Aggressive defense on Damian Lillard helped the Los Angeles Lakers even the season series with the Blazers at one apiece. Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

I know it might not seem like it at the moment, but Friday’s loss is just the kind of thing this Blazer team needs right now. The Los Angeles Lakers are basically the exact opposite of the Blazers. The Lakers were built to win now. Like right now. They haven’t gelled through 30 games, but the first 30 games of this season are totally meaningless. In fact, all 82 of 2012-13′s regular season games are meaningless, unless of course the lose enough games to miss the Playoffs.

Portland, on the other hand, is a work in progress. Although winning individual games is still pretty meaningless, the development of this roster over the course of the season is what matters most. The Blazers won’t be in the Playoffs, regardless of how many bad teams they beat in a row. The Lakers will be in the Playoffs, and it will break our schadenfreude loving hearts when it happens.

So why does getting absolutely dominated start to finish by a .500 Laker team help Portland? First, and probably most importantly, it brings everybody back to reality. Second, it exposes a couple pretty glaring weaknesses that can then be addressed and fixed. And third, it gives these young Blazers something to look at and build off of.

Let’s address these things through, shall we?

First, the reality check. The Blazers, their fans, even some of their bloggers were flying high this month. Sure, they beat up on a couple of bad teams, but they looked alright in the process. No, they’re not going to make the Playoffs, and yes this is still a team with a long way to go, but watching Portland play well, watching Damian Lillard shine night in and night out, and seeing five wins in a row has gone a long way to erase the memory of last season, something everybody even remotely involved with this organization desperately needed.

What they needed too, was a healthy dose of what’s actually going on. Just as the Lakers’ miserable 30-game start will have no bearing on how they finish the season, so too will Portland’s better-than-expected opening two months and then some change the fact that 2012-13 is the first of at least two rebuilding seasons. The sooner we all realize what this season is all about, preparing for a future in which the Blazers win 45 to 50 games and actually compete in the Playoffs, the better off we’ll all be. Especially considering that January looks to be just as brutal as December was easy.

Second, fixing the obvious errors. Friday night the Los Angeles Lakers did something Portland has not been able to do so far this season. They came out with a clear game plan, they executed that game plan, and they totally dominated the game. LA’s plan was two-fold. On offense, they forced everything inside to utilize their quite substantial height advantage. On defense, they denied the ball to Damian, and when he got the ball they bodied him up and doubled him. The didn’t do much to stop or slow down LaMarcus Aldridge, and they were more than happy to let Portland’s cast of other guys try to score if they wanted.

Both tactics worked. The Lakers racked up 58 points in the paint, getting basically everything they wanted inside. Dwight Howard did most of the damage for LA in the paint. He finished Friday with 21 points, shooting 7-of-13 from the field, and showed that more than anything, the Blazers are lacking a center. How does this situation get fixed? Well, the long-term fix is Meyers Leonard. The short-term fix is to trade J.J. Hickson for picks so Meyers Leonard has to start.

Along with Dwight Howard having a big night, Kobe Bryant was untouchable in Friday’s first quarter. He finished with 27 points, hitting nine of his 18 field goal attempts, and would have had more if the Blazers could have kept the game within arms-length for more than a couple of minutes. How does one solve Kobe Bean Bryant? Well one really doesn’t. What Portland could have done Friday, though, to lessen the impact of a big game from Kobe, would have been playing a little better off the ball defense and crashing the boards. Those are things that can be easily addressed through film sessions and practice and stuff like that.

As for dealing with the defense the Lakers played on Damian Lillard, that’s a very key issue for Portland to address. It was very clear that LA’s plan was to stop Dame, and thus stall out the Blazers’ offense. It worked. Lillard went 4-of-17 from the field and 1-of-4 from deep. He still contributed 11 points, four assists, and two rebounds, but his team got blown out even after LaMarcus Aldridge shot 12-of-17 from the field for 26 points. Teams around the league are going to see that.

