I'm doing a pretty good job so far in picking home games to attend: Minnesota, the 2nd Houston game, and now versus Phoenix last night, a game in which the Blazers stormed back from a 15-point 3rd quarter deficit and set the Garden to rocking with a dominant coming-out-party for sophomore guard Jerryd Bayless in the 4th quarter.
We'll start with the NBA.com highlights, then chat below the fold. And hey, for you political junkies there's even a tie-in with former state Senator Margaret Carter!
With an aerial bombardment worthy of Sarah Palin, a suddenly rejuvenated Martell Webster and the rest of the Blazers went Wolf-hunting on a reliably bad Minnesota team that has now provided 30% of Portland's wins this season, blowing them out this time by the greatest margin at 28, 106-78.
It ended up a laugher, and in contrast to the previous two games the team did not tighten up when their control of the game was threatened. More interestingly, it was the first game for the return of the original starting lineup, which effectively demotes Andre Miller to the second unit and re-hires Martell for the reinstated small forward spot--and for the forseeable future, it looks like the new "regular" lineup.
It also means Brandon Roy moves back to his familiar two guard slot, and for a variety of reasons not least of which is Star Treatment, that's important. A series of unenthusiastically supportive statements from the generally very honest but positive Roy has made it clear he was at best in adjustment during the three-guard experiment. To get a sense of how important it was to him, here's what he told Blazer's Edge after the game:
Brandon Roy, on the other hand, looked as happy as he did the day he signed his max extension, practically gushing over the return to the original starting lineup. "Of course I like it, I'm back to my natural position," Roy said. He later added, "I wish we would have stuck to it a little longer" earlier this year. Sounds to me like those statements we heard this week about Roy not grasping his role found the right set of ears.
His on-camera interview with the Blazers broadcast team said similar things, related to having Blake as his feeder and a shooter like Martell to dish to. If decisions like this were based purely on matchups, such as those where the opposing three is one Roy could easily handle or when the Blazers three is misfiring, I think you might see it come back (and you still might, regardless). But McMillan would be a fool to change it back for any more than a single game without touching base with Roy, and I think Roy's first reaction would be "Nawww..." The three guard threw him off, and if your star is not being maximized in the system it's not a good enough system on an ongoing basis.
{more, after the NBA highlights vid with some sweet material}
Discontinuity -- n. 1. Lack of continuity, logical sequence, or cohesion. 2. A break or gap.
Man, that game was a mess. It was a game that by several metrics the Blazers should be ashamed to have lost, while by other metrics it's a wonder they were even in it to begin with.
So the stats analysis is discontinuous. But that's just the beginning, just one layer. It was the way the Blazers played, the way the Nuggets played, the pace of play, the scoring patterns, even the types of plays and types of calls made. The entire game epitomized gaps, breaks, irregularity and lack of sequence. And when it was over, my digestive system was feeling pretty discontinuous. It was all the herky and twice the jerky. It was double the slap, hold the tickle. It was barely explicable, if not -in...but of course I'll give it a shot. {Below the fold, that is}
The Men of the Red and the Black opened their 40th season this evening at the Rose Garden, before a typically involved crowd whose emotions and outbursts paralleled the play: expectant and unsettled at first, excited and boisterous as the Blazers made their game changing run in the 2nd, desultory as both teams floundered in the 3rd, beer-line confident to open the 4th with a 20-point lead, murmuring and a little antsy as that lead got down as low as six--and then almost audibly relieved as Brandon Roy and Greg Oden took charge to close out the game with a 9-point win over the Houston Rockets. Watch out, Blazers--your town is once again "basketball-involved."
The suspense on the floor was a nice adrenaline-capper to what had been, for many of the "involved," a greatly anticipated evening with new faces and old ones that had apparently gotten better since their exit to the same Rockets in the first round of the 2008-09 playoffs. I especially liked the montage of great Blazer moments since 1970, mashed together without respect to era. Clyde became TP became Petrie became LaMarcus, high def went to grainy TV lines and back. And there are apparently new bands for the opening theme; so far so good.
