| Man, it's nice not to have to chew your nails to the bone every single game against some of the weaker competition in the league, and tonight's rematch against the Charlotte Bobcats in the Garden was just one of those games. In a flip from several recent contests, Portland came out smokin'--71% from the floor in the first Q smokin', in fact--and was nearly as effective in the 2nd. By the third they'd lost some mojo, and in the fourth they were lucky they started the quarter with a good-sized lead...and that the Bobcats performed even worse. This was clearly a must win for a team seeking the playoffs in the West. The Bobcats are tenacious but not overly talented or deep, they are a pretty poor road team, and they were on a back to back in which the first "back" was the Lakers. Who they beat, but it took OT and in the process one of their two best players, Gerald Wallace, had the breath knocked out of him, put into a ziploc bag and sent to the hospital to refill his collapsed lung. Needless to say, he was not in uniform nor even in attendance. So it wasn't a gimme from the tipoff, but you had to figure if the Blazers could shoot reasonably well and take control inside, they'd be in strong position to win. And that's pretty much just how it happened. This was LaMarcus Aldridge's night overall, but in my typical fashion while I can deeply appreciate the effort, skill and what he means to the team, it still doesn't bowl me over. But I'm getting one serious mancrush on Greg Oden, who has finally appeared to properly swap out his personae, so that he's now appropriately grumpy and brutish ON the court, accomodating and cuddly OFF it. For the fourth straight game, Oden was a beast--and for the first time in that stretch, he wasn't doing it over sad-sack competition. Emeke Okafor is a solid body, a reasonably good defender and a versatile shooter. For Oden to have a good game, he was going to have to take it right to Emeke on both ends. Mission way the hell accomplished. {more good times, good times, below} |
The first quarter seemed kind of back and forth, herky jerky, although the Blazers were hitting everything and every player in the game except Rudy had some kind of drive to the hoop. They were going to attack inside, and attack they did, with Oden leading the way. He had a short hook and a very patient jam to start the game, picked up a block and four or five rebounds along the way, and ended a long first shift with just one foul. Bravissimo! Usually the first quarter is LaMarcus hitting midrange jumpers and Oden knocking in a couple of putbacks, while the rest of the team stands around and chats about whether Beau was 17 or 18. LMA was doing his thing as usual, and so was Oden...but Roy was also on early, Bayless hit a rare three, and Rudy and Sergio were feeding anyone who was moving towards the hoop. From the point it was 19-16 Blazers--about three minutes left in the quarter--until the end, Portland ripped off 13 quick points to Charlotte's two, and suddenly it was 32-18. There were two highlight plays to close the quarter. First, on a break after a miss, Bayless--who did a pretty decent job running the backcourt tonight--found Rudy open on the left wing. No sooner did he grasp the ball than he was looking for someone else, and he found LMA cutting through the lane. Pass in, ball secured, to the hoop, BAM. The second was the final play of the first, Bayless taking it to the key and hesitating a moment, before blowing right by his man and to the left of the hoop. Finding what in more competently executed situations might be considered "help," Bayless shifted a step further left and brought his shooting hand down low out of traffic. Up went the shot, red went the backboard as the horn sounded, roll and in for two. Beautiful play, pretty as a baby in a tire swing with fake bunny ears (the kid, not the tire). I'm excited about the kind of major role player a guy like Nic Batum can be, and we all know about Oden--but Jerryd Bayless might be a star. Charlotte saw a lot of him the first game, so they're familiar--but the Bobcats seemed consistently surprised to find Bayless no longer in front of them as he had been before it happened that they blinked. The guy's first burst is phenomenal. It's like Barry Sanders to the hole, Rickey Henderson off first. Well maybe not that hype just yet, but you can see that potential. He doesn't have the feel around the rim that Brandon does; maybe he'll get that and maybe he won't--but his pure athletic tools are prodigious. He just needs to turn those tools into skills, and he can be a dominant guard. I see a lot of great play from Sergio Rodriguez, but Bayless is an instant lotto ticket that's partially scratched, and you can already see "CONG..." You just have to find a quarter, somewhere. The second quarter was roughly like the first, which is frankly to Charlotte's credit--they didn't give up, kept scrambling on defense the best they could, kept tossing up shots. It wasn't enough, and the rest of the game stayed between 10 and 20 points, most often living in that 14-17 point range. A team that is surely exhausted already, just hoping to survive this killer trip that still includes Denver and Houston, and wondering how their friend and teammate is doing back in LA...a lot