They’ve been jumping out at Damian for a couple of weeks now, but Friday was the first time we’ve seen a team go all-in on keeping the ball out of Lillard’s hands. The Blazers will now have to adjust, and that’s not a bad thing. How do they make that adjustment? They get other guys involved in the offense. By other guys I specifically mean Nicolas Batum. Nic has been passing the ball a lot lately, and it’s led to a lot of good things. But it’s also led to a drop off in his offensive effectiveness. Friday, Batum was 5-of-11 from the field and 0-of-5 from three. Those numbers need to go up for Portland to win when Damian is having an off night. The good thing for Nic is that if twos are committing two defenders to Dame, he’ll have a lot of open looks.

The third and final way the Blazers were exposed Friday night was in their inability to sustain or stop a run. There were a few minutes when this game was actually close. Those minutes came in the second quarter when Portland closed the gap to four. They went on a run to get there, but the run was short. Then, unfortunately, the Lakers went on a run, a run the Blazers couldn’t stop.

To get to the point where Portland can sustain a run or stop their opponents from going on a run, they need to get help from their bench unit. Most of the Blazers’ back-ups were completely ineffective on offense. They were equally as ineffective on defense. To beat a team like the Lakers, you have to take full advantage of the time when their stars are not on the floor. This game was always out of Portland’s control (let’s be honest, the Lakers needed a win in the worst way and the Blazers reverse lucked into being the team that got beat up to give them that win), but if Portland’s reserves could have kept LA’s reserves from getting hot in the second quarter, Friday could have been a much closer game.

And finally, Friday’s a game to build off it. Let us take a look back to my favorite recent Blazer season shall we? To start the 2008-09 season, Portland walked into the Staples Center, and walked out short Greg Oden and losers by 20. They went on to win 54 games.

The Blazers have had lower lows this season, but a game like Friday’s is just the type of game a young team can look to in the middle of a rough stretch and say let’s not do that again. Friday Portland was not engaged, the effort wasn’t there to match the effort put out by a very highly motivated Laker team, and they got totally steamrolled. Led by Damian Lillard, this team of young guys doesn’t like to get knocked down. They don’t like to be embarrassed. Friday will be a motivator.

Does that mean i think they’ll go on to win 54 games? Of course not. But I do think losing the way they did to the Lakers might give the Blazers the motivation they’re going to need to get at least one big win on their upcoming road trip to start the month of January.

Portland closes out December at home against the 76ers on Saturday.

Just one quick thing:

• In my December preview, I predicted the Blazers would finish the month 8-5. Right now Portland has eight wins on the month. I didn’t correctly call all of the Blazers’ wins and losses, but if Portland doesn’t beat the Sixers, I would have had my first correct prediction since I started making monthly predictions last season. I can’t decide if it’s better for my ego to get my prediction right, or better for the Blazers to exceed what even I considered pretty lofty expectations.

Box Score

Standings

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

Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol kept Portland out of the paint Friday night, helping the Lakers to a blowout victory. Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Damian Lilard’s Blazer debut was about as good as anybody could have hoped for. Credit: Jaime Valdez-US PRESSWIRE

It’s going to be hard to stay rational when discussing Wednesday’s home opener, a convincing 116-106 Portland victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. Mostly because some of what we saw flies in the face of rational thinking.

I would guess that most seasoned Blazer fans know that when the Lakers are in town the team and the city take it to a higher gear. Having the entire off-season to prepare for one night doesn’t do anything to dampen the energy or the drive of either the Blazers or their fans. Because of that, I was pretty confident that if Portland didn’t beat LA to start the season, they would at least put up one hell of a fight.

Things took a turn for the more interesting yesterday evening when the new-look fully loaded Lakers got handily whipped by the no-Dirk, no-Terry, whole new roster Dallas Mavericks. The Lakers took a dive in the preseason, that’s for sure, but falling apart on opening night is a horse of a different color. My personal expectation for Wednesday’s game was that Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Dwight Howard, and Pau Gasol would pull their heads out, realize that they have a zillion All-Star games between them, and come to play against the Blazers. I was wrong. But that was only half of it.