The introduction seemed like a good idea--players descending to the court from the first-floor section portals, spotlight and framed by adoramus--but it came off rather awkward. First of all, the timing between spotlighting, announcement and descent was off, so in a number of cases the players were mostly in the dark, trying not to trip down the stairs.
But they had been given a pair of team mini-basketballs...not to immediately toss happily into the crowd or to bless small children in the aisles with, but to carry while coming down as Variously Uncomfortable Gods From the Mezzanine. I can't remember who it was, but someone held them for safety to their chest as if modeling prospective plastic surgery (and a gender operation I guess), and I think Andre was concerned someone was going to try to knock one out of his hands.
As for the game, here's a little something, the NBA highlight reel for the first half for the game--just to give you a little flava. I'll give you my take below the fold:
That's what Rudy Fernandez had to say after the game about the prospect of going to Houston: "We know Houston is a difficult arena, but we believe. We believe." (That's in Joe Freeman's recap at The O, but you should check out the profile/news piece on Rudy that's also in today's editions.) After a game like Game 5 in the Garden Tuesday night, how do you not believe?
How can you not become vested in these games, your heart pacing with the rhythm of the ups and downs, hoping for the flash of brilliance from these new young guys who like being here and play so hard they remind us of the magic--small m--years of the Blazers? (Don't look at me for sanity; my developing mancrushes are becoming so disconcerting that I squeal like a 14 year old girl when Rudy hits a three).
So when the Olympic half of the Spanish Armada says he believes, who's to argue? It's not so stupid a belief, despite the long struggles for Portland there--after a regular season where they never threatened the Rockets in Houston, in the playoffs they've had at least a couple chances to win each one, and in the last game actually took control late for a few moments before collapsing in a heap of mistakes.
There are some solid reasons to favor the Blazers just a little in Game 6, not least of which is a momentum shift that places much more of the performance pressure on the Rockets than on Portland. Several recent first round exits have got the fans and local media a bit spooked, to the point where a loss in Game 6 automatically cedes the series back in Oregon. And then there's that whole how-many-minutes-can-Yao-play-before-he-turns-to-salt question, after yet another 40-minute performance.
Blazer fans for their part take some of the same liberties in their assumptions about a Game 7 sure-win scenario, but if Portland falls it will be the end of an enormously successful season, in which every playoff game was gravy to start with. Our fantasies are just that--what-ifs that aren't unreasonable, just way too much to expect. The threat of losing shouldn't be hanging over this team, threatening to discolor the effort of the whole season. It's ALREADY a huge success.
Houston fans, on the other hand, aren't satisfied with another first round exit, nor should they be. To begin with, the Rockets should have been 2nd seed and mauling the Hornets right now, instead of locked in this matchup that gets uglier and more unsure for them by the game. And they've got plenty of experience and defense to be showing well in the second season. In sum, Blazer fans can be loose and accept whatever outcome occurs in the end. Houston's players and coaches will not receive quite the "ah well, great try!" welcome come salarly negotiation time over the summer.
So this Game 5 win was (natch) pretty freakin' huge. Shall we talk about it a bit? Sure, why not. Let's start below...
Put on your best crazy prospector voice as you say with me, "Reckon we got er-selves a humdinger of a pistol shootin', rootin'-tootin' SERIES now!" If you like hoop at all and that game didn't have you up out of your seat half the time, reach over and give the heart monitor machine a whack--you might not still be alive.
Back and forth it went, from one run to another, one momentum shift to the next. It took some superhuman play from some seemingly superhuman ballers, and a whole lot of overcome adversity, but the Blazers now have what they came to get, because honestly--when you listen to them talk, they're not thinking about championships or WCF appearances or even beating the Lakers in Round 2. They came to get playoff experience, and an understanding of what it takes to win.
