Archive for December, 2010

Blazers: 12-11 Spurs: 19-3 Game Details: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX. 12:30 PM. TV: CSN. Radio: KXTG (95.5 FM) Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Andre Miller (#24, 6′2″, Utah), SG Brandon Roy (#7, 6′6″, Washington), SF Wesley Matthews (#2, 6′5″, Marquette), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6′11″, Texas), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6′11″, UMass) Projected San Antonio Starting Lineup: PG Tony Parker (#9, 6’2″, France), SG Manu Ginobili (#20, 6’6″, Argentina), SF Richard Jefferson (#24, 6’7″, Arizona), PF Tim Duncan (#21, 6’11″, Wake Forest), C DeJuan Blair (#45, 6’7″, Pittsburgh) San Antonio is always good, but nobody expected them to be [...]

It wasn’t always the prettiest, but we can more or less call the Blazers out of the woods at this point. In some ways, tonight’s win over the Suns was more impressive than last night’s besting of the superior Magic. The Blazers were on the second night of a back-to-back, had landed in Phoenix in the wee hours, and were playing a team known for pushing the tempo. Everything was in place for the team to not show up and blame it on fatigue. And just as recently as a week ago, when they were at the lowest point of [...]

Blazers: 11-11 Suns: 11-11 Game Details: US Airways Center, Phoenix, AZ. 6:00PM. TV: KGW. Radio: 95.5 FM (KXTG) Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Andre Miller (#24, 6′2″, Utah), SG Brandon Roy (#7, 6′6″, Washington), SF Wesley Matthews (#2, 6′5″, Marquette), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6′11″, Texas), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6′11″, UMass) Projected Phoenix Starting Lineup: PG Steve Nash (#13, 6′3″, Santa Clara), SG Jason Richardson (#23, 6′6″, Michigan State), SF Grant Hill (#33, 6′8″, Duke), PF Channing Frye (#8, 6′11″, Arizona), C Earl Barron (#30, 7′0″, Memphis) This is kind of like a home-and-home back-to-back, and a little like [...]

Who are these Blazers? They wear the same jersey, get called by the same names, but something about them is different. A week ago, when the bottom was falling out, and heads were being called for, you could point to Thursday’s game with the Orlando Magic, and sigh, thinking to yourself, “I hope we’ve broken this skid be then, because that could be Nate McMillan’s last game at the helm of the Blazers.” This one was supposed to be a loss. Even after scrapping for wins against the Clippers and the Suns, Thursday’s game was going to be a loss. [...]

Blazers: 10-11 Magic: 15-6 Game Details: Rose Garden, Portland, OR. 7:30 PM. TV: TNT. Radio: KXTG (95.5 FM) Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Andre Miller (#24, 6′2″, Utah), SG Brandon Roy (#7, 6′6″, Washington), SF Wesley Matthews (#2, 6′5″, Marquette), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6′11″, Texas), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6′11″, UMass) Projected Orlando Starting Lineup: PG Jameer Nelson (#14, 6’0″, St. Joseph’s), SG Vince Carter (#15, 6’6″, North Carolina), SF Quentin Richardson (#5, 6’6″, DePaul), PF Rashard Lewis (#9, 6’10″, Alief Elsik), C Dwight Howard (#12, 6’11″, Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy) Tuesday’s win over the Suns was the Blazers’ [...]

I’m in a strange place after Tuesday night’s gutsy, team-based, hard fought win. Phoenix is a far cry from the team they were a year ago, but still, they are in the hunt, along with the Blazers, for that final spot in the Western Conference playoffs. They’re a better team than the last team that lost at the Rose Garden, the LA Clippers, but they aren’t anywhere near the other team in Los Angeles, or the teams in Dallas, San Antonio, and New Orleans. I’m in a strange place because, yes Tuesday’s win feels good, and Tuesday’s win wasn’t like [...]

Blazers: 9-11 Suns: 11-9 Game Details: Rose Garden, Portland, OR. 7:00PM. TV: CSN. Radio: 95.5 FM (KXTG) Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Patrick Mills (#8, 6′0″, St. Mary’s), SG Brandon Roy (#7, 6′6″, Washington), SF Wesley Matthews (#2, 6′5″, Marquette), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6′11″, Texas), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6′11″, UMass) Projected Phoenix Starting Lineup: PG Steve Nash (#13, 6′3″, Santa Clara), SG Jason Richardson (#23, 6′6″, Michigan State), SF Grant Hill (#33, 6′8″, Duke), PF Channing Frye (#8, 6′11″, Arizona), C Earl Barron (#30, 7′0″, Memphis) Tonight, the Patty Mills era begins. Okay, so that’s obviously an overstatement, [...]

The second half of last night’s game against the Clippers got a bit chippy, first with an incident between Brian Cook and Joel Przybilla that led to Cook’s ejection from the game, and then another, albeit lesser one between Andre Miller and Blake Griffin. Cook was suspended for two games for his flagrant foul against Przybilla, while Miller has been suspended one game for “unnecessary roughness.” Blazersedge has the press release. Nate McMillan has yet to announce Miller’s replacement in the starting lineup for tomorrow night’s game against Phoenix. Patty Mills played well last night, but it’s more likely that [...]

In the middle of the third period, as I was watching the Blazers lay yet another egg and all but seven of Portland’s 22-point lead had evaporated, I thought to myself, man this is so much harder to see live and in-person than sitting on my couch at home. That feeling was amplified by a factor of ten when, with a minute and a half, the Clippers had gotten the lead down to only three. I would love to say that my frustration and anger, that has been festering unhealthily as the losses continued to mount, disappeared when the final [...]

Blazers: 8-11 Clippers: 4-16 Game Details: Rose Garden, Portland, OR. 6:00 PM. TV: CSN. Radio: KXTG (95.5 FM) Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Andre Miller (#24, 6′2″, Utah), SG Brandon Roy (#7, 6′6″, Washington), SF Wesley Matthews (#2, 6′5″, Marquette), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6′11″, Texas), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6′11″, UMass) Projected Los Angeles Starting Lineup: PG Eric Bledsoe (#12, 6’1″, Kentucky), SG Eric Gordon (#10, 6’3″, Indiana), SF Al-Farouq Aminu (#3, 6’9″, Wake Forest), PF Blake Griffin (#32, 6’10″, Oklahoma), C DeAndre Jordan (#9, 6’11″, Texas A&M) On the bright side, things can’t get much worse for Portland [...]