The Weekend in Review

The Blazers played only one game over the weekend: a tight win at Madison Square Garden against the Knicks.

Yet again, the team took an early lead and allowed the other team to eventually get back in and take over the game. Of course, it ended with the Blazers going on a huge run to finish the game. Though winning is nice, I think just about every Blazer fan would take a wire-to-wire win right now than a heart attack.

A large piece of happened on Saturday night was the presence (and non-presence) of Nicolas Batum. The Blazers appeared to be a different team when he was on the floor, with the offense flowing more easily, as Batum was able to do what he pleased on offense against the point guards that D'Antoni was putting on him. Obviously, he brought the defensive spark as well. He got us that lead in the first quarter, and when he came in again when we were down nine in the fourth, our fortunes changed quickly. I don't know how much longer Nate can continue to play Nico for less than 30 minutes per game.

This game wasn't nearly as bad as LaMarcus' suicide watch game against the Mavericks when Andre went crazy, but it was close. He was missing open shots and worse, free throws. He hasn't quite put it together again, yet. LaMarcus being able to hit big shots again could be the difference between a close loss and a close win, or during Saturday's game, a close game and a runaway.

Brandon Roy did what Brandon Roy does.

Andre is looking better integrated into the offense than ever. He's going about his business, and at the end of the game, you realize he has 19 and 10. Just beautiful to see.

The Wesley Matthews bandwagon keeps getting bigger.

Finally, we had to see Fabricio Oberto play for 17 minutes due to Camby's foul trouble. That could be a reason why the game was closer than it should have been. Okay, it was a reason. Okay, Oberto is kind of terrible. Okay, he had two good plays, and was pretty much terrible otherwise. One rebound in 17 minutes when you're seven feet tall? Still, a valiant effort and a constant reminder why we should all be rooting to have Oden and Przybilla back on the floor.