Scola On Aldridge: 'He's A Great Player'

One of the prevailing storylines from Game 1 was the relative ineffectiveness of LaMarcus Aldridge. The defense of Luis Scola, as the story goes, kept LA in check on Saturday, resulting in a seven point, three rebound night for our starting power forward. So all praise to the Argentenia, right?

Not so, according to Scola himself.

"He had a bad night and we had a good night," said Scola. "The whole team had a good night. It’s hard to judge individual performances."

True enough, but does Scola really think he had nothing to do with Aldridge's off night?

"I'd like to think we helped that he had a bad night," said Scola. "But on the other hand, he’s such a good player that he could very well make all of those shots that he missed and nobody would be surprised. He’s a great player.

"It’s really hard. When he gets going and he starts to make the shots he usually makes, we’re not talking about shots that he never takes, we’re talking about the shots that he always takes all season long and being consistently effective with those. He could very well make all those and finish with 25 points and nothing would change. The game would have changed, but the approach to him would have been the same and he’d have 25."

Even though Scola was reluctant to take much credit for Aldridge's lack of offensive production, he's still got a plan for how he's going to set out doing it again.

"I’m just trying to make him do what he doesn’t like to do," said Scola. "If he wants to go right, try to make him go left. If he wants to go left, I try to make him go right. Trying to make him take the shots that he’s not comfortable with. And hopefully he’s going to miss.

"He’s a great player and it’s really hard to approach a game to try and stop him. It’s pretty much an impossible job. If he’s going to have a night, there’s nothing you can do."

Let's hope that's the case in Game 2, for the sake of the Trail Blazers and all of their fans.