They now have that understanding, but I think it still suprises this young team just how much intensity is required to compete for and win a playoff game in the NBA. After the game Brandon Roy joked, Bush-esquely, that it was "hard work to win playoff games." All I ask the team is no "Playoffs Accomplished" banners before they leave for Houston, OK?
Seriously, even if the Blazers lose both games in Houston and then can't stay alive in Game 5 (tickets available 10AM tomorrow, but ONLY through trailblazers.com), this will have been an eminently valuable season for the team's future. Not only do they now grasp just how easy it is to get blown out if you're not loaded for bear from the git-go, they know it's possible to regroup, retain a high level of energy and mostly just go out and play.
That said, I think this team now not only has the tools to win a road game in this series, but the moxie and focus of determination. Houston, while being a beast at home in the regular season (who in the West isn't?), has struggled recently in some key playoff games, which might help explain the number of first-round exits they've had. I actually think with current circumstances the chances are actually better than 50-50 that the Blazers will get that homecourt recovery accomplished.
Before I get all rhapsodical over everything, let's make sure the facts don't get short shrift: The Portland Trail Blazers completed their best regular season since 1999-00, and made the playoffs for the first time in six years with the crucial (homecourt) fourth seed. They finished by beating the Denver Nuggets 104-76, in a game where the Nuggets appeared to learn midway of the game's seeding meaninglessness to Denver, who was locked in as #2 by virtue of Houston's loss and San Antonio's OT win (damn that James Posey!)
The Blazers will open this Saturday eveneing against Houston, the fifth seed, in Portland at the Garden. Tuesday night will also be there, and then two games will go down in Houston before (presumably) they'll come back here for Game 5 and alternate as necessary for the next two.
You up to speed now? Fully briefed? OK.
There's a deeper reason I've been covering the Blazers this year, although not a hidden one; I've said before that I sensed this season was building to something special. I got excited during the 13-game run last year, and I did the first Blazer coverage at Loaded Orygun during that time. Enjoy it or wish there were more politics, there's no way to deny the Blazers as a notable Oregon story, not just by virtue of their being the only game in town.
I expected a great story--the rebuilding of a team that had lost its way and in the process its community and fanbase, but admitted its faults and started fresh, from players to coaches to management. And how about that, this scrappy young team managed to sneak into the playoffs to get waxed by the Lakers in 5! That's awesome, I thought. Good story, worth following.
If someone you know is saying they predicted home court in Round 1 back in November, slap them for lyin'. I called 50+ wins a solid likelihood on December 4th, and a month later pegged it at 51. But friends would have slapped me stupid (not a long journey, I know) if I'd gone on about the Blazers getting one of the top four seeds. Utah? NO? Dallas? Houston? Portland's gonna finish ahead of them?
And what about the division? I don't know if people have fully grasped this, but the Blazers are 100% within their rights--and will have a banner--to declare their Northwest Division (co) Championship. The seeding only happens for the playoffs; for purposes of winning the division it's a tie. Heck, if the NBA wised up and used something like point differential, the Blazers would be the #2 seed instead.
So I had a hunch, and hoped that something really good was happening, something that would not only recapture the town's heart no matter the result, but which might even stretch beyond the Rose City and generate discussion across the country.
The appeal of the story has exceeded any fan's wildest dreams. There are perhaps greater achievements yet to come for this franchise and this core group of guys, but this year is like seeing the Beatles in Hamburg, or knowingly scoring tickets to THAT week of Ed Sullivan. You can say you saw them when, you saw what they might do, before they did it.
And now it's penetrated: the rest of the league is talking about "nobody wants to face Portland," and their potential to be a serious sleeper in the West in trying to get past the Rockets and then the Lakers. Brandon Roy was Player of the Week, and Oden is being recognized at least for being a solid post defender, having graduated from being a total bust to simply not being Patrick Ewing or Bill Russell.
The cute little team that could, in short, did. Their story is going bigtime, and I wanted to be there to cover it as it broke. That's worked out pretty well, eh?
