Jamal Crawford guards Andre Miller during the second quarter of Wednesday’s game at the Pepsi Center. Credit: Ron Chenoy-US PRESSWIRE

I said in my preview that Wednesday’s game against the Nuggets in Denver is going to give us a good idea of what to expect from Portland for the rest of the season. Well, I think this game accomplished that. I think that it also showed us fans probably the clearest reason as to why the Blazers have not been as good as they should be, and why, following this most recent loss and tomorrow’s probable loss to the Miami Heat, they’re sitting at .500 (projection) and at least one spot removed from the Western Conference Playoff table.

What’s that reason, you ask? Lack of engagement. More than usual, this Blazer squad has been unable to get involved in games early. We saw it in the team’s first home loss to Orlando, we saw it against the Lakers in an absolute shame-fest of a first quarter, and we saw it again Wednesday. Before the Blazers could blink, before they could find any kind of rhythm on either side of the ball, before we could get to the first TV timeout, Portland was down double digits. I firmly believe you can’t lose a game in the first three or four minutes, but what you can do is set yourself up for a long, tough night.

Wednesday it wasn’t just offense–terrible shot making was partially to blame for the LA debacle–that held Portland out of this game until the middle of the first quarter. Denver was getting whatever they wanted going to the hoop.

One or two passes, and there was a Nugget with the ball in his hands and not a Blazer within five feet. And if that guy, most times a dead-eye like Al Harrington or capable shooter like Arron Afflalo or Ty Lawson, missed the wide open jumper, well then Kenneth Faried or Timofey Mozgov was standing right under the hoop without so much as a single guy in a Portland jersey to contend with.

The Blazers weren’t playing defense, they weren’t rebounding, where were they? And that’s the question we’ve been asking an awful lot lately with this team. As they’re known to do, Portland made a run, and got it close enough in the fourth quarter so that everybody probably watched the game all the way to the end. But it’s clear, although this team can play well from behind, they can’t come all the way back from 19 down. And really, who can?

There are still plenty of games left for Portland to make up the distance they’ve put between themselves and the contenders in the West, but they’ve got to make some changes if they want to avoid having to play from behind for the rest of the season. So what’s the solution? Well I would suggest the Blazers get to start the game four or five minutes before their opponent, that way they’ll get all their bad play out the systems before they have to actually see another team, but you know that’s not going to happen.

How about coach Nate McMillan says that on offense the first five possessions have to go through LaMarcus Aldridge? That might decrease the number of bad jump shots that lead to long rebounds and fast breaks going the other direction. How about Nate gets on his guys to crash the defensive glass hard for the first seven minutes and forget about running altogether? I’m not really a big fan of telling everybody to stay put on defense, fast breaks are the best method of getting an offense from idle to high gear, but giving up second chance points the way Portland did Wednesday is a good way to lose a game.

Maybe Nate needs to do something that isn’t tactical. Maybe these guys need to see a sports psychologist. There were times in the middle of this game where the Blazers looked like they’d given up. There’s no reason for this team to believe they can’t win games, and there certainly is no reason for this team to give up in the middle of a game or in the middle of a season that can still have a positive result.

How can I say that Portland can still turn this into a positive season? Well, if you watched closely Wednesday night there were some pretty positive things coming from the Blazers. On more than one possession they got an open and easy look by passing the ball more than once. Ball movement has been rare for Portland lately, as they’ve started to rely more and more on isolation plays to get open shots. Seeing the Blazers make an obvious effort to move the ball, and having that effort pay off has to be considered a step in the right direction. More positives? Jamal Crawford looked smooth with his jumper. Raymond Felton played well for stretches. Elliot Williams got some important minutes and made the most of them.

Sure much of what the Blazers did well was negated by a slow start, an abysmal finish to the first half, and an inability to string together stops and scores at the end of the game when it was relatively close. But those shortcomings shouldn’t be grounds for chucking the whole season, or whatever is left of the whole season.

It doesn’t get easier from here for Portland. Miami’s next. If the Heat get the kind of second chance points and effortless offense the Blazers let the Nuggets have, that game will literally be over in the first quarter. But beyond just Thursday’s game, there isn’t going to be a lot of gimmies coming down the pike. Portland will have to show up to beat teams like Minnesota or Golden State. And now they don’t have a choice.

