Feb 13, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; Portland Trail Blazers power forward LaMarcus Aldridge (12) against New Orleans Hornets power forward Anthony Davis (23) during the first quarter of a game at the New Orleans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

As part of the ongoing festivities surrounding the NBA All-Star Game, Grantland is doing a series of sit-down interviews with selected participants in the various events that make up All-Star Weekend. Grantland’s NBA guru Zach Lowe hosts a few of these interviews, which are pretty open and extemporaneous, and fit nicely into Grantland’s overall aesthetic of being hip, relaxed, and uber-intelligent.

LaMarcus Aldridge participated in the first round of interviews, and over the course of 15 minutes (give or take) showed what a lot of Blazer fans already know: LA is a very intelligent and thoughtful young dude who sometimes doesn’t like to talk about basketball.

In his interview, LaMarcus is at his best when talking about everything that isn’t basketball. Those things include Voodoo Donuts, where everybody sits on the team plane, how he doesn’t really buy special clothes for going out, and Sasha Pavlovic’s obsession with Dexter. It’s not that his basketball knowledge isn’t vast, it very much is, he just talks about basketball like a guy who spends all of his time playing it while trying very hard not to make it the only thing that defines his life.

But this is a basketball interview with a basketball player leading up to a basketball game, so basketball was the primary topic. LaMarcus answered questions about Damian Lillard (he’s impressed by Dame’s ability to score on anybody and thinks in the second half he needs to improve on dealing with double teams), talked about last season (he was shocked how quickly his team fell apart after the dubious ”LaMarcus Aldridge Rule” goal-tending call against Oklahoma City), and admitted to being tired against the Hornets in Portland’s forgettable game in NOLA to close out their recent “make-it or break-it” road trip.

My first season writing about the Blazers for Rip City Project, I wrote about who would emerge as Portland’s franchise player if (and then when) Brandon Roy left town. In this piece, I broke down the various elements that go into being a franchise player, and which guys currently on the Blazers’ roster (and guys who might possibly be on some future Blazer roster) best meet the criteria.

My four criteria were Playing (how a guy handled his business on the court), Representing (how a guy handled his business off the court), Fandom (how much people like a guy), and Media (how the guys who write about a guy for a living like/interact with a guy). My choices for future franchise player were LaMarcus, Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum, Andre Miller, Rudy Fernandez, or some unknown entity acquired through trade or free agency or brought in through the draft.

Andre and Rudy are gone. Nicolas Batum and Wesley Matthews have been great in all four categories. Damian Lillard is that unknown option. But it is LaMarcus Aldridge who has emerged as Portland’s unquestioned franchise player.

The goal going forward for the Blazers has to be keeping LA in the mix. For what it’s worth, 45% of RCP readers picked LaMarcus as their next franchise player too.

The key for LaMarcus going forward, is figuring out how to go 15 minutes in front of a camera without saying “ya know.”

Here’s the interview. Come for the verbal plane diagram, stay for the Casey Holdahl shout out.

@mikeacker | @ripcityproject | mike.acker1@gmail.com

Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Kevin Durant were the top four vote-getters for the 2013 NBA All Star Game. Photo courtesy of USPRESSWIRE.

The starters for the 62nd NBA All-Star Game were announced last night during TNT’s Thursday double header. Outside of Jeremy Lin not getting voted into the starting lineup, there are no surprises among this year’s ASG starters. Kobe Bryant led all vote-getters with about 1.59 million, beating LeBron James by just a hair. James racked up 1.58 million votes. Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony rounded out the top four with 1.50 million and 1.46 million respectively.

Here’s the NBA’s release.

The game’s starters, their vote totals, and their teams break down as follows:

Western Conference Starters: PG Chris Paul (929,155 LA Clippers), SG Kobe Bryant (1,591,437 LA Lakers), SF Kevin Durant (1,504,047 Oklahoma City Thunder), PF Blake Griffin (863,832 LA Clippers), C Dwight Howard (922,070 LA Lakers)

Eastern Conference Starters: PG Rajon Rondo (924,180 Boston Celtics), SG Dwyane Wade (1,052,310 Miami Heat), SF LeBron James (1,583,646 Miami Heat), PF Carmelo Anthony (1,460,950 New York Knicks), C Kevin Garnett (553,222 Boston Celtics)

Kobe’s selection marks his 15th consecutive trip to the All Star Game, putting him ahead of Karl Malone, Jerry West, and Shaq who were all selected to 14 consecutive games. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 19 selections is the record, a record that Kobe is likely to break considering he probably won’t ever stop playing professional basketball.

All-Star reserves will be announced on January 24th. LaMarcus Aldridge, whose 160,197 votes ranked him below a lot of guys including Tim Duncan, Omer Asik, and David Lee, but above Marc Gasol, has a good to decent shot at getting in as a reserve.  LA is 8th in points per game in the league. Four of the guys ahead of him on the list (LeBron, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, and Kobe Bryant in ascending order) are ASG starters, and the guys in the five, six, and seven spots (James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Russell Westbrook in descending order) are basically shoo-ins. Kyrie, for some strange reason, is a bubble prospect.

The NBA is a scoring league. LA’s scoring numbers should be good enough to get him in the game. Nicolas Batum and Damian Lillard are the other Blazers getting mentioned in the All Star Game conversation. Dame will be in the rookie game, there’s no doubt about that, and should dominate that. Both Nic and Damian should be included in the three-point shootout. Both guys deserve to make the All Star Game at some point in their respective careers. This season, though, they aren’t going to make the cut.

The All Star Game will take place in Houston on Sunday February 17th, and will be broadcast on TNT.

@mikeacker | @ripcityproject | mike.acker1@gmail.com

LaMarcus Aldridge started off February in the right fashion, collecting a career high in scoring and dispatching the league's best team. Photo courtesy of the Oregonian.