That's what the Thunder said about the game, and about the Blazers.It comes on the heels of several other coaches and players making comments about the development in Portland--comments that seem to outpace the sports pundits who still consider the Blazers too young to make any serious noise in the playoffs. Their opponents are convinced, it seems!
And why not, after a game like last night? Considering how to write up this at once meaningless and highly important game, in which the home team got going early against a clearly overmatched visiting squad, accelerated in the second and put the pedal to the medal in the third, I discovered I had the same thought as the boys from Blazers Edge, who gave up trying to analyze the contest in a straight-up fashion. Why even treat it that way, when it was a freak show of a contest?
That's going to be my theme, then--this wasn't an NBA game, it was a carnival. As a fan watching, it was like wandering around the midway oohing and aaahing at the big Travis Wheel, the Odenator, Rudy's Revolution, The Brandon Roy Smooth-as-Butta-Churner, The Gorilla's Den--on this night, even the Fryerator was online and cooking! We've seen most of these rides in our lives already, maybe from different manufacturers in different towns--but that doesn't make these new rides, in our town, any less thrilling.
You could break down why the rides are exciting, how the games are subtly and not so subtly rigged against you, and to some extent that might be interesting, even to a kid for a while. We could go through the missed rotations, slow jumps and no jumps, and draw lines between the Thunder's various defensive lapses and the multitude of highlight reel plays by the Blazers. But eventually even the most dorky hoop stats geek glazes over; they too wanna see the highlights!
Just about everyone got involved tonight, offensively speaking. Heck, Michael Ruffin scored his first four points as a Blazer, which is actually really cool for him because a large group of family were there to see him tonight. Shav was inactive, Martell hurt, and neither Joel nor LaMarcus was not a big points hound, although they were instrumental in frustrating the Thunder early and starting transition after transition for quality shot attempts.
So proud. So, so proud. The Blazers got the L*kers as healthy as they were going to be, with Bynum back and Kobe Bryant ready to play as hard as necessary to try and hang onto hopes for home court advantage throughout the playoffs. The Blazers got the best of Los Angeles, which drew close time and time again, after having rebuilt their lead again and again. The L*ker defense was a swarming mob of shark-toothed bees high on crank for much of the first half, and it wasn't much looser in the second--but Nate McMillan drew up the answers and Brandon Roy executed them for the win in the 4th over the biggesr rival Portland has, certainly the best team in the West.
This was a marquee NBA contest for people who were paying attention, which suddenly became a classic matchup in a close fourth quarter as Brandon Roy and Kobe Bryant began guarding each other for the last five or six minutes of the game, trading shots as each tried to carry his team to a much-desired victory. No post-clinch slacking was evident on the part of LA Affilliate #1; they were trying, and trying hard. They were NOT going to get shellacked again like they did so long ago...no wait, I'm sorry--it was actually a month and one day ago. My bad.
How many gut checks does this team need to pass? How many times must they disprove the theory that they fold under pressure? How many times must they outbody one of the more physical teams in the NBA before they're no longer "too soft to win it all?" In short, when will Portland's jockeying for home court advantage be seen for what it is in the mainstream NBA media--bloody shocking, but 100% for real? Can we give that up now, please? They belong, and if their playoff opponents aren't ready to concede that and give it their all, they will find themselves as disappointed as the the Spurs and L*kers.
That's what Spurs star Tony Parker said about the victorious Blazers after they had stunned San Antonio and their crowd, coming back from 19 down to win handily by 12--he said the Spurs played a team "younger and more athletic than us." There's no arguing the younger part, but for the most athletic Spur to admit that they don't match up in quickness, agility and endurance is high praise.
On the other hand, what was he going to say? All he can do is think about the fading window on his team as they blow a strong 2nd seed in the West and are now fighting a three way tie--Blazers included--behind the L$kers and Denver, who seem to have clinched their spots.
