The Blazers split the season series with the Miami Heat, the favorite to win this season’s NBA title. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Hey Blazer fans, I hope you’re watching this season’s playoffs. I know I sometimes bow out when Portland is no longer playing on my TV or in person every other night of the week. Let me be the first, well probably not the first but still, to say that checking out from the basketball that is still being played in a pretty major mistake this season.

The Miami Heat are playing inspired basketball and game three of their series with the Bulls is going to be a street fight. The Thunder went from favorite to underdog in the space of a Russell Westbrook meniscus injury. The Knicks and the Pacers series is an instant throwback to the gritty playoff battles of the 1990s. And of course the Golden State Warriors are turning into a full-fledged force at the expense of the Spurs, who once again are showing their age against a younger faster team.

So what does this mean for the Blazers? A couple things. First, looking at the competition out of the west, it’s clear that if Portland wants to compete against the likes of the Grizzlies, Thunder, and now the Warriors, they are going to need to show serious improvement in 2013-14. But there’s something else I’ve noticed while watching the best remaining teams in the NBA beat each other up every night.

Of the eight teams still in the running for the NBA Championship, the 2012-13 Blazers beat every team but one at least one time. Furthermore, Portland split the season series with the Pacers and the Heat, took the season series (two games to one) over the Spurs, and swept both the Bulls and the Knicks.

The Blazers are still a few major pieces from reaching the second tier of the Western Conference. Adding those pieces, or at least putting the kind of package together that might compensate for some of Portland’s more obvious shortcomings, will be a tall order for Neil Olshey and his crew.

When the Blazers take the court for the first time in 2013-14, their job, as a collective, will be to play more consistent defense, get more contributions from the second unit, and develop a more nuanced inside/out offensive strategy. One thing they won’t need to do, though, is figure out a way to compete with the best teams in the league.

Forget for a minute that Portland lost both of their games against the Washington Wizards, lost the season series against the New Orleans Hornets Pelicans and the Phoenix Suns, and the split the season series with the Kings, Magic, Pistons, Raptors, and Cavaliers (all teams that finished with worse win/loss records than the Blazers), over the course of 82 games, Portland proved they could play up to the level of their competition.

This last season was frustrating at times, don’t get me wrong, often made more so by the simple fact that the Blazers could hang with the Heat but got blown out by the Raptors, but there are a number of teams around the league that fail to show up ever against top tier competitors.

The best NBA teams get healthy by whipping the cellar dwellers, the same holds true for the bad teams in the league. Sub .500 teams can compensate, somewhat, for rolling over against the Spurs of the world by beating up on each other. It’s not a place a team wants to be though, competing against the Bobcats while dropping two or more games every season to the teams that make the postseason, and more often than not, bad teams stay bad for a number of seasons.

Certainly the more cynical Blazer fans amongst us will focus on the many things Portland did wrong in the season that just ended to lose to the Sacramento Kings at home and get swept by the Milwaukee Bucks. However, when the Knicks and Pacers tip off game three of their series in Indiana, it’s important to remember that the Blazers’ best road win of the season came at Madison Square Garden, and that back on January 23^rd the Pacers were dropped by 20 in Portland.

Remember too that the Blazers’ best overall win of the season was against the Heat and that the Bulls had no answer for the Blazers in Portland or in Chicago. It’s not just the East either (teams the Blazers play only twice instead of three or four times, increasing the likelihood of a season sweep or split).

The Blazers won in Memphis, something the Thunder will have to do if they want to have a shot at representing the West in the NBA Finals, and two of Damian Lillard’s best games in his historic Rookie of the Year run came against the San Antonio Spurs.

Consistency on defense, bench scoring, and not playing down to their competition will put Portland in the playoffs next season (and hopefully into at least the second round the season after that). This season was about growth and finding a core that could lead the team into the future. That every team competing for the NBA title (except for one) has at least one loss to the Blazers on their 2012-13 record is a good sign.

