Another career night for LaMarcus Aldridge, another home win for the Trail Blazers. Photo courtesy of the Oregonian.

Monday night at the Rose Garden the Blazers showed a lot of things, but more than anything they showed that they probably shouldn’t be counted out, at least not yet. Yes they played pretty awful on their 1-2 road trip, the one win coming against what is now the worst team in NBA history, and who knows how they will fare when they head out on the road for the rest of this week and the beginning of the next week. But Monday night, they looked good. They looked almost great. Will it carry over? Who can say. Really, though, does it matter? I would say that at this point it probably doesn’t. This team has been up and down all year, and if we’re looking to ride the highs, there may not be one quite as high as Monday.

As fans we have a lot of people to thank for Monday night. Let’s start by thanking the NBA, commissioner David Stern, and everybody else that said LaMarcus Aldridge didn’t deserve to be an All-Star. For four and a half seasons Portland fans have been waiting for something to light a fire under LA and get him to play up to his potential. Maybe it was Brandon Roy going down, maybe it was some of the problems this team had early in the year, maybe it’s been all the injuries. Whatever it is LaMarcus has come to play over the last two and a half months. But it wasn’t enough for the league, and thank you for that. LA might have gotten comfortable scoring 25 a night if he had been selected to the All-Star game. With the snub, he now wants to go out and get 40 a night. We’ll take it.

We should also thank Andre Miller. Dre, who according to Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeu is one of the best point guards in the league, has not had the easiest of rides as a Blazer. Through it all he has come to play every night, except the one night he missed due to suspension. Never has Andre’s value been more evident than it was Monday night. Matched up against arguably the best young point guard in the league in Derrick Rose, Dre played one of his best games of the season. Andre dished 11 assists, scored 27 points, and grabbed 6 rebounds, hitting all 13 of his free throw attempts. Dre was cool and collected the whole night, and kept Portland’s offense humming. Every time the Bulls were slow to recover on defense Andre made them pay. Every time a Chicago big turned their head in the low block to watch the ball Andre made them pay. One of my favorite moments in the game came late in the fourth quarter. Portland was trying to get the ball up the floor, and Derrick Rose, All-Star starter, was face guarding Andre Miller, denying him the ball. NBA players pride themselves on ball defending, ball denial is reserved for only the best scorers in the league, Kobe Bryant, Brandon Roy, Ray Allen, even Derrick Rose. I’m not saying Andre Miller is in the category, but late Monday night, Chicago felt they needed to treat him that way.

We can also thank Rudy Fernandez and Nicolas Batum. Monday they both pitched in their fair share of the offense. It’s becoming incredibly clear that Nicolas Batum can be a knock down shooter, he just needs to not think about it. Every time he catches and doesn’t immediately shoot the ball he misses. Not every time, of course, but he is way better when he just lets it fly. Also, Nic coming off the high screen at the shoulder for a jumper is one of the best looking plays in the Blazers’ book. Rudy Fernandez has never met a shot he didn’t like, and Monday that was ok. What a guy like Rudy does is come in and hit a big three. Even if he’s missed four in a row, Rudy is going to take that fifth shot. He stretched Chicago’s defense, and he’ll do that even if he isn’t hitting.

And of course, we should all thank LaMarcus Aldridge. If you didn’t watch Monday’s game, you missed something special. LaMarcus has always played effortless basketball. He is gifted beyond belief, and sometimes when his shots weren’t going down it looked like he just didn’t care. One thing we don’t see from LA is joy, a visual demonstration of his passion for the game. Late in the fourth quarter Monday night, LaMarcus drew a big offensive foul, when he was lifted off the court by his teammates, the look on his face was that of a young man who was extremely happy to be playing basketball. When LA was fouled with less than 10 seconds remaining in the evening, and went to the line to set his career-high for the fourth time this season his teammates were almost as excited as the Rose Garden fans.

Two plays late in the game stood out in my mind. First was a top of the key jumper with 48 seconds to play, and the second was on Portland’s next offensive possession and it was a back down turnaround against Taj Gibson. The combination of shots showed just how far LA has come in the last few months. The top of the key jumper used to be his standby, and as he’s gone inside more and more, the jumper has started to leave him. Monday he drilled the jumper, then came down the court on the next possession and showed a truly excellent low post move. Also, LA knew that he hit both shots as soon as they left his hands. When he’s playing with that kind of confidence he’s scary.

Monday night reminded me a lot of Portland’s last home game, last week against the Spurs. The Blazers were able to match the offensive ability of San Antonio, and they were also able to do the same with Chicago. The game turned in Portland’s favor when they stepped up the defensive intensity. Going forward, they should look to defense as a way to win against the bad teams that, so far, they have been unable to beat on the road. They know they can score, they know they can overcome a 3-of-12 night from Wesley Matthews. It’s going to be consistent defense on the road that is going to make the difference going down the stretch.

