Trail Post - A Portland Trail Blazers Blog

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.

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