Trail Post - A Portland Trail Blazers Blog

You know, this April, we’re going to look back on this run and laugh. We’ll be eating some delicious wings, put some bleu cheese dressing on ‘em, and reminisce over that weekend where the Blazers let two teams shoot over 60%. You see, 60% is that magic mark when you’re more than just bad; it’s where the other team is simply good. It goes without saying that a team makes all their easy looks when they’re hitting 60%, but that’s still, quite a reach, say, when they shoot 90% on shots they usually shoot 55% on. Or in the case of Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams, a shot at the top of the key feels like a dunk. It didn’t matter if we got a hand in their face that night, they were going to make it. This is my way of saying there’s absolutely no lesson to be learned defensively here. We weren’t going to give up the lowest field goal percentage in the NBA for the season. No one thought that. This weekend was us regressing back to the average. Hard.

Our offense, like it has been all season, has been the distressing part of games. Except for the Chicago game and a few other key runs, no one’s playing free and easy out there. It feels like each player is feeling hamstrung by his own expectations and the expectations of his teammates. The fact that Webster, Oden, Rudy are the only ones unafraid to gun is not a good sign. This may be where we feel the absence of Outlaw the most - in his most derided characteristic as a player. Maybe his bad shot selection is still better than running clock for an - ugh - Andre Miller long-distance shot. When Travis misses, at least we knew not to pass to him, which led to some more creative offense later on. Travis was unafraid to lose the game. We need someone to step up and actively take the role as the second man. Right now, Rudy and Martell seem the most likely, but I haven’t seen them taking anyone one-on-one.

In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t really gone over the Utah game, and that’s intentional. I was chugging E. Coli water during it just so I didn’t have to watch it.

Anyway, this weekend was a hiccup. We could call to Fire Nate and Trade Miller for a lot worse than what happened in Utah and what happened in the Rose Garden against Memphis.

This wasn’t the worst loss of the season. A loss to a fully manned Memphis Grizzlies team is not as bad as losing to the barely-manned Golden State Warriors. Let’s just get that out of the way before we get into that abomination of a game. It seemed like everything was going fine for much of that first quarter, as Martell Webster came to play. He was scoring all over the place, playing energetic defense, just doin…wait, he’s out. Nate McMillan had a patented Nate McMillan Questionable Decision™, something that’s been extremely frequent this year. Martell, for the night, had 24 points on only 14 shots. He’s the only one who seriously came to play. Nate’s logitc: When you can take out your hottest shooter and put in someone who’s ice cold, you gotta do it. Here’s why we lost: Nate upset the juju of the basketball gods. Martell was going to put on a career performance, and Nate didn’t even notice it was happening until it was far too late. By the time Martell came back, the damage was more than done. What made it worse, was that the team held onto the ball and forced jumpers, never passing it to the only guy who had made a shot all night. His next shot was in the last minute of the second quarter. Just terrible.

One of the best parts about watching games at the Rose Garden is the interaction with people around you. Up in the 300 level, you can scream and swear all night. You’ll just get high-fives from the drunk guy with an ill-fitting Drexler jersey. Up front, you can’t say a word. I yell at the refs and cheer, and this woman in front of me just kept giving me the stinkface, even turning around asking me to quiet down. The jaded old dudes sitting next to me loved it and made fun of her afterward. Nice. Such and underrated part of being there: talking to guys who’ve been following the NBA longer than you’ve been alive.

Midway through the second quarter we realized, we hadn’t scored in about ten minutes, and thoughts of asking for a refund danced through our heads. It was disgusting. Let’s not acknowledge this ever again.

Then, the rest of the game was a serious uphill climb that the Blazers made much more difficult for themselves by simply shooting terribly. They missed six free throws. They only shot 40% for the game and a little better for the second half. Every run we had was stifled by a missed three or a dumb turnover. The Grizz didn’t help either by making about ten very tough shots with hands in their faces. Don’t pin this loss only on the Blazers. The Grizz were hitting. Sure they feasted on layups, but everything else went in too. If the Grizz miss three of those circus shots they were taking, we hit three more free throws, and decided to pass to Webster in the first half, we probably come out with a different outcome tonight, and are joking with each other about how we almost lost to the Grizzlies. That’s the fun of basketball.

There were only a few individual performances that mattered last night.

Martell showed up, Nate took him out. This has been addressed. Let’s just trade him if he’s going to be used like that. That was an indefensible coaching decision.

Greg showed up too, but, once again, Nate took him out. You see a little theme happening?

Rudy Fernandez played with energy but was terrible on offense, going 1-6. It looked worse in person.

The point guards sucked. A running theme for our losses is lack of point guard production. When Blake and Andre aren’t hitting, it is near-impossible for this team to win.

Brandon Roy filled the stat sheet and really keyed the feeble attempt at a run in the second half, driving to the basket, hitting threes, pulling up from mid range. He came to play. Strange theory: some other fans were saying that the Blazers played badly because of a turkey hangover because they were at home. BUT! The only Blazers from this area, Brandon Roy and Martell Webster, ended up putting the best marks of the game. Strange.

Joel Przybilla is a terrible, terrible mess. Find yourself Joel. Get that fire back.

Aldridge got destroyed by Zach Randolph. Z-Bo hit everything, Aldridge didn’t show up until the second half.