Meanwhile, as the Spurs slide down the leaderboard they're passing the Blazers on their way up. You may remember the Blazers as that team that invited San Anton up to the great PNW, where they promptly opened up an astonishing 64-37 halftime lead on the visitors enroute to an 18 point victory, 102-84. Sorry, them's the breaks; say hi to Utah and New Orleans on your way down. And maybe you can still see Phoenix from Dallas' house in 8th place--sort of like Sarah Palin, across the playoff-nonplayoff border!
Where was I? Oh yes, younger and more athletic. What a happy place to be in, where the teams that are as young and athletic as you are aren't as talented, and the experienced and more talented teams aren't as young or athletic! And that's basically where the Blazers stand right now: when they step on the court, if they execute their game plan properly and perform to their abilities for even 30-35 minutes a game, not even the Clevelands, the Bostons or the LAs represent an unwinnable challenge.
Now is that execution a given every night? Not yet, but you can teach mental toughness and earn it through experience--and I would aver that we're seeing this process develop beautifully right now. You can't, however, teach Travis Outlaw to jump like the Geico money stack is under his feet, like he did last night in the 3rd quarter, getting some serious vertical not once but TWICE to grab a mid-lane rebound before any Spur even managed to jump once.
There's no doubt that much of the 2nd and 3rd quarters of last night's Blazers-Memphis tilt was inducive of pillow throwing and teeth gnashing around Chez Joe. Coach Nate McMillan called it the worst first half they'd played all season, but I feel like I've seen worse, and as I said technically it was in the chronological middle of the game.
It was an uglyfest, during the depths of which Mike Barrett said in a deadpan way, "This is not attractive basketball" while the Blazers spent half of an offensive set bent over trying to retrieve the orb from where they had left it, or someone had slapped it. And if I don't have it confused with another sequence, Outlaw missed a bottom three, rebounded by Frye and kicked up top so Rudy could miss an equally ill-advised quick jumper.
That's how it went on O, after a decent start in which, I just noticed, nine different players scored in the first--almost in order: Aldridge jumper, Prizz tip, Brandon three + 2 FT, Batum two, Blake jumper, (Roy FT), Outlaw FT, Oden layup, Rudy jumper. A nice rebound and pair of FT with one second left by Rudy after Warrick's loose ball foul closed the quarter, bringing the Blazers to a mildly satisfying 21-21 tie.
And things started OK in the second, Portland not playing smoothly on offense or with much tracking power on D, but down just one at 28-29 after a nice jumper by Travis at 7:35. Then all those jumpers started catching up with the Blazers, and Rudy Gay, Hakim Warrick and OJ Mayo started tearing them up while Portland just imploded for several minutes. From the Outlaw basket down to :25 left in the half, the Blazers scored exactly one point. Mayo (who little Joe aptly noted "has a double food name") drained two big threes and a tough-jam. Remember those for later.
The turnaround, as it fitted and started in the first, came right at the end and subtly changed the dynamic in a way that suggested no matter how bad it got--and over those seven scoreless minutes it got pretty damn bad--one of the teams on the floor was going to the playoffs and knew it while there were games left in the regular season, and the other was on a bit of a roll and thought they had a chance to steal one of the season's four games with Portland, but was nonetheless one of the worst teams in the conference.
{The "get it done" moment of athletic elevation, below}
I've been putting off and putting off the Rockets recap for a variety of reasons--sleep, work, family, it was a loss....but I'm also still not sure how to process the sequence of events Sunday. Sure, the dominant mood SHOULD be celebration, because the young Blazers did something by rights they shouldn't have been able to do, and which most pundits and basketball scribes subscribed to--make the playoffs. And make them from the West, and not squeaking in on the final day, but two weeks early, fighting not just for extra games but for THE extra home game you get by being seed #1 through #4 in the first round.
But was it coincidence that the team they were playing the day they discovered the Suns had erased the final magic number, was the Houston Rockets? The team that was behind them in 5th, now ahead of them in 4th, and with the Blazers loss a more assured first round opponent no matter what? The very same.
