Blazersedge

Around the League #1

2009-11-20T08:05:37Z

Welcome to a new, hopefully semi-regular end-of-week feature we're trying called "Around the League". Things being what they are, I get so caught up in talking Blazers that I seldom have a chance to address things that go on beyond our confines. In these posts we'll do exactly that, plus mop up some Blazer topics that we didn't have time to treat in earlier conversation. My intention is not to play the expert here as much to share opinions which could lead to interesting discussion. So away we go!

Get Well Paul Allen

The most important real-life news out of the league this week came from our own franchise, as Blazers owner Paul Allen was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. There's nothing revolutionary we can say about this other than facing any kind of cancer makes for a tough fight but we know Paul Allen is a tough fighter. However I'd like to add my personal well-wishes, however humble they may be compared to what is needed.

Things like this transcend our normal relationships. We know you because you're the owner of the Blazers, Mr. Allen. We appreciate you because of what you've done for (and with) the team over the last two decades. But even though a life is measured by one's accomplishments it cannot be wholly defined by them. It's time to show support for Paul Allen the human being...not the billionaire, the final decision-maker, but the person. No matter what happens with the team, the season, or anything basketball-related we support you, Mr. Allen. We are with you, sending our hopes and prayers in your direction, and if ever you doubt that you need but ask. I'm pretty sure thousands of pick-me-ups are at your fingertips anytime, day or night. Thank you for being who you are. Strength and peace be with you in this struggle.

Thoughts and prayers also go out to others in our Blazersedge and greater Blazers community who are also fighting this fight.

Click through for a bunch more topics.

Whither Allen Iverson?

Everybody outside of Tennessee knew that signing Allen Iverson to the Grizzlies ranked right up there with clamping your tongue to live jumper cables on the Good Idea Scale. Few anticipated his tenure in Memphis would be this short. He's just cleared waivers and is available to anyone who wants him. Should anyone bite?

I don't believe Iverson is a wholly toxic player, even now. He has some game left and could be an asset in the right situation. You just have to realize that he's going to be super-mega-nuclear toxic if both of these situations are true:

1. You don't plan to play him 38 minutes per game. And...

2. You're not going to win 50+ games.

Memphis acquiring him was three-O's stooopid because they're developing young scorers and ball-handlers already and they were going to be on the low end of mediocre no matter what Iverson did for them. The amount of ball-handling time he requires when unchecked would have killed them. The amount of losing they were going to do didn't give them any leverage to say him nay. However this does not apply to every team equally.

If you're a lousy team that just wants to run the AI Show, complete with caustic interviews and 32 shots per game from him, by all means go ahead. You might at least sell some tickets. You'll certainly generate some national media attention. But that avenue is pretty much a waste of everyone's time. The more intriguing possibility would be a team with a strong identity, perhaps a firmly-ensconced superstar already, who could legitimately tell Iverson to play along or take a hike. The team would also have to be on a straight road to the deep playoffs even without Iverson. Obviously it would also require 30-ish minutes to play him. He's not going to play along entirely, of course, but if his runaway self-absorption could be kept even halfway in check he could give you something. He might be willing to pick up an oar for a year in order to get back to the Finals and have his name associated with winning again.

Keep in mind that at this point he's a relatively cheap experiment as well. You can probably have him for the minimum required. At that rate there's no reason to rue cutting him if things don't work out. I'll be interested to see if anybody, even one decent team, takes a chance. The hot rumor is the Knicks but were I them I really wouldn't bother. It's a total Isiah move. The only way it could be more so is if they immediately offered him a multi-year, eight-figure deal. They don't have the infrastructure to withstand Hurricane Allen. We'll see what happens.

Meanwhile, Back at the Hall of Justice

Having booted The Flash out of the Superfriends for being not-so-friendly the Grizzlies took a chance on The Green Lantern, a.k.a. Jamaal Tinsley. Tinsley is more of a true point guard than Iverson was. But he's had off-court problems, injury problems, attitude problems, and last I heard wanted to be more of a scorer, except he lacks any visible capacity to score. One of the things that made him special in his prime was his defense. Defense equals effort. Effort is often hard to eke out of guys with attitude problems when they're not being featured in as prominent of a role as they'd like. So you can probably strike that off of the list even if Tinsley gets and stays in playing shape. So what did we end up with? Half of a point guard with all of the potential problems. My only conclusion is that Memphis management hates Lionel Hollins. With a passion.

Speaking of Attitude Problems

The trade of the week was the Stephen Jackson-Raja Bell swap between Golden State and Charlotte. (Plus players to be named later. Ooops! My bad. They were named already. Vladimir Radmanovic and Acie Law. Neither of those players is going to be named much later.) Color me underwhelmed by the deal. On the surface it makes sense, as the Bobcats desperately need more offense and the Warriors haven't even heard of defense. But Bell is injured and even if he weren't it's pretty hard to champion an entire defense from the shooting guard position when you're the only one playing defense at all. A center might do it. Maybe even a power forward. But Bell is going to be sticking his finger into a hole the size of Crater Lake. He's probably just going to get wet. And the fact that the Warriors were willing to part with Jackson for damaged goods should tell you something about where he is right now. The wrong-est move in all of this was signing him to a secure contract. You got some pretty good play out of him when his deal got short. Then you went and gave him four years of license to Jax you up. Smart.

LeBron Changes Numbers

I know it's old news but I never weighed in officially. This Jordan #23 thing is silly. Michael was a great player for one team. He should be honored to the moon by one team. The rest of us can remember him every time we play that one team. Michael changed the marketing and coverage of the NBA and the change in marketing and coverage led to a whole raft of new hoop dreams for a new generation. I understand that fully. But that's not why you retire jerseys even in one town, let alone in all of them simultaneously. You could make a stronger argument if he were the all-time scoring leader by a huge margin but he's third on the list. You could make a stronger argument if he was the most prolific stat guy ever but there was Wilt. You could make a stronger argument if nobody in history won nearly as many championships as he but you have vintage Celtics waving seven blinging fingers at you. Besides if you're going to count championships you better retire Pippen's number league-wide alongside Michael's. They never won without each other. The fact that LeBron is changing his number to that of Dr. J and Bill Russell only makes the fallacy more evident. They each had a pretty big impact on and off the floor. This is just like somebody saying that U2 should be forever enshrined above all bands because they were the defining group of a generation and more. That may be true but the impulse is also, by definition, generational. People from an earlier era are going to start asking about the Stones and the Beatles then. People before them will latch onto Elvis. Who was really the greatest? Each generation has its argument and its claim and that's the way it should be. There might not be another Michael, but there will be somebody else who impacts the league as strongly in a different way. Let them be compared and debated without attempting to freeze our moment in time and labeling it the greatest of all conceivable times.

AROUND THE SITE...

Part of this feature will be addressing topics that have gotten some play in the comments and sidebar. To wit:

Is ~~Marc Stein~~ DOH! Bill Simmons a Tool? (Sorry, Marc.)

Maybe, but he probably doesn't care. In the old days of professional wrestling people cheered the good guys and booed the bad. This is how each made their money. Then people smartened up to how the game worked. Nowadays a great bad guy is as likely to get cheered as booed, simply because people appreciate how good he is at being bad. We probably need to smarten up to the media circus as well. Anybody who gets you riled up is making bank off of just that. If Simmons is good at cheesing off Portland fans it's because he relishes it. If you like that kind of thing then by all means get cheesed and have fun with it. If you're really angry and want to take action, ignoring it is the best thing you can do. Cheers are good. Boos are good. Silence is crushing.

Would Gerald Wallace Make a Good Blazer?

Yes and no. He's definitely that kind of crazed, charging bull that this team lacks. He's also the kind of crazed, charging bull that will want to start at small forward. In the short term that's not a problem, but Nicolas Batum might be just as valuable in the long run. Plus he'd be expensive to get. On the other hand you wouldn't have to worry about rebounding anymore. On the other hand he might have to moderate his game with age and as soon as he starts shooting jumpers instead of driving the lane he's much less of a player. If the Blazers did get him I think they'd need to concentrate on two things at the point guard position: distance shooting and the ability to run. You'd depend heavily on the frontcourt to beat everyone up and reserve the backcourt for running and shooting. Everything else would take second-fiddle. I don't think that point guard is on this team right now. I think Andre Miller and Jerryd Bayless specifically don't fit that mold. So you'd need to plan another move sooner or later. Given all of that, it's not likely to happen.

Any Chance the Blazers are Ready This Year?

This question was posed by jksnake in our live chat but he posed it at quarter-after-midnight when I was on my way out the door. Specifically he wanted to know what I perceived the difference to be between this year and next, since I've opined that the window is still shut this season but it starts opening thereafter. Is it just an experience difference?

Experience is part of it...not just experience in the league but experience playing together. We haven't even got a regular lineup right now. Even without injuries we'd still be juggling that. Players are starting to trust each other and are learning to work together but it's still a work in progress. Frankly when they get under stress things tend to break down still instead of the team stepping up. One or two guys might bail us out of trouble but five together can't. The playoffs bring a ton of stress. It's more intense, sustained, and targeted directly at your weak points. The team should be far more settled by the time they reach the post-season but in reality you have to learn your lessons all over again once you get there. Teams that are learning might win a series or even two but they won't win four. Next year we should enter the year knowing what we've got. We may see a couple roster changes but they should be specific and hopefully only in one critical area instead of the three or four we're juggling now. Next year we'll also have more playoff experience and a better idea of what going deep is like (knock on wood).

The other critical factor is Greg Oden. You can already see what a monstrous difference he makes for this team. But in basketball terms he's just taking his first steps right now. He'll need to make more of a difference more consistently for the Blazers to march to a title. It's too early to pin that much on him. He's still getting in regular foul trouble, feeling his way around the offense, rushing shots, turning the ball over, and a ton of other little things that he'll need to work on throughout the year. He'll be good come playoff time but he won't be great enough to make the difference we need. Next season the expectations get higher for him.