Anyway, knowing this team, we’ll probably win by 20 tonight in Utah, and Jerry Sloan will tackle Rudy Fernandez while he takes a three during the blowout.

I announce my findings.

It is tragic. It is tragic. It is tragic.

I have in my hand, as I write this column, a list of Portland Trail Blazers players who are card-carrying members of the Communist Party of America. Now you may ask, how are you typing while holding this list? I copied the names off of a document I found while snooping through a player’s locker with a Hi-Liter onto my palm. That’s what journalists do. Look it up. Look it up. Look it up.

To think, the Blazers could have five players on the floor, they could be rebounding, they could be passing, they could even be scoring. They could also be one more thing: they could be the lineup that worships at the glass coffin of V.I. Lenin. Look closer at each Blazer assist next game. Was it simply a good pass? Or was it a coded socialist message to a comrade?

It has been seeping into the team and the organization by ounces every year. What do you think those red road alternate jerseys were?

The United States was formed in 1593 by a group of enterprising confectioners and tobacco magnates. I read about it. In a book. From the library. Since winning the war of independence in 1955 against the Axis of Papua New Guinea, Luxembourg, and Calgary, the United States have been a symbol of hope and freedom in the face of overwhelming odds. Those four faces on Mount Rushmore are always there to remind us that yes, if you do enough good deeds, you will change into a mountain when you die. What are these players doing to the legacy of the country? Are they hatching plans to switch out the torch of Lady Liberty (a gift to us from the Portuguese in 1742) for a hammer? Will they graft a stylish goatee on her lovely visage? These are your players.

Are these wealth-redistributing over-paid millionaires thinking of the kids who look up to them? Have they looked Marissa, 8, who lives in a duplex in Sellwood, in the eyes and said they hate America? Have they told Tyler, 4, a kindergartner at West Tualatin View Elementary in the West Hills, that social security will keep the eventual worker’s revolution from happening? I’m sure they have. I’m also sure they left out the part where he’ll have to wait at a special government-mandated tree-line in front of QFC for a tree this December. And his only present awaiting him on Proletariatmas will be a vacuum cleaner.

I don’t mean to politicize this issue, but we need to make a law against emotions or political expressions on our professional athletic teams. This isn’t a political thing, but you should hold a town hall meeting, draft a bill, get that through the state house and senate, and have it signed into law by the governor. This isn’t political. This isn’t political. This isn’t political.

Yesterday afternoon, while I was sharing my Thanksgiving dinner with high-up member of an NBA franchise who wishes to be kept anonymous, he told me, “John, you are the greatest writer I’ve ever met. I wish they would award the Pulitzer four times a year, and that you would win every one.” I humbly agreed to agree. He was right about many other things he said to me that day, too.

He said, “Maybe you can change their minds with a well-placed column, aimed right at their hearts.” I responded, “I don’t think assassination is the answer, but I’m sure that writing something can help.”

This is my helping hand to the Blazers. Think about it: a hand has five fingers. There’s one for each of them, with the pinky reserved for the smallest of the bunch. Let my digits be their salvation. Maybe they’ll accept that hand. Maybe they won’t.

This is Thanksgiving, and the colors of the season are orange and brown. Not red.

Thank goodness the people playing on the floor in the Rose Garden cared about last night’s game because in the stands, it was pretty dire. This thing wasn’t in question even when Jersey had us tied up. The only thing that was in question was whether my co-worker Meghan would become Facebook friends the next morning with the little girl sitting next to her after sharing popcorn and taking cell phone photos of each other.

Well, for anyone who watched the game, there was really one story: Brook Lopez. The guy is a machine. He’s brilliant at drawing calls (even if some are questionable) and he makes the other team pay when he is at the line. He’s a solid rebounder and even has decent range on his jumper. I just wonder if he’s suffering from Shareef Abdur-Rahimitis. Of course Rahimitis is the condition of having inflated numbers because you’re the only option on one of the worst teams in NBA history. Do you think Greg Oden puts up the same numbers as Lopez if he’s first option on a terrible team with no backup center rather than the third or fourth option on a contender with Przybilla playing behind him? I do. Still, the fact I have to make a logical leap to even compare Oden to Lopez shows you how far Lopez has come along. I hope the guy plays with a winner at some point.

Andre Miller was once again a big story, playing extremely well coming off the bench, and having easily the top highlight of the night with his three part ball-fake layup. The fans were already giving an “oooh” when he pump-faked the shot and then he gave them the “aaaah” when he made the ball fake on the way to the basket. Still, the sound the Rose Garden makes right before Andre shoots a long-distance jumper can’t be beaten. It’s the type of groan you have when you first realize there’s a baby on a cross-country flight with you. Once again, he had some absurd +/- numbers coming off the bench, which just seems to strengthen the argument for leaving him there.

Dante Cunningham is the answer the question we’ve asked since Travis went out. He can replace him. He plays active, solid defense, can hit an open jumper, and rebounds too. He’s the Batum story, 09-10 edition. The question is, is he a better option than Travis? This year, no. Dante will have to make a leap to hold onto his minutes if and when Travis comes back. Long-term? Hell yes. If Dante plays even remotely like he did tonight for the rest of the year, there is no chance of Travis coming back next year. Which is a little bittersweet, because I finally grew to like Trav this season.