I’ve spent much of the last month and change watching footage of the Blazers in practice and preseason games, reading about how the team is developing, and trying to figure out what this season is going to look like. I’ve convinced myself that Damian Lillard is a top-flight point guard. I’ve convinced myself that Nicolas Batum is the kind of player who deserves to be paid a TON of money. And I’ve convinced myself that if Wesley Matthews doesn’t finally get it together then he can at least be traded. I’ve also convinced myself that this Blazer season is going to have a lot more losses than wins, it’s going to end before the Playoffs, and it’s part one on a two or three part major rebuilding effort, and I’ve gotten to the point where I’m OK with that.

That’s why we have to tread very lightly on Portland’s first of 82 games. Damian Lillard was spectacular (or at least one or two turnovers short of spectacular). LaMarcus Aldridge looked like he’d spent his entire summer in the gym shooting jumpers until he couldn’t lift his arms anymore. Nicolas Batum and Wesley Matthews made timely shots, limited their stupid offensive possessions, and totally manned-up on defense. Those are the things we should expect for this season. We should also be prepared for four guys playing well to not be enough to win many games.

And once again I’ll say, Blazer fans let’s take a deep breath and talk about the things that happened Wednesday night that don’t fall into the category of things that will likely happen every single night of the season. Let’s start small.

Nolan Smith looked absolutely, positively, god awful in the preseason. So bad, in fact, that Portland has basically said nice to know you hope some other team feels like developing you into an NBA player by passing on his option. (The party line is that declining Nolan’s option is a move to increase cap flexibility in the off-season, but come on we all know the truth. When a camp invite makes you look expendable, you are expendable). Nolan wasn’t incredible by any stretch Wednesday, especially considering that the Rose Garden fans were getting a first hand glimpse of a real point guard of the future, but in just under 14 minutes he was able to keep the damage he caused to a minimum. He controlled the offense. He didn’t turn it over. And he didn’t get totally exposed on defense. It might not sound like much, but it was far and away better than anything we saw from Nolan in his preseason appearances.

OK, on to Meyers Leonard. Again, not a great line, but he managed to get through 23 minutes while guarding Dwight Howard and only accumulate three fouls. Remember, Leonard had two five-foul nights and one six-foul early termination in the preseason, and in those games he wasn’t guarding the mountain who plays basketball. Howard did basically whatever he wanted to against Meyers, but you could almost see Leonard improving as the game wore on. By the end of the night, Meyers was standing up to the big fella, and keeping him from scoring in the paint while also keeping him from going to the free throw line.

I’ve covered Meyers Leonard and Nolan Smith, two guys that produced better than expected, so now I’m going to dip into some dangerous territory. There are two Blazers who seem to stand out above the rest when it comes to unmitigated disdain, or at least that’s how it looks on my Twitter timeline. Those two are Sasha Pavlovic and J.J. Hickson. My thinking is that these are the two players who could be considered outliers in Portland’s rebuilding plan. Neither is very young, both are on one-year deals meaning their long-term importance to the franchise is basically null, and both are potentially stealing minutes from younger players looking for long-term deals who will be pillars of the franchise two or three seasons down the road. Also, a lot of people I follow on Twitter think they just aren’t that good.

Pavlovic shined Wednesday in a short stretch in the third quarter, a stretch that included bricking a free throw, and then getting his own rebound and turning it into an easy lay-up, and helped the Blazers turn a close game into basically a blowout. But more than that, Sasha logged 18 minutes whereas Will Barton, Victor Claver, and Joel Freeland (guys that might be factors at some later date when Pavlovic has moved on to some other squad) all grabbed their first DNP-CD of the season.

But where Pavlovic was good and effective in a short burst, Hickson was solid all night. J.J.’s line was 13 points, 10 rebounds, five offensive rebounds, two blocks, one assist, and one three. He was active under the hoop, he attacked the glass on both ends of the floor, and he did the best he could to neutralize Dwight Howard. All in all a very solid night from J.J. Hickson.

