Watching the Portland Trail Blazers lose Game 2 to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night was about as demoralizing a loss as they come. For three quarters, the Blazers had the Warriors on the ropes, just 12 more minutes of solid basketball is all it would have taken to come away with a victory. And then it happened. Again. Another fourth quarter meltdown. Now, thanks to the longest and most cruel playoff schedule the league has ever developed, we have to wait until a month Saturday evening to completely put this game in the rear-view mirror.
With so much time to spare, popping in a good movie or two is an excellent way get your mind right again and hit the reset button for some positive vibes. Here are five movies I recommend to watch in order to raise your spirits and get you pumped up for Game 3.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3wUstDFDN0]We Are Marshall
(Blu-ray)
The proverbial “things could always be worse” movie to remind yourself that things could actually, really be a whole lot worse than losing a game. Like, your whole team could perish in a fiery plane crash worse. This movie also reminds you that no matter how bad things get, assuming you didn’t die in a fiery plane crash, when tragedy strikes you have to pick up the pieces and move on with life, or more importantly, sports. You have to move on with sports. As far as inspirational movies go where a plane full of teenagers die, this one ranks right up there. Enjoy!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwpTj_Z9v-c]Miracle on Ice
(Amazon Video)
This is mother of all inspirational, underdog sports stories. The U.S. hockey team received a beat down by the Soviet Union before they were able to pull off one of the great upsets in sports history in the 1980 Winter Olympics. The Blazers gave the Warriors all they could in Game 2, but still came away with nothing to show for it except for another Warriors thrashing when all was said and done. Maybe the Blazers can pull off a miracle on the basketball court since that is exactly what it will take to beat Golden State at this point, especially if Stephen Curry makes his debut this weekend.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33DEm0eW-wU]Hoosiers
(STARZ)
This is required viewing for anyone looking to get motivated for any type of basketball game. For whatever reason, making a good, much less a classic, basketball movie is nearly impossible. But, Hoosiers is the gold standard for almost any sports movie. The central theme in Hoosiers seems all the more appropriate for the Blazers right now. A young, inexperienced Hickory (Blazers) team overcomes the long odds to take on the biggest baddies (Warriors) of high school basketball in Indiana (Portland) and (Spoiler Alert!) triumphantly win the whole damn thing, proving that team unity can overcome anything, even alcoholism. Perhaps Blazers assistant coach Jay Triano just needs get really drunk and stagger onto the court during Game 3, yelling obscenities at the ref to get Portland fired up.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o35ScMLok6A]From Dusk Till Dawn
(Streaming on Netflix)
Sometimes, a loss like Game 2 just makes you want to unleash holy hell and what better way to do that than to take out a whole gang of biker vampires while trapped inside a sleazy Mexican tavern. A movie of two completely different halves, the second half features an orgy of bloodshed, body parts, and an all-around slaughter of both homans and (mostly) vampires. And that’s just for the ladies! If you are a guy, just watch Salma Hayek’s snake-totin dance scene and you’ll feel all sorts of better. Until she chomps down on Quentin Tarantino’s neck that is, turning him into a human PEZ dispenser. But hey, life isn’t perfect.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGrKfQ9Ss7w] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAJcJsmH14A]Transformers: The Movie
(And you don’t own this movie because…???)
Watch this movie if only for two songs, Stan Bush’s “The Touch” and “Dare”, both coming at you early in the film. These two songs are prime 1980s, inspirational rock anthems at their very best and worst. The electric guitars, the synthesizers, the repeated chorus; all of it put together is the stuff of 80s rock gold. Just listen to these words of wisdom and motivation.
“You’re at your best, when the going gets rough! / You’ve been put to the test, but it’s never enough! / You got the touch! / You got the power!”
“Dare, dare to believe you can survive/ You hold the future in your hand / Dare, dare to keep all of your dreams alive / It’s time to take a stand / And you can win, if you dare!
If you can’t get inspired and amped up to lyrics like this, then you have simply given up on the Blazers and on life. The Warriors are the Unicron of the NBA, munching up and spitting out NBA teams to fuel their sadistic run at the NBA record books. Portland must find an answer to the Warriors or risk being swallowed up and swept in this series. But hey, even if that happens, things could always be worse.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
