"Yeah, well, we all know where the words come from," says 6'9", 215-pound Maurice Lucas, the quintessential power forward and enforcer of the Portland Trail Blazers. In Lucas' case, the word got out and around three years ago when, as an ABA rookie, he decked 7'2" Artis Gilmore and dared to duke it with Julius Erving, which is roughly akin to spitting on the flag. "A lot of people think I'm just one of these mean guys," he says indignantly. "Well, I just play rough. That's the way you play when you're in my game."
Can I watch Blake Griffin during every Blazer game? I just want to see him play basketball always. I have an unabashed basketball man crush on the guy. If the Blazers could trade LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden for him, I would do it in a heartbeat. He's like Joakim Noah if Noah wasn't overrated and didn't frighten small children. Noah wakes up in cold sweats each night after dreaming of Griffin's freckles, knowing that he'll never be the insane rebounder that Griffin is. He's just good. I never would have guessed that someone who came back from season-ending knee surgery would fly around the court like that.
Apparently there was a game last night, too.
So, the team itself had a mediocre performance through the first three quarters, just like the Phoenix game, and during the fourth quarter, it flipped a switch, went on a huge run, stop me if you've heard this one before. Road wins are worth their weight in gold (weight of a road win: 3.43 kg) and the Blazers picked up one that maybe they shouldn't have gotten.
As Mike Rice suggested, if they kept a stat called "Most Improved 3-Point Shooter" (by the way, I think you can do that, easily - just subtract last year's percentage from this year's), Nico Batum would lead it. I think Batum would be happy to win Most Improved Player this year instead. On a bad shooting night for everyone else, Batum went 6-7 and 3-4 from deep, along with a few rebounds and a couple of steals. I guarantee there's some suburban Portland kid who decided to start studying French in middle school just to be more like Nico. Vous faites le travail de Dieu, Nicolas.
Brandon Roy put up a Brandon Roy-like line of 22-10-2. Dude is automatic. The three pointer over Gomes was some cold blooded business.
LaMarcus also had a double double, and played a large role in the fourth quarter spurt that won the game. He was abused early by Griffin, but came back and held his own. You can talk about how soft you may think LaMarcus is, or how he doesn't charge after rebounds enough, but the dude seriously knows how to pass out of a double team. It is a now-regular occurrence, and LaMarcus easily sees and recognizes it coming, finding the open man. It's a great way to be in the flow of the offense, even if he's not making his shot.
The other double double came from Marcus Camby, the ghost of Clipper rebounding past. He took Griffin's activity as a challenge, going for 11 and 14. During the first quarter he was driving from the top of the key for lay-ins, something he probably hasn't done for six years.
In terms of +/-, Andre was the game's MVP with an absurd +19, and he contributed with a bit from everywhere, as he got 14 points, 4 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals. His offensive rebounding extended some key possessions late.
The bench was really nothing special at all. Johnson and Cunningham were beset by foul trouble. Matthews didn't come close to duplicating his opening night performance (the countdown to the next Simmons Matthews insult starts now), and Oberto looked lost. Rudy looked good again, hitting half of his three point attempts.
Now, we have a long break until the next game, a time where we can reflect on the fact that instead of waiting three months for another game, we only have to wait three days. My recommendation for the downtime: play NBA 2K11 or read the Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History.
No, that's not the number of turnovers that Steve Nash committed. It's the number of fans left in Portland who still think that the Jerryd Bayless trade was a bad idea.
The debuts of new guards Wesley Matthews and Armon Johnson were the polar opposite of Andre Miller's coming out party last year. Whereas before it was a storyline of uneasy coexistence with Brandon Roy, last night's opener was a perfect example of right sized pieces for right sized holes. Both Matthews and Johnson played the defense we expected of them, living in the jerseys of Phoenix's guards, and picked their spots on offense. One account compared Matthews' performance to a rave, which is odd, because I would never figure a large warehouse to be that strong of a defender or three-point shooter.
The Blazers and Suns started the season off like they ended the last, with a back and forth game that was very much in doubt throughout the first three quarters. The Blazers held a lead from the first quarter through the third, but it was never that large. Then, the third quarter run from the Suns got them the lead going into the fourth. Then Nicolas Batum happened. And Brandon Roy happened. A balanced (huhwha?) attack to end the game put the Suns away with ease and gave the Blazers their first win on the way to an 82-0 season.
Nicolas Batum put together a double double, absolutely making the Suns pay for putting Steve Nash on him, grabbing offensive rebounds by the sackful.
LaMarcus Aldridge was double-teamed every time he touched the ball, so he never really had a chance to get anything going. That being said, he never made any dumb mistakes when the double-team came, so that should be taken as net victory. He also ripped down nine rebounds.