And it’s because of Hickson’s great line, Pavlovic’s spark off the bench, Nolan’s ability not to throw the game away, and Leonard staying on the floor for almost an entire half that I reiterate that rationality is key at a time like the present. A win, a great win, doesn’t change the fact that this team has a long way to go. We need to remember that next week and the week after. We need to remember that in February.

Celebrating a win is the best part about being a sports fan. But when you celebrate too early you’re bound to spend at least a little time eating crow. I’m not trying to be a downer here, I’m as excited as all of you are about the potential of this team, I’m just saying that if we take a step back, try and remember that this is a long season, and don’t get too caught up in the significance of one single game, it will make gloating that much easier when the wins start piling up and NBA fans across the nation are jumping on the Blazer bandwagon.

Portland travels to Oklahoma City to face the Thunder on Friday. That game will be OKC’s home opener.

Just a couple of quick things:

• Portland’s lottery picks are going to be a must-watch all season, on and off the court. Damian Lillard’s line was, as I said, basically phenomenal: 7-of-17 from the floor, 8-of-8 from the line, 11 assists, three rebounds, and 23 points. He did have six turnovers, so clearly he’s not perfect. Meyers Leonard had a more modest stat line (four points on 1-of-2 from the field, three rebounds, and an assist) but for Meyers right now it’s going to be more about staying in the game. Both rookies had telling post game experiences also. Leonard was out of the showers first and dealt with a small contingent of media. He’s a super pro in front of the camera, but when the cameras go away and the reporters turn their attention elsewhere, it’s clear that he’s really just a big kid. Meyers was joking around with Blazers.com writer Casey Holdahl about his watch being the lynchpin of his outfit. He also showed Casey a ticket he’d found or more likely been given for the game, sliding it into his pocket while saying that since it was a ticket for his first NBA game he was going to be keeping it forever. Leonard left the locker room, as his teammates were doing their interviews, barefoot with his shoes in his hand. Lillard’s post game was a little more dramatic. He was one of the last guys out of the shower, and there were a lot of reporters waiting for him, so many people in fact that Nicolas Batum, who had already finished his post game, came over to the scrum and started making jokes about how it was Damian’s first pro game and he’d been in the league for years so it didn’t make sense for people to want to talk to Lillard instead of him. Like Meyers, Damian handles himself very well in front of the camera, but unlike Meyers that business-like mentality doesn’t go away when the cameras do. He lets his guard down some, he joked with Jason Quick of The Oregonian about not being packed and not knowing what to pack for the trip to OKC, but for the most part he’s a serious dude. It makes sense. He feels, and rightly so, that he’s got a lot to prove at the NBA level. If he can maintain the attitude that just getting to the league wasn’t enough, he’ll very likely be a star before he knows it.
• Kobe Bryant finished with 30 points. He took 20 shots to get there.
• Dwight Howard went 15-of-19 from the free throw line following an atrocious 3-of-14 from the stripe on opening night. Howard’s night from the line wasn’t really regression towards the mean (after two nights he’s shooting 72% from the line and he’s a 59% free thrown shooter for his career) but I don’t really think he became a good free throw shooter overnight. In his post game, head coach Terry Stotts said they weren’t fouling Howard on purpose. Whether you believe that or not is up to you, but if I’m the coach and Howard has made 10 straight from the line, I’m still fouling him. In fact, math tells us that if he’s made 10 in a row, he’s a lot more likely to miss a few than if he’s already bricked a bunch.
• Speaking of math, I had a short chat with Kevin Pelton and John Hollinger after the game, no word yet on when they’ll be throwing down with Reggie Miller. I imagine it will be sometime soon.

Box Score

Standings

Lake Show Life

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

Timely shooting by Wesley Matthews helped to keep the Lakers at arms length in Portland’s opening night victory. Credit: Jaime Valdez-US PRESSWIRE

Gerald Wallace battles Hedu Turkoglu during Portland's loss. I think all Blazer fans should be glad that Wallace ended up in Portland and Hedo didn't. Photo courtesy of the AP.

