Here is one of the only images I could find that didn't feature Chris Paul or David West when I Googled "New Orleans Hornets." Photo courtesy of Sportslogos.net

Blazers: 7-5 (4th Northwest Division)

Hornets: 3-9 (5th Southwest Division)

Game Details: New Orleans Arena, New Orleans, LA. 12:00 PM. TV: CSNW Radio: 750 AM (KXTG)

Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Raymond Felton (#5, 6’1”, North Carolina), SG Wesley Matthews (#2, 6’5″, Marquette), SF Gerald Wallace (#3, 6’7″, Alabama), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6’11″, Texas), C Kurt Thomas (#40, 6’9″, Texas Christian)

Projected New Orleans Starting Lineup: PG Jarrett Jack (#2, 6’3”, Georgia Tech), SG Marco Belinelli (#8, 6’5”, Bologna, Italy), SF DaJuan Summers (#22, 6’8”, Georgetown), PF Chris Kaman (#35, 7′, Central Michigan), C Emeka Okafor (#50, 6’10”, Connecticut)

Happy Martin Luther King Junior Day, and congratulations to those individuals who are not going to be watching this game at work. Portland is 0-2 on this six-game road trip, they’ve lost three straight, and they’ve fallen from 1st, to 2nd, to now 4th in the Northwest Division.

All is not lost though. Looking at the schedule, it will be totally possible for Portland to finish this excursion with four straight wins, not to mention, almost all of the remaining games in January are very very winnable. Starting with what might be the most important game of this trip: Monday afternoon in New Orleans against the Hornets.

Wait, did I just say that a game against a 3-9 team that is without two of its best players and has only one win since December 28th is the most important game of this trip? I did, and here’s why. Portland needs to find a way to win on the road. They need to build confidence that they can finish games on the road. And they need to beat bad teams (on the road or no). Beating New Orleans might just be the spark this team needs to get back up to the top of the conference, where they belong.

But not only that, losing to New Orleans would not be good. A four game skid is a no-go; dropping a game to an inferior team is equally not good. Any heat still on the Blazers will be gone should they fail to beat to Hornets on Monday. What a win could mean for the rest of this road trip, not to mention the rest of the road season, coupled with how bad a loss to the Hornets would be, is why Monday’s game might be the most important afternoon of Portland’s early season.

How should Portland go about winning this game? That’s the easy part. Play their game. Friday in San Antonio, Portland’s offense didn’t show up. Saturday in Houston, Portland failed to execute down the stretch. The Blazers will have to do a lot wrong to lose to New Orleans, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. To avoid that outcome, Portland has to establish what they want to do on offense and defense, and carry that through for 48 minutes. That means getting LaMarcus Aldridge involved early, letting Gerald Wallace relentlessly attack the rim and New Orleans’s front line, and figuring out a way to get the shooters to click.

It might sound like a tall order, but it isn’t. This team can put together a winning game plan every night. It’s just an issue of executing that game plan. Maybe the best way to to get into the groove of executing on a nightly basis is to get a blow out victory on the road.

A couple of things I’m going to be looking for:

• Can Portland get and hold a lead: Portland was never really in the loss to Phoenix or to Orlando (except of course at the very end of that one), but they had leads in San Antonio and in Houston. And both times they had leads in the fourth quarter. The key, of course, isn’t getting a lead, it’s hold onto that lead. Against Houston, Portland got ahead by three late into the final period, and couldn’t push that lead and it ultimately cost them the game. A couple of possessions in a row the Blazers turned the Rockets over, and were unable to make those turnovers count. At one point, Portland got a big-time steal that turned into a three on two fast break. Instead of a lay-up, Nicolas Batum was called for charging, and the ball went right back to Houston. At this point a little more than five minutes remained to be played. A five-point lead with five minutes to play isn’t a done deal by any stretch, but at that point the Rockets hadn’t scored a point in almost two minutes. If, instead of rushing to turn overplay a three on two fast break, Portland had pulled the ball out, setup a play, and taken the time to get a good look at the basket, they might have been able to give themselves enough breathing room to finish Houston off. Again, that’s about execution. If Portland can get a lead, then execute their offense to hold that lead, they should be fine.
• Will Portland avoid getting down by double digits: Portland has lost in pretty spectacular fashion in three out of four failing efforts. Even in the OT loss on Saturday, the Blazers trailed by 14 points. Avoiding double digit deficits is always a good idea, doubly on the road. Playing against a fired up crowd is always tough, and battling back to close a gap only to have see that gap opened again by a couple of made jumpers can really knock the wind out of a team. Also, when trailing late, a team has to basically play every possession perfectly. A turnover in the midst of a comeback can derail the whole effort. If Portland doesn’t get out to an early lead, they will at the very least have to play to keep the game close. If they get behind by 10 or more at any point Monday afternoon, they’ll be in trouble.
• Can Portland NOT overlook this team: Trevor Ariza is out, Eric Gordon is out, Jarrett Jack is the number one guy. This is one of the worst teams in the NBA. But it’s still the NBA. Any time can win on any given MLK Jr. Day. Portland needs to take this team seriously. They have a couple of players that tend to have big games against the Blazers, Chris Kaman is one Carl Landry is another, and if Portland sleeps on this team, or gets too caught up in preparing for Atlanta or whatever leads to teams overlooking their opponents, the Hornets can win.
• Nicolas Batum: I left my projected starting lineup with Kurt Thomas, mostly because NOLA has a pretty burly front line, but I think there is a chance Nicolas gets the nod. He had an amazing game against Houston, but I’m willing to bet it felt incomplete to him because it didn’t end in a Blazer victory. Nicolas wants to win games more than anything, more than starting, more than getting his looks. And most of all, he wants to help Portland win games. I expect him to come out with a vengeance on Monday.

email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

"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.

