Archive for January, 2011

Blazers: 20-19 Suns: 16-21 Game Details: US Airways Center, Phoenix AZ. 7:30 PM. TV: ESPN. Radio: KXTG (95.5 FM) Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Andre Miller (#24, 6’2’’, Utah), SG Wesley Matthews (#2, 6’5’’, Marquette), SF Nicolas Batum (#88, 6’9’’, France), 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 Vince Carter (#25, 6’6″, North Carolina), SF Grant Hill (#33, 6’8″, Duke), PF Channing Frye (#8, 6’11″, Arizona), C Robin Lopez (#15, 7’0″, Stanford) In the month or so since the last time the Blazers [...]

The Trail Blazers announced Thursday afternoon that Brandon Roy will undergo arthroscopic surgery on both knees, with no return date set. The press release (Blazersedge link) indicates that team orthopedic surgeon Don Roberts will perform the operation next week. There was speculation last week that Roy was looking into some sort of meniscus transplantation, but Kerry Eggers reported today that the expert in such procedures Roy flew to the Bay Area to see, Chicago Bulls team doctor Brian Cole, advised the team against going through with that surgery. Given that Roy had been favoring his left knee heavily this season [...]

I bet more than a few people expected this. Portland stands tall against Miami, only to fall to a barrage of scoring from LeBron James in the closing period and overtime Sunday night, then are basically unable to show up in their next outing, and are beaten handily by the Knicks. In a perfect world, a gut-wrenching loss is followed by an energy-renewing win. In the NBA, it usually doesn’t happen. This isn’t a momentum-killer, or a season-ender, but it’s a tough one, there’s no doubt about that. Give a ton of credit to the Knicks. In fact, give all [...]

Blazers: 20-18 Knicks: 21-15 Game Details: Rose Garden, Portland, OR. 7:00 PM. TV: CSN. Radio: KXTG (95.5 FM). Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Andre Miller (#24, 6’2’’, Utah), SG Wesley Matthews (#2, 6’5’’, Marquette), SF Nicolas Batum (#88, 6’9’’, France), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6’11’’, Texas), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6’11’’, UMass) Projected New York Starting Lineup: PG Raymond Felton (#2, 6’1″, North Carolina), SG Landry Fields (#6, 6’7″, Stanford), SF Wilson Chandler (#21, 6’8″, DePaul), PF Amar’e Stoudemire (#1, 6’10″, Cypress Creek High School), C Ronny Turiaf (#14, 6’10″, Gonzaga) Both the Knicks and the Trail Blazers have come [...]

The morning after the Blazers’ 107-100 overtime loss to the Miami Heat, the story in the media isn’t Portland’s performance against the Big Three. No, all anyone’s talking about this morning is this ass-slap by LeBron James after he hit the game-icing three-pointer in overtime (video courtesy of Blazersedge). Naturally, the reaction to LeBron’s end-of-game, crowd-baiting histrionics has been polarizing to say the least. Needless to say, it’s embarrassing to Blazers fans to be shown up in their own building by a guy who went from generally well-liked to completely unlikeable this summer faster than you could say “Taking my [...]

I’d be lying if I said this one didn’t hurt. You can say whatever you want about tonight’s 107-100 overtime loss to the Heat being a moral victory because the Blazers were able to hang with the hottest team in the league for 48 minutes before the game got away, but man, it would have been cool to pull this one out. What better way to put this banged-up-but-resilient team on the national map than by knocking off the most unlikeable juggernaut in recent NBA history? They came damn close, that’s for sure. A questionable no-call on a LeBron double [...]

Blazers: 20-17 Heat: 29-9 Game Details: Rose Garden Arena, Portland, OR. 6:00 PM. TV: CSN. Radio KXTG (95.5 FM) Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Andre Miller (#24, 6’2’’, Utah), SG Wesley Matthews (#2, 6’5’’, Marquette), SF Nicolas Batum (#88, 6’9’’, France), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6’11’’, Texas), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6’11’’, UMass) Projected Miami Starting Lineup: PG Carlos Arroyo (#8, 6’2’’, Florida International), SG Dwayne Wade (#3, 6’4’’, Marquette), SF LeBron James (#6, 6’8’’, St. Vincent-St. Mary High School), PF Chris Bosh (#1 6’10’’, Georgia Tech), C Zydrunas Illgauskas (#11, 7’3’’, Lithuania) Here it is Portland, the day that [...]

Don’t let the final score fool you: the difference in level of play between the Timberwolves and Trail Blazers tonight was far greater than 10 points. In reality, the Blazers probably should have won by twice as much. A few stretches of cold shooting in the second half allowed Minnesota to close the gap slightly from the 24-point Portland lead it was at one point, but there was never any real hope on their end–the Blazers found their momentum again at the right times throughout the second half and got the job done. The story of the game was, of [...]

Blazers: 19-17 Timberwolves: 9-27 Game Details: Target Center, Minneapolis, MN. 5:00 PM. TV: CSN. Radio: KXTG (95.5 FM) Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Andre Miller (#24, 6′2″, Utah), SG Wesley Matthews (#2, 6′5″, Marquette), SF Nicolas Batum (#88, 6′9″, France), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6′11″, Texas), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6′11″, UMass) Projected Minnesota Starting Lineup: PG Luke Ridnour (#13, 6’2″, Oregon), SG Wesley Johnson (#4, 6’7″, Syracuse), SF Michael Beasley (#8, 6’10″, Kansas State), PF Kevin Love (#42, 6’10″, UCLA), C Darko Milicic (#31, 7’0″, Yugoslavia) Portland’s match-up Friday with the Northwest Division basement dwelling Minnesota Timberwolves is bigger [...]

Well, that might be the single weirdest game the Blazers have played all season. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on the game narrative, what’s working and what isn’t, the script flips completely. After a fairly evenly-matched first quarter, the Blazers jumped out to a decent halftime lead with the Rockets seemingly unable to find their footing on defense. Turn the page to the other side of halftime and suddenly Kevin Martin is fighting hard for Basketball Jones “whoa boy” honors as the Blazers go ice cold from the field. Fortunately for Portland, Houston returned the favor in [...]