Here’s the thing, you don’t win a lot of basketball games when you spot a team eight points, stake them to a 14-point first quarter lead, give up 11 threes in the first half, and basically preemptively shoot a second-half run in the foot by playing your worst quarter of basketball in the third 12-minute frame of a blowout. Through 10 games Portland has proven two things.

Thing number 1: This is a talented group of basketball players that when they put their mind to it and try as hard as they can and get a little bit of luck they can play with any team in the league.

Thing number 2: They are not immune to the good old fashion beat-down.

For the sake of the first part of this recap, I’m going to pretend that the fourth quarter didn’t happen. I’m not going to ignore the game’s final period. In fact, because the last quarter differed so much from the three that came before it, I feel like the fourth quarter deserves a recap of its own.

So, let’s begin at the beginning. Portland did what they have done before on the second night of a back-to-back. They came out flat. I asked pregame what two days off would do to the Magic, well apparently it would make them sharp, very sharp. Orlando’s first four scores went like this: Ryan Anderson lay-up, Jameer Nelson lay-up, Jameer Nelson fast-break driving finger-roll lay-up, Jason Richardson dunk.

Portland’s first four possessions went like this: MISS Gerald Wallace lay-up, MISS Marcus Camby 15-footer, MISS Wesley Matthews 14-footer, MISS Raymond Felton 25-foot three-pointer. And just like that the Magic led 8-0. But it wouldn’t all be lay-ups and dunks. Oh no, this Orlando team was built to gun, and gun they would. Five out of the Magic’s final eight scoring possessions in the first quarter were threes. After 12 minutes, Orlando had hit 14 field goals, six of them were treys. Giving up 36 points in a quarter is never something to aspire to.

It would get worse before it got better though. Orlando pushed their lead to 20 in the middle of the second period, and again the damage came from beyond the arc. Not to put too much emphasis on what I said in my pre-gamer, but Wednesday was a showcase on how a Dwight Howard led team can be effective without Dwight doing much of anything. As big and as mobile as Howard is, it’s imperative to at least try to defend him. When the focus of Portland’s defense turned to Howard, Howard managed to get the ball out to the wings. Once on the wings, the ball was moved quickly around the perimeter as guys made cuts through the lane–using Howard to get free of their man–until it ended up in the hands of an open shooter. When that happened, said shooter let it fly, and Wednesday 59% of the time it went in.

God forbid Portland would send the double team to Dwight. In that situation the ball wouldn’t even have to rotate around the arc. Dwight could just pick out which ever guy was left undefended, and deliver that guy a gift wrapped, wide open, three-point shot. There were two guys on the floor in an Orlando jersey on Wednesday that weren’t three-point shooters, Dwight Howard and Glen Davis. Coincidentally, they were also the only two Magic who played and didn’t knock one down from deep.

It seems silly to have a team that is built around one guy that stands in the key and four guys that don’t get within 25 to 30 feet of the basket. But when that one guy is Dwight Howard, and the four on the perimeter believe they have never taken a bad shot in their lives, it’s Stan Van Gundy who gets to have the last laugh.

Through three quarters, Orlando had outscored Portland 85-68, had hit 14-of-22 from three and 34-of-55 from the field (64% and 62% respectively), and held the Blazers to 43% from the field and from deep. Wednesday’s game was over. You know how I know? Luke Babbitt played 4:25 in the third, that’s how I know.

But obviously this game wasn’t over, which brings me to part two of this two-part recap. The fourth quarter. Let me preface this by saying, if you are a Blazer fan–and I mean a real Blazer fan–you have probably reached the point in your life where you know you should never leave the Rose Garden early. Not because leaving early means you’re a bad fan, I understand wanting to beat the traffic I also have a day job, but because if you leave early you will miss something amazing.

I know there is somebody somewhere in Blazer-land that bailed on Game Four of the Portland/Dallas Playoff series early in the fourth quarter. At some point, probably following years of intense psychotherapy, that person will likely even come forward and talk about the time in their life they decided to get a head start on their Saturday afternoon errands and walked out on the most amazing thing in the history of professional sports.

