Too bad we won't see Bryant Reeves tonight. We can all imagine though. Photo courtesy Hall of Fame Memorabilia.

Blazers: 10-7 (4th Northwest Division)

Grizzlies: 10-6 (1st Southwest Division)

Game Details: Rose Garden Arena Portland, OR. 7:00 PM. TV: CSN Radio: KXTG (750AM)

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 Marcus Camby (#23, 6’11″, UMass)

Projected Memphis Starting Lineup: PG Mike Conley (#11, 6’1”, Ohio State), SG Tony Allen (#9, 6’4”, Oklahoma State), SF Rudy Gay (#22, 6’8”, Connecticut), PF Marreese Speights (#5, 6’10”, Florida), C Marc Gasol (#33, 7’1”, Barcelona, Spain)

Let’s talk about tests. Portland has had a few tests already in January, and for the most part they’ve done OK. Oklahoma City on the road was a test: Passed. Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers both at home were tests: passed those too.

They’ve also failed a couple of tests this month. Winning in Detroit to finish their first long road trip at .500: FAIL. Staying undefeated at home: FAIL. Tuesday night is a two-part test, or to be more accurate, the first part of a two-part test.

Memphis is on fire right now. They haven’t lost since January 10th. One night ago they came from 20 down in Oracle Arena to beat the Golden State Warriors. Two weeks ago the Grizz weren’t in the Playoff picture, as of Tuesday night they’re fourth. If the Playoffs started tomorrow, they’d have home court advantage.

But Memphis is beatable, and not only that, they too are stepping on the court facing a pretty big test. In the course of ripping off seven straight W’s, the Grizzlies have only defeated one team over .500. And that team, the Chicago Bulls, were playing without their star player, Derrick Rose. Memphis must feel like they’ve won the scheduling lottery, and they are about to be asked to make good.

Portland still has only lost once at home. They have an advantage playing in the Rose Garden. They don’t get as sluggish when shots aren’t falling, they play better defense for whole possessions, and they have the ability to catch fire and blow up the scoreboard.

To beat Memphis, the Blazers have to do two things. First, they have to defend the entire floor. Against the Kings on Monday Portland gave up a lot of open looks. They didn’t go in because Sacramento, as a team, can’t really shoot. Memphis can. Defending the three and the long two is going to be just as important as keeping Marc Gasol from getting easy lay-ups.

Second, the Blazers have to score. The Grizzlies are a good rebounding team. They aren’t as good without Zach Randolph, but they’re still pretty darn good. Portland has to get open looks. More importantly, they have to knock down those open looks.

Both the Blazers and the Grizzlies are on the second night of back-to-backs. Portland stayed at home; the Grizz probably got into PDX at or around midnight last night (don’t quote me on that I’m just guessing based on how far it is from Oakland to Portland and what time the GS/MEM game ended). The Blazers should be a step fresher than their opponents.

Here’s the caveat. Portland plays tomorrow night too, making the reverse trip that Memphis made last night after this contest tonight. The Blazers have to see that Golden State game in their rear-view and know that Oracle is not a place they ever win. Saving their energy for tomorrow’s game might end up costing tonight’s. And then, of course, there’s no telling what tomorrow will hold. Portland needs to win tonight and do it without thinking about tomorrow. That’s the test.

Here’s what I’m watching for:

• Portland’s bench play: Memphis is strong at the starting five, but without Darrell Arthur (out with an injury) and Shane Battier (took his talents to South Beach) their bench is a bit thin. Portland has gotten solid play as of late from Craig Smith. He should be able to continue that tonight. There’s no telling if Jamal Crawford can string two games together. And Nicolas Batum needs to play better, or at least shoot a few more times than once. If Portland’s bench beats Memphis’s bench, the Blazers win.
• Nicolas Batum: I know I just mentioned him, but he needs to be brought up again. Nic didn’t have a great game on Monday. Blame it on the problems with his mother if you like. Personally, I don’t care. He needs to play better. I’m not blaming him, not at all, but when he gets in he needs to get involved. The team can’t win without him.
• Marc Gasol versus LaMarcus Aldridge: My guess is they won’t face each other too much directly, but this is one of those times when LaMarcus has a chance to have a statement game against one of the guys coming up behind him in the West and getting a ton of positive heat. The younger Gasol is a scorer, but I don’t think he can outscore, or outplay LA.

