Gerald Wallace had yet another break-out game Saturday against the Philadelphia 76ers. Photo courtesy of the Oregonian.

I guess we can take trap game off the list of possibilities for Saturday’s outcome. You can be forgiven for thinking that there was a chance the Blazers would fall off two days removed from a cake-walk of a win; we’ve seen the way this team has played at times this year, and inconsistency is just the beginning. However, if you guessed that Portland would follow up an efficient, wall-to-wall beat down, with an even handed, wire-to-wire, full team win against a streaking Eastern Conference Playoff team, then congratulations. Not only are you better at predicting the future than I am, you have much more confidence in this Blazer squad too.

And confidence is just what we should have. In three games this week, Tuesday against Dallas, Thursday against Cleveland, and Saturday, Portland has shown that they can play as a team, they can share the load on offense, and are just about as deep as you can get playing only eight guys. Saturday’s wasn’t as remarkable a win as Tuesday’s, let’s be honest if Portland had lost we would all be shaking our heads and blaming this team for getting distracted by the Lakers on the horizon, but in a lot of ways it was important because of its un-remarkableness. Like I said, Philly is a strong team with a lot of guys that can come to play. Saturday, the Sixers had their fair share of runs, keeping Portland within a few buckets all the way into the night’s final quarter. In the past, the Blazers have been better than probably any team at turning a mid-sized lead into a deficit with cold shooting and poor execution. Saturday that didn’t happen, and a game that was really a grind turned into a coast to the finish line.

Here’s the best example of what I’m talking about. With 9:11 remaining in the fourth quarter, Elton Brand, one of those guys that can come to play, hit a 10-footer to cut Portland’s lead to 92-89. Through three quarters Brand had managed only four points, and his lead-cutting jumper was his third straight bucket of the fourth quarter. I’m sure more than a few Blazer fans started to get a knot in their gut thinking that the combination of hot shooting from Brand and cold shooting from the home team was going to undo the work Portland had done to get the lead they had. In fact, the very opposite happened. The Blazers promptly went on a 9-0 run. When Jodie Meeks broke Philly’s dry spell with a three at the 5:04 mark, Portland’s lead was equal to the largest it had been all night. The game certainly wasn’t over, with just over five minutes to play, but the Blazers’ run had made the Sixers’ task that much more difficult, resigning the visiting team to hurried threes, and bad possessions. Answering a late run with a back breaking run is something Portland didn’t do consistently in the beginning of the season. There is no better time than now for the Blazers to start finding an offensive groove.

Along with a solid offensive game, Portland turned in a better than average effort on the defensive end too. Although Philly shot an even 50% from the floor, and matched the Blazers percentage wise from deep, Portland was able to make enough adjustments, and boost the energy of play enough, that the last quarter of the night was Philly’s worst offensively. The Sixers’ scoring by quarter looked like this: 27,27,29,18. The Blazers’ scoring declined every period, with the fourth being their worst scoring quarter too, but holding the hot shooting 76ers under 20 in the last 12 minutes ended up being the difference.

Looking at the Blazers individually, there are plenty of accolades to go around. Every member of the starting five played big. Gerald Wallace was all over the floor on both ends, showing his versatility by blocking shots, crashing the boards, and dishing the ball like a point guard. LaMarcus Aldridge consistently battled with Philly’s physical bigs around the rim, and knocked down the shots when they came. And Wesley Matthews was a stone cold assassin. Matthews has been basically on fire all week. In the last three games, Wesley has gone 4-of-4, 4-of-7, and 6-of-9 from behind the three-point line. His shooting percentage from deep over this three-game home stand: an astounding 70%. Again Matthews got the damage done early. Thursday against the Cavs, Wesley buried both of his first quarter three-point attempts. Saturday, he went one better. Matthews hit five straight threes in the first period. Wesley was one shy of tying a franchise record for most threes in the opening quarter of a game.

When asked, post game, why he pulled Wesley when his touch was going the way it was, coach Nate McMillan said that Wesley looked winded, and that they were sticking to their rotation. Translation: there is no one guy bigger than the rest of the team. As frustrating as it was to see Wesley fall short of a club record, it’s good to know where the head coach’s head is at this point in the season. And that the Blazers are about bigger things than a JaVale McGee style triple-double.