And so watching the game as it unfolded, beyond the win or loss, the need to establish quality road tallies, and the obvious interest in pulling tighter in the standings with those above (like the Spurs, Wednesday's opponent and another very similar opportunity), I was watching the game thinking, "How are the Blazers going to deal with 7 games of this...if they're lucky?" Or more saliently, "How are the Blazers going to win even once here, if they're the 5th seed?"
And so that's what I've been thinking all day yesterday: Hells Yeah! but also Oh crap, is it going to be over that quickly? And well it might, based on that last game. Perhaps the most disappointing thing about it wasn't the loss but the fact that Portland didn't really play badly; they just came up small--in some ways literally. If they'd just totally screwed the pooch you might be able to write it off and look forward with a clear optimism. But the hard fact is that Portland was OK, Houston was better.
I suppose if you're going to set the standard that you beat West teams by 20 in your house (cf Suns, Grizzlies, Spurs, Lakers), it's not so unreasonable to expect to beat them by, oh, 35 on the road. Is it? I mean, is it too much to ask to turn on the television on Friday night with a welcome-to-the-weekend beverage and be rewarded by having your favorite team thrash an opponent like they got paid by the margin of victory? After all, don't super-young teams with no playoff stretch experience--much less actual playoff experience--routinely start bulldozing teams on a nightly basis in late March and April no matter the opponent?
(The answers to the two questions are: of course, you unrealistic ninny; and flatly no way.)
We'll talk about the hometown heroes in a moment, but I'm still not sure what to think about the former Sonics down in the oilbelt now. They clearly think they're on their way to being worldbeaters, as this interesting broadcaster-as-team-motivator article from Mike Barrett explains, and do have two legitimate stars in the making in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. And while their record is a dismal 21-54, they have some quality wins (like beating the Blazers a month ago in OKC and the Spurs in SA a couple of nights ago) and have of late been playing much better ball.
Yet last night they looked utterly clueless. There were so few things they did well, and while in many ways it's a testament to a Blazers team that has simply stepped it up several notches in all areas, the thing that kept recurring to me as I watched Portland dismantle the Thunder was, "Geez, these guys really kind of suck." For one thing, their shooting is just awful. They take all kinds of ridiculous shots, throw themselves at the hoop to draw fouls (which is good), but don't get any kind of rhythm or team play going. It's KD or Westbrook busting the lane, scooping and juking all the way, trying to make some crazy off balance iso shot. Which frankly, they do a fair bit of the time in a very Travis kind of way.
But--and again, due credit to the Blazers who completely shut the paint down--that kind of offense is easier to defend in the long run, easier to ignore the bit players in that drama, and really leaves you up a creek if the shots aren't falling. The last time in that building, they did--the big duo took 34 shots and made half of them, for 41 total points. Last night? Five for 21(!!) and 21 points. Note particularly the serious dropoff in shots taken; they don't go in if they don't go up.
Is this even the same team? The group of faces seems familiar to who I remember from back in, mmmm...early March. As you recall, it wasn't a great February for them, or at least the persistent troubles (help D, consistent perimeter shooting, quality road wins) still existed. The Blazers did a lot of losing to West teams good (Houston, Spurs) and bad (OKC, GSW) at their place, displaying each of their championship-preventing maladies in ample measure.
And then San Antonio came to town March 1, fresh off a controlling win in the AlamoCarRentalSoRememberItDome days earlier, as noted. Tony Parker had gone off for 39, and Blazer fans held their breath for the rematch. They got to exhale pretty quickly, as the team exploded on the Spurs for 33 points in the first quarter, building a 12 point lead with both Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge hitting their feel-shots early, helped by 10 first-quarter assists. As we wistfully remember, that was a shellacking that ended up as an 18-point blowout of an elite team.
Then the L*kers came to town, and what happened? The Blazers nailed three dunks in a row then three layups in a row en route to a 25-16 first quarter edge. Did they hit from outside? Oh mercy yes. In the second quarter--which was really the blowout period, as the Blazers whipped LA 36-22 in the 2nd--Portland hit five treys, three of them from Travis Outlaw, who blew up for 17 in the quarter. Aldridge had an average-ish point total of 16, but worked extremely hard on Pau Gasol for 13 rebounds, something that had been sorely lacking most of the rest of the year.
