Update--I don't usually link to The O's recap of the games, not because they suck or something, but because the chances are high that if you're so into the Blazers that you're reading MY recap, you've probably already perused Quick or Freeman's version at The O.
But for this game I wanted to point out that it's not just me, hopeless Blazer homer, saying something was rotten in Oaklad regarding the officiating. Quick said it, Nate alluded to it, and Aldridge flat out accused Maggette of admitting to flopping. It was bad, and it had an impact on the game. GSW is going nowhere this season, but every game is precious to a potential playoff team, and it's a shame the game had to go like that. SOMETHING needs to be done in the rules about flopping. SOMETHING.
It's late and nobody likes to read about losses, and it's about all I can do not to rant insanely about the simply awful officiating in the game--which always sounds like sour grapes and indeed isn't responsible for the wealth of turnovers and missed shots that Portland experienced, but which definitely had a lot to do with who was in the game (and who wasn't), and how many times each team was given a chance for two easies.
The Blazers lost the game to Golden State by just 7, and held them under their usually required threshhold of 110 for the victory (they have just three four wins under that total), but if you didn't see the game don't be fooled--it wasn't nearly that close. And in point of fact, the Warriors' total, low as it was, is actually inflated by about a dozen points on free throws in the last minute or so. To give you an idea, if this game is played without the foul attempts, Portland wins, 84-66. That's how bad it was.
Corey Maggette must have known that Oscars were coming up; he put on the most virtuouso performance of aggrievement that I've seen in professional sport since Maradona hung up his soccer boots. For one night LaMarcus Aldridge was apparently the most aggressive and brutal forward in the history of peach baskets and vulcanized rubber. Every time LA brushed uniforms with Corey while holding the ball, Maggette would go all mackerel on the parquet. I about puked, it got so bad.
I'm not talking about a couple of times, where it changes just a couple of trips, even a couple of key trips. No lie, if he did it once he did it a half dozen times. You can try to count them yourself from tonight's liveblog (which I really don't want to have to read through due to the whole agony thing, but you go right ahead). But it wasn't just Maggette. I mean shoot, something really isn't quite right when Portland goes 14-17 from the line, nice percent although a little low on attempts but OK, that happens--and let's see, Golden State got to the line...43 times? And hit 39 of them? Yeesh.
But it was also the fouls that weren't called. Brandon Roy continues to rue the day he said he'd earned the right to get star calls. You can't prove the connection, but ever since then he gets beat on worse than Pete Doherty at a straightedge concert. He, LA, Travis and Joel were just thumped on all night and got nothing, while stuff of not even the same intensity was whistled against the Blazers. In one late sequence the game was already long over, but Rudy fouled his man twice on one trip, in the same part of the floor, neither foul even knocking the guy off his dribble or his stride. Why?
This game basically fell apart when Greg Oden picked up his second foul three minutes in, then about a minute and a half or so more for him he picked up his third. Then Joel got two and then three his own vanilla self, and whatever advantage the team had planned to milk inside on a clearly overmatched Warriors interior defense went poof! Just like that. Once again, as with the first Thunder game, LaMarcus Aldridge spent significant minutes on the court, some of it as the tallest Blazer and 100% of it as taller than any Warrior...and got 3 rebounds. Travis Outlaw had 12. Travis did, LA. Come on now.
The book is being written on Portland and each team goes over it with highlighter before the game: get Oden to pick up those rookie rep fouls, and the Blazers will change their look entirely. A majority of teams in the NBA will not beat Portland if they cannot get Oden off the court quickly, I believe. The fact that they are able to is partly his fault, partly the guards' fault, and partly the fault of officials who officiate based on rep or "dues paid." When you get Greg off and making that What The? face by himself on the bench, your chance to win goes up notably--because then this Blazer team doesn't seem entirely sure what kind of team it's supposed to be. What it ends up being is Brandon Roy going for 30+, and everyone else taking the same jump shots as B-Roy but without the same success.
This was a disappointing loss, especially right before the All-Star Break when they could have gone in on such a high. But put in perspective it's been one HELL of a fine first half. They've been in a slump lately where they're really not playing very good basketball, certainly not for four quarters--but they've also won 7 of 10 in that stretch. That's the sign of a team that can cover their mistakes. They made a go of it late tonight, and it really is good to see them not give up even when it's hopeless, Nate still calling the timeouts and the players still running out the plays at full speed. But it was over a while before, already.