Finally, as I always say when these things come up, you can tell we're not there by how we have to envision making it. "We match up better than most against the L*kers. We should be able to take San Antonio this year. If we can get by or avoid the Nuggets we should have a chance." You can switch around the names in those various sentences however you wish. The fact remains that if you have to say those things you aren't the dominant team. You don't want to be the team that plays the L*kers well. You want to be the L*kers. This kind of talk screams Minnesota '03-'04, not L.A. ‘08-'09. Name me a team that's won it all recently that came into the season thinking they might have a chance instead of coming into the season knowing they were going to win. The L*kers knew. The Celtics knew. The Spurs always knew. Shaq and Wade's Heat, the Pistons, Shaq and Kobe's L*kers, both sets of Michael's Bulls...they all knew too. This is NOT to say that there's one, predestined team each year. It's perfectly possible for multiple teams to come into the season knowing that they're going to take the title. Only one of them turns out to be right, but the others still had that confidence and attitude. (Drexler's Blazers knew in '90-'91, for instance, as did the '99-'00 ‘Sheed-led squad.) You probably have to go back to our own '89-‘90 Blazers in their first Finals before you can find a sneak-ish team. But even they had an inkling what was going to happen when they got Buck Williams. Plus their situation was much different, staffed as they were by veterans in their early, but legitimate, primes. (Porter was in his 4^th year and Duck his 3rd but Clyde was in his 6^th, Kersey his 5^th, and Williams his 8^th. Between them the starting five had 23 combined years of playoff experience. The current Blazer starters have 11 combined and 5 of those are Miller's. I'm not sure the entire squad put together has much more than 23.) The Blazers aren't even at the point where they know themselves yet, let alone knowing that they can dominate the rest of the league no matter what comes. That'll take time. It's actually pretty bold to think that it has a chance of happening next year even. But this team has always been a little ahead of the curve.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

Game 14 Preview: Blazers vs. Warriors

2009-11-20T06:02:09Z

Game Time: 7:30 p.m. TV: KGW

The Warriors come into this game 3-8, tightly clutching the coveted "At Least We're Not the Worst Team in the League" award by virtue of home victories over (wait for it...) the Timberwolves, Knicks, and Grizzlies. This exactly like Vanilla Ice saying he's a better listening experience than Milli Vanilli, Vicki from the Love Boat, and driving a slotted spoon through your brain. The take-away lesson here is not to be a no-defense-playing, messy-mismatched-talent-having doormat disaster of a franchise when you go to Oakland or they're going to drop a buck fiddy on you and send the fans home happy...or at least less unhappy than usual. Any team with a fingernail's worth of claim to legitimacy in this league has handled the Warriors. And the Kings have too.

(Note: Low blow there. Sacramento is actually 5-5.)

So what do the Warriors do? What they've always done. A brief explanation, to the tune of "Jingle Bells":

Run, run, run! Score, score, score!

Run run, score score score!

Run run run run run run run

Score score score score sco…ore!

Run, run, run! Score, score, score

Run run, score score score!

Run run run…the game is done

And we just lost one more!

So why does a team averaging 109.7 ppg (2^nd best in the league), 22.1 fast-break points per game (1^st), 47.8 points in the paint (3^rd), 48.7% shooting percentage (3^rd), and 38.9% from three (5^th) lose so many games? A brief explanation, to the tune of "Silent Night":

Silent "D", Hole-y "D"

We score one, they score three

We can’t get the ball off the glass

Their rebounders are kicking our [*cough*]

Watch their score increa…ease!

Wa-atch their sc…awww, to heck with this! Run, run, run! Score, score score!

Run run, score score score…

(Note: Had the holiday season not been nearing that would have been, "Why can't we de-fend? Why can't we de-fend?")

In any case, the Warriors are scoring almost 110 per game but giving up more than 113. They're losing the rebounding battle like Sally Jessie lost to Oprah. And that's on both ends of the court. They're shooting 49% and giving up 50.5%. They're shooting 39% from distance and giving up 43%. They're making 26 trips to the line per game and giving up 28. They remind me of a guy trying to get over his financial crisis by charging everything to a credit card. No matter how wisely and well he spends the debt somehow always gets bigger. One wonders when the front office will simply file bankruptcy and attempt to start all over.

As if that weren't bad enough, Golden State is fielding fewer healthy players right now than you see in your average chess match. They just traded Stephen Jackson for Raja Bell and his pre-existing wrist problem. He's now having surgery on it. (How badly did they want rid of Jackson?) Andris Biedrins, Blazer-killer Kelenna Azubuike, Brandan Wright, C.J. Watson, Rony Turiaf, and Devean George are all out with various maladies and ailments. Who's left? Monta Ellis, Corey Magette, The Anthonys (Randolph and Morrow), Stephen Curry, Vladimir Radmanovic, and Mikki Moore. 5 out of 7 are 6'6" and under and all of them have the scoring mentality. Radmanovic is a finesse player. Mikki Moore is basically on an island out there. But that's OK. He and Vlad are suddenly getting 39 minutes per game which is like a week's worth of time for Radmanovic and a month's worth for Moore.

The one thing the Warriors do well outside of the run-score thing is turn you over. They get an enormous amount of steals and should continue to do alright even after the trades and injuries. You don't want to lose the ball to this group because they'll jump on it like a Doberman, race it down like a Greyhound, and then laugh at you like a hyena.

Also we'll reiterate what we always say when playing great offensive teams: they always have a puncher's chance. You're in the ring with a team that can knock you out even though their chin is made of glass and their guard is non-existent. Despite the tongue-in-cheek preview the Blazers do have to pay attention tonight. Give up your fundamentals, get loosey-goosy, and the Warriors will punch your ticket.

Pivotal Points to the Game

1. This is a huge contrast in tempos and styles. The Blazers aren't going to be able to stop the Warriors from running. The Warriors won't be able to stop the Blazers in the halfcourt if Portland makes any kind of effort. The in-between areas will determine the winner. The Blazers should have a massive control advantage on the boards. Aldridge and Oden should be able to offensive rebound to their hearts' content. If the Blazers bother to break down the Warriors at all with penetration every miss should have a legit chance of being scooped up by the good guys. The other side of that equation, though, is the guards and small forward getting the heck back. Assuming one guy is penetrating and two bigs are crashing the boards (or at least hanging out near the middle) that means the other two smalls better head the other way as soon as the shot leaves somebody's fingertips. Even if you're the coffin corner three guy you have got to get back and defend your goal tonight.

2. OK...let's do the math. Golden State has five guards, Vladimir Radmanovic, and Mikki Moore. The Blazers can attack with LaMarcus Aldridge, who is bigger and stronger than Radmanovic, and Greg Oden, who is bigger and stronger than the entire other team combined. Greg should be posting up about two inches from the rim tonight. Catch, spin, dunk. Catch, spin, dunk. See how easy that is? If you get stuck in the halfcourt, feed the bigs! You can do it in the post. You can do it by driving and trying to draw the big defenders for help and then flicking a pass through the lane. However you do it, do it! The stupidest, dumbest, most idiotic thing you can do is play into Golden State's hands by getting into that Happy-Fun-Jumper mode. They're going to beg you to shoot over the top. They don't care if you make it either. You're setting the table for them every time you settle for the long ball.

3. This is not to say the Blazers should never shoot a three. In fact Golden State defends the arc so poorly than threes are one of the ways Portland can keep the score up against the track stars. But the Blazers should not be shooting threes when anyone is within six feet of the shooter. There's no need for that. Drive it and then get a wide-open three later. And for goodness' sake, HIT your wide-open shots! All we need tonight is that weird, brain-sucking contagion that causes everyone to start missing shots they otherwise could hit in their sleep.

In short, just don't make this hard, OK? Play your game, pass, execute, and walk away with a "W".

Among our oldest friends on the network are the folks at GoldenStateofMind. Pay them a visit if you want. It's an experience!

You can find tonight's Jersey Contest form here (fixed). Don't forget that the form for tomorrow's game against the Timberwolves will be open as soon as this one is over.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

Bill Simmons Addresses "Drexler's Pistons" at Beaverton Book Reading

2009-11-20T03:14:17Z

Bill Simmons Addresses "Drexler's Pistons" at Beaverton Book Reading

Chris Snethen, who blogs at On The Vig, tweets from the Bill Simmons book reading.
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I asked about Drexler's Pistons. [Bill Simmons] said he was thinking Isiah [Thomas] and wrote Drexler. Said it's not even the 25th best typo.
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-- Ben Golliver | (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com) | Twitter

Another Cut for Blazers Broadcasting

2009-11-19T18:59:30Z

After letting go of studio host Tony Luftman and not televising a single pre-season game, Blazers Broadcasting has tightened its belt again, grounding sideline reporter Rebecca Haarlow for all road trips during the 2009-2010 regular season.

Haarlow was absent from the Blazers' recent five game trip; many assumed it was because she was continuing her college football broadcasting work with FSN. This morning, the organization confirmed to Blazersedge.com that Blazers Broadcasting has decided to cut back to a two-person on-air broadcasting team during road games while continuing to use the full three-person team for Blazers home games.

In Haarlow's absence, play-by-play man Mike Barrett has picked up post-game interview duties following road games. Mike Rice continues in his role as color commentator.

The team next hits the road tomorrow night for a visit to the Golden State Warriors.

-- Ben Golliver | (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com) | Twitter

Media Row Report: Blazers 87, Pistons 81

2009-11-19T09:29:56Z

More photos » by Don Ryan - AP

Brandon Roy did enough to beat the Detroit Pistons Wednesday night but searched for answers after the game.

Browse more photos »

When I last spoke to Brandon Roy, prior to last week's road trip, I asked him how he wanted to play down the stretch, how he envisioned his role on this new-look Blazers team. His simple, confident, declarative answer: "playmaker." With teams getting hip to the Blazers 1-4 fourth quarter offense, Roy's thinking was straightforward: get by his defender, read the help defense, make sound decisions (pass or shoot) and lead his team.

Since that conversation, the Blazers put away weak competition on the road, Travis Outlaw went down with a serious foot injury and the team collapsed down the stretch against a playoff quality team in Atlanta. Roy logged the most minutes of any Blazer during the road trip, looked dead tired during overtime against the Hawks on Monday night, was held below 20 point per game for the trip despite the overall weak competition, and continued to adjust to guarding small forwards rather than off guards.

The wins over the past week helped obscure some of these struggles and changes. But tonight a new, less certain perspective from Roy was unmistakable.

During the Portland Trail Blazers' 87-81 home win over the Detroit Pistons, Roy provided the offensive spark that blew the game open during the third quarter and then watched as his team nearly blew a 20 point lead during the fourth quarter. Rushed back into the game to put out the fire, Roy failed to score a point, notch an assist, grab a rebound and only took one field goal attempt in nearly five minutes of fourth quarter play. The Pistons regularly ran a second defender at him to force the ball from his hands, then did a solid job of rotating defensively, necessitating extra passes. His shot-making taken away, his passing countered, Roy was as neutralized as I can remember seeing him down the stretch, a bystander as his teammates committed turnovers and struggled to break a scrambling Pistons trap.

