Trail Post - A Portland Trail Blazers Blog

This last week has been an absolute whirlwind, to say something that’s horribly cliched. (I can’t find the accent, so imagine a little upward tick above the “e” in that.) This has been a terrifying mix of depression and exhilaration. And by the end of it, we had the best road trip of the season. Even more insane, if not for a let-down in the fourth quarter of the Orlando game, 4-0 was actually in reach. Now, I’m not going to be greedy, because winning 3 out of 4 on the road against winning teams while missing half of your team doesn’t come along very often.

Let’s just get to it: how is this team winning? The easy answer (which usually is the best one): effort. We all watched the early season. The Blazers simply didn’t give a crap. They knew they were the better team against anyone they faced and they knew they were a lock for the playoffs if they coasted. So coast they did. Then, everyone got injured. Maybe it’s a cautionary tale. The basketball gods looking down and letting all of us know that they can’t abide by coasting. (There are some of you who may say, “The Spurs got by all decade by coasting during the regular season.” To that I respond: Gregg Poppovich made a deal with basketball Satan.) No matter what the cause (hint: spiteful supernatural forces), we were, and still are, in an unenviable place.

Still, lowered expectations have their charm, simply in the fact that winning is fun again. Honestly, when was the last time we had fun winning games? I haven’t been this amped up for games during the regular season since the 13-game win streak two years ago. It’s only a three-game win streak we’re on!

Unfortunately, we have well over half the season left, and that thought can get depressing. No person looks at the schedule and thinks we can even pick up half those games with this roster how it is right now. Let’s just hope the Blazers don’t have that mindset. They need to have their picture as small as possible. They cannot look forward to the next month, let alone the next week or even day. That’s what won the games this week, and that’s the only way they’ll continue to tread water until reinforcements arrive.

Luckily, Jerryd is the most focused person in existence. That’s what it comes down to. Jerryd Bayless is the answer for this team at this time. They need guts, focus, and moxie, and that’s what Jerryd specializes in. Roy will be Roy, and LaMarcus will do his thing. We needed a third option. Who knew we’d find it at the end of the bench (aside from Ben)?

Anyway, Merry Christmas, folks.

I missed it.

I had a work event last night, where we do a bar crawl. It had been canceled two times before and this was honestly the last chance for it. Unfortunately, it coincided with last night’s game. What made it even worse, I had tickets. Wednesday night, I put them up for sale, and a friend bought them off me immediately, even giving me a chalupa coupon as a brazen guarantee of the Blazers fortunes (”I’ll have two of them by the end of game,” he said).

Turns out it was probably the best game of the season, and I caught all of ten minutes of it. Terrible. Even worse, I had tickets. It sounds like it was a Had To Be There game. Last year, I was at one of the year’s biggest Had To Be Theres, as Ariza sent Rudy to traction. I was at the Roy 50-point game. I was at the biggest Had To Be There of the Jail Blazers, as Mo Cheeks helped that girl finish the national anthem. Here’s the great part about Had To Be Theres: no one cares where you sat, how close you were to the event; it’s just that you were in the presence of history. In my experience, mentioning that you were only a few rows back only sullies the Had To Be There story, as if you’re trying to insert yourself as more important than the story. You’re not. Had To Be Theres are the most democratic experiences in fandom, as everyone in the arena shares a piece of it equally, even if they’re so high, Bobby Gross’ retired #30 blocks out the top half of the court.

I immediately knew the result after the game, despite not seeing it, as the friend I sold the tickets to sent a text to the effect of “Soooooooooo good,” which I assumed could only be a win. Then Wilson (the Valentine’s Day Cards comaker) sent me “Yeah, you f’ing KNOW IT,” which made my assumption complete. If only I had DVR.

There is a flip side to the Had To Be There coin, at least. It’s the I Can’t Believe I Missed It. When someone brings up a great game, a great moment, if you missed it and by all accounts, you would have seen it if it wasn’t for some sort of pressing matter, say ambulance rides or plumbing issues (Ex. Q: “Did you catch Roy’s shot last year against the Rockets?” A: “No, my wife was giving birth.” Q: “Did you name the kid Roy?”), you may have achieved that level, where if your excuse is good enough, you can usurp the Had To Be There. My excuse? Not good enough to usurp it, but good enough to catch some pity, I hope. The selling the tickets really adds another level.

