Happy Frickin' Halloween.
The season is already a nightmare for Blazers fans as they are down two starters with Oden hurting his foot in the first quarter of his first game and Webster out with a stress fracture. But, who cares about them, I'm a Spurs fan.
Our Spurs: 0-1
Them Blazers: 0-1
Our Starting Spurs: Tony Parker, Michael Finley, Bruce Bowen, Tim Duncan, Fabricio Oberto
Them Starting Blazers: Brandon Roy, Steve Blake, Travis Outlaw, LaMarcus Aldridge, Joel Pryzbilla
(I hope to work in some of LatinD's cool data from last year into these threads. Be patient. LatinD: send me an email.)
Officials: Willard, Brown, Phillips
Keys To The Game:
Bruce Bowen on Brandon Roy: If you shut down Roy, you have chopped the head off the snake and thrown it in the disposer. Bruce only played 20 minutes against the Suns, so he should be extra fresh.
Duncan on whoever: With Oden out, who will cover Duncan. Pryzbilla is big enough to cause him problem, but I think he'll kill Aldridge down in the block.
Our bench: We need something from the Not-Tim and Not-Tony crowd.
Some other reading:
Check out Rip City Project and the Blazers Edge for some more reading. Both sites have guys that do some really good content. Really, you should check them out. But, if you comment, be respectful. Yes, I'm talking to you SiMA.
Other:
I think I know what Greg Oden's foot looks like. Unfortunately, I used up my foot photo last game.
My quick thoughts on the Suns game:
Tim and Tony looked great, but they carried the team too much.
I don't know that anybody else looked like they could even carry the team for 2 minutes.
Bonner and the FinDog played too much.
Mason seemed solid.
Why did Bruce only play 20 minutes? Did he get put in the dog house? Is Pop saving him? It looks like Bruce played about 2 minutes out of the last 18.
We need our youth movement. Hill, Ian, and Tolliver need to get some minutes. If for no other reason, to keep me interested.