I dropped 30 points on you. It really happened. Bow down. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Take a moment to appreciate and be proud. The Blazers gave you a special moment with this win, and they didn’t have to. They could have been like the Raptors or Celtics, teams that have routinely not shown up to play and, in Boston’s case, used health as an excuse, but even after learning of Brandon Roy’s right meniscus tear, they earned a win.

No need to be any more lyrical than that, just know that this is a team worth savoring, if for nothing else than all the little smiles they put on your face.

Things started out a little dicey, as the Thunder jumped out to a double-digit lead early in the second quarter after James Harden gave Martell Webster the Sweet Chin Music on a fast-break facial. The officials went back and forth on whether they were going to allow Nic Batum and Webster to be physical with Kevin Durant, so the defense suffered, and the early offense looked unsustainable as it relied on Marcus Camby and Andre Miller to create while LaMarcus Aldridge dealt with foul trouble and incessant double teams. The Blazers were forced to run out awkward offensive lineups with Dante Cunningham, Rudy Fernandez and Webster and the Thunder capitalized by getting to the line and keeping Portland shooting jumpers.

Down eight at the half, the Blazers needed a lift or they were going to get out-talented. With a 10-0 run immediately after the break, I’d say they got it.

The run was made possible both by Portland defense and the Thunder ditching the girl they took to the dance by drifting back towards the perimeter on offense. Just look at the sequence: Thunder turnover > Blazers layup, Thunder missed three> Blazers assisted jumper, Thunder missed three > Blazers assisted layup, Thunder turnover > Blazers assisted dunk. Spot the pattern? Portland finished with 60 points in the paint, and more than half of those came in the second half. The pushed the ball (16 transition points), they cut in the half court and they passed their way to easy buckets. Especially without Roy, that’s the only way to survive.

The defense won it, though, with an Omega Swarm eight-minute period in the fourth quarter reminiscent of the effort in the last Dallas win. Put simply, every player on the floor during that stretch was covering his own man and ready to help on at least two others at all times. Occasionally the Thunder moved the ball swiftly enough to create an open look, but Blazer defenders were always hot on their heels. Durant broke the sequence with a pullup three to get within nine with 2:18 to play, but the snowball effect Portland started with that third-quarter run had effectively swallowed up all hope of a comeback by then.

What does this mean for the playoffs? The Lakers are going to play the Thunder and the Blazers could get any one of Phoenix, Dallas or Utah. No, that’s not what I meant. What does this mean for a possible playoff series without Brandon Roy? You just saw the blueprint for how Portland is going to have to win. They will have to adapt to and use the added defensive attention to LaMarcus Aldridge, find those easy looks and play elite-level defense for sustained periods. They’ll also need big moments from unexpected places, and tonight the Blazers got 30 points and 13 boards of big moments from Marcus Camby.

Larry Miller, I hope you’ve started evaluating Kevin Pritchard early.

Individual Thoughts:

Fantastic. Amazing. Wonderful. Spectacular. Bloody brilliant. All those apply to the performance Camby put on tonight. He rebounded, he hit jumpers, he helped on D, he dunked, he dove, he did everything you could possibly want a basketball player to do. One rebound he tipped to himself inspired Mike Rice to say it was the best Blazer rebound of the last 100 years. One game of oozing determination inspired the entire crowd to chant MAR-CUS CAM-BY at the end of the game. In fact, I’m going to stop describing his game to you and leave you with that. Camby played so well, he had a crowd that has only known him for eight games at the Rose Garden chanting his name like he was an eight-year veteran.

While not quite on the level of Camby, Andre Miller was still superb with 22 points and 7 assists. The Thunder couldn’t figure out how to keep Miller out of the paint and Miller orchestrated an aggressively patient offensive game, accounting for a large share of those fast-break and paint points. His greatest feat was bottling up Russell Westbrook (5-of-14) and nabbing four steals in the process. During the second half it seemed like every Blazer had to switch onto guarding Durant at least once, and Miller held his ground. What I’m telling you is, the man has defense that’s needs to be appreciated.

In year’s past, LaMarcus Aldridge (15 points) might have faded from this game. The Thunder took his post offense out early with double teams and eventually got him into foul trouble. But he picked his spots in the second half and created shots whenever the defense wasn’t leaning two defenders on him. The four assists don’t fully depict how patient he was with his offense — he was essentially the anti-Zach Randolph of 2006. The defense was there, too, and tonight I got the sneaky feeling, watching Camby interact with Aldridge, that LaMarcus is learning quite a bit about help defense from the vet.

Nic Batum created some early offense and had some nice finishes in the second half, but his impact was on Durant. As we mentioned, the refs were giving him mixed signals on how physical he could be which led to Durant getting some easy lanes to work with in the first half, but in the second Batum bodied up and used his length to deny and hinder just as he did with Kobe Bryant the day before.

Rudy Fernandez got the start for Roy as was just OK, if that. He actually managed to work with a dribble in the mid-range early on but didn’t create much with the space. If not for two threes and some good energy on recoveries and closeouts, well, we wouldn’t have much good to say about him.

Martell Webster scored a little (9 points), but he was given almost 30 minutes on the court because of his defense on Durant as a fill-in when Batum picked up fouls. In the first quarter, he actually drove the lane, spun and finished with a foul. If you’re familiar with Webster, you were surprised to read that last sentence.

Juwan Howard had a little trouble keeping up with an energetic and versatile Thunder frontline, but he did what he usually does on defense in staying home and reducing collateral damage.

Jerryd Bayless’ greatest impact was taking a rebound and going coast-to-coast at the end of the third to beat the buzzer. Definitely a “More, please” moment. Otherwise, the offense stagnated when he came in for Miller, but the dropoff wasn’t as severe as it has been on some nights.

Dante Cunningham got five minutes thanks to Aldridge’s foul trouble and did a youthful impersonation of Howard’s “Stay Safe” philosophy.

Of course, the other side of this discussion is that the Blazers never should have needed a massive quarter to get into such a crucial game, that they should have been ready to defend the 8th spot in the West from the get go. That carries some weight, but most teams have their slow(wwwww) starts, fewer resist the easy path, which is to fold.

It was a pretty awful half, mind you. Everything the Grizzlies do well, they did without hindrance. Rudy Gay was streaking down the court and dunking before the Blazers even realized they were on defense, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol were having their way on the boards with few actions resembling a box-out to be seen and the three-point line was left undefended and ignored. You could visibly see the players dragging their legs up and down the floor, but however understandable that may be, it’s little excuse for mistakes that require mere feet of lateral movement.

By the break, the Blazers felt like they were down by 20 but were factually only behind by 12, in large part because of a second-quarter sequence when LaMarcus Aldridge followed up consecutive Dante Cunningham dunks with a slamma-damma-ding-dong of his own.

Click through for more thoughts and player observations

“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.