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[Post Game Thread] The Portland Trail Blazers (11-29) defeat The Brooklyn Nets (16-24) 105-103



[Post Game Thread] The Portland Trail Blazers (11-29) defeat The Brooklyn Nets (16-24) 105-103

by Kazekid

30 Comments

  1. Grant got us there and Ant finished it off FUCK YEAH

  2. Piano9717

    Here are some of my thoughts watching the game:

    Positives:

    * I like the starting lineup – gets more offensive juice and spacing around Ant to prevent the blitzes, and puts the ball in Scoot’s hands more in the second unit.
    * Grant had a hell of a game tonight. I’m generally not a fan of Grant postups, but I gotta give him credit – some of his post footwork looked like Hakeem out there tonight it was ridiculous, and he had an extremely clutch rebound to put us ahead (since when can you say Grant did a good job rebounding?) Also I thought playing him playing the 3 was interesting – even if it’s not his natural long-term position, he looked pretty good taking advantage of some size mismatches inside and I think it’s an interesting wrinkle. And Jabari was able to help Reath on the glass, which is nice because a frontcourt of Reath and Grant is just automatically going to lose the rebound battle every day.
    * Reath had an extremely efficient game offensively. He hit his shots, attacked closeouts, and hustled. Great to see.
    * Camara had a few nice looking drives and got some deflections. I also thought his lack of offensive impact was minimized coming off the bench as opposed to starting.

    Negatives:

    * Zone offense – for a team that plays so much zone defense, our zone offense is horrendously ugly. Statistically it was probably OK because Grant was hitting a bunch of contested shots, but we didn’t do a good job of attacking the middle of the Nets’ 2-3 zone and kept passing the ball around the perimeter instead of flashing middle and attacking the FT line area (beside the one baseline out of bounds play where Reath hit a midrange jumper). Just really poor execution.
    * The offense in general featured a ton of standing around and broke down pretty much every possession, leading to some form of stagnant ISO against a short shot clock. Credit to the Nets for switching everything defensively when they were in man – we were unable to punish mismatches (and for Claxton for holding up on the perimeter against our guards) but still a really disappointing showing.
    * Ant was questionable tonight because of an illness and it showed. Never seen him look so gassed before in a game – by the fourth quarter he was completely winded and putting his hands on his knees every dead ball. Also speaking of Ant, I thought it was interesting that he was off the ball most of the game while Scoot or Brogdon ran PG and brought the ball up. Not sure if this was a permanent change or a one-game thing because Ant was sick, but noteworthy. (also he gets zero respect from the refs while driving it’s absolutely wild). Glad he was able to summon enough energy to turn it around in the fourth quarter, because he hit some enormous shots when we didn’t have anything going on offense down the stretch (including the game winner).
    * Scoot had a terrible stretch in the third quarter where he had 3 turnovers and 2 missed shots while the Nets went on a huge run. In general, I think he’s been really deferential and not looking to attack, which was a little bit disappointing. The thing that stood out to me is that at this point, he doesn’t really do a very good job of eating up space when defenders gap him on the ball – if you watch guys like Giannis (which I know isn’t a great comparison because Giannis has the physique of a Greek god), Eric Bledsoe, Westbrook, or even Ja, when defenders gapped them and disrespected their shot they use the extra space as a runway to get momentum going towards the rim – and I think Scoot can learn from that.
    * Thybulle’s steal streak ended. Sad ☹
    * More Brooke and less Haberstroh. That is all.

  3. Malcolm seems like a good mentor for ant and the young guys. Gonna miss him

  4. Ant loves hitting game winners on Mikal lol. Pheonix, Brooklyn, it doesnt matter come get this smoke🤣

  5. Dazzling_Speech9996

    8 vs 5 and still got the W, fuck the refs

  6. Sensitive-Sorbet917

    Team was on a diff level tonight. Hungry

  7. DenominatorOfReddit

    I’m terribly disheartened to see that the drug epidemic in Portland has now spread to the refs in the NBA.

  8. X_SkeletonCandy

    the look on the nets faces realizing they got swept by the 2023-2024 blazers was hilarious

  9. Refs tried to fix it, but Ant with the cold fuck you floater couldn’t be denied.

  10. drama_observer

    we simply need to play the brooklyn nets for the remaining 45 games of the season and we may never lose again

  11. RandyJoeP

    Ant has all the room in the world to talk mad shit to Mikal over the summer. 2 game winners on him? Easy money.

  12. SlamDunkleyKong

    Great game from Grant and Brogdon.

    Stinker from Scoot. He’s gonna need a few years off the bench to get where he needs to be.

    Camara and Walker back to roles that suit them.

    Reath looking steady. Good minutes from Badji too.

    Huge shot from Ant and really good decision making down the stretch.

  13. Sensitive-Sorbet917

    We’ve seen a lot more emotion from ant this season love it

  14. MurdocksTorment

    Disappointed Ayton couldn’t make it but, with a probable dusty return maybe we wouldn’t have pulled this one out. Good fun win and decent officiating.

  15. It’s great that Grant was our leading rebounder and was efficient offensively but it’s crazy he took 26 shots and didn’t draw even 1 foul

  16. redwheelbarrow_

    Damn Ant really likes game-winners on Mikal lmao

  17. rexter2k5

    Ant with a vintage Dame game. Stink it up early. Roll in late. Win the ball game. Grant out here proving his quality to the trade everyone crowd. Reath playing a complete game on both sides of the ball. Brogdon bringing out the anti-tank shell and bombing from long-range.

    Having seen all that, now imagine losing to the tanking Blazers. Twice. Gotta give them credit. Refs really tried to cover.

    Edit: [TAKE ME TO ELECTRIC AVENUE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=vtPk5IUbdH0)

  18. Brooklyn wanted how many firsts for Bridges? He was getting cooked all night

  19. StudentLoanSlave1

    I like these guys. They’re young and they’re hungry. Glad to see the passion. Do we even need ayton? Duop has been great.

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