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Saturday, April 4, 2009

Blazers Thrash Blunder; OKC Tanking Games for Blake's Sake?

Portland blew past the Blunder on Friday night in OKC, 107-72. LaMarcus Aldridge went off for 35 points and 18 rebounds and Steve Blake added 14 points and 10 assists. With Texas coach Rick Barnes at the game, Aldridge nearly matched his highest scoring total of his career (36) and had a key role in three scoring runs that pushed the Blazers to their fourth straight victory by at least 20 points.
Portland, 48-27, moved closer to clinching a playoff spot.

Future ex-Blunder Kevin Durant, also a Barnes student, led OKC with 13 points as the Blunder put up a weak effort in the lopsided loss.

Are the Blunder tanking games to enhance their lottery status? Is their new strategy to "just lose, baby" to potentially get AP Player of the Year, Oklahoma's Blake Griffin? That would cetainly be a feel-good story for the former SuperSonic franchise that desperately needs one. Consider this; Durant, who usually logs heavy minutes, had only 28, along with Westbrook and Green, their three best players. How are you expected to compete when your strongest chance at winning are all sitting on the bench for a quarter of the game? None were in foul trouble. As the season is winding down so are Durant's minutes. Aren't the fan's paying to see him on the court and the team competing?

Blunder: 21-54
Next loss: Sunday vs. Indiana. If they cannot win this game at home, you know something is going on.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

totaly dumping games. I hope they dont even get griffin, that he goes to whoever drafts right before them. that would be sweet.

more corndogs! less Griffin!

JAWA said...

The way I look at it is that should the Blunder win another game or two, then that will possibly provide more potential ammo for the OKC trolls to use to support their claim that the relocation was a good idea, even though the team's performance has nothing to do with the fans' support. However, if they do win again, then their chances of drafting Griffin go down, in which I wouldn't be surprised if they are indeed losing games on purpose to improve their draft lottery status. On the other hand, losing more games will worsen the record the Blunder currently have, which completely throws out the OKC trolls' theory that the team will become "instant winners" in OKC. Of course, if they keep losing, then you'll see a dramatic decrease in attendance (probably won't happen for a while, but it will once the novelty wears off, which I'm sure has already begun), and that could make things a whole lot worse than it is now for Bennett since he's also not doing well with his TV ratings and merchandise sales. Oh well, "boo hoo" to that! So much for his "making a profit in OKC" theory.

And don't worry about the Blunder possibly drafting their hometown star player. That isn't going to happen, especially since they're a couple of teams worse than they are. All of the mock drafts I've seen has Griffin going to the Sacramento Kings as the No. 1 overall pick. The Kings (or whoever ends up with the No. 1 pick) would be stupid not to draft him.

MarkS said...

They could be trying to tank. Early in the 3rd quarter the Blunder trail the Pacers 57-50.

Of course Boston tried to tank two years ago and that got them nowhere. Could they pull off a trade like Boston did? Doubt it.

MarkS said...

I meadn it got Boston nowhere in the draft.

Anonymous said...

looks like the blunder lost again to Indianaapolis. I thought the pacers were supposed to be crappy this year. i guess in the world of crappy, blunder is ahad of the pack. they better not get griffin.

Veritas said...

"even though the team's performance has nothing to do with the fans' support."

"probably won't happen for a while,(talking about attendance dropping like in Seattle), but it will once the novelty wears off, which I'm sure has already begun..."
________________________________

You really have no FREAKING idea what you're talking about do you JAWA?

If you would avail yourself to read ANY of the comments from the Thunder players as to why some of the games they won at home seemed unwinnable, you would know that most of the players attributed the extra "boost" that helped them win was the fact that they were playing in front of a sellout crowd that stuck with them through thick and thin (unlike that sh**ty gold and green team, whose fans/team/city abandoned them).

And as for your other point I quoted: I see you reference your "theory" that our fan base in OKC is getting demoralized. I can see where it's a bit confusing to you that we continue to sell out games despite our record,given that you reside in a city whose first instinct is to abandon a team who is stuggling, but what you fail to understand JAWA is that OKC fans aren't like Supersonic fans; we actually stay faithful to our team.

It seems to be such a foreign concept to you that OKC fans would actually be PROUD of a team that had to play in an old beat up arena in front of a pathetic crowd for the past few years, but what can I say, they're our team now.

Besides, if you had taken half the amount of time researching your facts as you did pulling them from your @$$, you would know that OKC season ticket sales are doing just fine.

But as always JAWA, don't let a pesky thing like the truth get in the way of another one of your rants.

JAWA said...

Oh look, Veritas is back! How ya doing there, sport? It's been a while, but I guess you're back for another round of laughs at your expense!

Funny that you think I'm pulling facts out of my rear end while YOU'RE actually talking out of it. "Durant taking a pay cut to stay in OKC" has got to be one of the most funniest things I've ever heard from an OKC troll. Got any more "brilliant" pieces of work, sport!?

And here we go again with the "Seattle didn't support the team enough" and "the Key Arena is a lousy arena" rhetoric. Way to stay on topic, sport. This thread has nothing to do with the mentioned above, but rather it's about your precious Blunder possibly losing games on purpose in order to improve their chances in drafting their hometown star player in Griffin. However, due to the fact that there are a couple teams worse than they are, then the Blunder's chances of drafting him are not very good. And, if they do win another game or two, then those chances become even more slim as well. Of course, losing games will improve their draft lottery status, but in doing so would worsen their record and be almost as bad as last year's. Yes, the Blunder will end up with a better record than last year, but it's not saying much for what, a 2-3 win improvement!? I know that's a lot of info for your lonely brain cell to take in. I hope I didn't make that poor thing explode!

Ok, I better stop for now, because I'm starting to feel as dumb as you. But it's good to see you back here (actually it's not)! Can't wait to laugh at you some more!