If, as a pro basketball team, you find yourself completing an entire NBA basketball game with the same number of points as a great round from Tiger Woods, you've failed. Thirty-six out, just thirty in. A grand total of 11 points in the third quarter, just one stanza with as many as 20. (Although no one will remember Memphis actually outscoring the Blazers in a quarter, the final one at 19-18). Trying to impress Pamela Anderson with your doctoral thesis evinces less futility.
The struggling unit known as the Grizzlies struggled some more Saturday night, but credit due--they struggled a lot harder for playing the Blazers, who hassled passing lanes and shooting lines all night (10 steals and 5 blocks, to start with) and made a young and talent-latent Grizzlies team (admittedly on a back to back) look as old and tired as the Suns on Thursday.
Here's another, shorter barometer to let you know how well the Blazers played: if the other team's playmaker says this about Portland
"They play really good help defense," Memphis forward Rudy Gay said. "They force you to do things you don't normally do. They force you to take bad shots."
then Portland had a very good game. But it's true--all of a sudden everyone is coming together on defense and playing much more solid team D. It's not a shocking rarity yet, but I honestly cannot remember the last game where I shook and slapped my head over repeated obvious failures to get out on shooters or handle a switch. Probably the last Denver game, which was a true nightmare of non-competitiveness.
I saw Steve Blake beating other guards to mid-lane rebounds the bigs were too far under for. I saw Travis Outlaw hanging around weakside and helping at both ends (six REB, including two offensive), even though his shot wasn't falling. Even Sergio has begun to grab a couple off the glass, and frankly those bounds were offensive boards and putbacks a couple weeks ago. Two points here, three there on the kickout, and soon you're talking about a real deficit.
Oden and Joel also remain a force inside, and are quite recently becoming an all-game nightmare for opposing offenses. Joel makes sure you're not going to get more than one shot, and Greg greatly reduces the chance you'll make it in the first place, or will try some unusual way to get it past him. They split minutes almost evenly, and yanked 19 rebounds (7 offensive) to go with 2 blocks, and 19 points. You'll take that from your C position every day, you betcha!
Man, a game like that will make you wish you had three days between all of them! For a contest that was billed as (and was) a hugely important game with playoff implications for both the Blazers and especially the Suns, one team clearly looked ready to step up their game for that rarefied atmosphere of competition, and one team just...didn't. Good news! The Blazers were the up-steppers, and they stepped all over Phoenix by dominating all phases of the game. It was sweet.
I had penciled this one in as a win some time ago, but as the game drew closer in the wake of that tough OT loss to Philly, I started to reconsider. And why not? Phoenix was hot, winning six straight--including two must haves against Denver and Utah, scoring 118 both times. Sure the Blazers had won in December at the Garden (which I was luckily there for), but Brandon Roy needed every bit of his 52 points to seal it. And the Suns need every possible win they can get to even have a chance at the dance.
Still, I'd convinced myself that the Sixers simply match up too well with the Blazers, and if Portland could keep up with an active Suns team and showed more heart for the kill, they'd come out ahead. I expected a back and forth, hard fought game that featured a lot of the big four--Nash, Shaq, Roy and Aldridge.
I got half of all of it--hard fought and two stars with big games, and back and forth for about half the game. I suppose O'Neal's 20 counts for something, but he played only 25 minutes total, and collected 14 points in the first half. Nash had 15, but they were quiet points that usually came only when he discovered himself out of options on the drive and had to improvise quickly.
On the other hand, Brandon and LMA were just too good for their matchups. First of all the Suns played a zone, which gave Blazer shooters all kinds of room as the Phoenix players rushed (and failed) to fill the gaps. It wasn't just outside; the Blazers were also successful at packing the Suns in enough so that even midrangers were often too far to come out and cover in time.