Marcus Camby was the night's other double-double man, and he was a force again on the defensive end. Camby's wandering hands were everywhere, tipping passes and rebounds to create new possessions and keep possessions going.
Brandon Roy played like Brandon Roy. The 20-5-5 is just what he does.
Andre only played 27 minutes, and didn't stand out as much as the other guards, but still had a near double-double with 10 points and 9 assists.
Finally, Wes Matthews had a +22. Holy crap, what a steal.
Tonight, we have the Clippers, and a chance to see Blake Griffin's surreal ability to pull down rebounds first hand. Aside from Roy, our starters didn't log too much playing time last game, so we can hope that everyone will be fresh.
There is literally nothing left to say at this point.
(Except the rest of this blog post.)
The last six games the team played were against the Suns. They were beat through an array of...just kidding, Jason Richardson killed the Blazers at the three point line and that was that. The Blazers were injured as all hell and simply couldn't keep up.
Today, the team is still not 100%, but doing a lot better than back then. The players certainly think better of their team than Steve Nash thinks of his. Basically, The Blazers are expected to win.
Now comes the waiting game. We're only 12 hours away from tipoff, and you feel like the kid from the Disneyland commercial. "I'm too excited to sleep!" Work is going to be a slog, as you glance at the clock every two minutes, and feel like time is actually going backward. When you eat lunch, you'll get red pepper and roast beef on your sandwich, just to do the closest approximation to Blazer colors.
Finally, you'll get the last seat at the local watering hole, and pour a little of your Total Domination out for departed players Jerryd Bayless, Juwan Howard, and Steven Hill.
It's opening day. Anything can happen in a season. The last two years have proven that, for better or worse. Let's enjoy the ride.
One of the great joys in being a sports fan is choosing someone to blame it all on. Every bad bounce, every missed shot, every horrifying knee injury. It feels natural. Sure, there's a reasonable part of you whispering, "Don't be overreact, don't be stupid," but who wants to listen to that? Blazer fans are as capricious as any in the league, and that's what makes it so fun to be one. We love to place blame.
Past lightning rods included Travis Outlaw during the 08-09 season (until his improvement then injury last season), Andre Miller at the beginning of last season (until the Dallas game), and Juwan Howard to finish out the year. Of course, there are always mainstays in the Blazer fan haterade, such as Nate McMillan, Paul Allen, and of course, the refs.
These rankings are not my own opinion. Someone being on here doesn't mean I personally have anything against them. They are simply a (not really) objective interpretation of the state of mind of Blazer fans at large. Who do they think is going to destroy the team at any given moment?
5. Nate McMillan - The "Fire Nate" warcry has existed as long has he's been here, and has almost never been justified. Still, his one year deal looks ominous to the national media (even though he signs one every year), and his performance against Phoenix last spring still stings.
4. Paul Allen - It was Paul Allen who lobbied for Patty Mills over Wesley Matthews in the draft. And again, we have Patty Mills, cutting Pendergraph to do so.
3. Brandon Roy - Brandon's calls for the ball have been read by much of the fanbase as egotistical, as if he's the bastard son of the unholy triumverate of Stephon Marbury, Vince Carter, and Allen Iverson.
2. Rudy Fernandez - If there's one thing Portlanders hate, it's insults to the city. Remember the time when New Yorkers tried to tell us that their food carts were better? Bloodbath. Rudy's preseason suggests he won't be on the list for long, though.
"Yesterday we celebrated Sir Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity. Today, Fabricio Oberto is defying it."
Quote comes from the newest issue of GQ, which was published from Free Darko's The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History, which drops tomorrow at bookstores everywhere. If you are reading this blog, you need to buy that book.
(I am not conflating my level of writing with Shoals and co., I'm just saying that if you are willing to delve this deep into the world of Blazer blogdom, you obviously love basketball with a nearly unhealthy passion.)
"I feel like someone just traded my cat for a bag of goldfish." - Wilson Peery
While I'm not of such a strong opinion, it really does hurt. The Blazers lost someone that seemed like he was being groomed to be a core player. And for what? A pick in the 13-15 range. Hey, we need the space, and if we don't have to do the cold-blooded move of getting rid of Pendergraph, that's worthwhile enough, right
(Update 6:30 PM: Jason Quick reports Pendergraph is gone. Well, doubly cold-blooded, I guess. Maybe Patty Mills is the PG of the future, because, he hasn't already been beaten out by a rookie or anything.)
The trade can be read as serious vote of confidence in the abilities of Armon Johnson and Wes Matthews at the point guard position. Beyond that, Rudy Fernandez' strong performance in preaseason probably made it reasonable to have Wes play more minutes at the 1.
Basically, all we can hope is that Andre remains the Injury Vampire that he's been throughout the last decade and play all 82.