The stars of the team took another game in the backseat, just relaxing and watching the rest of the guys win it. LaMarcus had a nice alley-oop after a block and was quiet (for him) otherwise, and Brandon shot 50% and put up 13 and 5, which is solid, but not incredible. The only thing that went truly wrong for the team last night was free throw shooting, as the Blazers were at a frigid 58%, missing ten. A lot of kids went without pre-Thanksgiving chalupas in their bellies because of that. Hopefully Andre Miller thinks about that before clanking both shots at the line.

All in all, it was a workmanlike Blazers win. A few big plays here and there with the result never in question.

This was a perfect game to watch from the back rows of the 300 section. Where I was sitting, directly behind the basket, not only worked in the sense that I could see everything happening on the floor, but also in the sense that the angle made the game look like a live version of the 2K angle in NBA 2K10. Life imitating art imitating life. Mix a few uppity Bulls fans dotting the crowd and Joakim Noah’s ill-advised hair and overratedness and you’ll also get a wonderfully hostile environment. This game and the Pistons game weren’t even comparable in terms of fan participation. Every time one Bulls fan cheered for a free throw (and seriously, that’s all they did), the twenty Blazer fans around them would each cheer louder for the next big play. Some fun give and take. I applauded the Bulls fan when he left, because you have to be a good sport to come into another arena and cheer so loudly, without making trouble. I honestly would love to do this at a Utah game. Except the Blazers wouldn’t be playing. I would just be watching the little scoreboard ringing the arena, wearing my Rudy jersey, cheering every time we extended the lead or came back, generally freaking out Mormons.

Oh yeah, there was a game, and Greg Oden had the best performance of his career. He was showing the entire arsenal last night. Vicious rebounds, graceful spins and drop steps, powerful dunks, and smart blocks. Even better that he did it on Noah, right when people were beginning to consider that Joakim had a chance to top ol’ Greg. Ol’ Greg took Noah to a club where people wee on each other and drank Noah’s Bailey’s from a shoe. That’s how dominant he was.

That’s not to discount LaMarcus, who had slightly better numbers, getting a rebound more, a couple of assists more. But he wasn’t the super-hyped number one pick. He was earning it. One of my favorite developments of the season so far is how well Greg and LaMarcus can find each other in the post with passes. It’s something we need, because honestly, is there a better power forward-center tandem in the

Northwest Division? (There’s Bosh-Bargnani, Josh Smith-Horford, Gasol-Bynum, though I’d only say Gasol-Bynum is better because I’m a homer.)

Andre Miller had a hilarious night, as he finished at an absurd +30. Once again, how can you argue with this starting lineup? He was just dropping passes to everyone. He didn’t even have many turnovers. It was just silly what he was doing. Specifically the pass to Rudy for the backdoor alley-oop layup.

The Trail Post Martell Mancrush continued unabated by numbers, simply because he had two of the best Blazer highlights of the game. Keep it up, dude.

Post-game highlights were a funny thing, because it was just a parade of Bulls dunking on Oden. It was like watching a different game. But honestly, if it takes watching a parade of guys dunk on him, but he’s not in foul trouble so he’s the best offensive player on the floor, I’ll take it every single time. Hope you enjoyed your dunk Noah, because you were completely dominated for every other moment on the floor.

And highlight of the game, without a doubt, was Rudy hitting Luol Deng in the face with a pass. If he managed to hit the three afterwards, that would have been the greatest play of the season. And by the season, I mean in NBA history.

I’d go over more individual achievements, but there’s too many. Kudos to Nate for sticking the Inferno in. Brandon put up the Roy Special of a permutation of 20-5-5. Joel was the Joel of last year, hitting every shot.

Let’s just savor our win over a decent team. We haven’t had many of them. Done? Now let’s focus on not being the Nyets first win of the season.

So, it’s finally dead. Thank goodness. The three guard lineup, the greatest fluke of the season, died an unceremonious death Friday night in Oakland, as the 7-man Warriors absolutely destroyed the Blazers by 14 points. Before we take a look at the game, let’s just reminisce over the good times we had with Blake and Miller in the lineup simultaneously. Took a second? Are we ready to move on? We beat a few teams by strictly surprise with the lineup, and by the end, it was expected, and we got hit accordingly. Before the season, I asked Brandon Roy if he’ll be swinging down to the small forward position as much since he lost that weight. He responded, “I hope not - those guys are big.” Well, his hopes weren’t answered so far this season. When you have a chance to move your max deal two time All-Star around the lineup to accommodate Steve Blake, you gotta do it. It’s like the Superfriends replacing Superman with the Wonder Twins. Just a bit of a talent gap. (Is there a DC-Blazers crossover post coming up? Maybe. Could be Marvel. Oh wait, I just remembered Bust a Bucket did an amazing job with it.)

Anyway, the Warriors game was a total failing of anything you expect from a basketball team, so we’ll leave it at that. It was the logical conclusion to a gimmick lineup: getting blown out of the water by a bad team. Let’s also say that Nate’s two foul strategy with LaMarcus may be the dumbest thing I’ve seen from him all season.