The only real downside to Saturday’s win was that Portland’s bench completely failed to show up. Minus Marcus Camby, who can’t be expected to score, and put in a sold 14 minute run, the Blazer’s second unit was very simply just ineffective. Luckily, the starters had gotten some rest, and they were able to carry the load. An interesting little detail here is that Tuesday Nate left Brandon Roy and Rudy Fernandez in the game to close the fourth period against Dallas, leaving Nicolas Batum and Andre Miller on the bench. That lineup worked. Saturday, Rudy and Brandon were on the bench as Portland made their final push. That lineup worked too. Having two closing lineups is never a bad thing.

For the third night in a row the Blazers topped 100 points, and for the second straight game racked up 29 assists as a team. In Portland’s last loss, a really disappointing outing in Atlanta on all accounts, the Blazers had a total of seven assists and scored only 82 points. Portland’s ball movement and activity on offense have greatly improved since that loss. Thursday and Saturday the Blazers scored a combined 73 points in the first quarter, collecting 19 assists in the process. Fast starts are just the thing Portland needs to set the tone of games from now until the end of the season.

The Blazers avoided both so called trap games, and now have to see if they can find a way to win in Los Angeles against the Lakers. With the Denver Nuggets going 0-of-2 in Florida, Portland has pulled within a half game of the fifth spot, and has a two and a half game lead on Memphis for the eight spot. Now would be a great time for yet another statement win, and to build on the momentum gained from an important 3-0 home stand.

Just one quick thing:

• Portland collected win number 40 Saturday night. With 13 games remaining, the Blazers are still mathematically capable of achieving a third straight 50-win season. That’s pretty remarkable given what this team has faced this season. Also, 11 games over .500 is a season high. Portland seems to be peaking at the right time.

Wesley Matthews flashed the three goggles plenty of times in Saturday's win, making sure he got back on D each time. Photo courtesy of the Oregonian.

Box Score

Standings

Twitter @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

“That’s his sweet spot.”

“You can’t leave him open from there.”

These are all general statements you generally hear repeated over and over from the road announcers when watching League Pass broadcasts. That’s the book on him, and we all know it’s true, but as with any non-fiction, it’s also important to, every once in awhile, revisit the facts that they were based on and see how they’ve progressed. Warning: This might get number heavy, but I do provide visual aids.

Surprising nobody, Aldridge takes the 15th most jumpers from 15-23 feet in the entire league with 5.2 attempts per game, second among power forwards behind league leader Dirk Nowitzki (8.2 attempts) and ahead of Carl Landry and Kevin Garnett (4.8 attempts apiece). On occasion, Aldridge gets poor post position and takes his turnaround jumper from this far out, but most of these attempts are from pick-and-pop situations.

From 10-15 feet, Aldridge climbs the attempts ladder, taking 3.1 per game, “good” for 8th in the NBA and third at his position, behind Nowitzki (4.5 per game) and Elton Brand (3.5) and ahead of David West (2.9) and Chris Bosh (2.6). Other than Dirk and LaMarcus, only Michael Beasley maintains a consistent place in the rankings between the two mid-ranges. Some of these shots come off pick-and-pops, but we can take a solid guess in saying that these are the majority of Aldridge’s turnaround attempts.

From the latter range, 10-15 feet, Aldridge shoots 44 percent, leading Dirk (43.3 percent), Brand (43.4) and West (40.1) while trailing Bosh (46 percent) in efficiency. LaMarcus’ worst full month from this far out was November, when he shot a paltry 27 percent. His best month has been February, which has him shooting 51.1 percent and 55.9 over his last ten games.

From the former, 16-23 feet, Aldridge shoots 42 percent, leading Beasley (40.1), tied with Landry and trailing Dirk (48 percent) and Garnett (47). His worst month was December (39.2 percent), nearly edging his January (40.0). His best month was again February, shooting 45 percent and 44.4 over his last 10 games.