Even the most die hard fans probably did not see this coming. San Antonio rolling into the Rose Garden with 40 wins and seven losses, and rolling out with 40 wins and EIGHT losses. I certainly didn’t. I thought, for sure Portland would get up for Tuesday’s game. They weren’t exactly embarrassed in their last two outings, but they were well on the way to erasing all the good they’d done with their recent five-game winning streak. A couple of days off, a chance to reflect on their recent struggles, and likely the Blazers would be able to put up a good fight. But even a good fight probably wouldn’t be enough to beat the best team in the league.

There was at least one person in Portland that didn’t give San Antonio a free pass Tuesday night.  That person was none other than LaMarcus Aldridge. With the All-Star reserves set to be announced later this week, Tuesday’s game was yet another opportunity for LA to make his case for being added to the roster.  Unfortunately, according to Mike Tokito from the Oregonian via Twitter, the coaches have all ready locked in their All-Star reserve ballots, which means that LaMarcus’s career night might not have been the clincher the Rose City felt it was.

Tuesday started slow for the Blazers, who managed to score their first bucket with just over eight minutes to play in the first quarter, but that made the show LaMarcus put on all the more impressive. Portland recovered from the flat start, and ended the first quarter leading 24-22, on the back of 16 points from LA. LaMarcus brought a little bit of everything in the first quarter, mixing in a six-foot hook shot, with a twenty-footer, and a couple of nice dunks, and showed more than anything that he was ready to lead the Blazers to an unlikely upset. And where LA led, his teammates followed.

Portland struggled in the second quarter, entering halftime behind 52-47, but managed to find a solid groove in the third period, mostly by tightening up on defense. The Blazers limited the Spurs to 40% shooting from the field in the third quarter, and San Antonio only managed to keep the game close by knocking down threes. Portland ratcheted up the defense even further in the final quarter. In possibly the best quarter of 2010-11, the Blazers held the Spurs to 15 points in the final frame of the evening, allowing San Antonio only five made field goals in the final 12 minutes.

On the other end, LaMarcus and Wesley Matthews simply took over in the fourth quarter. The Blazers almost doubled-up the Spurs, scoring 28 points in the final quarter. Of those 28 points, only four were not scored by LaMarcus or Wesley. In what was probably Portland’s best 24 minutes of basketball this season, the Blazers outscored the Spurs 52-34. What’s most remarkable about Portland’s second half Tuesday night was that the Blazers did all their damage while spotting San Antonio four made three-pointers. Portland spent much of the evening working the ball into the low block, outscoring San Antonio 22-to-10 in the paint in the second half, and 44-to-38 for the game.

LaMarcus Aldridge and Wesley Matthews lit up the stat sheet Tuesday night, but after that it almost seemed like business as usual for the rest of the Blazers. If there’s one thing we as fans should take away from this win it’s that Portland, when executing at a high level, can compete with some of the best teams in the league. LA reached career highs in scoring, with 40 points, and field goals made, with 16, and Wesley poured in 21 points, 17 coming in the second half.  Andre Miller contributed a nice game, finishing with 18 points and nine assists, but beyond those three, no other Blazer reached double figures in scoring. Rudy Fernandez, Patty Mills, and Dante Cunningham scored 3,4, and 3 points respectively, adding a ton of hustle and defensive energy that didn’t make it into the final box score.

LaMarcus was as dominant as he’s ever been Tuesday night, and if he doesn’t make the All-Star team, which at this point would be a travesty, he can at least find comfort in knowing that he is establishing himself as one of the best players in the league at his position. Tuesday the Spurs were doubling LA on defense, making him the clear focus of their defensive strategy. They made LaMarcus work all night, but at the end of the evening they simply could not stop him. Coach Nate McMillan has said before that when Portland doesn’t make their shots they struggle. The Blazers were not on from deep Tuesday night, and really never really made San Antonio pay for leaving shooters open. Where Portland excelled, and why they won on Tuesday, was in recognizing who was hot and getting him the ball. In the only down quarter of Tuesday’s game, the second quarter, LaMarcus attempted only two field goals. In the first quarter he took 10 shots, in the third quarter he took six, and in the last quarter he took and made five. LA doesn’t need to take 10 shots a period, but he needs to get the ball a lot. Portland got him the ball a lot Tuesday night, and they walked away with easily their biggest win of the season.

The Blazers travel to Denver to take on the Nuggets Wednesday night, kicking off a three game road swing that hopefully will not be disrupted by Snowpocalypse 2011 Mid West Edition.

Just some quick thoughts:

• Tuesday afternoon, a few hours before game time, it was announced that Wesley Matthews had been selected to participate in the Rookie/Sophomore game during All-Star weekend. Wesley spoke to the press before the game, and was gracious and excited about his being included. As an un-drafted second year player, Wesley often talks about having to prove himself every night on the court. No doubt Blazer fans have come to appreciate what Wesley brings to this team, and his All-Star nod will give him a chance to show his stuff on a national stage.
• A perfect example of the kind of effort we’ve grown to expect from Wesley Matthews came early in the fourth quarter when he drew a charge under the hoop against Antonio McDyess. Post game when I asked Wesley how it felt to get hit by the 6’9” 220 pound veteran of 14 years, he said, “it hurt.”
• The LA to LA campaign was in full effect at the Rose Garden, and post game in the locker room. LaMarcus mentioned getting a hand shake from Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich following the final horn. Popovich will be the head coach of the Western Conference All-Star team, but LA was reluctant to say the handshake meant anything more more than just a congratulations on a career night.

At least one of these guys is going to be an All-Star. Photo courtesy of the Oregonian.

Box Score

Standings

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject