Brandon Roy battled former teammate Dante Cunningham on the way to an impressive Blazer win. Photo courtesy of the Oregonian

Saturday’s game will be memorable, at least for awhile, and it will have nothing to do with the basketball that was actually played. That was as forgettable as any blowout in recent history. The memories from Portland’s dusting of the Charlotte Bobcats will come, of course, because it was the return of Joel Przybilla and Dante Cunningham. And to be honest, it felt like Joel and Dante’s return may have spooked Portland more than it did Charlotte.

The Blazers didn’t play a great first half, minus a little stretch to close the second quarter that gave Portland the lead at halftime, but they did play an absolutely horrible first 12 minutes. I’m not sure if maybe they were waiting for Joel and Dante to get their much deserved ovations, which each of them got upon checking in during the first quarter, before getting down to business, or what, but in the first quarter the Blazers couldn’t buy a hoop. Portland shot a paltry 37% on their way to 15 first quarter points. The first quarter looked bad from every angle, and it was a sign of what was to come. Fortunately, it was a sign of what was to come for the Bobcats. Charlotte barely outpaced Portland in the first quarter, shooting worse from the field, 36%, and leading after the first quarter by a single point.

The Blazers would eventually start hitting shots, and the Bobcats simply wouldn’t. Portland held their opponents to fewer than 20 points in all four quarters, and picked up their scoring in the second quarter, and really never looked back. What was a bit odd about Saturday, was that the Blazers built out their lead almost instantly, and without much fanfare. With 6:55 remaining in the third quarter, Marcus Camby knocked down a nine-footer, and Portland took a 46-45 lead. Two minutes later the Blazers were up ten, and Charlotte wouldn’t get closer than seven the rest of the night. Portland pushed their lead to 26 before it was over.

The Bobcats are not a great team, that’s for sure, but Portland should give themselves the credit for turning a slog of a game in to an out and out runaway. Portland won this game, Charlotte didn’t lose it. Defense was the main key for Portland. The Blazers stepped up their on the ball defense, and did an excellent job of getting into passing lanes. Rudy Fernandez is excellent at slipping into a passing lane unnoticed and swiping a lazy pass or two. Gerald Wallace excels at that too, and his track-down defense is top notch. Portland still needs to work on finishing defensive plays, meaning limiting offensive rebounds, but when you hold a team to 29 field goals made, 1 made three, and 10 made free throws that’s an indication that defense is being emphasized.

Along with defense, credit the shot making, specifically threes. Portland’s final shooting percentage from three wasn’t great, 8-of-21 for 38%, but six of those eight made threes came in the second half. The Blazers were 2-of-11 from three in the first half, and 6-of-10 in the second; an improvement to say the least. It’s not the best idea to become a team that relies solely on the deep ball, but this team needs to hit shots in order to clear the paint for LaMarcus Aldridge. LA was the best player on either team, as he is most nights, finishing with 26 points to lead all scorers, but it was the play of Patty Mills once again that seemed to give Portland the push they needed to get over the top. Patty is most likely back in the rotation for good, coach Nate McMillan made a point in his post game remarks that running Rudy or Brandon Roy as the point guard in the second unit hasn’t worked very well, and for the second game in a row he came in and pushed the pace. Patty’s getting more and more fearless with his jumper every night out, which is good. You don’t want a guy like Patty to take a lot of bad shots, but you also don’t want him on the court afraid to shoot the ball a la Luke Babbitt. Personally, I would like to see Patty have a big scoring night and a big assist night, Saturday he finished with 12 points knocking down four threes but managed only a single assist, but that might be too much to ask in only 18 minutes.

For the time being, it looks like Portland will run a nine man rotation, keeping the starting lineup as is, and using Roy, Wallace, Rudy, and Patty as the second unit. A big is needed to round out that second five. It will be LA for most nights with Camby used to spell him. A Joel Przybilla or a Dante Cunningham would fit nicely in that unit, but alas it won’t be so. The Blazers’ second unit was credited by McMillan for turning Saturday into a blowout, and I don’t disagree. There is a lot of scoring power in that group, and as Gerald Wallace gets more and more comfortable, that second five, or four plus one, will be up there with some of the better bench mobs in the Western Conference. Wallace seems to still be a work in progress as far as finding his niche in the offense. Hopefully Portland’s upcoming road trip will give him and the team a chance to really sort it out.

Portland starts their road trip Monday in Orlando. The Blazers beat Orlando at home way back in December. Dwight Howard, whose name has come up in some MVP related conversations lately, went absolutely nuts in that game, scoring 39 points and making 13 free throws. This is a different Magic team now, without Rashard Lewis and Vince Carter, and they will be without Howard also, who will be sitting due to a one-game suspension for receiving his 16th technical foul of the season. This road trip includes stops in South Beach, Atlanta, and Charlotte. A win in Orlando would be a fantastic start to this final four-game swing. A split of these four games would be very nice.