of them at Charlotte's level would give up, and you'd see the margin to 20, 25, 30 by the end of the game. You're a professional, you get a lot of money to work hard every minute...but let's be honest. You're hurting, you're playing one of the best in the West in a place where nobody wins, and you're getting facialed by a supposedly disappointing, Mr. Foul-it rookie and King Softie himself. You'd forgive yourself for packing it in and heading back to the Jupiter for a conk until the flight to Colorado. There was another magical play in the 2nd. Rudy stole the ball on the left sideline, and began to motor up court...but before he got too far, he opted instead to whip a pass behind his back--in full motion downcourt, now--between two defenders to Sergio, also streaking up court. He slowed a bit to let the bigs catch up and found the Vanilla Gorilla cutting the lane just like LaMarcus in the first. Same result too--blammo. Having fairly well established that they were in control of the game, things began deteriorating in the second half. You can tell by the stats: 55% shooting in the first half, finishing with 45%. Eight turnovers. One made three attempt, by Rudy. A lot more fouling. And perhaps the most obvious indicator, the scoring. It was natural for Charlotte to score 18 in the third; they'd had that much in the 1st and only 22 in the second. So finishing with 16 in the fourth, while certainly not the way to try and steal the game, showed a reasonably consistent effort. Portland's line accurately depicts their play over four quarters, IMO: 32, 24, 18, 14. You know it's a bad quarter when it takes BOTH teams to reach 30. Of course, both teams eventually had pulled their starters, so you might expect some cold shooting touches and missed foul shots. When I saw Shavlik Randolph come in I knew the game was over as far as Nate was concerned (sorry Shav), but I was mad because apparently the game had flipped into unwinnable territory for Charlotte and I had missed that moment where you confidently write down in your live blog, Game Over. In retrospect, looking over the liveblog, I think I should have followed my instincts: 8:38 | torridjoe: Non-shooting on Okafor, his fourth and he goes out. I'm tempted to say "game over," but I'll wait. Batum fouled trying to go in deep, and makes one. Fouls at the other end on Morrison. |
8:38 | torridjoe: Batum and Oden make a nice stop in the lane, but Oden bowls over Bell with a shuffling pick and Bell gets the call. Boo. |
8:40 | torridjoe: I think Bayless was shooting, but it was so lame it didn't even make the key. Oden was right there though, so maybe it was a pass. He finds Aldridge cutting for the slam, and then off a bad miss by the Cats LA gets a hook to drop after contact with Diaw, who gets HIS fourth. Misses the And One, but the bucket is good and the lead is 20 again, 72-52. |
There you go. Six oh-nine left in the third, Blazers up 67-52, and I said the thing was kaput for the Kats. The lead jumped up to 20, and never went below 14 after that, so while of course the Blazers were still the ones who had to execute, at that point it was fair to say that it would indeed be a good day to be a Blazer. Next up is probably the most meaningful game of the year in terms of something beyond machismo and how well you stack up against the big boys: finally a home game against Utah, who has two in the bag already this year. The Utes (whoops, Jazz, sorry) are fighting hard without Carlos Boozer, but they fell victim to the Philly Sixers just like Portland did, and they are now 3.5 games behind the Rosarians. Not only would a win on Saturday set the team up to neutralize the head-to-head tiebreaker with a team they very much will be fighting with for one of those 4-8 slots, it's the first big game against a West contender since Dallas and New Orleans--two contests that didn't go so well. This looks like a more confident squad, particularly inside with Greg, and Utah often struggles in the Garden. I realize I didn't mention Brandon Roy's play so far really. It was solid as usual, 17 points on very efficient shooting, couple assists here, couple reebs there. Not a great stat night, but he was turning it on and off at will. And indeed when the Blazers need a re-separating bucket, Roy senses it and drops a couple jumpers. There are better players in the league, but almost none so promising and delightful to watch and listen to afterwards. He's just the right amount of cocky and humble. OK, enough for me tonight. It was a solid performance most of the way, and another team who beat the Blazers is avenged. Utah is another one of those teams Portland is trying to prevent the sweep on, but if I'm not mistaken they and the Lakers are the only other ones in the West, and that's because they haven't come to Portland yet. Everyone else who has beaten the Blazers--Celtics, Hornets, Magic, Clippers, Nuggets, Suns, Golden State--has gotten their comeuppance at some point in Portland . I'd like to see the Cavs and Sixers get theirs next game, too. But first let's deal with the Jazz, who get to warm up with the Thunder in Salt Lake the night before (least they'll be on a back to back, while Portland will have 2 days' rest at home. Woot!) |
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