Of all his shooting months, by far the greatest outlier was his 27 percent November — with all centers healthy — from 10-15 feet, so keep that in mind when looking at his shot chart:

For comparison, here is Dirk Nowitzki, who, with Rasheed Wallace in the tank, is comparable with Aldridge in terms of having unblockable turnaround jumpers:

And Kevin Garnett, who might have the most similar shot to Aldridge of all the mentioned power forward. Garnett has a similar release point to Aldridge, sets his feet in the same way and the release times are very close in catch-and-shoot situations. Aldridge has also shown an ability to take a single dribble forward before shooting, particularly at the top of the key, which is something Garnett does fairly often:

As you can see, Aldridge is much closer in the mid-range to 33-year old, knee hampered Garnett than to 31-year old, MVP candidate Nowitzki. While Aldridge shoots very well from 10-15 feet on the left block, where he can turn over either shoulder to shoot, he doesn’t have a true “Hot Spot” from anywhere between 10-23 feet, as in he doesn’t approach 60 percent from any spot like the other two players do. He doesn’t have a cold zone, either, which might mean opponents don’t have an area of the court they try and push him to, but there’s something to be said for teammates not having an area of the court to work to get Aldridge the ball in, too. When the Blazers are going through growing pains next November, remember that it can be tough for guys like Oden to adjust to Aldridge when the versatile perimeter big doesn’t have any “Win Zones”.

Before you ask, Aldridge only shot above 42 percent in two of the eight charted zones during 2008-09, the left wing and the right block. With that, we can’t even say he’s been remarkably consistent from the left block.

It’s worth noting that Nowitzki has been remarkably consistent throughout the season, even after suffering an elbow injury due to Landry’s incisors. He had a couple sub-40 percent months from various spots, but nowhere near as bad as Aldridge’s November. Garnett, on the other hand, shot 33 and 30 percent from 10-15 feet in November and December, respectively, after an offseason knee injury (reportedly a removed bone spur).

While we can write off some of the grey area in Aldridge’s chart to the adjustment period during the 2009 portion of the season, it’s tough to put him on quite the same level as two similar-volume shooters when he is shooting sub-43 percent in five of the eight zones. That’s not to say he could approach their levels with a hot streak similar to what he did to finish last season, but consistency counts.

The 76ers, in the past couple weeks, have managed to lose to such teams as the Knicks, the Timberwolves, the Wizards and the Raptors. They also boast offensive (106.7) and defensive (110.0) ratings in the second half the the NBA, sport a sub-.500 effective field goal percentage and only get to the free-throw line on an average of 22 times per 100 field-goal attempts. And yet despite all that, I still think this could be a loss for the Blazers, especially if they play within two adjectives of their listless, confused performance in three of the four quarters against Washington on Monday (minus the third).

That’s because Philly is the fifth in offensive rebounding percentage, and they still managed to beat Portland in Portland on Dec. 28 even with the Blazers grabbing seven more offensive boards than them. Elton Bran, Samuel Dalembert and Mareese Speights are the horses inside, with a dash of Thaddeus Young when they go small, and it should surprise nobody that all three of those bigs scored at least 14 points in Portland, with Brand going off for 25. No surprise again, that Jeff Pendergraph said this:

@pdxtrailblazers: From @TheRealJP31 “I’m kind of excited for tonight because Elton Brand kicked my butt last time pretty bad.”

He sure did. To be fair, that was only Pendergraph’s fourth game in the NBA and third playing more than four minutes, but the burden still lies with him and Dante Cunningham to keep Juwan Howard from getting dunked on 17 times with quick help rotations once Andre Iguodala, for instance, gets in the lane. As with any game, Portland is going to have a tough time winning if the mid-range jumpers aren’t falling at a decent clip, but Philly’s offensive rebound tally should correlate closely to the scoring margin.

Keys to the Game:

Box out: We’ve covered this ground, but again, if the Blazers aren’t actively finding their men and putting a body on them, they will end up on some less than flattering posters.

Find a third scorer: Shouldn’t be as difficult as long as Roy plays, but the Blazers struggled the other afternoon to find a third player to create shots for themselves. Martell Webster had one of his worst recent games against Philadelphia in December, so anything from him is a boost, but one of Miller or Bayless needs to accompany Aldridge and Roy with a handful of self-sufficient offensive possessions.

Pick up your man in transition: Philly is the second-best fast-break team in the league behind Golden State and they will run their young legs down your throat if the Blazers are going to allow their men to run unhindered down the wing slots all night as they did for Washington.

Stay out of overtime: This is a selfish reason, but if nobody can get hurt and everyone can be relatively rested by the time they come to Boston on Friday, that would be grreaaaaaaaat (sips from coffee mug).