TheNorthCydeRises

Just ran it through the trade checker: Lorenzen + Lue + AJ + Chill + either Zaza or Shelden . . . gets us Kidd. This is the scenario I laid out if Jersey got to the point where they wanted to blow things up. ( I think I posted this on the ESPN boards, but I think I did it here too, back in the summer ) Anybody who would be against this, is absolutely crazy, in my book. And here's why Jersey may do this: Those great young players in the 03 draft, all took the 3 year, 60 million deal, instead of the longer 5 - 6 year deal. So in a few years, those guys are going to become available. You CANNOT discoint the possible influence that a guy like Jay-Z might have on LeBron, seeing that they're kind of tight. I can see Lebron jumping ship and going to Brooklyn if he doesn't win a title in Cleveland. And if not Lebron, surely Wade may be available . . even a Kobe. Unlike the Hawks, the Nets aren't going to celebrate for just making the playoffs. It's obvious that their window of opportunity, as curretly constructed, has closed. They definitely need to restructure that team. They should've started tis summer by not re-signing Vince. The only question is if they want to free up enough money to bring another star in, in a few years . . or if they want to add complimetary pieces to add with Vince and RJ. For us, it all depends on that damn ownership group, and if they're willing t go over the cap, but not into luxury tax land, to instantly improve this team all around. Kidd would be a 2 year mercenary here, to possiby get us in title contention. People can tak all they want about him being an aging PG, he's still a top 5 PG in this league. And his all around game would be a godsend for this team. And for all of you who want the Hawks to run, what better PG to have, than this guy. Lineup: G - Kidd G - JJ F - Marvin F - Smoove C - Horford Bench: G - Law G - Salim G/F - West F - Solo C - Zaza With the deplted bench, we'd have to sign some scrubs. But guys like Salim and possibly West, would have to step up on a nightly basis. Kidd improves us defensively, offensively, and improves us as a rebounding team. Most of all, we may really see what guys like Smoove and Marvin can do, with a legit PG running the show. It's the same type of move that Boston made, when they gave up scrubs and young talent, just to get Garnett. These are the types of moves that makes teams instanttly better. Not tradng for a Luke Ridnour.

Quote: Northcyde, you're acting like the only thing in question here is fast breaking. Not only did our pace slow down as our lead dwindled, but our ball movement did as well. In the final minutes we went to the iso every damn time. We didn't test the defense with passing AT ALL. We relied on our best player who's clearly not 100% to try and win it all without the help of his teammates. That's ridiculous!!! JJ, AJ, Josh, Marvin, Al, Chilldress and Acie are all good passers and generally smart players (though Smith tests the limits too often for some). With any combination of them on the floor we could surely find better shots than fade away thress at the end of the shot clock with a ahnd in your face. Completely unacceptable excuse for a game plan in the final minutes of the game. I've never seen anything that looked that sloppy. Even after a timeout we looked clueless. Something is VERY wrong there. The problem Sheed, is that you guys are equatng our great ball movement with playing fast. That has nothing to do with playing fast. Most good hafcourt offesive teams will move the ball. San Antonio and Detroit move the ball well, but there's no way we would confuse them with playing fast. When we play fast, one of our guards has the ball maybe 30% of the time. The other times, you have people like Smoove or Horford racing the ball into the frontcourt, then gettng stuck in no man's land, looking to give the ball to AJ or JJ anyway. Then they run the halfcourt offense. No other team in the history of basketball does it like that. Even the teams that people want us to be ( G State & Phoenix ) don't do it like that. You'll never see Amare or Biendrins racing the ball into the frontcourt after a made shot or a short rebound. Imagine Nash having to run down Marion, to get the ball frm him to set up the halfcourt offese? If you play defense, it's a totally different story. When we play good defense and force turnovers or long missed jumpers, we can definatey create quick and easy scoring opportunities within 10 seconds. When we rack up the fast break points and/or get quick open shots, it's because of the defense on the other end givng us that opportunity. We rarely get those looks off of pushing the ball after made shots. If you got that game on tape, re-watch the entire 4th qtr. First off, let me give you a few tidbits: - Hawks shot 7 - 13 FG in that quarter. - Hawks also committed 6 TOs ( 7, if you count JJ's foul away from the ball when he ran over James Jones . . . all in the final 9 minutes of the quarter) - Blazers shot 12 - 18 FG ( they made 12 of their last 16 ) - Blazers made 4 - 6 3FG - Blazers outscore us 16 - 5 to close the game. - JJ hit his 19th and final point midway through the period. He didn't attempt another shot until the Blazers cut it to 4 with under 3 to go. He missed his last 2 ( should've been last 3, but there was a shot clock violation on one of them. ) - Hawks went stricty to the JJ isolation, I think, to limit the amount of possessions Portland could possibly get. It had got to the point where we couldn't execute on offense, and couldn't stop them on defense. The ball movement didn't stop before the Blazers cut it to 4, while in the halfcourt offense. But we didn't execute nearly as well during that quarter, unlike in the first 3 quarters.

