Over at ESPN, J.A. Adande did a little write up about the Blazers. It’s clearly intended for a national audience, and thus mostly just a rehash of information you probably already know, but the quotes are solid. It’s not really a column, either, since there isn’t a ton of opinion from Adande, but I always say these things are worth a read because of how ESPN can shape the public’s perception of team’s they aren’t as familiar with.

Howard, the oldest man on a team stocked with eight players 25 or under, has taken on the advice-dispensing role as well. He called a team meeting when the Blazers were in New Jersey two weeks ago.

“I told them it’s a time for all of us to recommit ourselves and look in the mirror and see what we can do better,” Howard said. “This is a time of year when a lot of teams are starting to gear up and starting to play playoff-intensity-type basketball. Why not us? We have to do the same thing if we want to make it to the playoffs.”

Everyone loves a good team meeting.

The Sacramento Kings are in town to face the Blazers in what will be only Portland’s second home game in the last two weeks. An even nuttier stat: the Blazers only have 8 home games left. As a team trying to make a push towards the playoffs, home games against sub .500 teams in the month of March are a good thing. I will try my best not to nail the ‘you don’t lose to these teams’ point in your head too much even though it is the truth. You can’t deny that this is a big opportunity for Portland to not only bounce back but to add some padding to the standings. Trying not to hammer this point….struggling.

*ahem*

2009 was a pretty good year for Sacramento. Paul Westphal brought them some sort of life and they were sneakily becoming one of the more exciting teams to watch on League Pass. Tyreke Evans was beginning to take over the world in ways that nobody could have predicted. They surprised everyone by being near .500 at the end of the year (14-17). 2010? Not so much. 2010 has been a bad year for Sacramento. Since the beginning of January the Kings are a gross 7-25. Coming into tonight the Kings have lost 16 of their last 19 away from Arco Arena. The aforementioned Evans has been THE bright spot for this squad, all but locking up the Rookie of the Year. 20-5-4 as a rookie is not too shabby. They made a trade at the deadline that snagged them Carl Landry who is averaging 17 and 7 in 9 games as a King. Jason Thompson and Spencer Hawes are the type of big men tha can either be nowhere to be found or absolutely on fire. The production at the SF has fallen by the way side as Omri Casspi has literally sprinted into the rookie wall and Donte Greene is struggling.

Now in the game against Denver, we see what happens to the Blazers when the defense is icky and Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge struggle. Basically, opposing teams do hoodrat things with their friends to us. I expect both the defense and the stars should bounce back. I doubt we’ll see any crazy double team schemes against Sacramento. The Blazers have to attack, attack, attack. The Kings give up 105 points a game, they are young and they are on the road. You won’t be getting top notch resistance tonight. If Portland plays with energy, effort and smarts they should have no problem with Sac-Town. If they let the Kings hang around or end up beating themselves, the RG will be full of disappointment.

From the Blazers:

Joel Przybilla underwent successful surgery tonight to repair a re-ruptured right patella tendon. No timetable has been set for his return.

At least we can say everyone has been having successful surgeries this season. Here’s to Joel and his family pulling through this.

This is how high I jump. I dunked on your face. I shamed your household. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

As expected, no?

Really, the biggest break the Blazers got was catching the Nuggets without their best defender in Kenyon Martin. Without him, the thinking could have been that LaMarcus Aldridge could have a huge night in the post and the Blazers could put enough shooting around that performance to steal a win. It was a thin glimmer of hope in a game that Portland didn’t really need, but it was something. That hope wound up being akin to throwing down your budget of gambling money on 23 red at the roulette wheel, losing all of it, and saying, “Well, I had a chance.”

From the get-go, without Marcus Camby, the Blazers’ gameplan appeared to be to try and outscore the Nuggets. They were looking for home run passes, streaking out on the break and generally playing without caution for the shot clock. Problem was, they also appeared to have mentally checked out of the defensive side of things, conceding that they had little chance of stopping Denver in a straight-up game. Layups weren’t contested, rotations were made with eyes more than feet and the Blazers in general looked like they were trying to play defense in NBA Live ‘95, years before programmers figured out how to get little bunches of polygons to take charges.

Put it all together and you get a Denver team shooting 59 percent from the field and scoring 125(!) points per 100 possessions. That left a paltry 24 defensive rebounds, total, for Portland to collect, which means just 36 — add 12 Denver turnovers — possessions at the most where they didn’t have to begin their attack out of a dead-ball situation. That’s 36 out of 94 possessions. No wonder they could only muster 14 fast-break points despite trying to run all night.

It wasn’t all bad news. In fact it could have been much worse than it was. Carmelo Anthony stole his fair share of lunch money from whoever Portland tried to throw at him, but Nic Batum was fundamentally solid despite his strength disadvantage — he just couldn’t avoid fouls when Anthony took him underneath. Jerryd Bayless had a solid, if uneven ball-dominating offensive night and, along with Rudy Fernandez‘ four threes, was largely responsible for Portland being, technically, in arm’s length of the lead with 10 minutes to go. And I’m pretty sure Andre Miller killed a man with a trident. He might want to lay low for awhile.

But none of it mattered because Brandon Roy and Aldridge, in combining to shoot 9-of-28, were the opposite of the cat’s pajamas. They were the cat’s really nice rental tuxedo. Aldridge didn’t seem to relish not having Martin around, appeared to know he just didn’t have it going on offense and abandoned the post as the game wore on. Brandon Roy couldn’t hit any of his usual off-kilter layups, in part because he was running into two defenders everytime he probed inside — the Blazers shot 11-of-28 in the paint — and in part because his touch around the rim was way off. Both were active and made contributions elsewhere, but neither were anywhere close to what they need to be to beat Denver in Colorado.

It’s a shame, in that sense, that the Blazers actually got Rudy and Jerryd to have good games on the same night, but it was all for naught with the stars in their doldrums. In the future, with a consistent defensive presence, the Blazers will be able to afford an off night from one of the cornerstones, but they didn’t have that luxury in this smackdown — one that Chris Andersen didn’t even deem worthy of his usual post-block, post-dunk celebrations. Portland may have been within single digits at times, but they never acted a threat with the proceedings as stale as, um, things that get stale when you leave them out.

From Casey Holdahl of Blazers.com:

Trail Blazers center Joel Przybilla will undergo surgery on his right patella tendon in the next few days.

Przybilla re-ruptured his right patella tendon Saturday morning after slipping in the shower at his home in Milwaukee, Wis.

Joel initially had surgery on December 24. His status for the offseason and training camp was already in question. Casey’s report says there is no timetable for return, but you have to wonder whether he’ll be ready for the start of the 2010 season now. Best wishes to Joel and his family.

UPDATE: Here’s Jason Quick with more from Oregonlive.com:

The team said there is no timetable for his return. After his original injury and surgery, the team estimated a return at 6-to-8 months. But a source said because this is a re-injury, the timetable for his return can be more difficult to determine. Training camp is seven months away.

A doctor I spoke to today speculated that Joel would be out for all of the 2010-11 season, which is the final year of his contract, assuming he picks up his player option this summer, at this point a sure thing.