Discontinuity -- n. 1. Lack of continuity, logical sequence, or cohesion.
2. A break or gap. Man, that game was a mess. It was a game that by several metrics the Blazers should be ashamed to have lost, while by other metrics it's a wonder they were even in it to begin with. So the stats analysis is discontinuous. But that's just the beginning, just one layer. It was the way the Blazers played, the way the Nuggets played, the pace of play, the scoring patterns, even the types of plays and types of calls made. The entire game epitomized gaps, breaks, irregularity and lack of sequence. And when it was over, my digestive system was feeling pretty discontinuous. It was all the herky and twice the jerky. It was double the slap, hold the tickle. It was barely explicable, if not -in...but of course I'll give it a shot. {Below the fold, that is} |
Discontinuity, let me count thy sons: - The Blazers took TWENTY more shots than the Nuggets did--and fell three points short in part because they made just 35% of them.
- The game was chopped into 90 little pieces called free throw attempts, 49 by the Nuggets, who got a whopping 39% of their total points via the freebie.
- The contest nearly ground to a halt altogether as the teams traded fouls and foul shots back and forth, back and forth. When the whistle blows literally each and every possession by either team--sometimes more than once--that's discontinuity.
- And yet even the discontinuity had continuity!--the players drawing the fouls each time were the same two players, Carmelo Anthony and Brandon Roy.
- Sticking with the free throws, even though Denver got a pantsload of them in the first half (25 I think), they missed a large chunk of them. On the other hand, the Blazers were a perfect 10 for 10 at halftime, and until the waning moments of the game continued to stroke from the line. But what played a major factor in the Nuggets' win? At the very end, Melo made his FTs...and four different Blazers missed at least one freebie, incluiding Oden, who missed both ends with about 19 seconds to play, either of which would have tied the game.
- One last oddity on fouls: with all the foul trouble experienced by the Blazer bigs, who fouled out in this game? Denver's bigs, Nene and Kenyon Martin.
- In a very similar vein, the Blazers had around 10-12 offensive boards in the first half, while Denver had none. That continued well into the third quarter, and they were out-O-boarded 14-5 by the end of the game. But once again when crunch time came, their huge advantage on the glass disappeared--Martin grabbed a key board with 3min left to put the Nugs up 91-89, and with 1:05 left Nene got not one, not two but THREE extra shots before nailing a hook to put Denver up four. That was basically the winning basket.
- How about discontinuity of lineups? The crazy number of fouls took Oden, Przybilla or both off the court for half of the 2nd and 3rd quarters. We saw Twin Towers, No Towers, Three Guard, Juwon Howard played extended minutes...and in the 4th quarter when Melo caught fire, he was guarded by Outlaw, Webster, Roy and even Rudy a couple of times. (None were very successful, obviously).
- The home team playing with rest, got outhustled by the team arriving in town at 4AM to play the second of a back-to-back. WTF?
- Andre Miller, who has made a living driving the bucket and drawing fouls, but is not known for his 3-pt shooting: 3 FTA, 3 3PTA. Rudy Fernandez, generally a jump shooting specialist not known to crash the lane: 8-8 FT. Steve Blake, in there to spread the defense with outside shooting: 0 points.
It was, in the end, a very difficult game to watch--not only for the result, but for the pace, the strange and lopsided way in which the Blazers dominated the Nuggets in almost all the peripheral skills but never built more than a 10 point lead. Does the game hold any future portents? I doubt it; in a lot of ways it seems like a case of the just-didn't-go-rights. On the other hand, things like foul trouble, streaky perimeter shooting and FT down the stretch have been recurring issues with this group, and they all combined to bite them in the ass Thursday. They'll recover and improve, and in the 2nd game of the year (with a number of players having gotten only limited preseason PT) hiccups and discontinuity are to be expected. It's hard to say they should have won the game, but they definitely had multiple chances to do so. On the other hand, take any game, not just one against a quality opponent, and give the Blazers a 34% shooting accuracy. I guarantee you a loss almost every single time with that burden. So either the Blazers overcame a lot to fall short, or had a great night undermined by a complete inability to finish. Whatever--can we play Houston again? Really? On Saturday, in Houston? Well, Oh-KAY then! I predict 60% shooting, and 45 turnovers, plus Jerryd Bayless and Steve Blake foul out--but Dante Cunningham gets a triple double. Just to be on the safe side. |
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