Offensively they are only marginally better

He is not moving his feet, not blocking out, not blocking shots, and not bringing the attitude he used to. To be fair, the Blazers miss Travis Outlaw a great deal and probably more than many fans realized they would. These are not valid excuses.They have also played a cupcake schedule and there are several inexcusable losses on it. If they want to be a playoff team, much less a contender, then they need to show the heart it takes to be one and win the games they should without making excuses.For example, they choked away home games to the Nuggets and Hawks They lost to a Warriors team playing seven guys. They lost at home to Memphis, giving up a 31-4 run on their own floor They did not even try against the Heat. The amazing thing in that game was that the Heat shot 53.3 percent What is amazing about it is that the number was so low. All night, every shot was wide open with no Blazer in the picture.Nor has that been a one-game phenomenon.The Blazers are out of sync right now.

When there is a pick and roll, often the Blazers elect to defend neither player. Nor do they defend well one-on-one, and when the big men provide help defense, no Blazer provides rebounding coverage. Offensively, they are only marginally better.Yet for all that, I think there is one more huge element that deserves some blame for the question, "What is wrong with the Blazers" That is people like me Fans Fans who love this team. We knew we would lose to the Clevelands of the league, struggle against the Utahs, and try to eke out wins against the weak sisters like the Warriors, Clippers, and other NBDL teams masquerading as NBA teams. We knew who those teams were because we were one of them.But we got spoiled. We got spoiled by a meteoric rise from irrelevance to 54-win team.And we got used to it.

Instead of coming to the game planning to enjoy the action and have a win be icing on the cake, we now show up expecting a win and being upset if the Blazers struggle. It includes the raucous booing whenever a Beaver or Duck shirt is shown. Yeah, I know, Beaver fans hate the snobbish, arrogant Duck fans. And Duck fans hate their also-ran little cousins and make a point of booing loudly...and often.So often they have made little kids cry when the kids were shown on the big screen wearing Beavers gear and been booed mercilessly. The point is the fans are more frequently found silent or booing or complaining than cheering the team on, possibly because we became complacent before we won anything.Now, it is much too early to panic.