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

One of Portland’s biggest road wins came in Chicago as the Blazers finished the series sweep against the Bulls. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

March 14, 2013; Portland, OR, USA; New York Knicks point guard Raymond Felton (2) has his shot blocked by Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard (0) as power forward LaMarcus Aldridge (12) comes in to help during the third quarter of the game at the Rose Garden. The Blazers won the game 105-90. Mandatory Credit: Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports

It’s over. The Raymond Felton story is over. Certainly Ray’s career isn’t over, next season he’ll be back at least one in the Rose Garden, and he’ll be back at least once every season until he decides to retire, but for all intents and purposes, the chapter of Blazer lore that will be titled “The Brief and Terrible Blazer Career of Raymond Felton,” has mercifully come to an end.

I say mercifully because for me the whole thing seemed a bit overblown and mostly just silly. It’s fitting, though, that something that was all bluster and no real action would come to a close in the manner it did on Thursday.

Felton, who warned about some people, you know who they are, being advised not to come around him or ask him any questions, ducked reporters to start the game, managed only 11 of the 50 points he promised to score, and refused to answer one question post game in a relatively feeble stand against the local media he claimed to have propagated lies against him.

For the part of the media, the crowd to talk to Felton both pre-game and post game lent the kind of weight to what is really a non-story (in the opinion of this writer Raymond Felton was terrible last year but he was far from the only thing wrong with the 2011-12 Blazers) that can only lead to the pissing contest that this whole thing devolved into.

The Raymond Felton situation was always a chicken or the egg type thing. Which came first, Ray’s hatred for the local media or the local media’s hatred/obsession with Ray? Either way, it shouldn’t matter anymore. The physically beaten and depleted Knicks toyed with and abused Meyers Leonard in the first quarter of Thursday’s game to build a double-digit lead, and then spent the remaining three quarters falling apart.

Ray Felton was pretty much a non-factor, Damian Lillard was phenomenal, Portland won going away. If Felton talks about his beef with Portland writers when the Knicks are in town in 2013-14, he’ll be trying to re-start a fight he’s already lost (by a lot). If local writers continue to fixate on Felton after today, they are guilty of trolling or inciting a guy to act out in the hoops of driving traffic (a kin to the cardinal sin of journalism creating news on which to then report).

Blazer fans aren’t off the hook either. If they boo Felton for the next 48 minutes he plays in Portland, they’ll be living in the past.

Booing ALL NIGHT was impressive, caring so much about a guy who played 60 games as a Blazer is understandable in this market, writing articles that toe the line of acceptability to get people to read and comment makes sense (journalism is a business after all), and talking a bunch of smack to anybody who will listen about how well you are going to play against your old can be expected (NBA players are all ego, that’s how they got to be where they are).

But it’s over now. It’s time to move forward.

Moving forward’s not so bad, though. Damian Lillard continues to be amazing. LaMarcus Aldridge has started to find a very solid balance between his inside game and his outside game. Nicolas Batum and Wesley Matthews have evolved into floor stretchers while also improving on the ball. Eric Maynor is an x-factor. There is a team here that can win. There is a core with this group that, combined with maybe one or two additional pieces, can compete with the top teams in the Western Conference. Raymond Felton isn’t a part of that, how he feels about it shouldn’t matter, and how bad last season was is pretty irrelevant.

Lillard led the Blazers in scoring Thursday night, proving once again that the national stage is where he likes to excel the most. LaMarcus Aldridge collected 22 points on 15 shots. Nicolas Batum was shooting the ball again, finishing with a +24, second only to Lillard’s game-high +25. And as a team, Portland figured out how to play defense on the fly for one of the first times all season.

Through 12 minutes, the Knicks tuned up the Blazers’ interior defense, racing out to 30 points in the game’s opening frame. A huge percentage of those points came from simple pick and roll action run by two guys in their late 39s against another guy in his early 20s. But the 30 New York hung on Portland in the opening quarter weren’t enough to overcome an 11-point scoring difference in favor of the Blazers in quarter number two and a 13-point difference also in favor of the home team in quarter number three.