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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

This is the 4th and final contest between these two teams. It’s hard to gather much from the previous three games because of intangibles: early in the season, Portland playing without energy, Portland was depleted, etc. It kind of feels like the Blazers have always face Memphis at a weird time this season. Well tonight, the Blazers face Memphis for once when they seemingly are rolling and healthy. The talent of the Grizzlies is no longer a surprise, this is a tough team to beat. On the flip side…February was not too kind to the Grizzlies as they took a fall from grace similar to the third week of talking to a girl you like. You know, when she starts showing she’s a little crazy and what not. They went 5-8 on the month and went from 25-21 to 30-29. This of course, was good news for Blazer fans. You know the Grizzlies are talented, there is no need to go through the personnel at great length. Their starting 5 is tough to deal with. Zach Randolph is having a career year and loves to stick it to the Blazers, when Rudy Gay is efficient he is unbelievably dangerous, Marc Gasol is a beast inside, OJ Mayo is the X-Factor and Conley runs the show.

(Sidenote, Randolph just dropped 31 and 25 on the Knicks in MSG. You think he’s not on some sort of revenge tour right now? *shudder*)

If you recall the Blazers last game against Memphis, they lost it for two reasons: Portland couldn’t defend on the inside (gave up 54 points in the paint, 14 offensive rebounds) and couldn’t score down the stretch. This of course was a game in which the Blazers played 7 guys as Rudy Fernandez and Nic Batum were out. In theory, this is one of the games where Marcus Camby should be able to make an impact. His presence and ability to rebound should hopefully make things a bit tougher on the Grizzlies than in January. Memphis is not a great half-court team unless you allow them to be. If you give up nothing easy, they tend to struggle. On the flip side if you let them get their heads up you’re in for a long night. Offensively, Portland has more weapons at their disposal. Despite their struggles, the mere presence of Batum and Fernandez changes the spectrum just as far as having more options. You could also imagine that Batum will make an impact on both ends of the floor. His ability to guard Gay or Mayo will be key.  I’ll be interested to see how aggressive he comes out tonight after such a monster game.

One thing about tonight’s game more than any I can remember is that Portland just has to win battles if they want to win the game. They have to win the battle inside, guarding Memphis, not letting them get layups and easy buckets. LaMarcus Aldridge has got to win the battle against Zach Randolph. Roy has got to win the battle against Rudy Gay. OJ Mayo has to be contained. The Blazers have to be ready to fight those three, because you know they are going to get their shots up. This isn’t like an X-Factor, these guys are going to attack. All three guys attempt 15+ field goals a game. It’s on Portland to decide whether they are going to go 9-for-15 or 5-for-15. If Aldridge out-plays Randolph and Roy out-plays Rudy Gay, you have to like Portland’s chances. Even if it is just rendering one or both of those two inefficent, Portland has to figure it out. Now it is going to be a lot tougher with Randolph because of his ability to get to the free throw line. However, I really like Portland’s changes at bothering Rudy Gay. He’s had tough times against Portland all year and the Blazers need to hope that trend continues. In the three previous games, Gay is averaging 14.7 points and shooting 35.7%, way below his season averages of 20 points and 47% from the field.

Portland has a great opportunity tonight. A win will even the season series with Memphis, which is big in case of some sort of late season collapse or Grizzlies run. A win will also put Portland at 4-1 on a 5-game road trip which is nothing to shake your head at. I’m always content with ‘winning’ an extended road stretch, some 3-2 will smell good to me. 4-1 will be much better. We’ll see if the Blazers are ready for the challenge tonight.