Quote: Quote: Does Woody not think that the team can function without Joe in the lineup for an extensive amount of time. I mean whenever we have big leads that is the time to let Salim and Mario get some minutes. He is going to run Joe into the ground and he will need the same guys to step up when Joe is hurt. There is no need for him to play 40+ minutes a night. It is starting to affecting his play. IS Woody trying to save his job on JJ's back. There's no question that is what he's trying to do, although it can back fire if JJ went down. Woody is just an ***... when you have big leads... sit JJ you **** so if you need him again, he can be fresh off the oven. Woody is definitely managing JJ floor time like his job could be on the line. Not only that, I think he has lost confidence in the bench overall. So it's not just JJ playing more minutes, it's Smoove, Horford, and Marvin too. JJ played all 24 minutes in the 2nd half last night by the way But don't be naive guys. You know that this team normally goes to hell in a handbasket, when JJ goes to the bench The Seattle game in the 4th qtr was a good illustration of that. JJ goes to the bench, teams conviently seem to make a run. It would be nice if either Marvin or Smoove could be that player that gets points when JJ is on the bench. A big problem with that though, is Lue. Both Smoove and Marvin will defer to Lue, and Lue will play the role of JJ.

Thanks for proving my point sir. So we're going to be the first team in NBA history, to consistently run without a good PG running the show? If we pulled that off, that would make Wody and BK total geniuses. You and I both agree that we might turn the corner, once Acie can take full control of this thing. And Salim would also hae to get major minutes, seeing that he's one of the only guys we have that can play fast and stretch the defense with his shootng.

Ex, just name me one team that can run, without a good PG running the show. I can name 1, but even that one is on a technicality, seeing that the guy playing opposite the PG, usually is the one pushing tempo, scoring, and creatng for others. But just name one team that does this, without a good PG running the show? Just one.

We're definitely a better team when we move the ball around, no doubt on that. Our ball movement yesterday was good for most of the game. And we're good when we have numbers on the break. When we force turnovers and run, we're definitely good. But running after made baskets is something we still don't do even halfway good. I'm sorry, but our center and power forward shouldn't be lading fast breaks. And it's funny how people keep mentioning Golden St and Phoenix, like we're built like those teams or something. - both teams have star PGs that can shoot, drive, push tempo, even take over the game scoring wise, if need be ( Nash and Davis ) - both teams have a boatload of shooters and slashers to put around those PGs. - and both teams have a speed demon that they can play at guard to really push the pace and have them score in bunches ( Ellis and Barbosa ) . . the only thing we have close to that on this team that can play extremely fast and score in bunches, is Salim. We're built to defend folks. If we defend and rebound, we can run. Just re-watch the game.

I'll ask you the question I ask everybody else on the Squawk: Name one good running team that neither has a good PG running the show? Don, I'm watching the tape of thr ATL - POR game as I type this. In almost every instance in which we got out and ran, it was off of a long rebound or a turnover. If people re-watch the entire 2nd half, there are some interesting thingd going on in this game. One of them being Portland hitting damn near everything they put up, with us looking a little shaky with AJ, Smoove, and Marvin out the game. The Hawks are still moving the ball on offense, but Portland is getting red hot. It was the little things that crept us on us. - an off the ball call on JJ where Jones steps in front of him and JJ runs him over - a tough pass by Acie to Chill on the baseline with Chill under the basket, that he couldn't handle - a travel by Smoove in which he pump fakes on a 20 foot shot, but moved his pivot foot. - Zaza being out of position on a couple of possessions, but still close enough to possibly affect shots. - Outlaw hitting 2 threes, and a tough shot over Smoove - following possession, Smoove throws the ball out of bounds from the post trying to hit AJ in the corner - but Portland is hitting everything. And that is limiting our running chances - JJ losing the ball out of bounds - Roy beating everybody off the dribble - interesting to hear Smitty mention that he would get JJ the ball on the block. instead of on isolation, on that possession with 33 secons to go. - if you fault Woody for anything, fault him for maybe not calling a timeout when it was obvious that JJ was in trouble with about 5 on the shot clock. - after re-watching that 2nd half, Portland just outplayed us and played excellent offensively. We score 4 points in the final 5 minutes of that game. They score 15. They win.