New York made a push to get back into the action in Thursday’s final 12 minutes. The Knicks cut the lead to under 10 in the fourth, but big threes from Lillard and Batum helped the home team maintain their edge and close out the evening.

Head coach Terry Stotts said in his post-game presser that he told his team to keep pushing the pace and keep trying to score even as New York made their expected run. It was the up-tempo play that got Portland the lead, and it was the up-tempo play that sealed the deal.

Certainly the bulk of Thursday’s game reports focused on Raymond Felton, and the curious nature of his time here (this recap included). That’s fine. A scene’s a a scene. Hopefully what doesn’t go unnoticed is that with fewer than 20 games left, the Blazers have reached 30 wins (a decent number to be sure) and given the circumstances being faced by other teams in the Western Conference, there is still an OUTSIDE shot at the post season.

By the end of next week, we’ll know how Portland’s season is going to finish. Until then, let’s agree that this team is fun to watch, can win games, and has a bright future. Three things that can’t be said about Raymond Felton. Let’s also agree that that’s the last time we’ll mention him.

Portland closes out this home stand Saturday against the Detroit Pistons.

One quick thing:

• Will Barton tried to draw a foul on former Blazer Kurt Thomas during the second quarter of Thursday’s game. KT, who has made a living drawing charges, drew a charge. Thomas was drafted in 1995. Will Barton was BORN in 1991. When I asked Barton after the game if he knew when Thomas was drafted, he said it was probably before he was born. When I told him that he was born but he was about four years old, Barton was impressed. The NBA is an interesting place, the most interesting part about it is that Kurt Thomas has been playing in the league for almost as many years as Will Barton has been alive. Somewhere there is a four year old picking up a basketball for the first time. With a little luck, that kid might one day try to draw a foul against Will Barton in a NBA regular season game.

Box Score

Standings

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

March 14, 2013; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard (0) dribbles the ball on New York Knicks point guard Raymond Felton (2) during the fourth quarter of the game at the Rose Garden. The Blazers won the game 105-90. Mandatory Credit: Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports

March 6, 2013; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; New York Knicks point guard Raymond Felton (2) reacts after a basket in the third quarter against the Detroit Pistons at The Palace. New York won 87-77. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Raymond Felton said when returns to Portland tomorrow: “there are certain people there I don’t want to see and better not come near me.”

— Al Iannazzone (@Al_Iannazzone) March 13, 2013

There’s a basketball game that will be played Thursday night in Portland. It will be between a team that started 2012-13 blazing hot, looking like world beaters, who have spiraled in the second half of the season, will limp into the playoffs, and could very well get bounced in the first round without winning more than a game or two (the New York Knicks), and a team that yesterday had nothing left to play for but due to an ankle sprain sustained by a guy that doesn’t even play for them might (emphasis on MIGHT) still have a puncher’s chance at the post season (the Blazers).

This game has all the drama it needs to get people interested. New York is going to be without its best player (Carmelo Anthony) and it’s most important player (Tyson Chandler) and have been blown out twice in their first two of five road games. Portland has played well and lost in their last few attempts against good teams, they’ve got very few scheduled wins left, and with Kobe Bryant missing some time, if there is a window left on the Blazers’ playoff hopes, it’s now or never.

That’s a story line right there. That’s enough. But nobody is going to care. Thursday’s game is about one thing and one thing only: Raymond Felton.

Step into the Blazers’ way-back  machine. A year ago we were counting down the minutes until Ray Felton was no longer a Blazer. He had come to Portland as a younger Andre Miller (a passing point guard who could really run an offense) with a better long-range shot. He was the solution at point guard the franchise had desperately needed (even more desperately needed once Brandon Roy announced his retirement at the end of the lockout). He might not have been the best choice, but he seemed like a serviceable option.