Portland takes off for Toronto to play the Raptors on Friday.

Some thoughts and notes:

• Oregonian beat writer Jason Quick caused a minor commotion when he reported via twitter that Brandon Roy might return to game action as soon as this coming road trip. Roy worked out before the game Monday night, and the news sent shock waves through the NBA twitter obsessed, spawning immediate, international responses. (here, and here)
• Speaking of twitter. LaMarcus Aldridge is officially twittering as of today.
• Dante Cunningham was in uniform Monday night, but did not play. His face looked a little swollen, and he was outfitted with a nice mask, a la Rip Hamilton and Iron Man.
• There has been some renewed effort in the Carmelo Anthony trade rumor mill. This time there’s a little bit of a new wrinkle. If Carmelo does get traded to the New York Knicks before the trade deadline, his All-Star roster spot might be up for grabs. It’s a long shot, but it’s still a shot. No way LaMarcus can get tripled snubbed. On the bright side, if he does get passed over, in this super hypothetical situation, he’ll probably go off for 50.
• Monday night the Memphis Grizzlies lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, meaning that the Blazers are now a game and a half ahead in the race for the last Western Conference playoff spot. If you haven’t been keeping a close eye on the daily fluctuations in the standings, now is a good time to start.

Brandon Roy may be back in uniform as soon as the end of this week. Photo courtesy of the Oregonian.

Box Score

Standings

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

Yep...that boy good. He's like a one man Nation of Domination. (Credit: YardBarker.com)

Some classes in college, are easy and some are difficult and you generally figure that out within the first couple weeks are so (hell sometimes Syllabus day tells you all you need to know). There are those classes where you can do the homework and get points, do the quizzes, get the attendance, and you might have an A but you never truly know what your grade is until that first test.

Today was Team USA’s first test, and they passed.

I used that college analogy because it fits here: had Team USA lost this one, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. Just like failing that first test doesn’t mean you’re going to fail the class. It would have taught them a lesson and better prepared them for the real pressure cooker: the single elimination round. By passing, they have a better understanding of where they are at and know what to do in the future to get good results. And just like in college, sometimes you get lucky and the teacher gives you an answer or gives up free points. That’s what I’d call Huertas missing that free throw and Barbosa missing that layup.

It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t pretty but the Red, White & Blue prevailed. The odd part about this game against Brazil is its as if all of the concerns about this team coming in–interior size, pick and roll defense, experience, offensive ability, turnover–rolled together to create an awful storm which nearly bowled them over. Give all the credit to Brazil, they played a magnificent game, but Team USA could have helped themselves a lot more than they did. Brazil had an insane first quarter, shooting 14-for-21 from the field, 5-of-7 from three and scored 28 points on 19 possessions. While those may seem like numbers in a video game when the computer decides you aren’t winning, credit Brazil…their offensive movement was smooth, crisp and Team USA seemed to have no answer.

Problem #1 was pick and roll defense, something many were concerned with going in and something that was validated today. For some reason, for the majority of the game Team USA couldn’t put it all together. There were times where Lamar Odom was in no man’s land–not helping the guard and not putting himself in position to challenge the shot. Then there were times when he was there, but the guard couldn’t get back in time. Then there were other times when the helpside D sucked in just a little too much and Brazil found the open guy for a 3. It was almost like watching the Utah Jazz and the way they can pick people apart on the pick and roll. I now realize that this is where Team USA truly misses a ‘big’ center who can challenge opponents at the basket. Tyson Chandler didn’t play much, but when he did Brazil’s mindset changed. Instead of looking to score of their penetration they were looking to kick which made life a lot easier on Team USA.

Problem #2 was sloppy offense. Taking the first quarter and the first minute of the second quarter, Team USA had 7 turnovers…or as many as they had in 40 minutes against Croatia. As great as Kevin Durant was (27 points, main reason why the US was able to stick around), he can’t have 7 turnovers. Against a better team, 22 turnovers could be the death knell and some of those were just non-sensical. Not only that, but there was a little bit too much isolation offense for my liking for the majority of the game. Quick, contested jumpers can really hurt you in the international game because it’s either going to create a fast break opportunity for the defense or (even worse) you could end up having to play D for a full shot clock.

The good news is that Team USA was able to play different kind of styles in this game. From the jump, Brazil was the first team we’ve seen that was not afraid to push it right back at Team USA and play a faster game. To their credit, Team USA made the adjustments. Not only that, they were able to play a slower, smarter, half-court game in the second half to get the win. It wasn’t perfect, but showing that they are multi-dimensional and have that capability will be big in later rounds.