The Pistons's wild fourth quarter comeback was surprising and confusing and, surely, frustrating for Roy who is now dealing with the dual prospects of playing without Travis Outlaw and playing out of position at small forward for the foreseeable future.

So after the game I addressed the same topic that we had spoken about prior to the trip: how does Roy envision his role on this team right now? Does he still see himself as a playmaker? "Nah," Roy admitted. "I wouldn't necessarily say playmaker," he said, pausing to think about it. "I don't know. That's a good question. How would you describe my role?"

It's generally not a good sign when your franchise player turns back to the inquiring writer for help answering this type of question. It doesn't happen often with a player as cerebral as Roy who is coached by someone as discipline-minded as Nate McMillan. Roles are generally established in late September, refined in October. It's now more than halfway through November.

"I don't know," I answered honestly. "That's why I'm asking. It seems like you're thinking pass first some times. And then other times you're really looking to get your shot. It seems like it changes play to play, quarter to quarter."

"Yeah," Roy nodded. "Maybe even game to game [too]. Some nights I think opportunities are there for me to be more aggressive. Other nights I'm maybe not as aggressive as people have seen me in the past. For me, it's just trying to do whatever it takes to help this team win games."

Tonight, Roy relinquished control of the ball and the flow of the game down the stretch. It's not something we're used to watching as observers and it was somewhat terrifying and dreadful. Sure, a win is a win. But scraping by after giving up a 25-8 run to start the fourth quarter and with your team's star player and best ballhandler taken almost entirely out of the offense during crunch time isn't how you envision it going down.

Through it all -- the double teams, the injuries, the juggled lineups, the mismatches -- Roy has remained impressively flexible, impressively ego-less. Many doubted that he would last this long playing out of position in a three guard lineup without raising a fuss, either publicly or privately. But it was clear tonight that Roy is in limbo, forced by recent circumstances into repeating a cycle of reading situations and making adjustments, reading and adjusting, reading and adjusting. "A lot of things have changed," Roy stated. "I'm just trying to make sure that everyone is keeping a rhythm. Now with Greg in the lineup and Dre, I'm trying to figure it out and make sure our offense continues to flow better." Less playmaker, perhaps, and more dance instructor.

At times tonight, things flowed very well for the Blazers, who notched 22 assists on 29 field goals through the first three quarters. Roy handed out five himself and watched Andre Miller dole out a season-high 11 as well. One of Miller's dimes found Roy for a pretty break-out dunk, a sign that a connection between the two players continues to develop. Which made it doubly frustrating when that connection seemed to disappear in the game's closing minutes.

Perhaps buoyed by the victory, Roy remained cautiously optimistic about where he stands. Although he might feel uncertain about how things will shake out long-term he doesn't feel uncomfortable. "I'm settling in more and more to [the lineups and rotations]," he said. "Earlier it was tough but now I'm starting to settle in to see what the team needs me to do and just trying to do it." Tonight, against an inferior opponent, Roy did enough to get the win. On many nights, against many opponents, Roy is capable of delivering victory whether he's settled or not, through his skills alone.

But with only seven guys playing like they deserve real rotation minutes right now, the physical and mental burden on Roy will only increase. And sooner or later, clarity will either emerge for Roy or it won't.

Both for his sake and the success of his team, hopefully the next time we talk roles Roy won't need to turn to writers for help answering the question.

Random Game Notes

Austin Daye will be an NBA All Star before he retires. Watching his thorough, impressive warm-up routine, it was easy to see why, despite his slight frame, he was a darling of the scouts during the pre-draft process. His movements with the ball are crisp, precise and fluid, recalling a slightly less confident Kevin Durant. His footwork before and during catches was excellent, his shooting form consistent and his competitive desire was oozing, even two hours before the game. During the game, he disrupted Steve Blake during the fourth quarter by trapping 3/4 court and he knocked down a three. His frame is a liability and will remain so for a few years -- not unlike Durant -- but the sky is the limit. If I was Joe Dumars I would view Daye as my least tradeable asset, Stuckey and Gordon included.
Bill Simmons was spotted chatting up Kevin Pritchard before the game but was not shown on the Rose Garden's big screen. Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey, Jr., however, drew cheers when shown on the Jumbotron and drew autograph seekers to their courtside seats. Juwan Howard and Jerryd Bayless both made a point of getting/giving daps from/to Griffey Jr. during halftime warm-ups.
The official box score seems to be in error tonight. They charged Steve Blake with just 2 fourth quarter turnovers. In actuality, he had 1,378. Hopefully the NBA will step in and correct this.
A clash of generations occurred when 52 year old Juwan Howard posted up 13 year old Austin Daye. It was like slamming together a Discman and an iPod, only in human form.
Rudy threw a pass between Kwame Brown's legs to Greg Oden for a dunk. It was sweet but would have been sweeter if you didn't have the suspicious feeling that Rudy is looking to nutmeg someone on every possession.
Blazers Owner Paul Allen drew cheers when shown on the big screen and dropped in on the locker room after the game. Be sure to read Nate McMillan's heartfelt response to a question about Allen below.

Nate's Post-game Comments

It almost slipped away in the fourth quarter. Thoughts?

You play the game 48 minutes. I've often been criticized for not playing guys down the stretch, you don't play with the game. You don't ever. It was a good game for us. A good lesson. You play that game 48 minutes and you play it the right way and you don't relax because it's never over. I think a bad shot or a turnover can always give a team momentum. That's how I coach -- to win games. When we feel like we have that game under control we'll make substitutions. But we had our guys in there and we had to bring back that group that got us there. We stopped doing the things that we needed to do. Execute both ways. You start launching quick j's, turning that ball over, being loose, playing the scoreboard as opposed to playing the game the right way anything can happen. I thought for 3 quarters we were good. Coming off the road we wanted to give a strong effort on both ends of the floor. Defensively as well as offensively. And we did that for 3 quarters.

Margin of error slimmed down due to injuries?

I think it's just that it's the margin for error is where it's at because of the group. It's a young group that is still trying to learn how to win and how to win big. We have a lot of work to do. We have one year where we won some games but we're not there yet. We have to play that game the right way for 48 minutes.

What caused the collapse?

The thing is, turnovers and I thought maybe we just relaxed. You turn the ball over, you don't execute offensively. You lose your rhythm. You lose a little bit of confidence. They get excited. And you know make some plays, get some momentum and you start to get a little tight. I know we had turnovers, I don't know how many. I thought some shots, we may have taken some quick shots. And all of a sudden it's a three point ballgame. It was a positive that we won that game.

Blake's 3 at the end of the game

Well we needed it. We don't want him to hesitate. He had an open look. He can knock that shot down. As you mentioned, last game he had some similar shots that didn't fall. Big shot. Big free throws for Blake. And then those other guys down the stretch.

Brandon and LaMarcus offensively

Those are the guys. We gotta get them going. Tonight to see both of them score, we haven't seen that this season. We had a third guy with Blake, and Miller being able to score. So we were able to, I thought our assists were really good throughout the night for the most part. Turnovers were pretty good until that fourth quarter.

Andre missed his first four free throws. Were you nervous with him at the line at the end of the game?

Those are our best free throw shooters. Miller is an 85 or 86 percent career free throw shooter. Blake is shooting well. And Brandon. So you get up there and you have to knock them down. And he ended up doing that.

How did you address the team in the locker room? Tough love?

It's a lesson. I've said this always to the team, you don't play the scoreboard. We said that at the start of the fourth quarter. This team was down 25 points last night to the Lakers and came back. And that's what we said to them. This team is not going to quit playing. And we don't play that scoreboard. You play this game the right way. You keep pushing the ball, get into their legs because their legs are tired, they're heavy. And defensively don't give them anything. Offensively keep executing because they've been down before and last night they were down. Now it's a lesson. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way. Lucky us that we were able to pull it out.

Martell

Well, he's getting good looks. Those are shots he can knock down. He's just got to keep shooting that when he gets them. Of course, don't hesitate.

Paul Allen's presence at the Rose Garden and his interaction with the players

We were surprised that he was here. I saw him and just hugged him. He's a strong man. He loves his Blazers. I think it showed the fact that he was getting medical attention just a couple of days ago and as soon as we come back he's here wanting to see us. I think the guys were probably surprised to see him and I didn't see it but I'm sure just like I did, I was happy to see him and we're praying for him. He's a strong man. That's the man. I'm sure they were happy to see him.

Anything unusual with their press or trap at the end that gave you trouble?

Nah, they were scrambling. And just trying to create some turnovers and we gave it to them a couple of times.

-- Ben Golliver | (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com) | Twitter

Game 13 Recap: Blazers 87, Pistons 81

2009-11-19T07:41:55Z

More photos » by Don Ryan - AP

I started this game with a full head of hair.

Browse more photos »

Big Ben, Little Ben, what begins with Ben?

"Ben" puzzled how the Blazers let the Pistons within ten.

Tonight's game was an exercise in agony and ecstasy. More precisely it was an exercise in ecstasy then agony. But the Blazers won and that's the important thing. A loss after getting up 20 in the second half would have been too depressing to contemplate.

The game started out quite well for Portland. At first the Blazers controlled the tempo like Lawrence Welk but then they pushed it like Salt-N-Pepa. The Pistons didn't have much of a defensive answer in the halfcourt and they had none at all when LaMarcus Aldridge and the Blazers started running. Portland streaked out to a 17-9 lead and it appeared that Detroit's tired legs would prevent them from showing up tonight. But then Andre Miller went out of the game at the 4:50 mark of the first and Portland tallied one field goal the rest of the way. The Pistons closed the gap to 21-17 heading into the second.

Miller started the second period and all of a sudden the offense picked up. Joel Przybilla scored twice right at the rim, once off of a pass from Rudy and once off of a pass from ‘Dre. Miller and Fernandez combined for assists on three of the next four Blazer baskets and the lead was up to 9 in short order. Then Andre Miller left the game and the offense went into a stall, allowing the Pistons to climb back to within 4 again. The Blazers played some good defense to close the period while simultaneously deciding to go through Roy and Aldridge. It was a good move, allowing them to stretch the lead to 10.

The third period was all Portland. It was a textbook example of how to win a game. The shots were layups or open jumpers off of passes. The Blazers shut down the middle on the Pistons and Detroit responded by firing jumpers. Portland allowed no offensive rebounds. Portland resumed running whenever they were able. It was basically a massacre throughout. 10 points became 20 and it looked like the Blazers had this in the bag.