Do we have Magic? Or Steve Nash running the show here? As for Cheeks, he has a decent PG in Miller, the center that 60% of The Squawk wants in Dalembert, and a 2-guard that most think we should've taken in Iggy. So that running philosophy works real well for Philly, right. Take a wild guess why they can't win more than we can. It's 2 things. And running more isn't part of that equation. I'll give you a hint. R--------g & D-----e

Quote: Quote: That's the 12 we'd go with. So look at the situation. Why is that the 12 we go with? I think that EVERYONE who wanted Durant would have trade MW for a center yesterday. And we'd be better off for it. W And who the hell do we get in return, Walt? Kupchak woudn't even trade Bynum for Jason Kidd. The only way Memphis trades Gasol to us for Marvin, if they got the #3 spot to take Horford. Even then, they may not trade Gasol before they see how he and Horford meshed. Hawk fans devaulue Marvin on a daily basis, but thinks the entire league fiends for him? That's not reality. Who is your center Walt? If you've noticed, this league doesn't like to trade marginal centers, let alone good ones. Who do you go get in a trade that BOTH teams would legitimately do? A lot of the trades that you, I, or anybody else post on here, are so one-sided toward us, that the other team wouldn't possibly do it. And welcome back. I see it took a collapse @ Portland to get you back to your old self.

Quote: I think most everyone gets that. Its just when crunch time comes and you HAVE to run a half court set you've to to be able to do something. And when the playoffs come around there is a much slower tempo. So what's the solution? I'd start with a deeper rotation so our guys have something in the tank at the end. Maybe give Joe the ball in the low post instead of top of the key so he can make a move or pass out. Give this man a (( bleepin' )) PRIZE!!! You are exactly right Mr. Mac. This is the exact reson why Phoenix hasn't beaten the Spurs to get to the finals, even though they are much better equipped than us. During crunch time, you have to have that guy that can make a play on their own for the team. You're not going to be trying to run a fast break in the final few minutes of a game, especially if you have the lead. When the game slows down, my boy Shawn Marion is pretty much a non-factor. That's why every time the Suns lose, they blame him for losing the series. The Spurs will take the ball out of Nash's hands, or pur Bruce Bowen on him, and force Nash to give it up. Amare isn't scoring over Duncan most of the time in that situation. Bell isn't shooting unless he's wide open. And you know Diaw's azz ain't shooting. So a lot of the time, the ball ends up in Shawn's hands, if Nash doesn't force a shot. Shawn gets the ball, and either misses the open jumper, or misses the forced shot. Phoenix loses the series, and Suns fans cry to the havens about how Shawn sucks, even if he did score 19 points, grab 14 rebounds, and had 2 blocks and 4 steals. EVERY team in the league, has to execute in the 1/2 court. You either better have a go-to play you can run, or a go-to guy you can give the ball to. I totally agree with you Mac, when you say to give the ball to JJ in the post. Roy is almost as big as JJ though, so his post defense may be solid against JJ. But with JJ's leg the way it was, that's probably the route to go. Put JJ in a double threat position in which he can be closer to the basket in order to shoot and/or possibly draw a foul. Of have him pass it out to a Marvin or even a Lue, if doubled. But then again, if Lue is in the game, he's the one the Blazers will attack on the other end, not a sligtly hobbled JJ. Great post mac.