On to the good stuff. Martell was back in the starting lineup on Saturday, and what a difference it made. Friday’s +/- leader at +7, Martell once again led the Blazers, this time in actual stats, as he picked up his first double double of his career with 23 and 14. It’s sure nice having a small forward in the game instead of six foot guy with two bad ankles. (That’s the last Andre Miller potshot, I promise.) He had the hilarious +/- of +26. Just absurd. Even more ridiculous, Juwan Howard had a -1. In 20 minutes. He really is not the answer to the lack of Travis. Even in a game when everyone is getting theirs, he is just a vortex of sucking. To be honest, I only saw about a half’s worth of time from this game because the Ducks were busy tearing up Arizona’s reservations at the Rose Bowl. What I saw was typical of large Blazer blowouts. Running, fun, just all around happiness.

Still, Saturday night’s victory counts the same as Friday’s debacle. We changed the lineup, but it was against a terrible team. Tonight’s game against the Bulls should be the first real test of our actual NBA starting lineup. See you there.

Our buddies over at Rip City Project posted this originally, but it’s a great piece of work from everyone’s favorite advanced stat-head punching bags, the Wages of Win Journal. In their quest to bring baseball-like number crunching to basketball, they give each player a specific win percentage rating. For example, Brandon Roy was responsible for a tad over 15 wins all by himself.

Enough introduction. Right now, according to these folks, the Blazers are at the top of the west. Is this flawed and skewed? Of course: all stats are. Considering the ease of our schedule and our ridiculously high differential (+7.89, highest in the West, higher than Dallas by 1.13) we have taken the title for best in the conference. What does this mean for the team? Little to nothing. It’s just a nice little fact that we can hang our hats on, that the Blazers are playing very well right now, and they’re producing at an extremely high level. It’s something to hang our hats on after giving up a 19 point lead last game.

Before all of that ridiculousness that happened last night, there’s something that needs to be addressed.

Ken Griffey Jr. and Ken Griffey Sr. were at the game. Is there a reason they were down here? I don’t know, I never got to ask. Maybe they were here because they wanted to see Seattle talents such as Brandon Roy or Martell Webster. Maybe they just wanted to watch some basketball. All I know, is that this past season I missed out on seeing Junior up in Seattle, so it was cool seeing him at the Rose Garden. Then again, the M’s signed him again to another one year contract, so I’ll get to see him do on the Mariners what Juwan Howard does with the Blazers.

So, last night’s game was the third I’ve been to this year, and before anything, that opening video has issues. Basically, it’s Storm Large performing Ballroom Blitz. It’s a mix of a great local talent and a glam rock classic. The only issue is it doesn’t do anything to pump up the crowd. There’s no forward momentum. It’s shot like a music video from 1984, with some basketball scenes spliced in. By the end, you’re just wishing it was over. Compare that to the horribly unoriginal “Welcome to the Jungle” one from last year, where people just yell “This is Portland” over and over again. At least it builds up to something and feels like the whole crowd was part of something. Another one used plenty over the last few years was the 300-style “O Fortuna” with the players in black and white. Who didn’t love the unintentional humor of Ike Diogu and Steve Blake trying to look like badasses and then finishing off with Trav’s scream? Nit-picking, I know.

Apparently, there was a game last night too. Things got rolling fast and got rolling well in the first quarter, as we pulled away almost immediately. Nothing too exciting, just an array of jumpshots and well-placed passes. The biggest topic was “Who’s the douche on the Pistons?” That’s Swede Jonas Jerebko, folks. We were up four after one, ten after two, and twenty after three. This is the prologue to the fourth quarter. By the time the fourth hit, we fans were sufficiently bored. Fans in the 300 section started a wave. But that wasn’t enough. Not to be outdone by the poor people, the bottom bowl started their own wave going at a different rate. This is what passed for excitement last night through the first 40 minutes.

Then the Pistons started scoring. They would make aggressive plays. They were pressing Steve Blake, who coughed up the ball whenever someone got within three feet of him. Personal bubble issues, I suppose. Beyond that, they started hitting. After shooting about 33% for most of the game, they raised it to 39% to finish, and shot a bunch of free throws, and hit all of them. During this, we wallowed and missed free throws constantly (at one point, Andre Miller missed four in a row). Well, after shot after shot went down, the game got down to a one point lead. The Pistons erased 19 points in less than ten minutes. Luckily, the chokers of the night, Steve Blake and Andre Miller, played hero, as Blake nailed a three pointer to put us up four, and Miller knocked down a few free throws. Fun moment: when the Pistons were fouling, Brandon Roy had the ball and passed it up to Miller, every single person in the arena groaned (Roy and Miller included) like they had just seen someone accidentally hit a kid when jumping into the stands. Anyway, we won, so hooray.

What to take from this game? Well, that’s two games in a row we’ve given up giant leads. I have to say, missing Travis Outlaw probably plays a part in that. Not in his scoring, but just in our lack of depth. Juwan Howard has been absolutely terrible and does not make up for Travis’ absence in any way. He’s Travis with less defense, less offense, and more hair. Beyond that, what was Nate thinking in the early moments of the fourth? He leaves in a tired second unit against the hungry Pistons. He should have brought in Cunningham and Bayless, guys that are gunning for playing time and would have played their hearts out, rather than the half-assed stuff we had to sit through.