Going into this road trip, with what has happened over the last two weeks, we all expected things to be rocky and difficult. 0-4 was a realistic worst case scenario. So was 1-3. Still, were we lucky to get just that one win? No. What made the two losses maddening (which is different than “Maddening,” which causes your eyebrows to turn orange and grow to two feet long) is that we had a shot. Yes, we lost the games because of the injuries, but we didn’t lose the games BECAUSE of the injuries, if that makes sense. The injuries affected the losses, but not from the standpoint that we needed this player or this player in to win the game - that’s not true - the injuries affected the losses simply because we are out of horses. It happened in Cleveland and happened again in Milwaukee. We have talent and we can hang with anybody.

Let’s just get to the depressing stuff and get it out of the way quickly. Cleveland was a mess towards the end and a large part of it was an over-reliance on Andre Miller and Steve Blake (theme of the season). Bayless had the best run on the team during the second quarter and he got rewarded by picking splinters out of his ass for the rest of the game. I never thought I’d be a member of the Free Bayless contingent, but what’s going on is simply absurd. We only have 9 players on the team. The only part that’s a little funny about it is the fact that every other position on the team has had, in most cases, multiple players go down, but Steve Blake and Andre Miller are invincible. It’s like they’re skipping through a mine field and every single one they hit is a dud.

I’d write a recap for both of the games but it just boils down to the thesis statement: the team played well enough to win, but it did not have the energy. The good news is we’ll have a break this week, and hopefully the team won’t get down on themselves during the intervening time. Same goes for the fans. I’ve said over and over again that the reason attendance went down during the Jail Blazer era had nothing to do with the quality of character of those guys and everything to do with the quality of the product on the court. It’s easy to say you won’t watch a team when they win less than 30 games in a season and blame it on their character. It’s tough to actually stick it through those 28 win seasons. I want to see these fans back up their talk by supporting the team when its good guys are falling short.

It’s funny how effort translates into wins. On Monday, in New York, we gave effort for about a quarter total and were easily put down. Last night, the Blazers gave effort for what felt like three quarters and were able to beat the Pacers handily while being shorthanded. Funny thing: the completely shorthanded Blazers (the ones minus Oden and Rudy, in addition to everyone else) are now 2-1, and have beaten an above-.500 team.

Anyway, let’s get straight into it. Everyone played like they need to play, and this win’s a decent blueprint for winning with the guys out. First off, LaMarcus has to be Great. He can’t slink around picking his spots. He has to do what he did in the first - dominate his man and make himself known as a threat. Beyond that, Brandon Roy basically needs to put up Brandon Roy Specials (20-5-5) each night. He acquitted himself nicely last night, going beyond the call of duty with a 29-7-5. Guess that’s the Super Awesome Roy Special (SARS).

Joel Przybilla has to do what he did last night. He put up 12 points in the flow of the offense. He’s one of the best pick guys in the NBA, and about 75% of the time, he has the hands to do the roll too. We need those easy buckets from him if we’re going to beat teams. Teams will never defend Joel, no matter how much he scores. Getting 8 points from him in a night will significantly increase our chances of winning.

Lastly, this has been said for the last two years, but we severely need production from our point guards. Andre Miller provided that last night, but it can be either him or Blake. It takes pressure off of Brandon, it takes pressure off of LaMarcus, and it spaces the floor out for the one in four games Martell shows up. Andre Miller, who probably hit two threes in a game for the first time in his career, did that, even if he only got two assists.

So, good win against a terrible team to watch. I was thinking after the game, if I moved to another city, I’d probably watch that city’s basketball team in addition to the Blazers. Then I began thinking of exceptions to that rule. Indiana’s definitely one of those exceptions. Beyond that, I’d go with the Bobcats, the Rockets, the Kings, and the Spurs (I hate their destroy basketball to win strategy). Only five teams out of over 30. It’s a pretty good era to be a basketball fan.

Anyway, we have the Cavaliers tomorrow, and it’s easy to say we don’t have a shot. Well, let me remind you of the transitive property of basketball. On Saturday, we beat Houston shorthanded, then last night, Houston beat LeBron and the Cavaliers after they just lost against Memphis. So, it may be possible. This slump that the Cavs are going through is probably the best time we could have faced them all season. I’ll keep hope alive.

Let’s put this in perspective. Would any of you prefer the bad luck now, or in two years? People who prefer the two years, please sit down. Where’d everyone go?

We’ve been absolutely devastated by every possible injury that can befall an organization. Kevin Pritchard is weirding people out by wearing a horseshoe around his neck. There are the injury to Mills and Pendergraph. Then there’s Batum’s issues. Outlaw’s freak injury. Oden’s knee explosion. Rudy’s nerve problems. That’s nothing to say of Nate’s injury and Paul Allen and Maurice Lucas’ cancer. If the Blazers decided that fate was against them and started packing it in a bit, it would be understandable. It’s tough to lose half your team and be the contender you were expected to be.

Still, they need to press on. They need to not take this as a sign to be down, but as a sign to work even harder. It’s not right and it’s not fair. It’s also sports. Deal with it. Guys get injured, sometimes they’re yours, sometimes they’re on the other team. This relates, as the Houston game was a perfect example of the team getting on it. They were scrapping for every loose ball. With this many guys down, they need to start playing with even more fire to make up for who’s missing. The good part, if you can call it good, is that it’s during a portion of the schedule with a lot of breaks, so, they can at least give it their all and still have a decent rest.

Last night’s game against the Knicks was a terrible scenario, as the team only showed effort and life in the first quarter and the fourth quarter. They could afford to do that when they had an NBA team sitting around. With the MASH corps they’re fielding, they can’t afford to let up for a half, or even a quarter. They have to be there. If they’re not going to do that, they shouldn’t even bother to show up. At least that way someone else won’t get injured.

That’s a sentence I never thought I’d have to write again. Game’s still happening, but what happened to Greg is something no person should go through, especially for someone as kind as he is. I’ve only spoken to him once in my life, and he called me “sir” afterward. To you, Greg: best of luck, sir. Portland is behind you more than you’ll ever know.

I’m going to keep this short and sweet mostly because it’s so late after the game, and we were so disturbingly bad. Basically, that was downright terrible. Every player without the initials “G.O.” or “J.H.” did not show up for the game. Brandon Roy thought he would play hero, and if you like Zach Randolph numbers, he was 25-5-5 on 25 attempts was pretty solid. Martell Webster was bad at 4-14, and it hurts to say that considering the blog’s prior positions on Webster. Rudy was non-existent. Steve Blake didn’t show up until the game was over. Andre Miller is the only person on the team that realizes that Greg Oden’s a good passing center and will hit you if you cut while he has the ball with his back to the basket. I have a feeling that none of the plays between Miller and Oden were drawn up.

Still, what was the most fun element about the game was the atmosphere of Civil War night. It’s an absolutely marvelous way to completely ruin any camaraderie between fans. Nothing like having the crowd boo during an entire halftime to really help the atmosphere and make the home team feel like you’re on their side. Sure we’re all Beaver and Duck fans, just like some of us are dumb, and some of us are amazing and attractive (Duck fans are the attractive ones), but at a game, we should all be fans of the same team - the Blazers. It’s fun to show one guy on screen with a OSU jersey once a game during a timeout, and have everyone boo. It’s funny. Doing it thirty times over the course of the game is overkill.

The other thing, Blaze really is not a good mascot. Having the Duck out there with Blaze and Benny the Beaver is like making a movie with Matt Damon, Zac Efron, and Ashton Kutcher. Just ridiculously outclassing everyone around him without even trying. While Blaze is just so generic and Benny is catatonic, the Duck is out there on the floor during every time-out trying to hog the spotlight, doing the C-walk while the dancers are on the floor. There’s something just slightly more amusing about an overaggressive Duck. Making Benny look mean just completely ruined him. That’s it for the mascot rant.

Anyway, we have to wait until Saturday to see the team again. Luckily, there’s a football game to tide us over. Go Ducks.

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.