(Seriously, I can’t believe its 2010 and I just wrote a paragraph fawning over Juwan Howard. What is the world coming too? I feel like if I were to watch Paranormal Activity tonight I would absolutely sink to the depths of hell never to return. I mean if you had told me before the season that in 2010 I’d open a Re-Thoughts with Juwan Howard love I would have asked ‘How many shots of Everclear did I have?’, snarkily laughed in your face and quietly judged you. Let’s just hope LL Cool J didn’t see this. He might try and rap again.)

Yes, there was more than Juwan Howard’s dunk tonight. The Blazers dropped a game to the Clippers. I don’t know about you, but I’m not having too rough of a time swallowing this one. Maybe I’m still euphoric from Juwan’s dunk, but with the state of the team right now it feels like there are going to be nights where the ball bounces our way and nights where it doesn’t. A couple nights ago. It did. Tonight, it didn’t. I mean on the 30th against this same very team you could argue we maybe should have lost. The other reason why I’m not taking this one too hard: Brandon Roy scored 6 points. As depleted as we are, if Brandon Roy scores 6 points we are in some deep, quicksand-like doo doo. Even at full strength, its going to be tough to win with Roy only dropping 6. No need for over analysis, Roy struggling like he did was a major reason for the loss. This isn’t a criticism, just a fact. He’s been phenomenal as of late, tonight he just looked a bit sluggish. Credit the Clips for making him the focus of their defensive gameplan. But a struggling/tired Roy is no bueno for this squad. And thus the Blazers walk out of the Staples Center with an L. Did Kaman/Camby beast us a little? Yeah…but not anymore than they did the other night. The Clips hit us inside and when we tried to take that away they made shots (Eric Gordon…damn) and we didn’t have enough to answer back. Case closed.

(Long story short….it is really tough to win anywhere (especially on the road) when you’re depleted, your star scores 6 points, your opponent shoots 58 percent from the field/61 percent from three and outrebounds you 38-29. That’s just tough.)

Another excellent performance by Martell Webster who seems to have pulled a Stella and got his groove back (hey if Juwan can go off I can use that dated reference). Credit to @AGDuck and @blazersblog for bringing this to my attention on Twitter, but apparently scoring wise he’s putting up some of his best numbers in consecutive games of his career. Pretty neat stat to see from someone whom you’ve worried about seeing consistency from. I’m surprised Coup has not drowned the RCP offices with Martell Webster love.

Andre Miller’s 22 points and 16 assists made me cheese. He is clearly beneficiary numero uno from this whole depleted roster thing. Dre is just going out there and playing. You can just taste the aggression through the TV screen. Its fun to just watch him play his game and not over think or get tight or get caught up in all the madness. The reason why I’m not completely fawning over it is because in the back of my head I don’t know if he’s turning a corner or just playing well because he knows he’s going to play a ton of minutes. I really wish he would just kind of stop giving interviews, because the more he does the more it seems like he’s just kind of saying/doing the right things and might be thinking otherwise.

(And yes, fawning is the word du jour it won me a Scrabble game so I spread it to you all.)

The rest of the squad? I don’t have many words. Jeff Pendergraph hustled and is continuing to encourage the Blazer faithful (8 and 7), Dante Cunningham was solid and there is nothing wrong with that. Jerryd Bayless seemed somewhere else and Patty Mills is fast. Oh yeah…Shavlik Randolph scored. To the people’s thoughts:

Twitter Thoughts

@pdXXXchange Juwan Howard went 88mph when he dunked over Kaman.

@DJBReady Lack of Frontcourt Depth, Length, etc. really starting to take affect on the team. Got dominated inside tonight

@GoDucks32 Miller was outstanding, but w ejust need more players. They cant keep the pace up…can they?

@shai6sense When the heart is not working the body can’t win on his own. B-Roy with a bad game = Portland lose

@thelance Blazers just seemed gassed at the end of the 3rd quarter. It caught up with them and the game got out of hand fast.

@travismargoni In theory I could excuse this one. But having watched all those Clippers’ turnovers, and Roy taken out by THAT Defense: ouch

@AngieLovesPDX After the first quarter or so we had no defense. And half way through the 4th it looked like we had just given up.

@alexjsteele Roy had 6 points…Duh we lose with our current squad. No other analysis necessary.

Well….enough said. I’m interested to see how our undersized front-line handles Zach Randolph playing like an All-Star and Marc Gasol tomorrow night.