We’ve reached the point where the Blazers’ play has severely limited the team’s chances of getting to take nights off. They’re now going to have to beat every bad team they play just to make the Playoffs. Missing the Playoffs isn’t the end of the world (it might be the end of Gerald Wallace’s time in Portland, Jamal Crawford’s too) but this team is too good, has too much potential, to fall to lottery status just because they haven’t been trying.

Couple of quick things:

• I mentioned Elliot Williams earlier. Mike Tokito of The Oregonian pretty much nailed Elliot’s night with this tweet. I would love to see Williams get a few more minutes and some more regular touches. I will saw this though. Elliot made a couple, glaring rookie mistakes. One in particular happened in the second half. Elliot came up with one of Portland’s very few offensive rebounds, but found himself under the hoop staring down two of Denver’s big guys. Instead of looking to get the ball out and reset the offense, Williams tried to take on both defenders, likely in an attempt to draw a foul. He didn’t get the foul, he didn’t get the hoop, he barely got the shot off. Williams is a freak of nature athlete, but so are most of the guys in the NBA. He’s going to have to figure out who he can out leap and out muscle and who he can’t. If he can develop the thinking part of his game he’ll be a player. Hopefully Nate lets him keep running the rest of the second half of the season, so we can see some development in that area.
• Kurt Thomas got his bell rung pretty seriously at the beginning of the game Wednesday night, and was diagnosed with a minor concussion. Head injuries have become a hot button topic in all of professional sports (See Kobe Bryant or THE NFL), so there’s a very good chance Thomas will not play Thursday night against the Heat. That means there’s a chance Joel Pryzbilla will be activated–I wouldn’t count on it though–and that Chris Johnson might get to play a little bit. CJ got in Wednesday night, and had an impact. It could be a coincidence that the Blazers made one of their better runs while Johnson was on the court, I choose to think it wasn’t. Whatever the case may be, CJ has to know that he’s very likely to be demoted when Joel is ready to play. He’s the kind of player who knows how to take advantage of what he’s given.
• Last off-season Kenneth Faried from Morehead State was a guy Blazer internet enthusiasts wanted desperately to see in Portland. It was not to be. Wednesday night Faried finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds. The really impressive stat, though, was that seven of his rebounds were on the offensive end. The Blazers as a team only had four more offensive rebounds than Faried. That’s trouble.
• Minutes Watch: PG comparison. Raymond Felton 23:54 off the bench six points, seven assists, two rebounds, one steal, one turnover. Not bad. Jamal Crawford 35:46 as a starter 21 points, five assists, five rebounds, one steal, two blocks, one turnover. A little bit better. However, on plus/minus, Jamal finished -9, Raymond had the ever illusive zero.
• Standings Watch: If the Playoffs started tomorrow, the Blazers would be watching from their couches. Good thing we’ve got 31 games left.

Box Score

Standings

Nugg Love

Email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

Jan. 27, 2012; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard Jamal Crawford (11) dishes off the ball during the second quarter of the game against the Phoenix Suns at the Rose Garden. Credit: Steve Dykes-US PRESSWIRE

I’m not going to spend any time on a recap of this game, apart from saying that it actually was a game for 12 minutes and by the 7:22 mark of the second quarter it was effectively over. Portland should watch the game tape of this once time through, just because there are some highlights and a few takeaways, and then, like any game that ends with one team owning a 38-point lead, they should probably tuck it away in a corner.

Post game, all the Blazers said that this was the kind of game they needed. Yes, Phoenix is not a good team, but still, this Portland team is on the brink of the top level of the Western Conference. They needed a blowout. They got it.

Here’s my brief game synopsis: Portland scored inside early, this allowed their shooters to get open looks, they shooters knock down open looks, thus spreading the defense, allowing the Blazers to go back inside and score so more. Phoenix doesn’t take care of the ball, can’t hit the ocean if they were standing on the beach, and put up nine points in the second quarter. GAME OVER.