Apparently the Blazers thought so too as their first four shots of the fourth period were three-point attempts, all misses. They got further in after that but it was still mostly jumpers. Meanwhile the Pistons went layup-free throws-layup to pull within 16. No biggie. They cut it to 14 soon after but Portland responded with a massive Oden dunk off of a Rudy pass and it looked like they were free and clear. Then Andre Miller left the game. Portland got a nice straight-away 18-footer from Juwan Howard right after but that was the only shot the Blazers hit with ‘Dre on the bench. The litany read like this: Rudy turnover, Blake miss, Blake turnover, Rudy missed three. Then Andre Miller came back in the game. But now the team was snakebit.

In succession we had an Oden turnover, a missed Roy jumper, a shot clock violation off of a Miller miss, two Aldridge free throw makes, two Miller free throw misses (!), a Blake turnover, and a Blake missed three. Meanwhile it's Detroit layup, Detroit chip shot, Detroit free throws, Detroit threes, and those offensive rebounds that the Blazers had been denying all game were coming fast and furious. Portland's up 4. Up 3. Up 2. Where's my Tums? Naw, forget those. It looks like I'm going to need something prescription-strength after this one, if not downright medicinal.

In the end, though, the clock ran out on the Pistons. 22 seconds showed by the time they cut the lead to two, which required fouling. Mercifully Blake and Miller hit all 6 of the free throws they took and Detroit couldn't connect with a three. 87-81, the Blazers it at 9-4.

It's tempting to rail at the team for almost letting this one slip away. The one quibble I have with the strategy is Portland playing slow-down ball too early and continuing to play it even as the lead dwindled. Yes you want to milk some clock on every possession when you're up huge in the fourth. That's only smart. But the Blazers weren't pushing anything when pushing was what got them there in the first place. To brush off an old and terrible cliché, they started playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Even when the lead hit the lower single digits they still played as if they were up 16. There was no call for panic but it was certainly time to resurrect the aggression. Maybe the strategy ended up being right as the clock foiled Detroit in the end. Credit that, I suppose. But this game got uncomfortably close without the Blazers showing much of a pulse. One shot could have tipped it. I think I'd prefer going hard through the fourth, planning on winning with the style that put you ahead in the first place.

You have to give the Detroit defense a ton of credit though. They adopted a relatively simple strategy. They trapped Roy and Fernandez every time they touched the ball in the halfcourt and doubled or tripled LaMarcus if he touched it in the post. That left a lot of swings and shots going to Miller and Blake. At that point the defense became easy. Miller's jumper is legendary by now and needs no explanation. I remember praising Steve Blake last year because he appeared to have developed some acceptable moves off of the dribble. I don't know what's happened in the interim but he offends the heavens every time he puts the ball on the floor nowadays. Seriously, tonight there was a choir of cherubim and seraphim up there charged with keeping the ceaseless round of praise singing:

Gloria in excelsis D...awwww, what the hell was that?!? Ooops! Our apologies, Big Guy!

NO NEED. WHOA!

Detroit simply sagged off of Miller and forced Blake to drive. By the time the ball had been to a primary scorer then been passed around to those two there wasn't time enough for another option. So the Blazer offense became awkward shot central. It isn't so much on either player. They are what they are and they bring plenty of good things to the table too. But this is one of the disadvantages to playing them together. You have two guys you know how to guard. Throw in Oden or Przybilla and that makes three. When the pressure went up the Pistons knew how to exploit that.

Despite the fourth-quarter follies offensively the Blazers played a pretty solid game. They held Detroit to 39% shooting and shot 47% themselves which was clearly the difference in the game, especially since the Pistons ended up with 10 more shot attempts than Portland did. The Blazers got more free throw attempts and stayed relatively even on the boards overall despite allowing Detroit back in that battle by giving up those late offensive rebounds. Portland also stayed even on points in the paint and were close in turnovers. The Blazers almost doubled up the Pistons in assists which is indicative of the fractured nature of Detroit's roster right now, both because of new personnel and injuries. Ben Gordon only got 12 shots and only made 4 of them which was huge for the Blazers. It's going to be hard for Detroit to win any game right now where Gordon only scores 11. Credit Blake, Roy, and helpers for making that happen.

Click through for individual notes, final thoughts, and links.

Individual Notes

Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge both had fine offensive nights, each shooting 50% and scoring 20. The Pistons didn't have an answer for either unless they threw extra men at them. LaMarcus was streaking up and down the floor in transition and grabbed 7 rebounds. Roy had 4 rebounds and 5 assists.

Say what you want about Andre Miller--and I had some issues with his defense tonight--but the guy is the key to making our offense click right now. The Blazers look different when he's in there. They attack more aggressively and move the ball more freely. 10 points, 4-8 free throw attempts, and 11 assists.

Greg Oden scored 6 and had the chance to score twice that many if he would have slowed down a little on offense. The Pistons had a hard time stopping him from backing into the post and getting whatever shot he wanted but he didn't finish really strong and didn't get that many chances to work on it. He grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked 3 shots though. He kept the middle Piston-free for most of the game.

Blake was the Blazers' third-leading scorer tonight with 17 points off of 3-6 three-point shooting. He looked more confident in his perimeter shot tonight which was good. When he hesitates he gets in trouble. He needs to be like a professional angler...catch and release. Blake also got matched up with somebody he could defend with some degree of success tonight in Gordon. Well done there.

Joel Przybilla caught a variety pack of passes underneath the rim tonight and scored on three for 6 points. He got 5 rebounds as well. But his biggest contribution was just helping out on defense. With Ben Wallace and Kwame Brown lacking that offensive savoir faire Przy was free to man up on drivers and help jump screens.

Rudy missed all 4 of his threes tonight but injected some energy into the game and finished with 4 assists and 2 steals to go along with his 6 points. He had 3 turnovers but this was a turnover-heavy night for the guards because of how Detroit started defending. Blake had 3 and Miller had 2 so Rudy wasn't out of step. He played 28 minutes.

Martell Webster played 12 minutes, took 3 threes, and missed them all. 1 rebound, 1 steal, 3 personal fouls, and not a lot of confidence-inspiring play.

Juwan Howard played 10 minutes, hit that shot we mentioned, and got a rebound.

Final Thoughts and Links

It's a win. Go and get one in Oakland and we'll forget all about how ugly this got.

Boxscore

Check out Detroit's reaction at MotownStringMusic

You can see the results from tonight's Jersey Contest festivities here and you can enter the next form here about five minutes after this is posted.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

Travis Outlaw Has Successful Foot Surgery, Out 3-5 Months

2009-11-18T19:51:57Z

More photos » by David J. Phillip - AP

Bummer.

Browse more photos »

From the Blazers' twitter...

Travis Outlaw undergoes successful surgery on his left foot. Expected out 3 to 5 months.

When it comes to foot injuries there is all sorts of variability in terms of recovery times based on the severity of the stress fracture.

If you're rushing to the conclusion that the Blazers are setting a longer recovery timeline for Outlaw because they got burned by rushing Martell Webster back last year, I would urge caution. Two different players, two different feet, two different injuries, two different timelines, two different surgeries. As simple as that.

Now, with that said, 3-5 months puts Travis Outlaw out a long time: from the middle of February (3 months) until the middle of April (5 months). That's a long freaking time. That's until after the All Star break; 40 plus games from today at the minimum.

Obviously, there are some changes to come. Reminder: here is Dave's analysis on how the minutes will shake out in Travis Outlaw's absence.

Some notes on that subject as tweeted by Joe Freeman...

Coach Mac will have to abandon his "small" second unit w/o Outlaw and Mac says the Blazers "style of play has to change."

That means Mac can't play "spread basketball" anymore and beat teams with athleticism and shooting in the 2nd unit.

Instead, with Howard and Joel, the 2nd unit will be bigger and more rugged.

Another negative to keep in mind with all the injuries. Mac says he'll have to significantly cut back on practicing to keep bodies fresh.

Brian T. Smith on the same subject...

McMillan said the Blazers will primarily turn to Juwan Howard to replace Outlaw. McMillan added that rookie Dante Cunningham is unlikely to see much of an increase in playing time, even though he is slated as a back up power forward on the team's roster.

When asked whether the Blazers will try to add a new player through a trade or signing, McMillan said Portland's roster is filled with 15 players at the moment, and that the only way the Blazers could pick up a new player would be by trading or cutting someone currently in uniform. "We're going to go with the guys we got," McMillan said.

Here's a nice piece from Casey Holdahl with what Outlaw makes of his injury.

"Things happen for a reason, that's my thing," said Outlaw. "That's how I'm looking at it. I feel like I got a lot of things to be thankful for, you know?"
...
"We've got a lot of players stepping up. When I get back there's not going to be some big rush to get mine. I'm just going to try to make sure I fit in. Do what is needed for the team to win."

The big issues to watch here are, in order of importance...

Will Nate McMillan continue to ride his small starting lineup indefinitely? If so, can he keep all of his personalities happy and can he keep an undersized starting unit healthy?
Is Rudy Fernandez ready to stay on track offensively? Injuries, carry-over fatigue from the summer, and inconsistency from Rudy are no longer allowable. There's no margin of error from him.
Is Juwan Howard actually serviceable? All pleasantries aside, is he able to fill minutes adequately? If not, that's a big problem.
Is Dante Cunningham -- 4 year college guy, good hustle, smart player -- ready to step up? Will Nate McMillan trust him to play rotation minutes?

Playoff teams respond to adversity. Make no mistake, the loss of Travis Outlaw, on the heels of the loss of Nicolas Batum, is adversity.

-- Ben Golliver | (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com) | Twitter

PS Thanks to The Thinker for getting to this news first in the fanshots.

The Dontonio Wingcast Episode 013

2009-11-18T18:20:01Z

It's that time again: Basketball Prospectus's Kevin Pelton and I are back with another episode of The Dontonio Wingcast. Here's how the slightly-shortened episode (34 minutes) breaks down...

In Segment 1, we announce a contest giving away a free copy of Pro Basketball Prospectus 2009-2010. You should enter!
In Segment 2, we look at the recent road trip, the Travis Outlaw injury, the Blazers' small lineup and the Blazers' matchup zone.
In Segment 3, we discuss Brandon Jennings, tracking high school point guards and we very briefly debate Clyde Drexler vs.Gary Payton.

Music selections:

Cormega - Rap's a Hustle
Kanye West - Through The Wire

You can subscribe to our iTunes feed or stream/download the mp3 here: Download The Dontonio Wingcast 013

The mp3 is 31 megabytes.

Profanity warning is always in full effect.