So the team goes into the final thirty games of the season needing just 18 to clear the 50-win hurdle. 18 of 30 is .600 basketball, a tall order but doable in theory based on the much weaker competition in this part of the schedule. (And of course they're playing .600+ ball so far). Roy will play in the All-Star Game this weekend (good luck B-Roy!) and both Rudy and Oden will play for the rookies in the rookie-sophomore game. Rudy also "has a surprise" for the dunk contest; it's gonna need to be good.
(I might could have used an actual picture of Roy, like the snazzy one at Blazers.com next to the story I'm about to relate, that you can already figure out from the title, a bad pun on a Prince song from an album every teenager was issued in the early 1980s. But look at the guy--he knows he's pretty, he knows nobody plays 341 different instruments like he does, sounding kick-ass on all of them. He knows who the ladies like. He knows he can get away with wearing elbow-length lace gloves, and nobody even ponders anymore how some undertall kid from a decidely non-mainstream music mecca ended up throwing down so well, with so few peers like he has. )
With his second invitation to the All-Star game (albeit as a reserve both times; whaddyagonnado with Kobe in LA), this feels like Roy's Purple Rain moment. Now he's kind of on the same freak scale as Michael Jackson (well, he was always a freak), but back then he was Michael after Michael was Michael. Thriller was 82, Purple Rain 84. He wasn't as big worldwide, but that summer you heard Prince simply by turning on a radio.
Roy's no freak, except for maybe the freakishness of being in the Association and having no record, no Technicals Temper, no series of reproductive romantic encounters, no giant duffel of spliff in the trunk, etc. His utter normalcy makes him stand out, even on a team full of mandated Boy Scouts and Aw Shucks guys.
Last year was a surprise; this year I think would have been a surprise if the coaches had not selected him--but it's always unsure. And that lack of suspense is a sign of stature in itself. It would have been a travesty not to play him, the way he's been performing. Whatever success the Blazers have this year, with the exception of their two wins without him, they owe at the core to Brandon Roy.
And if you didn't pick up on it, those things that are true about Prince are quite a bit like Roy's circumstance--he is a virtuoso of moves, both at the rim and from range. He rebounds. He steals. He goes with both hands equally well. He's small, from an area not necessarily scouted for its multitude of top HS players, and was a prodigious talent very quickly when he went major league. As I said, he's the core and the glue that binds all the loose but capable-of-grooving-together pieces that surround him. He knows it, and he'll turn the spotlight on himself when he thinks he needs to carry the load, but he's happy being part of a group as well.
So congratulations Brandon and the Blazers for really having a coming out party in Phoenix! Roy will join Greg Oden and Rudy Fernandez, both of whom will be on the Rookie team in the Rookie-Soph match, and Rudy of course will also be unveiling his mystery jams for the Dunk Contest. How long has it been since Portland had such a presence at All-Star weekend? Never, I'd wager, since this ancillary stuff hasn't been around but for so long. Looking forward to it!
The Blazers guard, playing in his first All-Star Game, performed very well. He tied for West team-high honors with Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire by scoring 18 points, and had nine rebounds and five assists. Roy's point total was the second-highest ever for a Blazer in the All-Star Game, behind Clyde Drexler's 25 points in 1992.
Roy's appearance sent his mother, Gina, into tears. Sitting with husband Tony Roy about six rows up from the court, she wiped tears from her eyes when Roy entered the game at the beginning of the second quarter. She cried again when her son made his first shot -- a 16-foot jumper just right of the free throw line.
"I never thought him playing in the All-Star Game would happen so fast," Gina Roy said.
Roy made his next three shots -- a reverse layup, a driving layup and a 24-foot three-point shot from the left corner. He finished the first half with a team-leading 11 points by making 5 of 7 shots.
"I wasn't relaxed, but once that first one goes down, you kind of get confident," Roy said. "I don't think the jitters ever went away. I was nervous, but I tried to be as relaxed as much as I could."
He got a lot of minutes, sure--but he also played setup guy for the circus stars a lot of the time, and also fed shooting guard extraordinaire Chris Paul a number of times and never got it back. He played defense almost like you do in a regular game, and contributed in any way he could. Some players you just know are going to be special. Greg Oden may be the missing piece and become a larger than life giant, but if there's a championship at hand for the Blazers, it will be carried on Brandon Roy's shoulders. And that shy kid from Garfield High in Seattle will never buy a beer in Portland for the rest of his life.
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(I might could have used an actual picture of Roy, like the 