On to the individuals:

The Centers Joel brought it, Greg Oden didn’t. During that comeback stretch, the Pistons offensive rebounded almost every miss. That’s on Greg. He’s started doing this thing where he taps at the ball when it’s nearby rather than try to reel it in. Well, tapping worked about 3 times last night for us, and 5 times for the Pistons. Just grab the ball, dude. His +/- was -15.

Point Guards Miller and Blake choked and came back. This was detailed before. One thing, though, is that Andre Miller is a master of throwing over the shoulder passes to guys on the break. It’s like a quarterback throwing a ball to a receiver on a post route.

Brandon Roy I could write shooting guards, but whatever. Roy owned the game for the first three quarters, doing almost all his damage, and then just kind of disappeared in the fourth, as the team forgot they had one of the best players in the league on the floor wearing white and red. Final line is the Roy-like 20-4-5. Can we just officially call the 20-5-5 the Roy Special?

LaMarcus Aldridge LaMarcus showed a bevy of moves down in the post en route to twenty points. He even rebounded a bit, too. He just needs to keep on doing this. At one point, Roy and LaMarcus had scored more than half of the team’s points.

Everyone Else Let’s just not talk about it. It was nasty. Marty was bad, Howard was bad, Rudy was bad.

Either way, a win is a win, and honestly, as a fan at the game, I preferred it the way we got it. I’d rather have a few moments of doubt, unease, and excitement than just 48 straight minutes of surety.

These games are coming on pretty fast and furiously, aren’t they? Jesus, it’s just an onslaught. No wonder we’re getting beat up by freak injuries such as Travis pivoting and Jerryd Bayless getting felled by bad upholstery. What’s next? LaMarcus Aldridge gets a gunshot wound from playing Modern Warfare 2? That doesn’t even make sense.

Anyway, we played a few games, won ‘em, and now we have yet another one this afternoon. Considering that this is the longest road trip of the season, I would have been quite happy winning three games. We’re playing with house money right now with four games in a row. It’s a lucky fluke that we’re playing the hardest game of the trip at the end. Because of that, we’re either going to let down tremendously because, honestly, the stakes really aren’t that high, or we may summon everything we have left just to hang our hats on a 5-0 road trip to start the season. I’ll blame Nate if we do bad, just because it’s fun.

Friday night, we took on the Hornets, and yet again we beat them. It’s always fun to watch the Hornets lose, not because of any grudge I have against Chris Paul (I have none), but it’s a beautiful thing to see David West fail. He’s the classic Shawn Marion type player, great with a great point guard, terrible otherwise, yet they have too large of an ego to realize. A strange wrinkle with the Hornets against the Blazers is that Chris Paul never seems to play up to the peak of his abilities against the scarlet and black, unusual considering every fast guard in the league puts up career numbers with Blake on them. Could this be game planning? The same pattern held Friday night, as it was pretty much a no doubter the entire way through and extremely ugly, as no team hit above 40%. It was the kind of game to be happy about winning for about an hour, and then forget it ever happened.

And Charlotte was more of the same. It’s scary how bad we’re playing right now and winning. I almost want the Blazers to lose just in order to wake up and come back to their senses. They are cruising against these bad teams. On the flip side, the criticism “they are cruising” is something that you can only say about good teams. The only story from this game was Travis’ injury, and you can see those thoughts in the last post. (Basic gist: Travis has improved, and our lack of depth from Batum’s injury makes this sting.) When the only highlight of the game is LaMarcus Aldridge getting elbowed in the back of the head, you’re not really playing a gem.

Why? Why?

Why couldn’t this have happened last season?

Okay, that’s mean. No one wants a player to get injured, no matter how they play. But, this is especially true when the player is showing serious growth for what seems like the first time in his career. It looked like Travis finally got it. He was rebounding, he was playing defense, and he was picking his spots smartly. Now he’s injured.

What does this mean? I’m not exactly sure yet. The most obvious guess is that the Blazers are worse. Where before they had three quality small forwards to start the season, they now have only one. Then again, Travis’ greatest use (as it was last year, too), was at the power forward position, where we don’t know exactly how he can be replaced. Sure, there’s Juwan Howard, but does anyone honestly want him in at this point? On the other hand, there’s Dante Cunningham, who’s shown a little in garbage time and preseason, but will get a chance to have his Batum-esque coming out very soon. If Dante comes on big, we won’t be hurt too badly, but the more likely situation is we may lose a game or two that we shouldn’t.

The other comment that’s come up a few times is Ime Udoka. We had a decent small forward on the team at the end of camp and we dropped him for the injured Patty Mills. Honestly, at the time, it seemed like a harmless notion, just the owner getting the one player he wanted on the team. And who cared, we had three point guards and three small forwards, all of them healthy. It should be his call. Well, Paul Allen was wrong. Now I hear the Beard’s cyborg ninja undead assassins knocking on my door. Nice knowing you.

This blog has said a lot of negative things about Travis, but his growth and effort this season has been something to behold. He earned his spot as a major player on this team, and now he’ll be out for a couple of months. Let’s just wish him the best, for his sake, and for our sake.

All hail Greg Oden beast mode. If you send an undersized center at Oden, he will eat your lunch. Then he’ll eat your dinner. Then he’ll follow you to Taco Bell for fourthmeal. That’s what happens. Last night, the Timberwolves thought they would poke the hornets nest throughout the first quarter, and then they got stung. Badly. It was kind of depressing, watching their body language. They were so certain that Sunday wouldn’t happen again, and after Gomes’ buzzer beater to end the quarter, they were so excited. Then the Blazers come back in and simply destroy them. I guess it’s better to have led and lost, than never to have led at all.