It didn’t take long for the Felton experiment to fall apart, just as it didn’t take long for a promising lock-out shortened season to go the way of the Dodo bird. It also didn’t take long for Raymond Felton, the staring point guard and potential team leader, to become Raymond Felton, the sideshow, freak show, and scapegoat for what turned out to be one of the most excruciating seasons in at least the last 10 years.

Now, 64 games (more games than Ray played as a Blazer) into 2012-13, the story is that Felton was the catalyst for Portland’s collapse. He was a locker room cancer, they say. It was his seeds of discontent that grew into the mutiny against Nate McMillan that very well could have changed the course and history of the franchise, they also say.

For Felton, his angle is a little different, if not quite so well crafted or as pointed. Ray claims, sort of, to be the target of a smear campaign, or at least the beneficiary of some less than objective journalism.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Ray Felton was out of shape when he came to Portland and never really recovered. The Blazers had been using a piecemeal, band-aid, method of correcting for major roster holes that were a result of injury upon injury. The bottom was bound to fall out sooner or later, fate chose last season. Some members of the media took a hard line stance on Felton, one Ray didn’t back down from. This not backing down led to more “not backing down,” which eventually led to thinly veiled threats of physical violence that I am willing to bet any future earnings I may ever have will not happen.

But regardless of who is to blame for starting the beef, or whether or not Raymond Felton should be held solely responsible for sinking Portland’s season, or how good or how bad you actually think Raymond Felton is, Thursday the Blazers’ former point guard will be the center of attention. Whether Portland wins or loses will be secondary to every fan in the Rose Garden pelting (verbally one hopes and not physically because come on we’re living in a society here) Raymond Felton with hatred, purging their pent up rage in an act of group catharsis.

It should be quite the spectacle.

Blazers Starting 5: PG Damian Lillard, SG Wesley Matthews, SF Nicolas Batum, PF LaMarcus Aldridge, C J.J. Hickson

Knicks Starting 5: PG Raymond Felton, SG Iman Shumpert, SF James White, PF Chris Copeland, C Kenyon Martin

Because I spent so much time talking about Raymond Felton, I’m just going to jump into:

What to Watch For

• Who plays. LaMarcus Aldridge missed shoot-around with a migraine. His status Thursday is game-time decision. Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler went down with injuries in New York’s blowout loss to the Nuggets on Wednesday. LA could play. Melo and Chandler will not play. If Portland can take advantage of New York being without two key pieces, they’ll be in good shape. The Knicks can go a lot of different ways with the roster they have. If they choose to play Chris Copeland at the four, LaMarcus, should he play, can have a big night. If Kenyon Martin starts at center, the Blazers should be able to get inside looks with relative ease. What Portland has to watch out for is a lineup made entirely of shooters. Steve Novak and J.R. Smith can shoot the lights out. If those guys are in the starting lineup, or if they play additional minutes to account for the PT that would co to Melo and Tyson, the Blazers have to make sure they don’t give them too many open looks.
• Can Portland push the pace and put the pressure on New York. The Knicks got blown out in Denver because the Nuggets are a running team who got up and down the floor with ease in the third quarter. The Blazers have been at their best as of late when they push the pace. They are as good at turning a game into a track meet as the Nuggets are, and they haven’t been able to blow up a grind it out team yet. But New York isn’t Memphis, they’re also not the Hornets. They don’t want to grind. Portland will win Thursday if they can convert on turnovers and get baskets in open play, thus forcing New York to play transition defense, something they couldn’t do in Denver.
• Damian Lillard versus Raymond Felton. Ray isn’t responsible for getting Damian to Portland, unless you count his part in the Blazer implosion of last season that led to the trade of Gerald Wallace, but there is no way fans are going to be able to refrain from comparing last season’s point guard to this season’s. In a perfect world, Lillard would go for 40, burning Felton over and over and over as the Rose Garden crowd climbs to unspeakable levels of mass hysteria. It could happen. I’m not going to say that it’s going to happen, but that’s easily what everybody is hoping for.

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