So the preface to this fourth quarter synopsis was a bit exaggerated, Wednesday wasn’t that afternoon in late April, but it was another exhilarating, and ultimately frustrating, Rose Garden special, the fourth quarter comeback. With 10:58 remaining on the evening, Orlando lead by 20, with 2:38 they led by three. Jamal Crawford kept Portland close through three quarters (if by close you mean still on the score-board) but in the fourth everybody got involved offensively. The Blazers’ balanced offense and a combination of Orlando missing shots for the first time and Portland stepping up their defensive effort turned Wednesday’s fourth quarter into a kind of microcosm of how this Blazer team wins games.

For the fourth quarter run, Portland’s lineup was Nicolas Batum, Gerald Wallace, LaMarcus Aldridge, Jamal Crawford, and Wesley Matthews. That’s five guys that have to be defended on offense, and can play good and sustained defense. By taking advantage of miss-matches, using the pick-and-roll to a T with LaMarcus and Jamal, and finally, finally knocking down some shots, the Blazers were able to make this a game. If Portland had played the whole game the way they played the fourth quarter, they would still be undefeated at home.

As it is, Orlando plays spoiler again and ruins the Blazers’ perfect home record. I know that some fans are going to break out in a cold sweat when they think about this upcoming road trip. I’m right there with you, but only because I remember Portland’s win-less road swing early last season. But this is a different team. There are a couple of easy wins on this trip (Toronto and Detroit, less so New Orleans and Houston), and teams do get a good chance to bond on the road, something that this team needs.

Yes Wednesday was disappointing. We all knew that Portland had a run in them, but this one felt a little different. They made it early, they had a really good chance to get level, NOBODY LEFT, and a few empty possessions at the end of the fourth kept it from happening. But take heart in the fact that this team didn’t roll over. And also remember, Orlando had to have an incredible shooting night to beat the Blazers by three. Those are positives.

Portland’s first road game on this long trip is Friday in San Antonio.

Couple of quick things:

• You want to look at a nice box score? Check out Orlando’s. Nine guys played, eight guys scored (everybody but former Blazer Von Wafer who played only three minutes and got called for charging on his one drive to the hoop), seven guys reached double figures, four guys took nine shots, three guys took 11, basically every player aside from Chris Duhon and the aforementioned Wafer had the same shooting percentage (Duhon hit his only shot attempt and it was, of course, a three). Probably the most balanced box score I have ever seen. One number does stand out though: Dwight Howard 3-of-12 from the free throw line. Ouch. Portland should have really fouled him every time he even looked at the rim.
• Jamal Crawford got the monkey off his back a little bit, leading all scorers with 24. Jamal added to his best in NBA history four-point play total in the second quarter, which made it all the more frustrating when with the Blazers down four in the fourth quarter he couldn’t get a second four-point play (according to the Wikipedia entry on the four-point play, Jamal holds the record for four-pointers in the fourth quarter). All kidding aside. Jamal had a very nice game, he did play a few more minutes Wednesday than Tuesday, so that probably helped. He also knocked down a couple of shots in the first half. That definitely helped.
• On my way out of the Rose Garden tonight, Sean Meagher, Oregonlive’s Blazer blogger and consummate professional, chased me down in the parking garage. Naturally I assumed he was planning to stab me and take all my money, but instead he just had a question. “Who’s that guy,” Mr. Meagher asked. “He used to play for Cleveland with LeBron…Larry?” “Larry Hughes?” I said. “Yeah, Larry Hughes. Did you know he was on this team?” I did. And did you know that in 2004-05 Larry Hughes led the league in steals while averaging 22 points a game? Larry’s line on Wednesday: DNP. Too bad for Sean, he would have really loved to see some Larry Hughes.
• Patty Mills was in the Rose Garden for the game. He got Wesley to flash the three goggles, although I bet after the way the Blazers played with him in the stands for the first time this season he probably won’t be invited back. As far as Patty joining this team, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Somebody would have to be cut, and I just don’t think it’s in the cards. Sorry.

Box Score

Standings

Howard The Dunk

email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

Wednesday needed a little less Magic offense, and a lot more Larry Hughes.