Official Whine, Moan, Complain Thread 19/20-CLOSED "WE CHAMPS!"

I do agree with this, but I think it's pretty obvious this is 100% on us. I respect Dame as a player, he's fantastic. The Blazers are a solid and likable team, but when we lose against them it's mostly because we beat ourselves. They are giving us what we need to win. We're just not able to take what they are offering, so to speak. This is a historically bad shooting performance. It hasn't been seen in years even in the regular season, let alone in the playoffs. It doesn't matter that Dame had a very good game and that other players, Melo included, contributed. None of that would matter one bit, if we could just go for an average or even slightly below average shooting night. We'd still be winning by at least 4-5 if not by double digits. The game was played the Lakers way consistently. It's exactly what we wanted to do - keep it relatively tame scoring-wise. And it still didn't matter, which is incredibly frustrating.

 

Oh, we could be down by 10 early in the 1st if we continue starting Green, KCP and McGee.

 

The Raptors, who had the best bubble showing of all contenders, are somehow losing against this D-League team... and yes, even those guys who are complete unknowns (no disrespect, I just don't know who they are) are shooting better than us.




The only think that makes me feel better is that the Bucks also lost their game 1 - against a worse opponent, BTW - and that Toronto might be 1-1 after this. But it should not make me feel better, if we're being honest. Wish we had Sasha now, he could shoot in practice and without crowd that's how these games feel, or at least that's what Bron is telling me, LOL.

 

A day later and I’m still pissed. I do believe we win this series but our team better be living in the gym getting up shots. Stevie Wonder could make more baskets then these guys.

 

I mean, I hate hearing this. I just hate it. Who cares what seed we are, the starting guards are complete and utter garbage. His faith in them somehow fixing their broken shooting is ridiculous. Sub them out if they stink. Start Kuz!!! And play Waiters ffs, that's why we signed him was to bring some buckets when needed.

 

We actually watched 3-on-3 basketball for an entire possession in a PLAYOFF basketball game because 4 players simply walked back very slowly. Two of those were our superstars.

Unacceptable.

 

I think we all knew this was coming, but this gets under my skin when I see how Dame has been favored in the ref treatment all bubble long. The dude gets to jump into opponents and get calls like that phantom foul against Caruso last night in the fourth for three FTS. Glad we at least made them review it, but I haven't seen anyone but Harden ever get calls like that. It's garbage. And HE'S GOOD ENOUGH not to have to get that added benefit from the refs. So that quote from him is hypocritical IMO. Besides, Portland has been relegating themselves to being a jump shooting team at this point. That's why they are not getting whistles other than Dame's ridiculous jump into the opponent calls.



Blazers' Damian Lillard: Hard to beat Lakers when they live at free throw line

That deficit remained wide throughout the game. In fact, the Lakers shot 24 more free throws than the Trail Blazers, marking their widest disparity in attempts at the line in a postseason game since a 2008 playoff game in which they shot 27 more free throws than the Utah Jazz, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

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  Ultimately, the Lakers shot 28-of-43 from the free throw line, and Portland shot 18-of-19. The Lakers won despite missing 15 free throws, the most misses by any team in a playoff win since 2015, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
  
  "The discrepancy in free throws is something that's out of our control," said Trail Blazers star point guard Damian Lillard. "Last game, we came out, [and] they played a really physical game. They played a really aggressive game. That led to a blowout victory for them.
  
  "Tonight, we came in saying we weren't going to get bullied and let them out-physical and out-aggressiveness us, and maybe sometimes we did foul, but they're a physical team as well. When a team is living at the free throw line like they did tonight as a team, it's going to be hard to win a game against a team that's as good as they are."
  
  Lillard played his first game since dislocating his left index finger in Thursday's Game 2 loss. He finished with a team-high 34 points on 8-of-20 shooting, including 5-of-11 from the 3-point line. He tallied seven assists and five rebounds.
  
  "Obviously, I dislocated it, so it's going to have some effect on ballhandling," Lillard said of his finger. "Tonight, the biggest thing I felt was just going up to shoot, when I was gathering the ball, I was uncomfortable. Sometimes I would subconsciously try to ease up on it, so I would lose the ball a little bit. When I was making moves, in the middle of my dribble, I would ease up on it because I would feel the pain, and I would lose the ball a little bit. It kind of stopped me in my tracks. I did as much treatment as I could, and I tried to just ignore it. But once you decide to step out there, it is what it is."
  
  Despite being in a 2-1 series hole, Lillard said he isn't discouraged.
  
  "I've been in worse situations in a series," he said. "We've got to get the next game. We get the next one, and it's a tied series. That's perfectly fine with me."
  
  Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony, who scored 20 points, including 13 in the third quarter, echoed Lillard's point.
  
  "Oh, we're good," Anthony said. "I think we're good. It's only 2-1. We have a series. We've got to make some adjustments. Game 4, we know the implications on what that means. ... We're sitting in a good situation. We're not concerned. We know what we have to do.
  
  "We'll be ready [for] Game 4. I thought we were ready tonight. [Anthony Davis] got it going, LeBron [James] got it going. They made their adjustments, and we've just got to make ours and get ready for Game 4."