| With a hat tip to the Stones, that's about as accurate as a recap headline gets--last night's overtime loss to the Philadelphia 76ers was an epic of disappointment, despair, guts, redemption, oppression, elation, anxiety, anger and maybe even some palpitation. The game had nearly everything--but in the end, it mostly just sucked. Missing an opportunity to once again reach parity with Denver in the Northwest Division as the Suns were beating the Nuggets, not to mention reducing their magic number to 7 for nailing down a playoff spot, made it even more unsatisfying to ruminate over what could have been. What could have been was a huge, gut-check kind of victory over a team that matches up beautifully with Portland's weaknesses, a positive closeout to an enormously successful 09 campaign against the Eastern Conference, and a guilt-free excuse to gush about the violent and happy return of Greg Oden's on-court beastliness. All of that was ruined by poor overtime execution and abject whistle-swallowing by the officials down the stretch, following a dramatic comeback from their largest halftime deficit of the year at the Garden, 44-58. But screw it; I'm going to try to focus on the positive anyway. The Blazers still have 11 games left, 6 at home, and only need a 6-5 record in them to reach the magic of 50. They are about as healthy as they've been all season (Travis hurt his pinky late but seems to be OK for Thursday), and even in their losses lately they are beginning to look--gasp--like a playoff team. {more} |
OK, I'll confess: I missed most of the third quarter of this one. After the half that the Blazers endured--an undendingly repetitive offensive sequence of "dribble, dribble, hold, dribble, pass, hold, dribble, shot, run back the other way", a defense apparently designed to allow Sixers guard Andre Miller to post up the haplessly too-short Steve Blake all night without offering any help, and an interior presence that seemed convinced Reggie Evans sucks (and he does) long beyond the point that he'd proved otherwise for at least this game--I couldn't take anymore. It was too painful. But I knew a comeback was possible, so I resolved to check back in just in case. Of course I was glad I did; I tuned back in just as Oden was making a pair of FT to cut the lead to just two at 69-71. Twelve points shaved off the lead--not bad! Who was primarily responsible? I suppose since he was an absolute sieve defensively, it had to be Blake, who canned three treys, a nice little layup and an even more surprising layup on an aggressive drive to the hole that missed, but which LaMarcus Aldridge put back in. And that was just the excitement appetizer! The Sixers had regrouped and maintained a 77-72 lead a minute into the fourth--but then it was time for a Rudysplosion. He was THIS close to cutting all seven of those points in just two trips, after a sweet three And One, and a driving layup that just rolled out, but yielded two made frees. Then he fouled Lou Williams, and on the ensuing play from the inbounds snatched the ball all up from Theo Ratliff and rolled down for the jamarama and an 80-79 lead--looking behind him for Trever Ariza all the way. Philly called TO, and it was bedlam at the Garden. He wasn't done though, and now Oden--who'd played very well in his first shift but collected too many time-shortening fouls and had been sitting for a long while--joined in the action. Greg blocked Lou Williams, leaving Rudy for the bound. Sergio had his shot blocked by Ratliff, but Oden was there for the putback. On the trip back, Rudy tied up Iguodala for a jump, and while he was too short to win it the effort paid off when Young missed a layup and Greg cleaned the boards, who outletted quickly to Sergio, who fed back to Rudy for the open three. That made it 85-79 with almost nine to play, and I was (apparently justifiably) worried there was still too much time on the clock, but at that moment it felt like the Blazers were about to demoralize Philly right out of town. Didn't happen, to Philly's credit. At the end of a five-game roadie in an extremely difficult building to visit, it was the Sixers who retained more energy, more aggressiveness and fewer key mistakes. Plus they continued to have success driving the basket and getting fouls, while also preventing anything like a good look from the halfcourt for the Blazers. I used the word "oppression" half in jest in the lead because there were definitely some unusual calls and no calls by the officiating crew--and although truth be told it wouldn't have mattered if the Blazers had executed better, especially late it seemed like even if Portland did get position in the lane, the hacks weren't called and the shots weren't falling. If Blake's 22 points and game-evening treys hide the fact that he was -6 for the game and just got abused on defense repeatedly, Oden's relatively modest 13/8 in 25 minutes hides just how effective and game-changing his performance was. I can think of two high-visibility plays--the putback jam of Sergio and an earth-shattering slam from the right baseline on a good feed by Blake--but it was the little things he did that gave me goosebumps. When he was in the game, the game changed--essentially, whenever the Sixers tried to go bully on Oden inside he made them pay, and eventually they avoided trying it while he was in the game. This was the first game all season where Oden looked like hands down the better option than Joel Przybilla on BOTH ends of the floor, and I say that as someone who knows just how valuable Joel has been this season. With regular development and good health, I guarantee you people will talk about Oden's team impact the way they discuss Patrick Ewing's or Hakeem Olajuwan's. He's a game changer, and we're just starting to see what he's capable of--and it's damned exciting. I don't want to talk about the overtime too much; aside from there not being a LeBron to simply take over, it was a lot like last week's OT in Cleveland. Portland failed to create any offensive movement and as a result took a series of jumpers that wouldn't fall. And despite having a reasonable argument, a key moment was when Brandon Roy was hacked on a miss, got no call--and in true Chuck Knoblauch fashion opted to argue with the refs instead of chasing after the ball. Nobody got back, the Sixers went swiftly on transition, and Iguodala dunked to put them up three with a minute to go. That was pretty much the dagger, and someone's got to tell Brandon that just because other superstars do it, doesn't make it right or something he should allow himself. Shut up and run back, Brandon. This was two playoff teams going at it hard, fighting for seeding position knowing that the other team was doing the same and wouldn't just let up. The Sixers, like the Mavericks, present some serious matchup problems for Portland, and its to their credit that they battled back and made an enormously exciting and competitive game out of it. When the competition is strong and motivated, sometimes you're gonna lose. But as with playoffs, there's another huge game coming right up, so it's no time to dwell. Regroup, take a lesson and move on. |
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