-- Ben Golliver | (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com) | Twitter

PS: Here's the mp3 of my brief appearance on The MSP with Gavin Dawson this morning. Segment starts at the 40 minute mark.

Game 13 Preview: Pistons vs. Blazers

2009-11-18T08:27:54Z

More photos » by Gregory Smith - AP

Some of this would help tonight.

Browse more photos »

Home at last! And we get an interesting opponent to begin this stretch of 7 home dates in the next 9 games. The Bad Boy Detroit Pistons are coming to town. Except they're not quite as bad and they're struggling to get better...having spent every single day of the season so far within one game of .500.

When talking about the Pistons you have to start with the roster makeover from last year to this. Rasheed Wallace, Chauncey Billups, Allen Iverson, Antonio McDyess...gone. Right now you also have to mention injuries, as Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince are both out for extended periods. Combined those two factors have left Detroit with only one of their top six rotation players from 2008-09, that being Rodney Stuckey. It's like somebody hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and only Stuckey was in the boot menu. On the bright side, the roster is now relatively virus and spam free.

Replacing the departed stars are a couple of offensive-minded B-listers: Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva. Since the injuries to his teammates have left him free to score like a movie producer in a reality-show hot tub, Gordon has gotten off to a marvelous start. He's scoring over 22 a game in 38-39 minutes. Villanueva is also enjoying the green light, shooting 50% and adding almost 17 of his own. Stuckey is not shooting that well (41%) but who's going to tell him not to score? He's just over 17 ppg with 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Stuckey's understudy, Will "Don't Call Me Andrew" Bynum has posted double-figures in each of the last four games including 27 against the Mavericks on Sunday. He's a heavy part of the rotation now. After that, though, the Pistons' scoring drops off a cliff faster than Thelma and Louise on a bender. Detroit peppers the roster with familiar names--Ben Wallace, Kwame Brown, Jason Maxiell (love this guy), Chris Wilcox, Chucky Atkins--but half of those guys aren't playing and that half is scoring just about as much as the other. The Pistons still want to muscle up against you with their deeper ranks. Wallace carries the threat still but they undercut most of his cred by fielding Kwame Brown, a rookie from Gonzaga, and a Swedish dude. You could throw Brock Lesnar, Brian Urlacher, and a rabid wildebeest into that list and people would still laugh.

In general the Pistons want to keep the score low, the game ugly, and just let their scorers do their thing. They don't move the ball effectively. Their main guys all have the scoring mentality and they're not comfortable enough with each other yet to have developed a good rhythm. They're 29^th in the league in points in the paint per game and 25^th in fast-break points so they're basically working hard to get jumpers. They're dead last in the league in possessions per game, so you know they're grinding. They shoot an average percentage and depend greatly on stifling the opponent's shooting to stay ahead. If it seems to you like I'm also describing the Blazers here, you're pretty much right. The two teams have a ton of similarities as far as playing style. Detroit allows far fewer points in the paint than the Blazers do. The Blazers are far better rebounders. Other than that they're so similar that you might as well be looking at a picture of Tyson Chandler holding a great big tool. It makes for a fascinating matchup.

Pivotal Points of the Game

1. As we just mentioned, rebounding is going to be huge for the Blazers (as always). Detroit is a darn good offensive rebounding team. Their effort is spearheaded by Ben Wallace. Whichever Blazer has Wallace crawling over his back had better keep him there. The Pistons also allow a lot of offensive rebounds though. In every grinding game possession is key.

2. What are you going to do about Ben Gordon? He's small for a shooting guard so you can defend him with any number of people. But he's likely to score on all of them. The Blazers have done a decent job of taking away the opponent's #1 option this year. Doing it tonight would make a victory near certain. Charlie, Will, and Rodney probably aren't going to beat you. (Do watch out for Stuckey, though. He'll be your biggest problem if Gordon does get loose and you have to devote your attention to containing him. Stuckey could go for 30 on the Blazers.) One of the strategies the Blazers might use is making Gordon defend somebody in return. That's not a huge problem if Blake is out there for big minutes. But if you give Gordon a choice between guarding Miller or Rudy or Roy (either playing together or in pairs) he's not going to like any of the options. Whoever he's on, you run that guy around and get the ball to him.

3. The Pistons have played six games this year in which the opponent has topped 90. They've won one of those. Just score, baby.

4. Oden vs. Wallace will be an intriguing matchup. The Blazers turn Big Ben loose on defense if they are forced to run Przybilla against him. You know Wallace will want to bruise Greg. Greg needs to stand up, score, rebound, and generally play tough. Watch to see where Oden sets up in the post tonight. If he's two feet farther out than normal you know things are not going well. Two fouls in four minutes is also a pretty good sign...

Final Thoughts and Links

The Blazers gave fantastic effort in the Atlanta game. They need to beware complacency when coming home off of that trip. You won't win because you're home. You'll win because you play hard and wrest this game away from the opponent. Effort is everything tonight. Portland can overcome bad shooting, lack of fastbreak points, even Oden troubles but if the team effort isn't there Detroit will happily take the win.

Read more about the Pistons at MotownStringMusic

Here is the Jersey Contest Form for tonight's game.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

Jerryd Bayless Has Started a Blog

2009-11-18T07:23:43Z

Jerryd Bayless Has Started a Blog

Jerryd Bayless tweeted tonight that he was considering starting a blog. Within minutes, he started one.

Awesome.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

Live Chat Open Now

2009-11-18T05:37:37Z

Baby point guard is in bed and my wife has the girls over to watch "Twilight" so I have fled the impending horde of cooties that accompanies every chick-flick-fest and have taken refuge in my office. Tomorrow's game is researched, everything else is set, therefore I'm going to pass the cootie-dodging time by opening up a live chat. If anybody cares to join in for the next hour or more I'll be here ready to discuss Blazers, the site, life, or anything else you're curious about. Comments are open...now.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

Well Wishes for Paul Allen

2009-11-18T03:55:37Z

The outpouring of support for Blazers Owner Paul Allen since news of his cancer diagnosis became public yesterday has been remarkable. Here are links to a few of the many voices that have addressed the subject.

Brian Berger, Sports Business Radio writes...

I worked for Allen's Trail Blazers organization for 6 years. Not many people know that without Paul Allen, there very likely would not be NBA basketball in Portland.

Back in the early 1990's the team was selling out games every night in Memorial Coliseum and needed a bigger home with more revenue streams. But negotiations with the City of Portland for a bigger, more modern arena got tense and there was a time where conversations about moving the Trail Blazers out of Portland took place. But to get a deal done, Paul Allen put a lot of his own skin into what is now the Rose Quarter.

Allen could have taken his team and likely gotten a sweeter financial deal from a city that was hungry for an NBA franchise. But even though Allen is from Washington state, he knew how important the Trail Blazers are to the fabric of Portland. And he forked out millions of his own dollars to build the Rose Garden and keep the team in Portland - even though the City of Portland didn't bring much to the table (almost 20 years later, some things never change).

Dwight Jaynes writes...

I remember telling someone this summer, every time this man sets foot in the Rose Garden he ought to get a standing ovation. He's been that important not only to this franchise but this city. Do you really think Portland would have built a new arena unless he paid for it? Really? I don't. No way.

...

Allen treats this franchise as if it's located in New York or Los Angeles, spending what it takes to win and knowing the bottom line is going to be scary. He's tightened his belt at times, but who doesn't? It still hasn't deterred him from trying to make this the best franchise in the NBA.

Joe Freeman writes...

"It's sad," Blazers All-Star Brandon Roy said. "I sat there for a minute and thought about it, because he believed in me as a player, first in the draft, then later this summer. He has done a lot for my family. I just really feel for him. I wish there was something we could do. The biggest thing is to pray for him. He definitely means a lot to me."

Added Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard: "He is a warrior. He has beat this once. He is so important to who we are and what we are about. I think for me, the biggest thing is, and I think we all feel this: It shows how important he is. You could tell, everyone you talk to, and the players, we all think he is a great owner."

John Canzano writes...

Maybe you haven't always liked Allen or understood him. But as owners go, he's the best in sport. He grants his management autonomy, and plenty of cash. And for fans, he makes you feel as though you're all in it together.

The email that circulated internally at Allen's parent company, Vulcan Inc, talked about optimism. It was written by his sister, Jody Allen. The email pointed out that 25 years earlier her brother beat Hodgkins, and he'll continue to work around the offices, and "he has no plans to change his role."

I think he should, though.

He carried the Blazers for so long. It's time they carry him.

Rudy Fernandez tweeted a message of support to Mr. Allen...

Quiero mandar un mensaje de ánimo a Paul Allen. Just wanted to send an encouragement message to Paul Allen

Brier Dudley of the Seattle Times quotes Bill Gates...

Gates issued a statement of support.

"Melinda and I have Paul and his family in our thoughts and prayers," he said. "Paul is among my closest friends, and I know to him be a strong and resilient individual."

Jason Fleming of Hoopsworld writes...

HOOPSWORLD would like to offer our own well wishes to Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen in his quest for recovery after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma earlier this month.

Allen also fought and beat a similar diagnosis 25 years ago, an experience that changed his life and directly led to his leaving Microsoft (which he co-founded with Bill Gates) and branching out into various other endeavors, including owning the Blazers and NFL's Seattle Seahawks.

Bustabucket.com writes...

The news really makes you reflect on how much Allen means to this organization and the city of Portland. Since buying the team in 1988, he's been nothing but the best owner in all of sports. He's perfect for the city and has always done everything he can to make the Trail Blazers successful. He's also been one of the Blazers biggest fans.

Once again, our thoughts are with Paul Allen and his family as he takes on cancer for the second time.

The Los Angeles Times has some information about Allen's disease and has a bunch of relevant links...

The five-year survival rate for the disease has improved dramatically over the years, but it's far from guaranteed. It hit 69% in 2005, says the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

Travis Outlaw Will Have Foot Surgery Wednesday

2009-11-18T00:07:52Z

Travis Outlaw Will Have Foot Surgery Wednesday

From the team...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Trail Blazers forward Travis Outlaw will undergo surgery Wednesday to repair a stress fracture of the fifth metatarsal bone in his left foot, the Trail Blazers announced today.

Dr. Jay Crary will perform the surgery at Southwest Washington Regional Surgery Center in Vancouver, Wash. A timetable for his return will be determined after the procedure.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

The Bill Simmons Typo That Insulted an Entire City

2009-11-17T16:59:49Z

By now you've surely read this Oregonlive.com interview with Bill Simmons, ESPN's Sports Guy and author of The Book of Basketball, in advance of his book tour stop in Beaverton on Thursday.

