Archive for December, 2011

I made a terrible mistake in judgment yesterday whilst driving home from work. I turned on sports talk radio. I came in right in the middle of some kind of quick hitting debate, and missed the opening question, but I did happen to hear two unnamed but well-known local hosts speculating on the recent behavior of Nicolas Batum. What I heard, to paraphrase because I was driving and transcribing behind the wheel is definitely not a good idea, was that they were unimpressed by how Nic had taken to his new limited role. One individual went as far as to [...]

Thursday night is the kind of game you love to see the Blazers win, but you also hate to see the Blazers have. If that doesn’t make sense, think about this one statistic. Thursday Portland turned the ball over 25 times. Tuesday against the Kings they had 10 turnovers; opening night they recorded 12. Not great numbers either time, but Thursday’s 25 was more than both previous nights combined. So that’s why Thursday’s 111-102 win against a very solid Denver Nuggets team is not a game you want to see Portland have too many more times. The part that we [...]

Blazers: 2-0 Nuggets: 2-0 Game Details: Rose Garden Arena, Portland, OR. 7:00 PM. TV: KGW. Radio: KXTG (750 AM) Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Raymond Felton (#5, 6’1”, North Carolina), SG Wesley Matthews (#2, 6’5″, Marquette), SF Gerald Wallace (#3, 6’7″, Alabama), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6’11″, Texas), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6’11″, UMass) Projected Denver Starting Lineup:  PG Ty Lawson (#3, 5’11”, North Carolina), SG Arron Afflalo (#6, 6’5”, UCLA), SF Danilo Gallinari (#8, 6’10”, Olimpia Milano, Italy), PF Nene (#31, 6’11”, Vasco de Gama, Brazil), C Timofey Mozgov (#25, 7’1”, BC Khimki, Russia) LaMarcus Aldridge has gone on [...]

Something that has been floating around out there in the NBA blog ether the last few days is this popular phrase/professional opinion: “People are sleeping on the Blazers.” I agree, and not just because I’m a fan of the team, a local Portland resident, and an Oregonian for life. I agree because I do think that some people are forgetting just exactly what it is the Blazers are capable of doing this season. Tuesday night was a prime example of what makes this team so dangerous. As a group, they shot 45% from the field and 17% from three, and [...]

Blazers: 1-0 Kings: 1-0 Game Details: Rose Garden Arena, Portland, OR. 7:00 PM. TV: CSNW. Radio: KXTG (750 AM) Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Raymond Felton (#5, 6’1”, North Carolina), SG Wesley Matthews (#2, 6’5″, Marquette), SF Gerald Wallace (#3, 6’7″, Alabama), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6’11″, Texas), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6’11″, UMass) Projected Sacramento Starting Lineup: PG Tyreke Evans (#13, 6’6”, Memphis), SG Marcus Thornton (#23, 6’4”, LSU), SF John Salmons (#5, 6’6”, Miami), PF Chuck Hayes (#42, 6’6”, Kentucky), C DeMarcus Cousins (#15, 6’11”, Kentucky) Tuesday’s game is going to be interesting, and I say that for [...]

One of the nicest things about the lockout-shortened season is that the games are going to come at us in a hurry. That means that the cringe-inducing  moments of Monday’s opening night 107-103 Portland victory over the Philadelphia 76ers will fell like ancient history by the end of this week. Of course, there’s another side to that coin. Those things that Portland struggled with on Monday will need to be addressed, and there really isn’t going to be the practice time needed to do the proper addressing. The Blazers will have to use games to improve on the small things [...]

Happy Boxing Day. I hope everybody had a great Christmas. Because I spent the last few days in an area without cable or much Internet access, I decided to wait until today to get my previews out, and since I partook in a familial addiction to Downton Abbey—a BBC/PBS collobo that I highly recommend—tonight will be my first taste of real NBA basketball in this post-lockout era. I did see the video TNT led-off with last night. I have to say, I’m impressed but not surprised. It makes sense that right off the bat the Association would go straight for [...]

Last season Portland had to play 81 games to get to a game that didn’t matter. They lost that one too. Things could have been a lot worse than they were on Wednesday. There aren’t going to be many times a team can shoot 35% from the field and only lose by three. The Blazers’ problems Wednesday night were primarily missed jumpers. There was some poor execution, but mostly Portland missed shots. Sure some bad or at least questionable calls down the stretch didn’t help, but if the Blazers knocked down some of their more open looks in the second [...]

Blazers: 1-0 Jazz: 0-1 Game Details: EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, UT. 6:00 PM. TV: CSNW Radio: KXTG (750 AM) Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Raymond Felton (#5, 6’1”, North Carolina), SG Wesley Matthews (#2, 6’5″, Marquette), SF Nicolas Batum (#88, 6’8”, France), PF Gerald Wallace (#3, 6’7″, Alabama), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6’11″, UMass) Projected Utah Starting Lineup: PG Devin Harris (#5, 6’3”, Wisconsin), SG Raja Bell (#19, 6’5”, Florida International), SF C.J. Miles (#34, 6’6”, Skyline High School Dallas, TX), PF Mehmet Okur  (#13, 6’11”, Yalova Turkey), C Al Jefferson (#25 6’10”, Prentiss High School Mississippi) I’m not [...]

That was fun, wasn’t it. It was nice to be back in the Rose Garden, it was nice to hear the familiar voice of PA announcer  Mark Mason, it was nice to see some real basketball played by professionals with the skill and polish that distinguishes them from all the thousands of other people that play the game and don’t get paid to do it. Ok, so that last part wasn’t exactly true. Yes they were professionals on both teams, but the play looked just a little less than amazing. You know what, that’s fine with me for right now. [...]