Diesel, here's a poll idea for you. Ask the Squawk which player they would rather have . . Al Horford or Kevin Durant? Because to me, it's the exact same situation when you look at the Shelden vs Roy argument. If you add Kevin Durant to this team, and subtract Horford, this i what you have: PG: AJ / Law / Lue G: JJ / Chill / Mario F: Marvin / Durant F: Smoove / Shelden C: Zaza / Lorenzen That's the 12 we'd go with. So look at the situation. - Once again, whether people like it or not, Marvin STILL starts at the 3, especially seeing how weak Durant is right now. And maybe because of the mandate you say to play Marvin, no matter what. - Lo and Shelden would have to be Major contributors every night. - Zaza would have to get major PT, regardless of how he's playing. - Chill would probably be the casualty, even if Chill was outplaying him. While the media, and most Hawk fans would've loved the pick, the frontline would be under the gun every single night. And God forbid if Smoove ever got in foul trouble. We'd be an excitng team to watch, but the interior issues would be worse than ever. In one instance, the fan base wants to build the team "the right way". In other instances, they want to build an NBA Live-like team, where you could play Smoove 35 minutes a night @ center, with Marvin at the PF, JJ at the 3, Durant at the 2, and Chill at the 1 also playing 35 minutes. Then what would we have to do? We'd have to trade somebody just to balance out the roster. We would need to trade for a big. LOL . . people would want Gasol more than ever now. But you can't give up Smoove in that situation to get Gasol. The cry would be to trade Marvin, even if he's better than Durant at the time. People would cite Durant's "potential". So what do you do Hawksquawk? What do you do? - Do you take the best big in the draft, to help the frontline, even if he's not a dynamic scorer? - Or do you take the guy that most says has the most talent in the draft, even though you already have talent stockpiled at that positon?

No high horse or arrogance here baller. I just get tired of the fan base villifying players, if they don't play at the highest possible level every night. Hell, Portland dang near played perfect basketball in that final 15 minutes of that game. It's almost like after we lose, people will clown our OWN players, just to make themselves feel better or some ish. It's one thing to do it when a player constantly messes up. But this fan base does it on a daily basis, to every single player on the team. - Marvin hs been the whipping boy for 2+ years now, because he's not a star, like the PGs taken ahead of him. - Smoove gets constantly attacked for his shortcomings, rather than the things he brings to the table to help this team. - Chill, when he plays well, never seems to receive any credit from the fan base, unless it's an attempt to villify Marvin. - And now JJ is the whipping boy, everytime he doesn't play like Jordan. If my "arrogance" irritates you, I'm sorry. But that ish irritates the hell out of me. If the fan base wants to whine and cry, then whine and cry. But don't turn on the players that you root for on a nightly basis, just to mke yourselves feel better. You may not do it personally, but a good number of people on the Squawk do just that every single damn day.

Quote: I believe Roy played both PG and SG in college. I think the fact that the TrailBlazers have 4 point guards on the current roster has a little to do with ROY getting no PT at the point guard. How he is gonna play the point guard spot for them if they drafted Jack, Green, Sergio and signed Steve Blake. They have very little depth at SG and thats where he fits on that team right now but you cant tell me that the guy cant play PG in this league he has the talent to play both positions like he showed in college. predraft review Excellent ball handler with the ability to create shots for himself and others ... His midrange game is relatively impressive and his range has really improved this year ... Really stepped up in his senior year assuming a leadership role and taking over as the go to player for the Huskies ... Has spent time at the point guard position this year, and played admirably Like I said, Roy has the ability to play the point, like a JJ or even a Dwyane Wade does. But those guys arent going to be able to guard the quick PGs for an entire game, while also trying to score and make plays for others. It'll wear them down. But if you have a sittuation in which you want Roy to immeadiately have the ball in his hands, you can play him at the point for short stretches and have everybody play off of him . . just like we do with JJ.

It's amazing how short of memories the Squawk has. Nobody remembers the shot in the T-Wolves game . . nor the passes he's made to Smoove where he's hit game winners in the past few seasons . . nor the shot in the Detroit game when he shook Billups last year for a game winner . . nor the pass he makes to Marvin on opening night for the lay-up, that sealed that game . . nor the other shots with under a minute that have sealed games for us. To 70% of the Squawk, JJ is just another mediocre player on a mediocre team. Might as well not ever give the ball to him down the stretch of games ever again. Ish, let AJ take all the big shots from now on.

Quote: Should have drafted Roy anyways knowing that if he was that good, we could trade JJ. Fact. LOL @ this. Amazing how Roy is the ish now over JJ, when JJ dropped 37 on his azz just 6 days ago.