Portland has been up and down all month, although if you take out the Orlando game they’ve been pretty up at home. The get a chance to finish out the month on the road at Utah. One of the reasons a game like this is fun but deceiving, is that it could have implications for the next one. The Blazers are going to have to play a good 48 minute game in SLC to come out of there with a win. They can do it. Running against what at times looked like a Junior Varsity boosts confidence, but it doesn’t make you too sharp.

Like I said: short and hopefully sweet. Just like this game, which was over in about 15 minutes.

Couple of quick things then go enjoy your Friday night, and don’t forget to pour one out for the Suns:

• Steve Nash is good, like very good. So good, in fact, that his good play the last time these two teams met was the difference maker (and by difference maker think about this, the point swing from January 6th to January 27th was 63, with Phoenix winning by 25 at home and losing by 38 on the road). One thing I’ve noticed, and I’m sure everybody who has seen him notices too, is that Steven Nash almost never kills his dribble. He always keeps the ball moving, regardless of where he is on the court or how many guys are in his chest. Many many times in the game’s first quarter, a quarter Phoenix won by three mind you, he was trapped in the corner looking up at LaMarcus Aldridge and Marcus Camby. But because he hadn’t stopped dribbling, he was able to get an angle an slot the ball through to an uncovered big man. What make Steve Nash so good, back-to-back MVP good, is that to effectively shut him down teams have to rotate two or three times every play. That’s very tough for even the best defenses to do. The Knicks are a lucky team. When he does get traded, and if this team continues to play like they did Friday he will get traded, Phoenix is headed straight for the number one overall pick.
• Nolan Smith and Chris Johnson picked up technical fouls in the fourth quarter. I think it was partially an effort to keep a 40-point blowout from turning into an end of the bench street fight. My guess is coach Nate McMillan will have some words for those guys, something along the lines of don’t get T’ed up in the last five minutes of a 40-point win. But hopefully he’s also happy to see his last guys go out and not back down.
• Elliot Williams can sky, and Friday he knocked down a couple jumpers. I would love to see him in a game that matters. Not sure it’s going to happen though.
• Jamal Crawford did very well running the team at the point position. In 25 minutes he dished out 10 assists and turned it over only once. Phoenix is allergic to defense, but still it’s nice to see Jamal play well, especially since Raymond Felton can’t seem to get out of his own way.
• Minutes watch: 12:00 for Craig Smith. This comes with an asterisk, all of Rhino’s minutes came in the fourth quarter with the game well in hand. Before Blazer-nation gets all hot and bothered about Craig losing his minutes, hear this: Nate made a decision to go with a shorter–meaning smaller not fewer guys–rotation. Phoenix has no front court. Although Rhino would have dominated in the paint on offense, he very well could have been run ragged on D. I really don’t think Craig’s been demoted. At least I HOPE he hasn’t been demoted. Rhino still scored five points and grabbed four rebounds. He also had back-to-back three second violations.
• Standings watch: Portland comes into the game at six, ahead of Dallas and Memphis, and just behind Utah. Dallas beats Utah, Memphis loses last night to the Clippers. Portland jumps to five, Utah falls to seven, Dallas moves to six, Memphis–the hottest team a week ago, reaching as high as fourth in the conference–falls off the map. The Lakers grab the eight spot. And this is a deep reach, watch out for Minnesota, back-to-back wins, 9-10, still a few places out of the eight spot, but coming on strong. If we are lucky, and Minny keeps playing well and the Southwest or Pacific Divisions continue to be one-team spots, the Northwest could have five teams in the Playoffs. They’re long odds, but hey, anything’s possible.

Box Score

Standings

Sun-N-Gun

email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

Jan. 27, 2012; Portland, OR, USA; Phoenix Suns point guard Sebastian Telfair (31) walks off the court after being ejected during the fourth quarter of the game against the Portland Trail Blazers at the Rose Garden. The Blazers won the game 109-71. Credit: Steve Dykes-US PRESSWIRE

Marcus Camby set season highs in rebounds and blocks in Portland's win over Memphis. Photo courtesy of the AP.

