SolidGuy3

Many of you are probably amazed why Theo Ratliff gets the ball passed to him on the final play. I think this is was good play call by Nate McMiillan. The most important thing is to get the ball inbounds. Having a C out there gives the passer a big target to throw to. He is most likely being guarded by a C also so you can get the pass to him relatively easy and not risk a chance it would get stolen. The Nuggets just defended the play good, plus there was only 4 seconds on the clock, Ratliff had to make a split second decision. I blame the other 4 players on the court, just standing around and expecting to get the ball. The Blazers needed a two pointer to win the game, why was everybody outside the 3 point line!? Ratliff had no options.

Stepping Razor

Why not blame Ratliff? He is an offensive liability and makes bad decisions with the ball. He also sets bad screens and floats around the floor gumming up the offense. I am confident that Nate will figure this out soon and start reinserting Joel into fourth quarters with about 5 minutes left. I think a big reason why the team has been struggling with fourth quarters is because we've been playing Theo rather than Joel.

With regard to the specific play at the end of tonight's game, Theo was obviously supposed to hand it back to Sebastian as he ran past. (And he was open enough to do it.) For some reason he decided not to. Instead he opted to pass to Ruben, standing still, outside the 3 line. I'd rather have Theo shoot the 3 than Ruben. (Which begs another question: What was Rube doing there?) But Theo had 3 options with that pass -- back to Bassy, moving towards the basket; over to Blake, spotted up in the corner; or to Rube. He made the worst possible decision. Which shouldn't be too surprising, really; passing out high on the court just isn't something he's good at.

I blame Nate more than Theo... but, still, he made a bad play. So did Jack a few seconds before. So did Zach going over Najera's back the possession before. There's plenty of blame to go around.

The good news is... we have a good team now! Nate has already figured out how to play 45 minutes of quality basketball with these guys. He'll get the last 3 minutes figured out soon.

Stepping Razor

SolidGuy3

I would like to see the replay of the last play. If that is the case, it is Ratliff's fault for not giving it back to Telfair but from what I saw, someone was guarding Telfair closely. After Ratliff looked away from Telfair, he only had 2 or 3 second left on the clock, he threw it to the next player he saw, that was Ruben.

Todd

I thought you were leaving?

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The Anti-Sheep