There are many, many reasons to buy this book and, having finished it last week, a full review is coming soon. To summarize: It's funny, it's thorough, it's thought- and argument-provoking, it's imaginative and it's one of the best books ever written about basketball. If you like the sport, the sport's history, books about the sport and arguing about the sport, you will almost certainly like The Book of Basketball.

However, I must vehemently disagree with one statement from that Simmons interview. And that would be...

If anybody's going to like this book it's somebody from Portland.

That's simply not true. If ANYBODY is going to like this book it's going to be someone who, like Simmons, is from Boston and/or its surrounding area. The Book of Basketball spends most of its time talking about the Celtics and major portions discussing their many rivals: the Lakers, (Philadelphia) Warriors, Knicks and Pistons.

More accurately, if anybody is going to feel like their team and franchise got snubbed or is being attacked for no reason in this book, it's somebody from Portland. Although Simmons speaks very highly of the great teamwork displayed by the 1977 and 1978 Blazers on multiple occasions, here's a partial list of things that might irk you as a Portlander or Blazers fan...

Simmons spends nearly as much time (probably more) dissecting the 1984 NBA draft than he does the rest of the franchise's history put together.
Only 2 Blazers -- Clyde Drexler and... Arvydas Sabonis (?) -- make his Hall of Fame Pyramid.
Clyde Drexler is painted as a second fiddle who was destroyed by Jordan in the NBA Finals and Dream Team practices and who needed a player like Hakeem Olajuwon to give his career meaning. But that career still didn't mean much: according to Simmons, Drexler only earned his ring because Jordan went to play baseball and didn't come back in time to destroy him again.
Arvydas Sabonis the international player is idealized while Arvydas Sabonis the Blazer is described as "lumbering up and down the court in what looked to be concrete Nikes" and ranking "just behind Artis Gilmore on the Moving Like a Mummy Scale." If you thought there wouldn't be room for a mention of his wife's DUI in a short two page profile, you'd be wrong.
And that's about it for Blazers. It's difficult to count Bill Walton as a Blazer because Simmons leans so heavily on his personal memories of Walton's Celtics day and because he ignores -- and in some cases discounts -- every other member of the 1977 championship team. One gets the feeling that if Walton had never been a Celtic, Simmons would interpret and rate his importance to the history of the NBA much, much differently.
Maurice Lucas is discussed as a Laker more than he is as a Blazer.
Scottie Pippen's time in Portland earned one sentence in a profile that stretches over six pages.
Lenny Wilkins' time in Portland as a player (or as a coach for that matter) isn't mentioned at all by Simmons in his profile.
The Rip City era never happened. Porter is mentioned in passing, Jerome Kersey is mentioned once, Kevin Duckworth is only mentioned as a major reason why Clyde Drexler didn't win a title as a Blazer.
Brandon Roy's knee ligaments are compared to sheets of paper.
As you probably expected, Simmons meets his full quota of Greg Oden cheap shots.
His big epilogue feature with Bill Walton barely touches on Walton's time with the Blazers. Instead, Simmons embarks on a self-indulgent Tupac Shakur fantasy and describes petting Walton's black cat. If you're looking for real insight into Bill Walton and his time with the Blazers, you're far better off reading this transcript of Walton's own words.
Simmons lists Dwight Jaynes' book with Rick Adelman in the "Not Particularly Helpful" section of his bibliography and doesn't even have the decency to get the book's title right. Simmons calls it "The Long Season" when in fact the book is titled, "The Long, Hot Winter." This New York Times profile was nice enough to make the correction for him.

If that list isn't enough, Simmons makes one particularly egregious typo that is sure to induce cringes. Here's a screenshot of a paragraph from page 609, a section that describes Jordan's greatness.

Let's get a little closer, I don't quite believe my eyes.

OK, full zoom time, I am dumbfounded.

Wow. Just.... wow.

Typos happen. All. The. Time. But, man, that's a tough one to swallow. Brutal. Anyone remember those great Larry Bird-led Lakers teams? What about Bill Russell's Warriors? My favorite teams of all time had to be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's Celtics.

In a cruel, perfect twist of fate, Simmons is planning to attend tomorrow night's game at the Rose Garden, as Portland plays host to Detroit. No doubt he is extremely excited to see Brandon Roy's Pistons host Ben Gordon's Blazers. This could turn out to be the single most confusing night of his life (crazier than Vegas, baby!). Hopefully the Blazers or Nike or someone will be there to serve as a tour guide, translating the disorienting action on the fly.

To put this all together, should we -- as Portlanders and/or rabid followers of the city's only major professional sports team -- be surprised that The Book of Basketball is lacking in Blazers information? Not really. In writing it, Simmons drew heavily on his own personal experiences growing up watching games in the Boston Garden. During his formative years, the 1980s, the Blazers were only making one trip a year to Boston and they weren't a true league power. The franchises have never met in the playoffs and crunch time matters a lot to Simmons and to his book. Also, Simmons carefully traces the NBA's early days and honors the league's first stars; the Blazers didn't exist until 40 years ago. He can't be blamed for that.

Ultimately, should we forgive Simmons for his oversight, for his incorrect statement about Portlanders loving his book more than anyone and for potentially the worst typo of all time? Yeah, probably. But if you do go to his book signing, I suggest asking him to correct and autograph page 609.

Or, you could protest loudly as he seems to fear you will. That would be funny too.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

Game 12 Recap: Blazers 95, Hawks 99

2009-11-17T05:09:12Z

More photos » by Gregory Smith - AP

"This is a spork! Where are my daggers?" -- Steve Blake

Browse more photos »

Call the police! Somebody broke into Steve Blake's kitchen and stole all his daggers!

Unfortunately for the Portland Trail Blazers, that somebody was Atlanta Hawks guard Joe Johnson, who outshot both Blake and Brandon Roy down the stretch, guiding the Hawks to a second half comeback and eventual overtime victory over Portland 99-95.

Despite being the only loss of the team's current five game road trip, tonight's game was by far the trip's most entertaining. The cold shooting, slow starts and weak opponents that made some of the games earlier this week nearly unwatchable were replaced by a fast start, an insanely hot first quarter and a quality opponent that refused to lay down in front of their empty arena home crowd. Good times.

The Blazers played a marvelous first 12 minutes on offense and needed to, as the Hawks pounded the ball inside -- scoring their first 14 points of the game in the paint, I believe -- with great success. The Blazers countered by establishing Greg Oden (11 points, 7 rebounds) and LaMarcus Aldridge (18 points, 9 rebounds) early and then hitting the open shots that resulted when Atlanta was forced to help. The first 12 period was capped off by a buzzer-beating 3 from Rudy Fernandez (more... much more... on that later).

Things really started clicking early in the second quarter, when the Blake/Fernandez/Webster/Aldridge/Przybilla lineup pushed the Blazers lead to double digits. The Hawks pulled the game closer when the Blazers subbed Andre Miller and Juwan Howard into the game but Miller soon threatened to blow the game wide open, making consecutive open jumpers, stealing a pass and taking it the distance for a layup and then making a sweet backdoor feed to Brandon Roy, who found Juwan Howard for an easy layup. The Blazers lead was again in double digits and the game seemed firmly in control; the Blazers switched to a zone defense look and the Hawks couldn't hit their perimeter shots or convert on their offensive rebounds.

Things changed in the second half, as Atlanta looked to exploit the Joe Johnson and Andre Miller mismatch, pounding Johnson in the post and getting him off to a quick second half start. The lead shrunk to 50-47. But just when you started to get the feeling the roadtrip was catching up with the Blazers, Miller again provided a spark, scoring four straight and then assisting on a Blake 3 pointer, pushing the lead back to double digits once again.

With the Blazers leading 61-49 halfway in the third quarter, this game was right there for the Blazers taking. The Hawks settled for four jumpers in a row -- missing on all of them -- yet the Blazers simply couldn't blow it open. A few sloppy turnovers, a wide open three missed by Steve Blake, and then some more careless turnovers in the quarter's final minutes left Atlanta within striking distance entering the fourth.

That's when the Blazers offense started to stall, with Martell Webster missing a jumper, throwing up a wild shot in traffic and then forcing a pass that was deflected out of bounds (eventually resulting in a hopeless attempt to beat the shot clock buzzer). The Hawks, finally ready to capitalize on the Blazers' evident fatigue, pounded the ball to Al Horford (15 points, 10 rebounds), Josh Smith (20 points, 16 rebounds) and, of course, Joe Johnson (35 pounds, 9 rebounds), their comeback complete when a Johnson 3 pointer tied the game at 72-72 with six minutes left in the fourth quarter.

The final six minutes were played to a draw, and thus overtime, thanks to a second buzzer-beating 3 pointer from Rudy Fernandez. On the final play of regulation, Rudy inbounded the ball on the side to Greg Oden and then smartly received a return pass on the move near the top of the key, his long step-back jumper forcing overtime.

That 3 was the emotional high point for the Blazers and it would also mark the moment they really, truly ran out of gas. With Brandon Roy doubled over with his hands on his knees, having played nearly 43 minutes total, Joe Johnson took over in overtime, driving the ball repeatedly and getting virtually any shot he wanted. He made a layup, he made a pull-up, and the Blazers were staggering. Al Horford added a bucket for good measure and the Hawks dominated overtime, the final score of 99-95 looking closer than it actual was thanks to yet another buzzer-beating 3 pointer from Rudy Fernandez.

A tough, exhausting loss but certainly a loss Nate McMillan can live with.

Individual Observations

Steve Blake had four opportunities to seriously swing the momentum and result of this game and, unfortunately and uncharacteristically, he was 0-4 in those opportunities. With an 11 point lead in the third quarter, Blake sized up and missed a wide open three that would have given the Blazers serious momentum. With 1:36 left in the fourth quarter, Blake missed a three with the Blazers down 81-80. Roughly 34 seconds later, the score the same, he did exactly the same thing from the same spot. Down 91-87 in overtime, absolutely needing a basket, Blake misfired on a short baseline jumper. On the night, he shot 3-11 for 8 points but chipped in an awesome 11 assists against just 2 turnovers. One of those turnovers, however, came with less than a minute to play in overtime, the Blazers down 4, as he decided to honor the legacy of Jarrett Jack by stepping on the sideline while holding the basketball.

All of that aside, some of Blake's assists were of the tantalizing variety, including multiple lobs to Blazers big men and a nice alleyoop to Martell Webster.

