Archive for February, 2011

Sunday’s game was one of the more highly anticipated games of recent memory, and because of that there will undoubtedly be an inordinate amount of frustration from Blazer fans, vis-a-vis the outcome. On the night that All-Defensive Team selection Gerald Wallace made his Portland debut, we all wanted to see a big win. What he got was a performance that was at times lackluster, and underwhelming through and through. Blazer fans have a right to be frustrated, but let me try to stall that frustration by saying, Sunday was one game, and what should be taken away from Sunday’s game [...]

Blazers: 33-25 Hawks: 35-23 Game Details: Rose Garden, Portland, OR. 7:30 PM. TV: ESPN. Radio: KXTG (95.5 FM) Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Andre Miller (#24, 6’3″, Utah), SG Wesley Matthews (#2, 6’5″, Marquette), SF Nicolas Batum (#88, 6’8″, France), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6’11″, Texas), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6’11″, UMass) Projected Atlanta Starting Lineup: PG Kirk Hinrich (#6, 6’4″, Kansas), SG Joe Johnson (#2, 6’7″, Arkansas), SF Marvin Williams (#24, 6’9″, North Carolina), PF Josh Smith (#5, 6’9″, Oak Hill Academy), C Al Horford (#15, 6’10″, Florida) Two major changes to the Blazers’ roster will take effect tonight, [...]

So I guess every so often we get to have a game like the one we had Friday night. A performance that could be classified best as uneven through three quarters, then a furious comeback at the start of the fourth, followed by what seemed to be a dagger collapse, followed by 16 seconds of pure mayhem, and capped with a strong defensive effort in an overtime period. It wasn’t pretty, in fact the third quarter was down right ugly, and those that stayed to the end had to wait for the final shot to go up to exhale, but [...]

Blazers: 32-25 Nuggets: 34-25 Game Details: Rose Garden, Portland, OR. 7:30 PM. TV: ESPN. Radio: KXTG (95.5 FM). Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Andre Miller (#24, 6’3″, Utah), SG Rudy Fernandez (#5, 6’6″, Spain), SF Wesley Matthews (#2, 6’5″, Marquette), PF Nicolas Batum (#88, 6’8″, France), C LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6’11″, Texas) Projected Denver Starting Lineup: PG Ty Lawson (#3, 5’11″, North Carolina), SG Arron Afflalo (#6, 6’5″, UCLA), SF Danilo Gallinari (6’10″, Italy), PF Kenyon Martin (#4, 6’9″, Cincinatti), C Nene (#31, 6’11″, Brazil) The Blazers made a splash at the trade deadline yesterday, landing Gerald Wallace for Joel [...]

It came down to the wire, but the Blazers acquired forward Gerald Wallace from the Charlotte Bobcats today, reportedly for Joel Przybilla, Dante Cunningham, and two first-round picks. Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski had the news first, with CBS’ Ken Berger and NBA.com’s David Aldridge filling in details about the picks. Rumors of this trade began swirling yesterday, and at first it didn’t make a lot of sense. Wallace is a small forward and is one of the players to whom Nicolas Batum is most often compared, and the front office has made it clear in recent weeks that Batum is the [...]

There’s really no good way to start talking about Wednesday’s game, so I think I’ll jump right in and try my best to not focus to intently on the negative. For most of 48 minutes Wednesday night, the Blazers were the best team on the floor, which is no small feat considering that they were sharing the floor with the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers. But as we all know, only part of 48 minutes is not usually enough to win. There didn’t seem to be one glaring moment that turned the game, leading to the eventual disappointment in [...]

Blazers: 32-24 Lakers: 39-19 Game Details: Rose Garden, Portland, OR. 7:30 PM. TV: KGW. 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 Joel Przybilla (#10, 7′1″, Minnesota) Projected Los Angeles Starting Lineup: PG Derek Fisher (#2, 6’1, Arkansas-Little Rock),SG Kobe Bryant (#24, 6’6″, Lower Merion High School), SF Ron Artest (#15, 6’7″, St. John’s), PF Pau Gasol (#16, 7’0″, Spain), C Andrew Bynum (#17, 7’0″, St. Joseph High School) Odds are, this preview will be [...]

LaMarcus Aldridge snub or not, this was one of the more entertaining and enjoyable All-Star weekends in a while. But now, the real work begins to solidify playoff positioning, which will be especially interesting in the stacked Western Conference. The Blazers went into the All-Star break at eight games over .500 and in fifth place in the West, which would have been unthinkable as recently as two months ago. The team is on a six-game winning streak, currently the longest in the NBA. We’re still waiting on whatever Rich Cho may or may not do at the trading deadline, but [...]

John Canzano, that most polarizing of Portland sports media figures, has made waves over the last few days with a report that cites a “consulting surgeon” with knowledge of Brandon Roy’s knee situation as saying that Roy has, at most, one to two years left as a high-level professional basketball player. If true, this does, of course, radically alter the Trail Blazers’ long-term outlook, given not only Roy’s immense on-court value to the team when healthy, but also the five-year max deal Kevin Pritchard gave him in the summer of 2009. Besides possibly constituting a massive HIPAA violation on the [...]

So we’ve reached the All-Star break, and it’s pretty safe to say that up to this point NBA season version 2010-11 has given us Blazer fans just about everything we can handle. In November, if you had said to me that Portland would cruise into the All-Star break winners of six in a row and in sixth fifth place in the Western Conference, I would have said you were more of an optimist than I am. The Blazers have gone through stretches of good basketball, stretches of horrendous basketball, and are currently playing their absolute best basketball of the season [...]