Durant, Derrick Rose and Chauncey Billups did the majority of the scoring, combining for 53 of the US’s 70 points. They need help, relying on Durant to drop that many could get this team in trouble. While he took some questionable shots, Billups was huge in the second half with the way he attacked Tiago Splitter. It was almost as if he took it personally. Rose was solid and sprinkled in some of his unreal athleticism. Lamar Odom has got to find a way to be more of a factor, because for the majority of his time out there he wasn’t. I thought Tyson Chandler did a phenomenal job in his 5 minutes of action, moreso because of the impact that he had on Brazil’s offense than anything he did in the box score.

(Speaking of Splitter, he looked solid and just looks like a guy who should be in a Spurs uniform. I don’t know if he’ll get the kind of freedom he had here, but he’s going to contribute for them from the jump.)

The starters had to do a lot of the heavy lifting tonight (all 5 playing 29+ minutes Durant playing 39), possibly because Coach K didn’t trust his bench or they didn’t perform. The depth that we had all fawned over the past couple games just wasn’t there. Russell Westbrook, Rudy Gay and Eric Gordon all were spotlighted as being great sparks off the bench before the game by Fran Fraschilla–they combined to score 3 points on 0-for-5 shooting and were a non-factor. I still maintain that Kevin Love is a major factor on this team–confirmed by Coach K picking him as the first big off the bench and one of the first subs–but this was not his match-up. He can rebound and defend in the post, but he struggled a bit in the pick and roll simply because guys thought they could finish over him. The bench has to be better.

The good news is the starters should be able to get some rest and the bench should get their swagger back over the next two games. Barring a weird or wacky performance, they should steamroll over the bottom 2 in their group: Iran and Tunisia. A well deserved day off tomorrow before returning to the court on Wednesday against Iran…get your Haddadi jokes ready.

"When I start making shots, I don't just make shots....I BE STROKIN'." (Credit: YardBarker.com)

Team USA passed their first test in the 2010 FIBA World Championships, running away from Croatia on route to a 106-76 victory. The story of the game was simple: Team USA came out hot (7-0 run in first 2 minutes), Croatia answered and made it a tight first quarter, Team USA made the right adjustments in the second quarter and pulled away from there. Not much else to it if you ask me, but Team USA did look flat-out dominant in the final 30 minutes of this game. They out-scored Croatia 84-58 over the last three periods and shot 54% for the game.

I’ll admit the first quarter freaked me out a bit, for a couple reasons. It wasn’t just because the score was close, it was why it was close. Team USA came out with a lot of fire, tremendous activity on defense combined with crisp movement on offense. And then, when the second unit came in that kind of came to a halt. All of a sudden, Team USA looked a tad bit flat footed on defense, occasionally late on rotations, sometimes even watching Croatia shoot or get rebounds. Offensively they became a little more impatient than many should like, struggling to attack Croatia’s zone early, instead opting to take quick jumpers. It seemed as if bad habits were creeping in, the kind of habits that can kill you in international play. The kind of habits that have hurt the US in the past.

However, the beauty of this Colangelo/Coach K era of USA Basketball is those bad habits are gone. They make adjustments, they slow down, and they will their way to victory. Slowly but surely whenever Croatia brought that zone back the ball was moving more. Whenever Croatia tried to foul to slow fast breaks, Team USA executed in the half-court. It’s those little things that win you games in international play. Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant combined to score Team USA’s first 10 points of the 2nd quarter, giving them a lead they would never give back. I credit their play for Team USA’s win, however I think some credit should go to Chauncey Billups. Say what you want about Mr. Big Shot, but he definitely is having a large impact on this Team USA. His experience shows in the little things he does. He picked the team back up defensively, setting the tone by picking Croatia’s guards up in the backcourt and the rest of the team followed. Offensively, they looked better and more focused with him running the show. He’s much more important to this team than many believe.

The beauty of this victory (and this team) is it was truly a team effort, everyone played their role and played a role in this victory. Five players scored in double figures (Durant, Gordon, Billups, Gay, Westbrook) and no player scored less than 5 minutes. It just felt like everyone had a hand in the win and you could honestly point out what everyone did. Iguodala’s defensive activity, Odom’s work on Ante Tomic (Tomic went 4-10, didn’t get many deep post opportunites), Gordon’s shooting (incredible, 3-5 from deep), Westbrook’s speed, Granger/Gay’s versatility, Chandler’s size, Love’s rebounding and outlet passing (don’t sleep on him), Curry’s mouthpiece (rough game). Let’s not forget this is an ‘inexperienced’ team only turned the ball over 7 times. If everyone continues to chip in like this, Team USA is going to be a problem for everyone to deal with.