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| Average Joes challenge Rockets |
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Both Portland and Houston are teams struggling this season. The Blazers more so than the Rockets, who have put their 10-game losing streak out of their minds and are 7-6 since right now. The Blazers have somehow avoided huge losing streaks, but have only managed to win a league-worst six games so far and have not back-to-back wins all season.  But that is little surprise given the state of disarray their roster is in. Few things have gone right for this franchise over the last couple of years. Most decisions came back to bite them in the ass. They traded a lot of lottery picks. For one they have Larry Nance to show for. That would be ok, if Nance wasn't as injury prone as he is. The one player the actually drafted in the lottery, #3 pick Jaylen Brown, will take some time to develop into an efficient scorer, since he is buried on the bench in the NBA. Their own pick for next season is gone as well (for what?). Even the acquisition of restricted free-agent Tyler Johnson wasn't the slam dunk it ought to be. Tyler is playing well enough, but seems content to be a role player on a star-less team. Sam Dekker almost matches his production in half the playing time in New York. But enough about spoiled milk. How are the Blazers doing this season? Well, they are the worst offensive team. There are a whole lot of two teams worse on defense and they cannot rebound either. Their saving grace it they don't turn over that much. They are led by their rookie Brown, who has scored in double figures in every game he played in so far, save the very last loss to Oklahoma. The team obviously has given him the green light to shoot it every time and bring in that ROY trophy. Their second leading scorer is Luis Scola, who alternates between starter and sixth' man depending on Lance's availability. He is clearly past his prime, now making evident why the Sixers replaced him with David Lee. Like Brown he is shooting below 40% from the field and is not making a positive impact on defense either. With these two players leading the offense it is hard win any games. Kosta Koufos has developed into a double double machine and has averaged 13/10, 14/12 and 14/13, 14/15 over the last four weeks. His 55% shooting leads the team by a wiiiiiide margin. Maybe it's time to feature him on offense. Well, maybe that would be too much to ask from Koufos. But hey, his nickname is 2k, right? Why the are still starting Sessions I have no idea. Rivers seems a much better options already.  Unlike the Blazers, the Rockets do have some very good talent on their roster. This isn't so much different than the team that made the playoffs last year. Hayward is a top 5 shooting guard, although playing out of position after the Afflaflo benching, and Thomas should be able to perform at a top 10 level at least. After all 2k16 rates him top 5 among point guards. They also have Hassan, Big Al and Enes Kanter/Gulen at center. That's $50 million tied up right there in one position. Whiteside is one of the few good bigs in the league, who manages to underachieve in the 2k16 engine. He doesn't look much better than his counterpart on the Rockets Kosta Koufos. Which is a travesty. Their only two guys with a positive +/- are, you guessed it, Thomas and Hayward. Whiteside breaks almost even. No one else is close to being a plus. So Houston's problem clearly is manning their forward positions. With Afflalo struggling, Paul Pierce and rookie Kuzminskas don't really cut it against the big dogs. And the twin tower pairing of Whiteside/Kanter doesn't seem to work too well either. What is interesting to note is that PF Whiteside/C Kanter looks way better than PF Kanter/C Whiteside in their rotation stats. If they get a defensive stopper at either forward position and someone with range, maybe even Kuzminskas, may do at the other. But let's get to the match-up. There already was an appetizer for this game in week 8 as these two teams matched up in Portland (sans Whitside). The Rockets narrowly squeezed by with a 111-109 victory after storming back from a double digit deficit in the fourth quarter. Pierce wound back the clock by scoring the Rockets final six points and havin a crucial steal as well. Both teams shot exceptionally well from behind the arc and the Rockets enjoyed 29-20 advantage from the line. Next week the Rockets will be at full strength, while Portland still misses Nance. Barring any major surprises the Rockets should take this one handily, securing the 4-game series early with a third straight win. |
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Johnson had a season-high tying 20 points in the previous game. You can't expect much more from him. KK can't do much more and Scola and Sessions are unable to produce. So it is up to Brown to score more than the 16 he put up.
Koufos had a 15/19 game against Kanater/Gulen and was big reason for the the Blazers leading for most of the game.