Quote: So your saying we would have never had draft picks last season cmon now also why cant Brandon Roy play point guard? Some fans just live in a happy go lucky world where the Hawks can do no wrong in there eyes yet we have been the laughing stock of the league for how many years now. Wake up and smell the damn coffee. If Roy could play PG, he'd be doing it full time in Portland. Roy plays the point exactly how JJ plays the point. He has the ability to be a playmaker, but he can't guard the quicker PGs in this league. It's not about not having draft picks, it's about the fact that if we didn't draft Shelden, our frontline would consist of ZaZa, Smoove, and a combination of Solo and Lorenzen. LOL . . that's not good. Our wings and guards would be good, but we'd get killed even more down low. Shelden didn't pan out, but he should've, even if he didn't turn into a star type player. He should at least be a very serviceable backup for us, but he can't even do that. That guy should at least be capable of doing what Horford does for us. But he can't even do that. You just can't plug Roy into the current Hawks team, and think it would've turned out like that. You got to look at this from all angles.

Jaric's stat line tonight vs the Nets: 22 minutes 0 - 6 FG 0 - 2 3FG 2 rebs 3 asst 4 fouls 0 points Just another scrub that the Squawk feens over. But hey, at least they beat Jersey ( who had a bigger collapse than we did ). Hawks still in 7th.

Quote: I am sick of hearing people say that passing on Roy was logical because we have nowhere to play him. That is bullshit. Besides the ever popular notion of playing Roy at 1 and JJ at 2, did it ever occur to people that we could very easily slide JJ to 3 and play Roy at 2? Not to mention he could backup 1/2/3. That makes either Chill or Marvin expendable to acquire a legit PG or big. I am Duke fan and even I can see how idiotic picking Shelden was. I know hindsight is always 20/20 which is I why I do not question many of our GM's draft picks, HOWEVER this is different story since BK was too lazy to even work out other players and promised Shelden the spot. OK . . let's say we go with what you said. This is your squad in 06 - 07: PG: Speedy / Lue / Ivey G: JJ / Roy / Salim F: Marvin / Chill F: Smoove / Solo C: ZaZa / Lorenzen Adding Roy to a lineup already stockpiled with shooters and wings, would've been redundancy. Both Shelden and Solo were drafted to try to address the depth of the frontline. And no matter how much people don't like to hear this, Marvin would've gotten the benefit of the doubt ahead of Roy, thus, Marvin STILL starts at the 3. I think even Chill gets the benefit of the doubt over Roy as a rookie. Lue, Roy, and and Lorenzen would be the main guys off the bench. Nice squad no doubt. But very thin on the frontline. And what happens to us if Roy has his foot injury, like he did last year? While it turned out to be a bad pick for us, the frontline had to be addressed in that draft. Shelden was the best big man option available for us. He had all the credentials of being a solid pro. He was supposed to come here, and do exactly what Horford is doing for us now . . rebounding and defending. If he just did that on a consistent basis, the pick would be solid for us. Roy is no doubt the better pick over Shelden. No question about that. But I don't see any way that Marvin goes to the bench, in favor of Roy being in the starting lineup. No way that happens. Whether you take him at #5, or trade down and take him later, Shelden's probably the guy we'd still take. If Shelden played anything like he played in March and April of last year, we'd be set right now. The fact that neither Shelden nor Speedy were able to play key roles for us the past 2 seasons, was a double-whammy for us.