Once again, it was a complete team effort with five scorers in double figures and no scorers above 20. The starters somewhat dug us a hole because they couldn’t make threes, then Rudy and Martell came in and filled that gap. It was just a massacre. It’s hard to describe one individual performance by a player not named Greg Oden because, honestly, no other player mattered. Every other player did exactly what you expected them to do, whether it was Joel blocking and rebounding, Martell and Rudy hitting threes, Miller getting assists, or Dante Cunningham getting a three trillion. Everyone succeeded in their specialties, so that’s why we won.

Still, the best stat for the night comes from the +/- column of the score sheet. Last night, Ryan Gomes played 32 minutes. In those 32 minutes, the Timberwolves outscored the Blazers by 12 points. That means, during the 16 minutes that Gomes was out, the Blazers won by 35 points. No other Timberwolf had a positive number.

Was anyone actually worried? Was someone looking at the tied halftime score and thinking, “Man, that Zach Randolph’s pretty clutch, we should watch out for him.” Personally, I thought it was amusing in the way that animals doing people things, such as the bird that steals a bag of chips from a store, is amusing. They’re not supposed to be doing that, and it’s not natural, but you gotta give it up, it’s funny as hell. That’s the Grizzlies keeping pace with the Blazers.

Unfortunately, that ridiculousness had to come to an end, as the Blazers had the Grizzlies out of the game by the end of the third quarter, and continued to pile on after that. Basically, they did what a winning team does: give the other team a glimmer of hope for a half, kick the other team in the face in the third quarter, and then sit on them and maybe even break wind in the fourth quarter. It’s mean, but it’s been the way of life for the Spurs during the entire decade.

Joel Przybilla Murder Watch - I’ve been meaning to keep this as a running update, but I often forget. Obviously, Violet Palmer and Dick Bavetta made the list last night. However, as a side note, they were surprisingly not bad considering their reputations as the two worst officials in the league. Kudos!

Brandon Roy - He does what he needs to do. He didn’t score last game because he didn’t need to. He scored this game, in addition to dropping seven assists just because he can. Moral of the story, never worry about Brandon, he’ll get his.

LaMarcus, Andre, Steve - LaMarcus put together a double double, Andre Miller missed a bunch of easy lay-ups, and Steve Blake kept making three pointers. Whenever Blake hits 50% or above from three for a game, the team is basically unstoppable. No one can sag off of Roy, and when they do, Blake kills them. That’s the only argument to start Blake over Miller, and considering it happens only once every four games, it’s not a very effective one.

The Bench - Nothing impressive. Travis reverted to his old Travis ways in front of the home crowd, although he had the highlight of the night with fearsome dunk. Rudy got his three-point stroke back a bit, hitting two. Martell had some trouble hitting from the field, but he got to the foul line. It seems like he’s getting hit hardest by this lineup change, which is too bad.

Greg Oden - If you need one reason for the Blazers pulling away, look at Greg Oden. He took over the game again last night with his defense. He only had 14 points, six rebounds, and two blocks, but he was everywhere once again. Keep it up big man. Which brings me to the All-Star ballot. Because I’m a terrible homer, I voted Brandon Roy (which is barely defensible, as someone who is in mild denial could pick him over Chris Paul) and LaMarcus Aldridge (indefensible, picking him over Carmelo Anthony). Then I picked Oden, tried to come up with a defense, and failed totally. He’s getting beat by Erick Dampier right now. (Marc Gasol is also ahead of him, but he gets most of his stats from his team’s pace, and obviously, Oden’s much, much better than Gasol, judging from last night. Even though Gasol won the stat battle, no one’s watching that game and saying Marc is the one they want.)

Last week, this blog took issue with Andre, noticing how the numbers of the team dipped distinctively with him in, though still giving him a shot, considering that he’s trying to fit in with the guys. The other serious issue I had was with putting him in at the same time as Steve Blake. Well, there’s a reason I don’t coach, folks. Maybe we should just do the opposite of what I say all the time, just to see what happens. The modified RAMBO (which sounds like a particularly dangerous sex position) ran roughshod all over San Antonio and Minnesota, unleashing the speed and athleticism of the team, and deciding those games. Am I 100% on board? No. Is it a great way to steamroll less-athletic teams? Hell yes.

San Antonio

What’s there to say, we went for a run against the Spurs and they seriously could not keep up. The game looked like it was over after the first quarter, with the only question being whether we’d hold onto the lead. Professionally, we did. This is something the Blazers did so well last season, not losing a game after having the lead at halftime (the stat was something like 37-0), and it’s something that the current iteration of the team has to aim for, and remember.

Stars of the game included Greg Oden, who dominated the greatest power forward of all time, after Duncan was able to tag him with two quick fouls to begin the game. Blocked shots abound, good ball movement, and glimpses of Shaq, Orlando Edition in his post moves. Greg’s starting to emerge.

Andre Miller turned in his best performance of the season, despite the numbers of ten points and four assists not telling the story. He controlled the game and kept the team loose. He was everywhere on the floor. I hate to use the phrase he did the things that didn’t show up on the scoreboard, but he did the things that didn’t show up on the scoreboard.