It seems like it’s been a long time since Blazer fans have had something to feel genuinely positive about. In fact, just this morning I was listening to Ryen Russillo on ESPN’s NBA Today Podcast talk about how after two-plus weeks the Blazers were the popular pick to come out of the West, and now here we are, not quite at the end of January, and they aren’t even in the Playoff picture.

Of course it’s too early to say a team is either a contender or a bust (unless you’re talking about the Thunder, contender, or the Wizards, bust), but it does seem like since that early hot start the attitude towards this Portland team has been a combination of negativity and qualified optimism. Negativity when they drop winnable road games and get a shooting clinic from the Orlando Magic; qualified optimism when they beat the Sacramento Kings but have to leave their starters on the floor up until the final minutes of the game’s final quarter.

Rejoice, Portland fans. Tuesday’s win is just about as close to a total positive as you are going to get. Memphis comes in as one of the hottest teams in the league, can match up pretty well with Portland, and plays the kind of turnover producing defense and up-tempo offense that can be a killer for a Blazer team that hasn’t taken good care of the ball as of late, and relies very heavily on long and mid-range jumpers. Tuesday’s game could have very easily gone the other way.

It didn’t. And it didn’t not by luck, or because Memphis took the night off. Tuesday, Portland won because they delivered a balanced scoring attack that started out working the ball inside and getting good looks from in close, because they played defense, at least matching the defensive intensity–if not the execution–of one of the best defensive teams in the league, and because they rebounded.

The Blazers won the battle of the boards 50-to-39. Marcus Camby led the way with an astounding 22, but everybody pitched in. Gerald Wallace snagged 11, LaMarcus Aldridge had six, and six other Blazers had at least one. The extra effort to crash the glass helped negate some of the damage done by turning the ball over, something Portland did 20 times.

Offense wins games, though. And Tuesday Portland looked nearly as fluid on offense as they have all season. They worked the ball inside to Aldridge, who was on fire in the first quarter hitting 5-of-6 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the line for 14 points, and they also attacked with their wings.

There aren’t a ton of teams that have one guy that can defend Aldridge one on one for a full 48 minutes (or the 31:22 which he played for the purpose of accuracy). Memphis tried a bunch of different looks throughout the night. Rudy Gay was the most successful, although his tactic was to play behind LA then foul if LaMarcus got a spin on him towards the hoop. The least successful was Marreese Speights. Aldridge primarily beat up on Speights with his outside shot, but also took him down low a couple of times. Gay’s defense worked because with his length he could challenge the outside shot both when LA faced-up or spun away from the hoop. Marc Gasol had a couple of sequences on LaMarcus too. At least once, LA took the ball outside, isolated Gasol, and just drove by him. You know it’s a good night for the Blazers when LA has a different tactic to deal with each defender he sees.

As for the wing play. Wesley Matthews, Jamal Crawford, and Gerald Wallace were looking to put the ball on the floor and get to the hoop more Tuesday than they had in awhile. Gerald attacks by default, but Crawford and Matthews sometimes play like they need to be convinced. Wesley especially can benefit from driving on nights when his shot isn’t falling. Tuesday, Wesley was 3-of-9 from the field and 1-of-6 from deep, but he did hit six free throws. He needs to keep getting in the lane and keep getting to the line, and maybe that way he can shoot himself out of this extended slump.

Crash didn’t score too much Tuesday, but he had at least one lay-up. At some point it might be nice to look at HoopData and see if Gerald’s best games are when he scores two lay-ups for every jump shot. I know there are nights when he can knock down threes and long twos, but in my opinion, Wallace should be trying to score at the rim every time he touches the ball.

Crawford is a bit of a tricky call when it comes to attacking. He isn’t as big as Wesley Matthews–bulk-wise–and he isn’t as bulky or as tall as Gerald Wallace, so his shot is the most likely out of those three to be blocked at the rim. In fact, Tuesday night, Crawford had a possession when he shook his defender with a crossover (I think it was O.J. Mayo but I can’t be sure, whoever it was ended up on their backside), only to have his lay-up attempt sent away. I still like the idea of Jamal attacking the rim though, primarily because he is such a great free throw shooter. If Crawford is going to be as helpful to this team as he needs to be, helpful enough for Portland to live up to some of that early hype, his efficiency needs to improve. The best way for him to do that is by getting more free throw attempts. Crawford, though, loves his jump shot, and he very rarely looks to drive to the rim as his first recourse. Tuesday, Jamal scored 15 points to lead a productive Portland bench, but he took 13 shots. By comparison, LaMarcus Aldridge took 13 shots and led all scorers with 23 points.