Brandon Roy finished with 17 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and, as mentioned above, simply ran out of gas in overtime. He did hit a number of big time baskets in the end of the fourth quarter and had an incredibly heady offensive rebound after Greg Oden missed 2 free throws in the final minute of the fourth quarter. He immediately converted the rebound into two points with a basket going to the rim. Add another chapter to the Roy/Johnson rivalry, with Johnson the victor this time around.

LaMarcus Aldridge did a nice job of showing more than just the fadeaway jumper, giving as well as he was taking from Josh Smith, who is a physical monster. Aldridge played 45 minutes -- the most of anyone on the team -- and was called in quickly a few times when Nate McMillan started feeling antsy with Juwan Howard in the game. It was one of the more physical games we've seen from Aldridge overall this season. An inspired Smith won their matchup in the end thanks to his all-over-the-place game-changing defense, but it was close.

Andre Miller gives and Andre Miller takes away. He keyed some runs with smart plays and gave away points with some dumb ones and his inability to check Joe Johnson at times. 14 points on 4-10, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 3 turnovers. Just up and down, up and down. Blake/Roy/Fernandez ended up playing most of the minutes that really mattered for that reason.

Greg Oden got off to a hot start, did a very nice job of avoiding fouls in the first half, and then got dinged with some questionable calls (one in particular that had the Blazers bench heated) down the stretch.

When the Blazers switched to zone, the Hawks succeeded in picking it apart pretty well in the second half, even getting some easy buckets close to the rim due to slow rotations and the like. Oden did a nice job on the boards but in the second half, when a few defensive rebounds would have saved the team's legs and shortened the game, the Hawks beat the Blazers to the ball time and again. Of course this doesn't fall solely to Oden (indeed, it might be more fair to blame the guards for not boxing out religiously) but one or two extra boards would have made the difference. Rebounding out of a zone can be incredibly difficult.

One other minor Oden note: his point guards need to do a much better job coming to him when he inbounds the ball and when he is looking to outlet. Multiple times Oden was standing there looking for someone (anyone!) to get the ball to and at one point he actually dribbled to halfcourt by himself. Come on, guards. Make his life easy.

Hopefully, the two missed free throws in the last minute of the fourth quarter aren't eating his soul right now.

Rudy Fernandez finally really, truly, showed up for a game this season, knocking in 4-6 three pointers, hitting a beautiful tear drop in traffic, and even nailing the first midrange jumper he's made since 1947. He was active defensively with 4 steals but also a little careless with the ball (3 turnovers). Overall, you love his 19 points in the wake of Travis Outlaw's injury and you absolutely love his energy at the end of the road trip. On defense, the Blazers shifted to the zone with him in the game and he more or less did his part.

Martell Webster showed why he isn't starting, looking inept on the offensive end during the fourth quarter as described above. His alleyoop dunk in transition was vicious, though. He looked lost at times on defense and it's amazing he played just 11 minutes in a 52 minute game. Tonight, Nate McMillan rode Rudy's hot hand instead. Hopefully tonight serves as another wakeup call for Webster to bring the consistency and focus he showed in "Oklahoma City."

Joel Przybilla had a quiet night. Too quiet. he had just 3 rebounds against an Atlanta team that outrebounded the Blazers 47-37. He did have a nice block but didn't attempt a field goal. This is Greg Oden's team now.

Juwan Howard played seven minutes and even that felt like 3 or 4 too many. He had a great run-out dunk that earned an and-one but he gave it back to Josh Smith on the other end almost immediately. With Travis Outlaw injured, Howard has to play but it's unclear how long the Blazers can manage with him in games against quality competition and physical front lines.

Jerryd Bayless came in briefly to spell the point guards and to help slow down Hawks rookie backup Jeff Teague. He drew a foul right before halftime and made a free throw. That was about it.

Final Thoughts

The road trip ends at 4-1. A very impressive trip to say the least.

There were some questionable calls by the referees down the stretch but, after watching the game a second time, they absolutely did not decide the game. Feel free to disagree with that; I'm sure many of you will.

In case you were wondering, I subbed in on the recap for Dave tonight because he was called in by the team's medical staff to rub ointment on Travis Outlaw's foot. Updates to come, surely.

Boxscore

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

Jersey Contest Scoreboard

Form for Wednesday's game

Blazers Owner Paul Allen Diagnosed With Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

2009-11-17T00:42:12Z

Blazers Owner Paul Allen Diagnosed With Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

According to a post by John Cook on TechFlash.com, Blazers Owner Paul Allen has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

The news was disclosed by Allen's sister in an email message to employees of his investment company, Vulcan, Inc. Click through above for the text of that email.

As the article notes, Allen beat Hodgkin's disease in 1983 but this is a different type of lymphoma. For more information about this disease, click here.

Thoughts and prayers to Mr. Allen.
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Update: Blazers Broadcaster Mike Barrett made this statement during the second quarter of tonight's Blazers/Hawks game.

"Paul's passion for the Trail Blazers could not be more vibrant. He is the team's greatest fan and he's extremely excited for what the season will bring. Our commitment to him is to continue to execute his vision of bringing a winning organization to Portland. We ask that all of you keep him in your thoughts and prayers at this time. He certainly is in ours. Paul, we know you're watching this ballgame tonight. And we're thinking about you and praying for you and we know you're going to beat this thing again."
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-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

Casey Holdahl Interviews Maurice Lucas

2009-11-16T21:36:33Z

Casey Holdahl Interviews Maurice Lucas

A really nice interview by Casey Holdahl, which touches on Maurice Lucas's health, his asesssment of the team, his work with Greg Oden, and more.
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Do you feel like you’ve learned anything about yourself through this period?

"You learn a hell of a lot about the human anatomy. And you learn a lot about patience too. The one thing that I’m finding is an issue for me is learning patience, being patient with myself. I’m trying to understand what this process is all about. It takes a little longer amount of time than I’d like it to take in order to recover. But it is what it is and I’m not in charge of it. I’ve just got to play my role, be patient, feed myself well, take the right meds and see if I can get back on track.

"I’m used to action, but I’m not in the physical place yet to get back in there and bump with some of the bigs, get to close to guys and let them bump on me. As a result I’ve got to lay back a little bit and get away from like the baseline, don’t let guys run into me on layups, until I heal. That’s a process."
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-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

Full Court Press

2009-11-16T18:40:12Z

The big story this morning: Golden State's Stephen Jackson and Acie Law were traded to Charlotte for Vladimir Radmanovich and Raja Bell. The timing is ideal for the Blazers, who beat Charlotte on Saturday (Dave's game recap here) and are set to play the Warriors on Friday. In his last four games against the Blazers, Jackson put up 20/8/8, 20/4/6, 24/5/2 & 29/9/1. The Warriors went 4-0 in those games.

If you spent the weekend taking off-balance jumpers and missed the news, Travis Outlaw suffered a stress fracture in his left foot and is expected out for a lengthy period of time. Full details here.

A Blazers-themed art show from artist Anna Fidler is running on weekends for the next month or so here in Portland. Too cool. I'll be there. Full details here. A short snippet...

The Game, a new series of vibrant basketball scenes inspired by the Portland Trail Blazers, highlights artist Anna Fidler at her creative peak. Driven by her passion for basketball, she has assembled large-scale, labor-intensive works rendered in glittery mica-enriched acrylic washes and deftly applied pastels, colored pencils and airbrush.

Click through for the rest!

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

Some quick hitters...

An awesome new Blazers/Cooking hybrid blog from Corvid that provides an opponent-specific culinary complement to each Blazers game.
The Blazers are doing a tweet up. (Not nearly as sketch as that term implies.) You should go.
A YouTube channel dedicated entirely to protesting foul calls against Greg Oden.
Good news and bad news: the Blazers have surged to #4 on NBA.com's Power Rankings, but they face #1 Atlanta tomorrow night.
Timbo put together his own comprehensive power rankings.
A really nice photo-heavy Blazers tumblr page with a PG-13 URL from Tim Brown.
Update: An important follow-up to this item: Fox 12 News reports that Portland AAU Coach Kumbeno Memory's criminal charges (sex charge and burglary charge) do not stem from his work as a youth basketball coach and do not involve any of his players.

And around the internet we go...

In case you missed this last week, the Blazers topped ESPN's "Future Power Rankings."

On paper, no other team possesses as bright a future as the Portland Trail Blazers. It all starts with the players. Nobody, not even Oklahoma City, can match the stable of young talent the Blazers have built.Brandon Roy is already a superstar, and joining him are potential stars like LaMarcus Aldridge (24), Greg Oden (21, even if he looks more like 51), Nicolas Batum (20) and Martell Webster (22). That doesn't even count the other assets the Blazers have that could eventually pan out, such as talented second-year benchwarmer Jerryd Bayless and a veritable farm team in Europe that includes Joel Freeland, Petteri Koponen and Victor Claver.

Mike Barrett blogs from the road...

Watching this team warm up before this game, you could tell this team was dragging. This was the fourth game in five nights, which is always worse than just a simple back-to-back scenario. Joel Przybilla told me his legs felt like they were filled with lead, and that he was fighting a cold. Jerryd Bayless, who twisted his ankle walking off the court before the game, told me he didn't think he'd play. Nothing felt very good

....

As for the void left by the loss of Outlaw, I would think what we saw at the end of this game is what we'll see more of- Rudy Fernandez. It'll take a combination of players to step up, but my guess is that we'll see Rudy get more minutes, and a much larger role late in games, where Outlaw usually plays. We'll also see more of Juwan Howard, and will probably even see some time given to rookie Dante Cunningham.

Jason Quick on Brandon Roy and Joe Johnson...

But what makes this matchup even more special is the striking similarities between the two, on and off the court. Both players discovered those parallels during a bus ride in Phoenix last February after the All-Star Game when, fittingly, they were the only participants who didn't leave with an entourage or head to an after-party.

"After the game, everyone leaves with their entourage," Roy recalled. "And I'm the only dude leaving the game on the bus. Literally. Like, there's some assistants and some kids, and then me in the back.

"And then he walks on," Roy said of Johnson.

Bill Simmons did a promotional Q and A with Ian Ruder in advance of his Thursday book tour (more on this tomorrow).

The Blazer fans are crazy. They're like the crazy dude at the bar who's just so irrational you don't want to get into a full argument with them because you might get a beer bottle smashed into your head. It's because they're on the team, so it's like they're arguing about their kids almost.

I picked the Blazers to go 41-41 this year and it wasn't like I had an axe to grind against them. It was just every year there's one team that there are high expectations for and then they start slow and (have a) big spiral. They just seemed like a logical pick for that spot.