Everyone else was pretty dece, as Martell continued to fuel the blog’s man crush with his dunk, Travis continued putting the demons of last season behind him, and Brandon put up the standard 24, 5, and 5.

One thing that I did not miss from the Blazers-Spurs meetings last year was Manu Ginobili. Despite his incredible natural talent as a bat slayer, he is still the worst player to watch in the NBA. Now that his running buddy Bruce Bowen is gone, it’s obvious that Ginobili is mostly responsible for everything that makes San Antonio so reprehensible. The constant flopping, the talking to the refs, the getting every call, the baldspot.

Timberwolves

Wow, that team was incredibly different. We decided that picking up the fast break scoring from 5 points to 12 wasn’t enough in the last game, so we upped it to 21. It was scary how athletic the Blazers were. This is the team we have all been hoping to see over the last two years, running with amazing outlet passes from our big rebounders. Everyone was committed.

Miller starred on the stat sheet, this time leading the team in scoring, but the biggest deal with him and the rest of the back court was rebounding. They weren’t letting Joel and Greg do everything. Andre had 4, Blake had 4, Brandon had 6, Rudy had 5. That’s nearly twenty rebounds from the back court. Compare that to the 5 total from Minnesota’s back court.

It’s unfair, though, to single out someone for individual praise in this game when it was so clearly a team effort. Everyone ran, and everyone passed. Sure, one player scored more than everyone else, but no one player was more important than the other. The +/- for each player (yes I’m using the stat again) bottomed out at +10 and topped out at +13. That’s beyond impressive. No let down from starters to bench, just everyone playing at the same sustained level. (I fibbed a bit with this, as Dante Cunningham -2′d in his debut.) Beyond that, we’re tough to beat when shooting 90% free throws.

By the way, I was looking to do a +/- post again, but 82games.com is back. You should all check it out. Martell is still our best in terms of the stat with a +30 and a +9.7 per 48, and Andre Miller is still at the back of the pack of the regulars with a -13 and a -3.9 per 48. Near Webster are Brandon, Greg, Steve, and Travis. Aldridge is a surprisingly low -3 for the season, considering he led the Blazers in the stat last year. Even more than last week, you have to take these +/- stats with a grain of salt, as we’ve radically changed our style, and we are about to go on a road trip against some bad teams after playing some of the NBA’s best (yes, even the Thunder).

One last stat-head stat: Oden has a PER of 18.5. His opponents average a PER of 6.6. That net of nearly +12 is total and complete domination. Anyone who still wants Joel Przybilla as the starter should see a therapist.

Fire Nate.

Okay, I say that every season after the second loss due to questionable player management by Nate McMillan, and it’s mostly meant as a joke, but still: Fire Nate.

What changed from last year to this year with Nate? Sure, Batum’s out, but Webster’s a better player (I said it), and we lost Sergio Rodriguez for Andre Miller. For some reason, though, Nate has no clue who Andre Miller is. I can give him a clue, because I’ve said it quite a few times in this blog: he’s a rich man’s Sergio Rodriguez. That’s all you need to know Nate. Don’t play him like he’s not Sergio Rodriguez - he is. Would you ever put Sergio in with Steve Blake? No. Don’t do it with Andre. Remember last year when you would go to a lineup of Blake, Roy, Rudy, Travis, and LaMarcus, with either a bit of Greg and Joel sprinkled in? That worked! We won a lot of games with that group. The key behind what you did though, was not the variety of the lineups, but the consistency.

Anyway, a game happened last night and we got destroyed because Nate McMillan can’t do his job. That’s wrong, a few players contributed some crappiness to help Nate fulfill his destiny as Doc Rivers mk. II.

Andre Miller - He was crap. Don’t look at the 11 assists. Can you actually remember any of them? Off the top of my head, I can only count two. He got those assists because the guys were making jumpers, not because of a brilliant pass. He also had by far the worst +/- of the night, clocking in with an atrocious -13 (Steve Blake had a +2 so we can’t even blame the Blake/Miller lineup for this). Dude doesn’t fit. He needs to learn how to soon, or we’re going to see a lot more of what we got tonight. Andre Miller is not an answer to any question we want asked. (Here’s a question he is an answer to: “How do you turn a 54-win team into a 41-win team?”)

Joel Przybilla - Great job, Joel. You were good on defense, and you had a lot of hustle. Oh, you were held out of the game after playing only 19 minutes. Damn refs, they must have been all over…oh, you only had two fouls. Well, it’s good that Greg Oden was doing so well to keep you ou…oh, Oden only played 16 minutes due to foul trouble. So we had a center in for only 35 minutes last night, and we got outrebounded by ten. See, here’s the issue with Nate McMillan, and it’s been boiling during his entire tenure here: for all the reputation he has as a great defensive coach, he has absolutely no trust in his defense. Last season, we would consistently bring Travis Outlaw in for his offense to help us come back when it was his lack of defense that caused the deficit and made it worse. Well, now that Travis is reliable, Nate’s found a different way to do this - he pulls the goalie, he puts four guards in a lineup. When we fall behind Nate doesn’t understand that defense and rebounding can create offense, even though that was the reason for our lead in the first quarter. Oh well, Nate, do what you please, you’re the guy on the one year contract.