LaMarcus in particular enjoyed one of his best games, and embarrassed Matt Barnes like Andre Miller ripped Steve Blake apart on Monday, simply as the taller, stronger player. If he posted, Barnes couldn't obstruct it. If he popped, Barnes couldn't get close enough. And when he tried, he fouled. See also: Amundsen, Louis, and Swift, Stromile.
Meanwhile, Brandon Roy was just having fun. Grant Hill popped a couple of Js, but finished with just six points after a big night against Utah--and had no answers for BRoy. He was simply too old and too slow to keep up with the well rested star, and Roy made him pay every which way, including at least once as the roll man on a P&R.
If it had boiled down to just those players, the Suns would have been much likelier to hang with Portland for the whole game and made it the back and forth contest I expected. For much of the first half Shaq was pretty unstoppable on offense inside, schooling Oden on the post a couple times but also effective with his hooks and short jumpers. (He was slow and beatable on defense, however). And Jason Richardson, a mighty fine player himself, was also on target and could have been the difference.
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.
You could see the fatigue in last night's broadcast from Milwaukee, of the fifth game in seven days on the road for the Blazers. Having spent a whole bunch of shorthanded energy in a heroic loss to Cleveland on Thursday, everyone looked a little sluggish--even the Mikes doing play by play and color (Barrett and Rice, respectively) talked over and over about the long roadie and how good it would be to get home for the rest of the month.
Portland got LaMarcus Aldridge back from his concussion on Thursday, which was certainly good news--but the team leaned on Travis Outlaw for another start in place of Nic Batum, and neither Greg Oden nor Rudy Fernandez had yet to return to their own pre-injury forms. (And I'll note later on whether LA was in the "back" or "on the court but not yet there" column.)
To be 2-2 after the first four games was relatively satisfying, but Saturday's contest against the Bucks became a pivotal one in the Blazers' playoff push: all week, other West contenders had flirted with helpfully inopportune losses against less teams--but almost universally came through, meaning no help in the standings.
So after being in first place in the Northwest Division at times right before the trip, the losses to Atlanta and the Cavs had knocked them back to where they'd been the week before, 1-2 games out. A 2-3 finish to the roadie just wasn't going to cut it, unless Portland was resigning itself to a 7th or 8th seed. On the other hand, a 3-2 result would staunch the slow bleed, make it a nicer plane ride home, and take some of the pressure off yet another revenge game against Philly Monday night.
Should it therefore have been much of a surprise when three minutes had gone by and Charlie Villanueva rammed home a dunk to make it 9-0 Milwaukee? No, but that didn't make it any easier to watch. (Neither did the fakeout-HD that KGW does for road games they cover; they simulcast it but letterbox half the screen away. At least our Comcastless friends in Oregon/SW WA got to see it, though!)
Some will tell you there are no moral victories in sports, only less embarrassing losses. I'm a little more of a half-full guy than that, or rather I'm realistic about who the Blazers are and who they're not. They're not game-in, game-out competitive with the Cleveland Cavaliers--at least not on their court (where they've lost exactly once all year) and not without two starters (three if you count Webster). In a 7-game series under those conditions, the Blazers would lose six.
But on this night, under the above circumstances, the Portland Trail Blazers played every bit as well as the Cavs, and really played better as a team the entire evening. It took King LeBron to almost literally take the game over in the final half, especially the last 2 minutes of regulation and the overtime. Did I mention the overtime? That's right, baby. Biggest margin of victory in the Association, and the Blazers took them to OT in their house.
This was the most moral of victories. It was the guy who asks a girl if he can kiss her before doing it. It was the woman who leaves a note on a car after barely nicking the paint with hers. Perhaps most aptly in a metaphoric sense, this loss was the guy who stands up on the subway and chases off punks harrassing a pregnant immigrant woman. If losses were girls, you'd take this one to mom. If it were a girl your buddy had dated, you'd call this loss off limits basically until your buddy kicked the bucket. It was moral. Like, straightedge moral. Am I coming across? It was as good as a tickmark in the L column gets.
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