Blazer fans went ballistic. They became really, really super, super crazy upset about it. (Saying stuff like,) "You're crazy! You're the biggest idiot! Don't come here for your book tour!"
It's like whoa settle down! I just picked you to go 41-41, it's not like I built a Brandon Roy voodoo doll or something.

That's the passion that makes it great.

An interesting observation from Coup over at Rip City Project regarding the Bobcats game...

It was a little more concerning that Portland only scored 26 points in the paint, most of which could be credited to Roy and Oden. Oden being in foul trouble most of the night didn't help, but from 5:48 in the third, when Portland was up 12, until the end of the period, the Blazers attempted seven jumpers, one layup (a Miller attempt blocked) and one Aldridge hook shot. At the end of that stretch, the Blazers were only up four. Coincidence?

Dwight Jaynes on Travis Outlaw...

I don't think this one has a huge impact on the Trail Blazers' wins and losses this season. Yes, Outlaw is a proven off-the-bench scorer who has made big shots. But he's not improved much on the defensive end and isn't a particularly energetic rebounder. In the long run, this should mean more minutes for Webster, Rudy Fernandez and even Juwan Howard - which is a good thing.

Sheed from BustaBucket.com on Travis Outlaw...

It's not an attack, it's just the truth. Whenever Outlaw plays within himself, he's a great contributor. But shooting 1 for 9 or 2 for 13 from the field is devastating against good teams. Bad missed shots are like turnovers. I hope Travis heals quickly, but my internal jury is still out on whether it's good or bad losing him in the rotation.

I may end up being totally wrong about this, and in some ways I hope I am. It could be, "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."

Stu Holdren of Oregon Sports Live on Travis Outlaw...

This loss stings for the Blazers, but ultimately I think they will be able to compensate for Outlaw's (and Batum's) injury. This is precisely why teams should stockpile talent and ignore potential logjams and the conflicts that these could provide. Since the core of Roy, Aldridge and Greg Oden is still in tact, I'm confident that they'll still be able to take care of business as usual.

Kevin Pelton breaks down Brandon Jennings' 55 point night.

If we define 50 percent as replacement-level True Shooting Percentage, we can see which player contributed the most points above the expectation of a replacement-level player using the same number of possessions. A replacement player would be expected to score about 38 points on Jennings' possessions, so he contributed a little more than 17 points (17.5, to be exact). That ranks 44th out of those 160 modern 50-point games, which is pretty impressive.

The best of these games by this measure, by the way? Naturally, it's Kobe Bryant's 81-point outing against Toronto in January 2006 (+26.2), but four other players are close; Dana Barros, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone and Glen Rice were all +23 or better.

El Blog Ilusorio de Rudy Fernandez writes...

But sadly, in our recent Charlotte match, two of my bench-mates fell victim to the injury. Travis Outlaw suffered a broken foot bone while busting a routine move. And in a manner most bizarre, Jerryd Bayless tripped over a hump in a hallway carpet and nearly killed himself!

His bello ws of pain filled the coliseum, and I had to assist him to assistance. (This was no easy matter; Jerryd is a most dense 200 pounds (195 without his cologne). How to explain such a sad conjunction of misfortunes in Charlotte?

An entertaining new feature from Joe Freeman, a video mailbag where he takes questions. Hilarious that the first question is, "Fire Nate?"

runyon from Trail Post wasn't exactly impressed by the Charlotte game...

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.

jetcity at Blazerstrail.com is happy...

I don't mean to sound like the growing pains are already over. They aren't. There's still going to be duds from Oden, and there's still going to be stretches where Miller and Roy grind the gears trying to play the same role. Still, we've seen that Portland can be a better team this year when they click. We've seen more than flashes of potential from Greg Oden, who is one contested game away from a true monster statistical performance if he can continue his improvement at avoiding stupid fouls. And, we're seeing this in week 3. It stands to reason that Portland can have this honed by April. Go ahead and smile.

Drop anything I missed in the comments. And be sure to Frequent the FanShots.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

Game 12 Semi-Preview: Blazers vs. Hawks

2009-11-16T08:08:33Z

More photos » by Don Ryan - AP

Keeping this guy off the boards will be a big deal.

Browse more photos »

Game Time: 4:00 PM Pacific TV: Comcast

We just played Atlanta two weeks ago and their basic constitution hasn't changed since then. If you want the full rundown you can click here. For most an update will do.

Atlanta comes into this contest 8-2 so the Blazers aren't the only good team they've finished on top of. They also hold victories over Denver and Boston. Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford have been scoring at will. Josh Smith has gone on a rebounding tear of late and has scored a few himself. The Hawks are playing great basketball and are looking dangerous.

As stated in the earlier preview, the Blazers are going to have to keep Atlanta away from the offensive boards, match Johnson's scoring, and find some way to contain his backcourt mates. Portland will also have to bring energy and be ready for a heck of a fight. Home and away has never mattered as much as intensity when these two teams meet. The Blazers fell victim to that in the last game. They need to capitalize on it this game. Rebounding, points in the paint, and dunks are all indicators of how strong each team's attack is. A final key would be the improving play of Greg Oden and the team's increasing confidence in him. He made a couple moves that made Al Horford look like he was back in kindergarten when the teams last met. A steady diet of that could turn this game.

Frankly this feels like either an energy-filled win that the Blazers just eke out or an energy-less blowout leaving the Hawks laughing behind their hands and Portland happy with a 4-1 trip. Right now I'm leaning towards the latter. It doesn't feel like the team has the consistent will to accomplish the former yet. But in the famous words of Principal Seymour Skinner, "Prove me wrong, kids. Prove me wrong." It would certainly be a serious win for the Blazers if they could capture it.

Check out the Atlanta chat at PeachTreeHoops.

Enter the Jersey Contest form for tonight's game here. Yes, there's a "Travis Outlaw's Minutes" question. Just put "0" and walk away with your 10 points. Note that his absence does make this a non-regulation form for the purposes of winning a jersey instantly with a perfect 100 score.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

P.S. Hey Blazers, please don't make me do a Shakespearian tragedy-themed recap again.

Travis Outlaw's Injury: What Now?

2009-11-16T07:41:23Z

No rest for the wicked and/or weary. The inbox is jammed again with people offering questions and suggestions about what to do now that Travis Outlaw is down for the next couple of months. Is Juwan Howard the answer? Should the Blazers have kept Ime Udoka or Jarron Collins? Are we now to rain curses upon the Kings and Suns for snatching them up after we dumped them? Should Portland make a trade to address this situation? How badly will/does this mess things up? Are the Blazers snakebit?

OK...stop. Deep breath. Go to your happy space. 8-3...8-3... There. Better? Now, let's talk.

There's no doubt the Blazers will miss Travis. Nicolas Batum's injury cost them their best individual defender. Now couple that with losing their best offensive player off the bench, their clear 6^th man, and the loss is significant. Best defensive player, one of your best offensive players...no matter how your roster is built that's going to reverberate. You might not see it on a nightly basis, but over time you're going to miss those players.

The Blazers are in a position to mitigate much of the potential loss of Outlaw's injury because they have one of the best reserve power forwards in the league waiting in the wings. Perhaps you've heard of him. His name is LaMarcus Aldridge. Sure he's the starter, but he's a starter averaging a shade over 31 minutes per game right now. He's young, he's fit, and despite the relatively slow start to the season he's awesome. You could easily bump those minutes up to 40 for the next six weeks without crimping his style too much. If you can't rely on Howard or Przybilla to fill 8 minutes per game between them then what are they doing on an NBA team? Plus, what is Outlaw's job description? If you said, "Score, baby!" you're onto at least two-thirds of it. What would LaMarcus dearly love the chance to do more of? If you said, "Score, baby!" then you've just quoted my first six girlfriends after we...uhhh...I mean you've just described Aldridge's Christmas Wish List. He's averaging 12.3 attempts per game right now. Give him two-thirds of Travis' shots and he's still only at 18. Granted they score in different fashions but nobody said you were going to be able to dig up an exact Outlaw clone. You probably have to run a few more set plays and you have to run them through LaMarcus, but that's a legitimate option for the Blazers. The key here will be the centers keeping out of foul trouble, as the Blazers no longer have the luxury of filling with a scoring power forward if Aldridge has to slide to center. As long as you can keep Oden or Przybilla on the floor LaMarcus is going to remain your best option at power forward no matter what time of the game it is. No matter what the coaching staff says they're going to try, my guess is they're going to end up calling on LaMarcus in this situation and sticking with him.

The same argument could be made for Martell Webster covering whatever small portion of the small forward minutes Travis was taking. Martell should get a little rub and more chances to drive to the hoop if he's so inclined. But I think a hidden beneficiary of the injury could be Rudy Fernandez. Rudy has come on strong in the last week in every area but scoring, where he's still basically an afterthought. If the Blazers are forced to run a small lineup Rudy will probably get time in one of the wing positions. The Blazers will also need somebody to initiate the offense. Neither Fernandez nor Webster has proven great off the dribble but Rudy appears to have more options with the ball in his hands than Martell does right now. Also if you tell Rudy to get aggressive he's probably going to respond. Again it's not a one-for-one correlation to Travis but the overall effect could be similar.

I don't see a lot of other options that make sense right now. I believe J. Howard can still contribute to this team but he hasn't shown a lot with the minutes he's been given so far. He's probably not a reliable 15-minute-per-game guy. You're not going to find guys on the free agent market who will make a difference either, especially when you consider they have to acclimate to the team. Dante Cunningham probably isn't ready yet. Making a trade specifically to address this situation seems the most unlikely option of all. You don't make a permanent move to address a six-week situation. Plus anyone you bring in will have that learning curve as well. Most importantly, who are you going to send? The most likely names are Outlaw himself, Webster, Blake, and Bayless. Outlaw's injured. Who are you going to get with Webster or Blake? If you send the two of them together...BOOM goes the rotation. That's practically the apocalypse right now, not because of their respective talents, rather the roles they're occupying. You don't move Jerryd for a stopgap either...partially because he wouldn't bring back enough right now to warrant the risk of him being good later and partially because you'd create another roster hole if another injury occurred. The only way a trade would make sense is if it were for a clear starting small forward or a strong combo-forward off the bench. Either of those moves would have been planned long before this and would have nothing to do with this injury (except perhaps being ruined by it if Travis was part of the deal).

In the end the Outlaw and Batum injuries may cost us a couple games. On the other hand maybe they provide opportunities for players to shine who otherwise may have been overshadowed. Either way they aren't season-derailing events. It ain't good but it ain't the end of the world either.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)