Everyone Else - Mediocre, by their standards. However, mediocre by their standards should be enough to win a game. LaMarcus and Brandon put up 20, Marty took over the game for a little while, and Travis got in the scoring action too with 19 points of his own. All good and normal Blazer things that usually contribute to a win. Except we lost.

So, final word, this team is good, but it needs a steady hand to lead it. Fire Nate, at least until he gets a little confidence in the team.

Welcome back after a weekend spent going 1 and 1 in two games we were supposed to win handily. Let’s get onto the Rockets.

The Rockets

Wow, we sucked. Nothing you can really say. Brandon Roy and LaMarcus played near flawless games and still couldn’t get us a win. Most of that is probably due to not one other player being able to make a shot. It was sad. Upside, that was probably our first legitimate offensive performance. Downside, that was without a doubt our worst defensive performance. Okay, I’ll level with you, I watched only a little under half of this game because the Ducks dismantling USC was much more pressing. So, uh, go Ducks.

The Thunder

Wow, the refs are rusty. That was a rough game to watch. Just constant fouling and no calls. Before the last second foul flurry from the Thunder in order to stop the clock, they were up on total free throws by nearly twenty. Any impartial observer could see that the Blazers missed out on at least 8 free throws over the course of the game. It was not good. Still, the Blazers won, and lets let individual players tell the story.

Travis Outlaw - Travis is still wrestling with his old self out there on the floor. Gone are most of the mistakes that had us groaning throughout his career, but he still lets his Dark Passenger emerge at inopportune moments, doing his shimmy and sidestep at the top of the key with 15 left on the shot clock and lapsing on defense. Don’t let this make you think I’m down on Travis, I’m not. He’s much improved, and for the first time in a while, I’m happy to see him in a game.

Martell Webster - Trail Post loves Martell. I blame Saturday night’s loss on the lack of Martell. Only 15 minutes for the greatest small forward of all time? What’s wrong, Nate? I exaggerate. Martell played big minutes Sunday and he was a big part in holding the anointed Scoring Leader of 2010 to 3/21 shooting. He also brought down the Chaos Dunk, this time on elbow-happy banger Etan Thomas. (Seriously, though, Etan Thomas may be one of the worst players to be against in the league. Any mediocre rebounder who swings elbows like that is trouble.)

Greg Oden - He beat Kevin Durant in the head to head again. In games where they’ve played each other, more often than not, Oden comes out better than Durant. Don’t know why it happens, but I’m happy it does. He played like Oden again, making a difference on both ends. Just cut down on the threes in the key.

Steve Blake - Welcome back. I don’t know what clicked, but I’m happy it did. We need some sort of production from our point guards to be a good team, and Steve played like last year’s version of him. Our offense doesn’t work when he can’t make his three pointer reliably.

Everyone Else - Meh. Just to be an a-hole, and because 82games.com hasn’t updated for the new season, I’m going to do the week in +/-, showing you how our guys are looking on the floor through week one.
Name: #’s: Overall: Avg
Martell +14 +9 -6 +12 = +29 7.25
Aldridge -7 -13 +8 +12 = 0 0
Oden +6 +6 -5 +9 = +16 4
Roy -1 +1 -1 +12 = +11 2.75
Blake +4 -5 +1 +13 = +13 3.25
Outlaw +15 +5 -2 +3 = +21 5.25
Miller +1 -1 -6 -8 = -14 -3.5
Rudy +9 -10 -3 -4 = -8 -2
Joel +4 -6 -6 -2= -10 -2.5
Howard -1 -2 = -3 -1.5

So, that’s ugly and I don’t feel like making it pretty, but I’ll run it down for you. Thus far, Martell and Travis have been by far our best players in terms of the incredibly flawed +/- stat. However, anyone who’s watched a game thus far this season, could probably assume that Martell would be up near the top. His energy and effort completely changes the complexion of games. Travis’ new commitment to defense and rebounding is obviously showing up in this. LA was plain bad to start the season, yet recovered nicely over the weekend. Oden has been the other consistently good player for the team, another fact that’s been obvious over the games. Roy has been middling at +1/-1 through the first three, which is probably a product of time played and the closeness of those games, though he picked up a big + with the rest of the starting unit last night. Blake has been good, but did almost all of his positive last night.

Now onto the bad. Except for Travis Outlaw, the bench has disappointed +/- wise. (I never thought I’d write those words.) Surprisingly, Rudy got his worst +/- in his best game, the Denver match. That could be due to his being in the whole time when we lost the lead in the fourth quarter. Joel has been pretty uniformly low, though his foul trouble (10.8 per 48) has been much more disturbing than any +/- amount. Andre Miller has been the weak link constantly, with his best performance being a +1 in the first game and never getting above that again so far this season. After a week, it looks like the most likely candidates for fan hatred and scapegoatdom this season are probably Rudy Fernandez and Andre Miller (congrats Trav!). And by that, I mean Andre Miller exclusively. He’s dealing with a perfect storm of not fitting in well, not communicating with the city well, and just not playing well. Fans are bound to hate him. Due to the small sample size we have, it’s wrong to jump to just about any conclusions, save that Martell Webster deserves much more time, and that it’s a blessing that Travis Outlaw has been so incredibly reliable after Batum’s injury.