It was a perfect storm of futility for Portland. Although the stars found a magical elixir down the stretch and showed good energy when they needed it, everyone else looked high on Lunestra, vaguely tagging along with their Utah counterpoints as they motored down the court and unhindered towards the basket. The Jazz are still a damn fine team even without Carlos Boozer, and so they made the Blazers pay for their sloth. It was in Utah, a place where almost no one wins anyway. And when they did get open looks, the Portland shooters shot about as well as I do from three point range (albeit in my driveway, uncontested). There was one sequence in particular that drove home how this was not going to be Portland's night. I suspect many fans are falling into this trap with me, but when the team is 15-8 and has shown the ability to play well as a team and achieve success on a regular basis, one starts to expect that whenever trouble arises someone will come along to right the ship. When the team started off well and were only down one at the end of the first, it made their slow bleed the next two quarters that much harder to take. But midway through the 4th, Brandon and LaMarcus tried to take the game in hand and will the Blazers back into contention. Down 16 with 8:37 to play, Matt Harpring had just breezed down the lane for a deuce and foul on Oden. As if suddenly waking from a two-quarter nap, LMA decided he wouldn't be stopped, and in consecutive trips went 10 footer, 11 footer, 15 footer before yielding to a trey by Roy. Of the 20 points scored by the Blazers in the final 8:37, Oden had a layup and Rudy hit a free thrrow--but everything else was the Brandon and LaMarcus show. That's not the sequence I'm talking about, just the lead in. As the fourth quarter opened Utah stretched its lead back as far as 16, and then the Blazers went on another mini-run to get it down to nine with five minutes left. If they could just get a few stops and finally drain a couple of threes, they might yet win the game. And get some stops they did; the Jazz had begun what would be a 3:50 scoring drought, including four straight misses or turnovers after the Blazers got it to 79-88. What did the Blazers with that golden opportunity? Blake missed three, Roy OF, Rudy missed three, Rudy missed three again, Oden foul. And a couple of those threes were wider open than Blagojevich's mouth as he inserted both feet on the wiretaps. They didn't do anything particularly stupid in those trips, they simply failed to capitalize in one of those short bursts where top teams give you a little opening. The Jazz hit a couple of shots after that, made their free throws, and it was all over. Individually, Brandon set a personal best by topping 30 points in consecutive games, but it was a bittersweet point to note that the Blazers lost both games. Against Orlando I think it was just Roy hitting his shots in a high scoring game, but against the Jazz it seemed clear that he had decided to take matters into his own hands because the rest of the team wasn't firing well. I haven't done a close analysis, but I sense that the Blazers tend to win more when Roy is around 20 with 5 or more assists. When he doesn't have a single dish all night, like last night, it means he's trying to put the team on his back. That's the right thing to do when the team gets cold, but the more points Roy ends up with, the greater proportion of the game the rest of the team was probably struggling. As I said, both Roy and LMA played their hearts out; everyone else was apparently overlooking Utah in anticipation of that stiff test against the Clippers tonight. Rudy was working hard, but wasn't much of a factor after the first quarter. Blake wasn't hitting his shots, and that seems to really throw their form off kilter. Outlaw, Batum and Frye were nearly nonexistent, and usually one of those guys at least needs to show up for us to win. Pryzbilla must have drunk from the same glass as those guys too, because he looked a bit slow and out of sync as well. Which brings me to Greg Oden, center. GodDAMMIT, I hate the new versions of Firefox! They are crash machines, flaking out and blowing up on me several times a day. But until this new version 3.05, if it crashed, it also saved almost everything you had written in the text boxes, so you didn't lose a half hour or more of work. Not anymore! Which means the several paragraphs I had just written about Oden's awful play last night, Jason Quick's comments about how unpleasant Oden is around the clubhouse, and the subsequent buzz around those comments are all vanished to the ether, not to mention the beginning of a Clippers preview. Well crap. Here's the deal on all that then, in grossly abbreviated form. I'm not feeling well and it's getting close to tip off time tonight, at which point no one will care about Utah anymore anyway. In my view, Oden was as slow, out of shape and confused on the defensive end as I've seen him all year. In one exemplary sequence, Oden watched as Deron Williams penetrated the lane, belatedly moving to his left to cover the admittedly lithe and speedy Williams. By the time he started moving that way, though, Williams had cut his ankle, shifted his dribble and was now moving right. So Oden began to lurch a foot over to his right instead. Of course, by now Williams was on to his next move, and as GO arrived in perfect position for where Williams was a half second prior, the ball bounced past him at his feet and into the waiting arms of Millsap, who slammed it home. Not only did it show how slow to the ball the Blazers were last night, it was an emphatic example of teams being able to bully Portland inside. As the Mikes noted last night, recent opponents have surely watched the Boston tape and are quickly spreading the mantra, "Push the kids around down low, and they'll fold like a paper maiche Yugo." According to the O's Jason Quick, part of the reason for this bit of arrested development is that Oden is not handling the pressure well, instead turning inside himself and becoming withdrawn, in Quick's words making him "unpleasant" to be around: I can’t really stand to be around him. He’s such a downer. He’s not a very fun guy to be around and he’s not a very fun guy to talk to. I think his teammates like him, but that guy is not interacting with very many guys in the locker room right now. He can’t let go of being Greg Oden. I think he’s obsessing with all this expectations. Until he starts having fun again playing basketball, he’s not going to get better. I don’t know how he’s going to do that.
Ben at Blazer's Edge noted the story, including a bit of an intensity backtrack by Quick: First off, I listened to them and was, quite frankly, embarrassed. I didn't intend to come across so abrasive, but I did, and I have no other choice but to own up to it.
There is one line I would like to take back, where I said "I can't stand to be around" Oden. I think a more accurate reflection of my feelings would have been to say 'I'm sick of dealing with the entity of Greg Oden." The entity of Oden is the media mosh pits around him. It's hearing stupid questions, like ones about his beard. It's the incessant questions on the radio, and in internet chats, about him. And yes, it's the actual dealing with Greg himself. I totally stand by my comments that the guy is not pleasant to be around. There is nothing enjoyable about it.
I'm less concerned about the professional relationship between Quick and Oden, than I am about how much Oden's introversion and solipsism are holding back his development and hindering the team chemistry that is SO important to this group if they are to exceed expectations and achieve at a high level. Oden doesn't need to be Chatty Cathy and the team clown, but if the world is hanging heavy on his head, he's got to fight through it and not let it seep into the clubhouse environment. The Blazers right now are worth more than the sum of their parts, but only if everyone hangs and pulls together and forgets their individual pressures. Oden is the #1 pick, but Roy has to carry the team, LaMarcus has to be the "physical guy" right now, Travis and Frye are playing not to lose their jobs, etc.
And speaking of not being the sum of their parts, welcome to the LA Clippers! We're all excited to welcome Z-Bo back to the Rose Garden as a Los Angeleno, and about all you need to know is that at this point Randolph is their main scoring threat and the center of the team on offense. (What that should mean to you is that there's no doubt some of the Clips can play and score, but it's like five guys running down the court, all in their own Cones of Ego, which I guess let you hear your teammates; you just can't see them.
If nothing else, this is the vaunted Game Number 25, the game after that brutal first 24 which featured 16 road tilts and a host of contests against the league's elite. There are still some toughies on the schedule left this month, but it's finally going to get a lot easier, both in terms of teams faced and days between games. Assuming the Blazers can hogtie and dispatch the visitors with some aplomb tonight--and hell, even if they can't--fans have got an awful lot to be stoked about, and more to be excited for in the future. Keep the faith! |
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