What's up everyone!  I am back with this week's winning pick for the Simulation.  Last night was a tough night for us on the floor as we all painfully watched our beloved Spurs get taken down by the Jazz.  No fear, we are undefeated when I am doing these sims so we SHOULD win tonight.

Just some notes before the jump.  I do play these games out in full to get the most realistic stats that I can so I know it truly isn't a 'simulation' as that would mean cpu vs cpu and let it play out that way. 

As I am a fan of NBA LIVE 10 I do like to play out some of the games but will in the future do the cpu vs cpu.

You can check out my previous simulations by clicking here.

The good stuff now follows. Enjoy and comment please.

The starting lineups for the game:

 My biggest concern going into this game was speed.  Portland has that on their side.  Though we have Tony Parker and his match-up with Steve Blake is to our advantage.  Brandon Roy and Michael Finley.  Finley wouldn't be much of a factor in this game as Manu played 27 minutes. 

Another concern for me in the game was that of LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden, their twin towers.  Oh, remember the days of Timmy and David..........okay sorry.

We win the tip and first thing I wanted to do was establish Duncan down low to try and get the bigs in foul trouble.  Duncan would pace us in the first period hitting the teams first six buckets.  This didn't come from down low.  I had Duncan out by the free throw line, elbow, to be exact and nailed three straight jumpers with him from the same spot.

Later they would jump that spot and then was able to find my shooters on the perimeter.  Richard Jefferson was one that caught on fire along with Duncan.  I would use Jefferson's speed against Martell Webster whom is a good defender.  Would take Jefferson off the dribble and nail some key jumpers as well as get Jefferson open on the wings for a pump fake and slam. 

 
Matt Bonner would nail one of his four threes on the night.

What would be key after the first period, by the way we took a 28-22 lead after one, would be the play of our bench.  Matt Bonner came off and simply shot lights out from the three point line.  Hitting 4 of 5 and finishing with 12 points.

Manu Ginobili would pace the bench with 16 in 27 minutes.  He went 6 for 11 from the floor and 4 of 5 from the free throw line.

DeJuan Blair would get into the act as he finished with 5 points and 5 rebounds.  George Hill added 4, Roger Mason added 6 and Theo Ratliff with 8.

Starters played a lot of minutes and were led by Tony Parker who played 40. Parker finished with 16 points on 8 of 19 shooting. 

Jefferson would celebrate with Manu after he finishes a play while getting fouled.

Jefferson finished with 14 points. Michael Finley added 7 but had his hands full with Brandon Roy who finished the game with 20. 

Just a couple of stats from Portland.  They outrebounded us 54 to 45.  LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden combined for 28 of them.

Final score would be the good guys 102 and the Blazers 92.

Box Score and Stats

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