Quote: its not sulking... its called being a hawks fan... what i dont understand is why woody got away from what helped us get that lead in the 4th quarter... instead of passing the ball around and sharing it and running... we ended up just depending on joe...joejoejoejoejoe... and obviously he's off...so why run joejoejoe...dribble a long time... we should just continue to do the same things that made us successful thru 3 quarters... its retarded... joejoejoejoejoe...god stupid woodson...what the poop are you doing... what a meltdown... Oken, I know people don't believe me when I say this, but other teams do the exact same thing that Woody does in that situation. This isn't something that Woody does out of the blue. Almost all NBA coaches would've played this exactly the way he did it. Either they have one guy isolated, holding the ball to run the shot clock down to eventually take a forced shot, or they do that with the PG, and run pick and roll with about 10 seconds left on the clock. Think of this as an NFL team with a touchdown lead, with 3 minutes to go. They will almost NEVER pass the ball in that situation. A bad pass means that the clock stops. So they'd rather run the ball, and run time off the clock, than actually be in attack mode to get first downs. In the NBA, a team with a good creating guard or forward, will put it in his hands and let him work ( Arenas, Baron Davis, Kobe, Lebron, etc ). - A team with a good PG and good low post player will run pick and roll. ( Deron and Boozer, Nash and Amare, Parker and Duncan, etc ) - A team with a good low post option, will get the ball to him in the post and either let him work or pass to the open man. ( Duncan, Melo, Garnett ) - A team with a shooter, usually runs multiple screens to try to free their shooter, without much ball movement If a team has a lead late in the game, they're more worried about running the shot clock down, and taking a shot at the end of the clock, than running a motion offense to get a good shot. Almost every team in the league, that has a lead, will do this. In the situation vs Portland, we were trying to protect the lead by running clock, and putting the ball in our best offensive player's hands. Usually, JJ is good enough to at least convert on one of those possessions by making the shot, or making the pass to someone for the open jumper. Today just wasn't his day. Maybe it was the leg injury. He made those plays against Roy on Monday fairly easily. One of the fatal flaws of JJ though, is his inability, or unwillingness to take the ball all the way to the hole to get to the line. Maybe because he isn't going to get the call anyway. But normally, it's because he'd rather shoot the jumper, than get fouled going to the hole. But on Monday, he made all of those plays vs Portland.

Go ahead and sulk, and get it out of your system by Tuesday. Got a back-to-back with Phoenix and the Clips coming up. That's the one good thing about the NBA. When you blow a game, you quickly have a chance to redeem yourself. So cry tonight and tomorrow, but man or woman up by Tuesday.

I forgot about JJ's nagging injury. He won't use that as an excuse though.

Quote: When it gets down to it, Portland's players are just more talented than the Hawks players. They can shoot, get to the rim, defend, make cluch shots when the Hawks have very few players that can do those things. I wouldn't say that they're more talented, but they do have the right mix on that team. If we take the ball out of Roy's hands, they have people around him that can knock down the long 3, or a guy like Outlaw who can do both knock down the 3 or create his own shot.

Quote: Quote: 1) who do you pur on Roy at the end? How about a trap? or a zone? Marvin William? Anybody but Joe Johnson! 2) who do you have create and make his own shot at the end? There is alway an option of passing the ball to set someone else up! There are 4 other players on the court you know! Your answers pretty much prove that even you don't know what else to do in that situation. As for who to defend Roy? He blew right past Smoove once, drew an and-1 on Mario to close the 1st half. Beat JJ off the dribble in the 4th. And as for Marvin, no way he has the lateral speed to stay with Roy. AJ did rotate to double and help out JJ on that last shot, but the ref called the foul on JJ. If you double Roy from the jump, you risk leaving a shooter open . . which is why they got back in the game. A zone at the end of a game? You'll give up a lay-up if you're out of postion, and you'll let the man catch the ball uncontested. Teams NEVER play zone in that situation. As for who gets the ball outside of JJ, he's the only guy on the team , other than Lue, Law, and Salim, that can get a decent look off of a created jumpshot in that length of time. A better play could've been called, but the same guy is going to get the ball if open. Tough loss, no doubt on that. JJ, because he didn't make the plays at the end, will get most of the blame. It's situatons like these, that we really need Acie to develop into a solid PG. He's more likely to get to the hole than JJ is, and once he gains confidence, he'll be able to have the ball in his hands durng those situations. But unless you have "the closer" or Salim in the game, it's going to be JJ all the way to make the shot or find the open man.

Quote: Quote: Damn. Sorry, I am going to have to break my silence regarding Joe Johnson. He is not that good! He is not clutch! I don't know why Woodson has so much faith in him because he has only come thru one this year. Everyone knows that it is coming! Joe doesn't produce! Why do we continue to think that Joe can guard the other team's best offensive player and can then hit the winning shot game after game? Joe is not that good!! 2 simple questions then. 1) who do you pur on Roy at the end? 2) who do you have create and make his own shot at the end?

Quote: we completely abandon what worked all game (ball movement and forcing the tempo) just like we always do, and let the game be decided by a one man show for the last few minutes many times that works, but there's no reason for it we didn't have a single play that looked planned in the last 3 or 4 minutes What worked all game, was our swarming defense. Portland hit the bombs to get back in the game, and Portland did exactly what we did, and let the game be decided by their one man show . . Roy. If anything, I'm surprised "the Closer" wasn't in the game at the end.