Just a couple quick thoughts:

• Joel Przybilla and Dante Cunningham got fantastic ovations from the home crowd, as was to be expected. Both former Blazers played in the neighborhood of 20 minutes, Joel fouled out after 17 minutes played, and seem to fit in with their new team. Dante matched up most of the evening with Brandon Roy. It seemed to me like playing against Dante gave Brandon an extra little pop to his step, and he attacked him hard every time he had the ball. Brandon said running against DC felt familiar because he’d done it so much in practice. Cunningham agreed when I talked to him after the game. He also said being back in Portland was bittersweet. Dante got a great reception from the fans waiting for autographs by the player cars and visiting team buses, and I’m sure he enjoyed playing in front of the Portland crowd one more time this season. However, both Joel and Dante seem to have moved on, at least somewhat. There is always the potential for one or both of them to return to Portland following this season, but right now they are on a new team that is struggling for wins, and they want to contribute as much as they can.
• Brandon’s minute restriction has been lifted a little. Saturday he played 21 minutes, and looked pretty good yet again. His jumper is coming along, and his movement is well on the way from decent to almost good. He is now going to be allowed to play in the second night of back-to-back games. That means he will play against LeBron James and Dwayne Wade on this trip.

Brandon Roy and Patty Mills shared some words with former teammate Joel Przybilla before entering the game.

Box Score

Standings

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

Joel Przybilla made a name for himself in Portland going toe-to-toe with some of the NBA's very best big men.

February has been an interesting month for the Blazers and their fans. LaMarcus Aldridge showed that his two plus months of high level play was worth Player of the Month honors, the team seemed to jell in a way that they hadn’t previously this season, rolling into the All-Star break on a six-game winning streak and in fifth place in the incredibly tight Western Conference. It wasn’t until after the All-Star break, though, that quite likely the biggest thing in Blazer nation happened, putting an unforgettable cap on the month of February.

Portland made a trade to bring in Gerald Wallace. The deadline trade wasn’t exactly headline grabbing outside of Portland, considering some of the other deals that went down, but it was a pretty big deal in this relatively small market. One thing for sure that didn’t got unnoticed by any Blazer fan was that the trade included one Joel Przybilla. Although very few people would undo the trade, especially given what Wallace can bring to this team on offense and defense, everybody was sad to see Joel go.

This Saturday is a momentous occasion for all of us fans that grew to love what Joel brought to the Blazers; it will be the first time since 2003 that Joel will take the Rose Garden floor in a jersey that doesn’t belong to the Portland Trail Blazers.

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Blazers are on [sic] team that really likes Andy Varejao. Rockets another. Spurs too. But especially Blazers.

This is the first we’ve heard of Rich Cho possibly making a move to bring in frontcourt depth beyond adding a center for training camp. Given the Blazers’ uncertainty at the center position with Jeff Pendergraph out for the season with a torn ACL and return dates for Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla still unclear, the Brazilian-born Varejao is exactly the kind of player Portland should be looking to add. He’s a scrappy, hard-nosed defender who can play both the power forward and center positions, take charges as well as anyone in the league (detractors call him a flopper, but the results are hard to argue with), and score in the paint.

It’s obvious why the Cavaliers are looking to move Varejao: the six-year, $48 million contract he signed in the summer of 2009 is going to greatly inhibit their ability to rebuild for the post-LeBron era. While that contract is more than a bit rich for a sixth man, the need that he would fill for the Blazers makes it a burden worth shouldering, especially since the last year is only partially guaranteed.

As far as trade scenarios, Cleveland would likely be looking for cap relief and possibly a young player or two, although Varejao isn’t exactly the caliber of player they could demand a Nicolas Batum-level prospect for. He is due to make $7.2 million in 2010-11, which means that either one of the Blazers’ two big expiring contracts (Przybilla and Andre Miller) would make a deal work financially. Including Miller in a trade doesn’t make a great deal of sense for either club: the Blazers don’t have a sure-thing replacement at point guard lined up, while the Cavs acquired Ramon Sessions from Minnesota this summer and still have Mo Williams expecting to play big minutes. Przybilla, once healthy, would provide a solid replacement for the Cavaliers in the middle, where they are severely lacking in size following the departures of Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Shaquille O’Neal. He also carries a $7.4 million expiring contract, which would greatly aid the Cavs’ rebuilding efforts.

Additionally, it’s very possible that the Cavs would waive Przybilla following the trade, freeing him up to re-sign with Portland after 30 days, just as Ilgauskas returned to Cleveland after being dealt to Washington at the 2010 trade deadline for Antawn Jamison. Either way, while Przybilla has been a rock-solid rebounder and shot-blocker for the Blazers, a center rotation of Marcus Camby and Varejao is vastly preferable to the Blazers’ current plan, which involves playing LaMarcus Aldridge for significant minutes at the center position, where he has proven not to be anywhere near as effective as he is at power forward. Once Oden returns to the court, Varejao can slide ably over to power forward to become a full-time backup for Aldridge.

As the beginning of the regular season approaches, the Blazers’ pursuit of Varejao will likely either gain steam or die off as yet another unfounded trade rumor. But Przybilla and possibly Rudy Fernandez (if the Cavs demand something more than pure cap relief) for a versatile, tough defender like Varejao is a deal that absolutely makes sense for the Blazers.

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