland had only 58 points by the end of the third and needed 23 to catch up to the Grizz. Since they'd barely scored 23 in a quarter up to that point, the chances of them making up that many points equaled "nonexistent". A smattering of near-meaningless threes, quickly answered by the Grizz, gave them their only real run of the game but they still dropped it by 17. If you want the ugliness in full blazing Technicolor you need look no farther than Portland's 34.5% rate from the floor and 16.7% (4-24) clip from the three-point arc. All 4 of those triples fell in the blowout-colored fourth period too. Before that point the Blazers were 0-16 from beyond the arc. Every other stat save the free throws mentioned above ended up mundane for the Blazers but it might not have mattered anyway. The Grizzlies shot 52% from the field and 42% from the arc. You're not going to overcome that kind of shooting disparity easily. Individual Notes LaMarcus Aldridge ended up with a more than respectable line: 11-23 for 27 points, 16 rebounds, and 2 blocks. But the Grizzlies made him work for every look. If they gave out Grammys for Best-Timed Double Teaming, Closest Shadowing in the Lane, and Fair-But-Firm Physicality the Grizz would have swept the awards and been invited to sing onstage with Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake. Damian Lillard had 16 points of off 7-16 shooting, 2-9 from distance. But you can forget the three-point struggles. His defense is killing the product right now. When you hear "trouble covering screens" this is the very first place you should point. 3 assists matched against 3 turnovers doesn't help. Wesley Matthews had a sub-par night as well, shooting only 2-9, 2-6 from distance for 8 points. In addition to messing up Aldridge the Grizzlies were near-heroic in rotating to Portland shooters. Matthews did garner 5 assists. Nicolas Batum registered another aggressive first period offensively but once again disappeared after that. He finished the game with 10 points on 4-11 shooting, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. This is a pale imitation of the Batum we saw earlier in the season. Robin Lopez turned into Portland's main scorer in the third period, pouring in 7 points. He was also the most active non-Aldridge player the Blazers fielded tonight. The caveats: Memphis could care less about the 7 points because the Blazers scored only 12 in that quarter, Lopez managed only 5 rebounds on the night (but give him 6 for forcing Kosta Koufos to tip it out of bounds once), and the prowess of Memphis' big men allowed Lopez to defend pretty much nobody effectively. The Grizz shot over him when he stayed home and passed or drove around him when he went out to try and defend. Portland's bench played scatter-shot shifts tonight with 7 players sharing 56 total minutes. They barely hit a shot (2-18), barely scored (6 total points to 25 from the Memphis reserves), managed only 9 rebounds, and left everybody wishing the starters would hurry back in even though they, too, were getting blown away. Mo Williams' 1-7 shooting clip and C.J. McCollum's defense were sore spots. Thomas Robinson and Joel Freeland rebounding were small positives even though both lacked in other ways. The Blazers get to rest until Saturday when they welcome the Toronto Raptors to town before embarking on yet another long and nasty road trip. That Saturday win could be pretty important. Timmay's Instant Recap and Gameday Thread Review Grizzly Bear Blues will be rightfully proud of their team tonight. Your Jersey Contest Results are HERE. We'll have a form up for Toronto before Saturday. Tonight's Jersey Contest answers: Mike Conley got more assists than Damian Lillard. Memphis shot a higher percentage from the field. Marc Gasol had more combined points, rebounds, and blocks than Robin Lopez. Conley scored over 18 points (by 1). We're doing a check to confirm our January Jersey Contest winner. Stay tuned! --Dave (blazersub@gmail.com)
Portland Trail Blazers温柔地击败了孟菲斯灰熊队的孟菲斯，他们的第二次直接丑陋，不平衡损失连续。这是在12天内为6个城市延伸8场比赛的最后一次游戏，所有人都针对西方会议季后赛竞争者，它显示出来。
Lamarcus Aldridge LED带有27分和16个篮板的燃烧器，但几乎玩家总体上有一个遗忘的夜晚。
在过去的12天里，波特兰在达拉斯，圣安东尼奥，休斯顿，圣安东尼奥，奥克兰和波特兰三次分散游戏中播放。所有8场比赛都针对西方会议的争夺队队伍。这是“时间表损失”的经典定义，因为孟菲斯休息并等待这场比赛，并饥饿地出来了。
第一季度：对粗略的开始。燃烧者早期表现出疲惫，随着赌注的爵拉泽尔越来越多地进入前10分，强迫超时。不知何故，波特兰发出奔跑，因为巴图子和阿尔德里奇在本季度引导他们回来，在最后几分钟内将赤字削减到2。但就像那样，灰熊队利用了一些错误，快速运行跳跃9次跳跃。
孟菲斯31，波特兰22 GOSH ......糟糕的开始......糟糕完成... 第二季度：的东西继续滚动下坡，孟菲斯在最初的几分钟内推动了13次。 Portland continued to miss three-pointers, and the bench couldn't bail out the starters tonight. Mike Conley's three-pointer bumped the lead to 17. Portland finally made an adrenaline-fueled run late, but that led to dumb mistakes and turnovers, giving Memphis the relatively easy ability to maintain their lead. Memphis 61, Portland 46 I didn't spend five hours in traffic and then walking two miles in the snow to make it home just in time to see this! C’mon Blazers!!!! Third Quarter: Portland couldn't put together a run, as Memphis' lead reached 20 at the halfway point. The live crowd (and by proxy, every fan watching) grumbled as they realized they were watching one of the ugliest games of the season, just two days after the previous ugly one. Possession after possession, the Blazers just couldn't get the ball in the hoop. Memphis' defense wasn't helping, but the Blazer team we'd previously seen could have scored anyway. This team still hadn't hit a three-pointer through the third quarter. When former Blazer Zach Randolph hit a jumper, the Grizz led by 24, and looked relaxed and in control. The Blazers looked completely frustrated after scoring 12 points. Memphis 81, Portland 58 Fourth Quarter: Lillard finally hit the Blazers' first three pointer of the game to open the quarter, with Meyers Leonard completing a four point play. Portland made a late run, but Memphis easily held them off. What's Next: Finally, three full days off for the Blazers. They pick things up on Saturday night, when the Raptors come to town. Gameday Thread Comments of the Night: Thanks to everyone who participated in tonight's Gameday Thread! As always, here are the most popular comments, based on the number of Rec's from their fellow fans:
Slickrick1987
by blazermaniac32
欢迎来到Blazer 's Edge的Gameday Open Thread !这是一个和你的粉丝朋友们一起享受今晚庆祝活动的地方。就像你在当地的酒吧看一场比赛一样，但最好不要用语言。预计会有一些分歧，以及相当程度的情绪变化。但我们会一起度过难关的。
Hang out and enjoy the game! -- Tim
欢迎来到Blazer 's Edge的Gameday Open Thread !这是一个和你的粉丝朋友们一起享受今晚庆祝活动的地方。就像你在当地的酒吧看一场比赛一样，但最好不要用语言。预计会有一些分歧，以及相当程度的情绪变化。但我们会一起度过难关的。
Hang out and enjoy the game! -- Tim