Archive for January, 2010

From Brian T. Smith: The Blazers want Mills — who missed all of training camp and the first two months of the season while recovering from foot surgery — to pick up as much playing time as possible, which is the primary reason he will rejoin the Stampede. In addition, Blazers guard Rudy Fernandez said he felt fine after a Wednesday morning shootaround at the team’s practice facility, and expects to play tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Rose Garden. As a result, the Blazers upgraded Fernandez to probable.

Thank you, Ben Golliver: The Blazers officially bumped his status from “out” to “questionable” for tomorrow night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks in the Rose Garden.

There’s not a whole ton to analyze about this one, so we’ll keep it short. In fact, we could effectively just leave the description at “LeBron James” and I think everyone would get the gist. 41 points on 19 shots for Mr. James. And we thought Brandon Roy was having an efficient week. Anyways, the gameplan appeared to be to allow Martell Webster to isolate with LeBron on the perimeter and throw quick double teams at him off the dribble, which sounds well enough except LeBron jumped over, under and through every single Blazer that came near him, including Webster. [...]

What a difference a month makes in the NBA. On December 11th when these two teams faced off in Cleveland, it was all bad for the Blazers. The short-handed/undermanned mess had just begun on a scary 5-game East coast road trip. Blazer Nation was stuck in an emo-mess. Bayless hadn’t quite broken out, Webster and Miller were still finding their way. Nate was at home…and LeBron had just danced all over the Bulls…yeah it was just bad. Now, despite still being as undermanned there is a different feel to this Blazer team. Roy has been playing unreal, Webster is probably [...]

It’s always sweet to beat the Lakers, but whether it’s sweeter knowing you beat them shorthanded or less so knowing that wins like this will be jewels in what will surely be remembered as a rocky season, I couldn’t tell you. What I do know it that this was a fan’s win in the sense that just about everyone could walk away from it devoid of any analysis feeling good and fulfilled. Of course we wouldn’t be a very good blog if we did that. The stat of the night by far, and the shining beacon of Portland’s win, was [...]

It’s the Blazers and the Lakers…but it doesn’t feel like its the Blazers and the Lakers. This feels like how I felt when I tried to watch The Real World after watching Jersey Shore. Just…different. I’m not sure why either, there is just something missing. Is it the fact that the one time I was forced to keep up with the Kardashians, I saw Lamar Odom cupcaking (go ahead and urbandictionary.com it) with Khloe so bad that I lost ALL respect for him? Maybe. Could it be the mini-hangover/fallout of the Nate/Andre non-story. Meh. Is it that I have Kobe [...]

Or the Andre Miller saga continues, part 23. If you have not heard by now, there was an argument/altercation/screamfest/exchange at today’s practice between Blazers coach Nate McMillan and Andre Miller. Reporters were not let into practice yet  but could overhear some of the shouting match. Jason Quick of the Oregonian stated that the “…shouting match lasted nearly 30 minutes” and that “Miller shouted throughout the exchange, and McMillan mostly listened, but at times broke in with shouting of his own.” More from Quick: “One of the topics discussed was an incident late in Tuesday’s game with Memphis, when Miller told [...]

It’s hard to get all that irked about losing to the Grizzlies at home anymore, because really, the overall talent level isn’t all that different right now. Their starting five is as good if not better if you discount LaMarcus Aldridge for essentially playing on one good ankle. When you put the front lines side by side it isn’t even a contest. And even though Portland has the best player on the floor, Brandon Roy is an easier target than ever for defenses to key in on. The Blazers were in this game, and in control of it for a [...]

Just posting this for SJ, who wrote a quick preview on his Blackberry before having to jump on a bus. We’re just going to keep this one quick and dirty. The Grizzlies are coming to town and for the first time in a while they are coming in at .500 (16-16). Not only that but they are somewhat of a force to be reckoned with. They come into tonight’s game winners of 6 of their last 7, including a 128-103 destruction of Phoenix in the desert. The leader of the pack: Z-Bo himself, Zach Randolph. Normally a preview of Randolph [...]

January 4th 2010, aka the night Juwan Howard partied like it was 1996. Seriously, did he think he was Dwight Howard or something? Where the bleep did that come from?? Has Juwan Howard had a SportsCenter highlight like that in the past couple decades??? How hyped were you when that dunk happened? There is a reason Twitter nearly exploded, I mean good gosh. I jumped off the couch so fast I thought I might have pulled something. All the corny jokes aside, this game has to be remembered for the night Juwan Howard Lexington Steele’d all over Chris Kaman. It [...]