After a summer full of speculation and drama, you know what to expect from a Blazers season preview. Before previewing it the right way, I'll post a preview review, in bullet form, TrueHoop style.
The Blazers lost approximately 7,024 player games to injury last year. At one point, they started a Tigard child who had recently graduated from the Larry Steele Basketball Camp at the 2 guard.
Greg Oden gets injured like all the time, what's the deal with that? Basically, the fact that Oden is oft-injured is obvious, cliched, and necessary to any preview. It's like three-word sentences in Canzano columns. It really is. It really is.
Batum will make the leap this year. Everyone's told him. You know, it's a good sign when a player buys into the hype surrounding them. That's never gone wrong, ever.
The Blazers have been terrible in preseason, yet Wesley Matthews has been great. Many are trying to take this as a sign that Matthews is a hell of a player, yet we shouldn't be worried about our terrible record. The truth: you can't have it both ways. Our preseason is irrelevant, and Matthews' play, though encouraging, is just as irrelevant. Depend on it the way you depend on reports of LaMarcus Aldridge gaining 20 pounds in the offseason.
Brandon Roy is the offspring of the unholy triumvirate of Stephon Marbury, Vince Carter, and Allen Iverson. He plans on taking every single shot for the Blazers this season, and some for the other team, too.
The Thunder really aren't that good, except when they're challenging the Lakers at the top of the conference. Evidently, having everything go right and only getting 50 wins means that you're jumping up to 70 wins the next season.
I think those are all the main storylines that we've been reading throughout this offseason in a desperate, flailing attempt to get any possible news about this team we all love so much.
Now onto the real preview.
The Blazers are the team with the largest presence on the internet, with the Raptors gasping behind them for second place. Blazer fans spread across the web, an army that attacks anyone who says anything negative about the team, taking over comment sections on ESPN.com and Yahoo.com. There's another group out there that's just as volatile and dogged as Blazers fans. They've gone after Apple, AT&T, Verizon, and Sarah Palin. That group? 4chan.
For those of us who aren't fans of corporate sabotage or images which you can't unsee, 4chan's greatest contributions to culture are memes. With two such large groups, there's no surprise that there's some overlap. That overlap: the Trail Post 2010-11 Memeview.
Nate McMillan: Serious Cat
Only one internet meme could ever hope to match Sarge's no-nonsense approach to basketball. That computer in the back matches well to assistant coach Kaleb Canales' sophisticated video review system.
Leeroy Jenkins: Jerryd Bayless
Jerryd Bayless charges in, no matter how heavy the defense is. So does Leeroy.
Dancing Baby: Andre Miller
Both have been around forever. Also, Andre Miller had a 2-episode arc on Ally McBeal.
Sad Keanu: Rudy Fernandez
So much bench-related ennui.
Trololo: LaMarcus Aldridge
Eduard Khil's smooth breed of singing matches the matches the smoothness of LaMarcus Aldridge. Still, you feel like something's missing. In Khil's case, it's actual words. In LaMarcus', it's post game.
Watermelon Head Shot: Armon Johnson
Did you see the way that watermelon face-guarded her? Armon taught it everything it knows.
Yo Dawg Xzibit: Marcus Camby
Just as the Xzibit meme has the rapper constantly stuffs cars into other cars so you can drive while you drive, Marcus Camby stuffs the stat sheet.
Zidane Headbutt: Nicolas Batum
They're French. Of course, Batum's not particularly violent, but we can hope him to become to French basketball what Zidane was to French soccer.
Keyboard Cat: Brandon Roy
There's only one match for the Blazers' ultimate finisher: the internet's ultimate finisher. Brandon is the one who plays the team off during games, and we all know what Keyboard Cat does.
After all of that, what do we have? What can we expect from this team? Well, anything less than 50 wins would be a disappointment. There have been statistical projections that put our ceiling at more than 65 wins. That doesn't pass the smell test, either. Basically, we should expect at least 52 wins. Ideally, if everything comes together, our ceiling is at 59. Why can't this week be over?
My favorite part of preseason? The desperate pleas for cash on Craigslist from season ticket holders. The flood of tickets going for 60, 70, 80 percent off of face value says it all about fans' reaction to preseason. Sure, it has its value. After all, you have all the stars back after what felt like years off, but it's not quite right. It's like the season of The Hills after they got rid of LC. Why even do it?
Just this morning, the Blazers hit my inbox with an ad on Groupon for half off tickets to the (now annual) preseason game at the Memorial Coliseum. I love what the Blazers did here. Every preseason game should be half off. The teams are giving half effort, why should the fans be asked to pay full price? The games themselves are a competition between coaching staffs praying that the players don't get hurt before October 26.
Basically, preseason is the worst kind of sample taste. Sure we get actual basketball at the Rose Garden, but all it does is leave you with the knowledge that the season still doesn't start for yet another three weeks.
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