The Blazers have now completed stage two of the three stage gauntlet that is their first back-to-back-to-back–or as Matt Moore of Hardwood Paroxysm so aptly dubbed it a b3b–with easily the most difficult stage yet to come. Portland travels to Oakland tonight to take on Golden State tomorrow, a team they almost never beat in a place they almost always lose. The Warriors have a lot in common with the Grizzlies. They like to get out and run, they’re driven by strong guard play, and they have a tendency to make costly mistakes or play themselves out of a game.

If the Blazers can play Wednesday the way they played Tuesday, they’ll be in pretty good shape. I think going 3-0 on their first b3b might begin to make up for their 2-4 roadie.

Couple of quick things:

• Gerald Wallace took a beating Tuesday night. He got hit in his bad hand, and at one point got leveled by Marc Gasol. I have no doubt that Wallace will go in Wednesday’s game, but I expect he will be pretty sore.
• Coach Nate McMillan once again hesitated to clear his bench, waiting until Memphis skipper Lionel Hollins rotated in his garbage time guys. Nate’s choice to sub, or not sub, has become a point of contention on Twitter, and a bit of a running joke in Nate’s post game media debriefing. I tend to agree that Nate could pull his starters a little earlier every now and then. But I see the point of keeping them out there too. A game is 48 minutes long, and it’s never over until it’s over. Nate isn’t intentionally trying to wear his guys down, but he also isn’t about to give up a comeback in the final stages of a game. One thing he might think about, though, is that his end of the bench guys–at this point that’s Elliot Williams, Luke Babbitt, and Chris Johnson–aren’t getting a chance to run that much because there aren’t that many practice days with this schedule. When those guys did get in Tuesday night, they did not look great. Chris Johnson had a nice dunk, but other than that it was pretty disorganized. There might come a time this season when one or more of those guys has to play, it might help them to get just the smallest bit of meaningful game time action prior to that point.
• One more note on the young guys coming in at the end. If you look closely at the box score you’ll notice that Portland finished with 97 points, three shy of the good stuff. Nolan Smith had a look at three for the chalupa, passing up the chance to give Luke Babbitt the almost unheard of back-to-back chalupa bucket, but it clanked off the rim. The Blazers did get the last possession, but with no shot clock on and no defense, Elliot Williams made the grown-up decision and didn’t put up a shot. Another sad day in Blazer-land.
• Craig Smith had another nice night. 3-of-8 from the field 2-of-2 from the line, eight points in 13 minutes, punctuated by a throw down on a run-out feed from Jamal Crawford. If Portland can get eight points for every 12 to 13 minutes of court time for Rhino they should be very happy. I know that it won’t take too much more for Craig Smith to be a fan favorite, greeted by a standing ovation every time he checks in. Get to the fan shop now, because in a week I bet they’ll be out of Smith #83 jerseys.
• Minutes watch: 2:42 for Luke Babbitt. The only Blazer not to score, and the only Blazer not to attempt a field goal. I know it’s mean to pick on Luke, but, Nate has shown he’s a lot more likely to play Luke in regular game time than Elliot Williams. Luke looks lost when playing with the starters and regular bench players. With the last guys on the roster, I expect him to play with a little more confidence. Let’s be honest, he is the leader of Portland’s garage time unit, seniority rules. Next time Portland is at the end of a blowout, and Babbitt is on the floor, I would like to see him demanding the ball.
• New thing here, not sure if I’ll do it every night, but I thought about it since even this early in the season every game changes Playoff positioning. Standings watch: Portland came into the game in 9th place in the West, Memphis in 4th. With the win, Portland jumps to 6th, Memphis falls to 8th, Dallas bumps up to 7th, and Houston falls out of the race.

Box Score

Standings

email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

Follow Tony Allen on Twitter (@aa000G9) it's worth it. Photo courtesy of the AP.