Steve Nash is an elder statesman of NBA fashion. Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated.

Blazers: 5-1 (1st Northwest Division)

Suns: 2-4 (4th Pacific Division)

Game Details: US Airways Arena, Phoenix, AZ. 7:30 PM. TV: ESPN, CSNW. Radio: KXTG (750 AM)

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 Phoenix Starting Lineup: PG Steve Nash (#13, 6’3”, Santa Clara), SG Jared Dudley (#3, 6’7”, Boston College), SF Grant Hill (#33, 6’8”, Duke), PF Channing Frye (#8, 6’11”, Arizona), C Marcin Gortat (#4, 6’11”, Lodz, Poland)

How’s everybody doing? I hope you haven’t taken a deep breath since last night’s big victory over the LA Lakers. I hope Portland hasn’t let all the adrenaline wear off. Here’s why, heading down to Phoenix on a Friday to play the first of two relative bunnies to close out a tough week in the first the month of want will be one of the most insane basketball season in the history of the Association is the literal definition of a trap game.

The Trail Blazers are the hottest thing on two legs right now in the basketball world. Charles Barkley and Steve Kerr love them. Tas Melas of the infinitely wise Basketball Jones crew (the Wu-Tang of b-ball bloggers) ran out of superlatives for the Blazers in today’s Overdose in his first breath. This is a good team (I think for this season I might change the name of this blog to This Is A Good Team because I feel like I say it at least twice in every piece). They are going to have a target on their heads from now on.

Phoenix is not a good team, and that is why this could be a trap game. Two years ago the Suns fell short of representing the West in the NBA Finals by two games, losing in six to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers. That same year they beat Portland in what was the first of Brandon Roy’s historic Playoff comebacks. That team is not this team. They’ve given up Amar’e and Jason Richardson–Blazer killers both–Steve Nash is finally starting to get older, their role players have become starters and their bench has disappeared, they have to rely on Robin Lopez.

So why is this a trap game? Because Portland hasn’t done super well in Phoenix, Steve Nash is still Steve Nash–although he can’t win games all by himself–and this team might just take the night off, thinking that Cleveland will be a snore, and that their re-match with the Clippers in the Rose Garden is going to be the GAME OF THE SEASON (so far).

Here’s how Portland avoids the trap: don’t take the night off. If the Blazers play their game–their game being feed LaMarcus Aldridge early and let Gerald Wallace eat people–they should have no problem making this one a blowout. But going out expecting to get a blowout is also classic trap game material.

This could turn out to be a much bigger game than Portland wants it to be. Right now everybody in the league is salivating at the chance to be the guys that takes the league’s new darling down a peg or two. That is every team that isn’t in the middle of an early season crisis, which at this point seems to only be the Blazers, the Bulls, the Heat, and a couple others that have started to establish themselves as league leaders.

Here’s what I’m watching for:

• Will Portland come out early and establish themselves: There isn’t a single guy on this Phoenix roster that I would take over a single guy on the Portland roster. Sorry, not even Steve Nash. I love his game, but as of the last two games, I a full fledged, Jason Quick-esque Raymond Felton supporter. He’s the guy to run this team. So Friday, Portland’s task will be to get out and dictate the pace and the style, and play their game. There is no better way to do that than get LA going right from the drop. Marcin Gortat is serviceable, but that’s it. Nobody else in a Suns jersey can defend LaMarcus. Portland should recognize that, and take advantage. I’m predicting LA gets at or around 30.
• Turnovers: Portland has taken care of the ball extremely well too nights in a row. Will they do it again. This isn’t a young team, and it isn’t an undisciplined team. There is no reason they should revert at any point against any team this season.
• Can they maintain their high from Thursday: If so they win going away. If not, Phoenix can stick around and maybe pull off a miracle.
• End of the bench guys: Nate McMillan has gone to a nine-man rotation in the last two games (getting very solid minutes from Craig Smith and Kurt Thomas) and Nolan Smith, Elliot Williams, and Chris Johnson haven’t smelled the court since game number two. The Blazer regulars should be gunning to get those guys into the game.

email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject 

Jimmer Fredette will get his second chance to prove his college game translates to the NBA stage as the Blazers take on the Kings at the Rose Garden Tuesday night.

Blazers: 1-0

Kings: 1-0

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

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 Sacramento Starting Lineup: PG Tyreke Evans (#13, 6’6”, Memphis), SG Marcus Thornton (#23, 6’4”, LSU), SF John Salmons (#5, 6’6”, Miami), PF Chuck Hayes (#42, 6’6”, Kentucky), C DeMarcus Cousins (#15, 6’11”, Kentucky)

Tuesday’s game is going to be interesting, and I say that for a couple of reasons. Chief among them is that it marks the real beginning of this season, and might be an indicator of what 2011-12 is going to look and feel like. I’ve said it too many times to count, so what difference does saying it again make, this season is going to burn people out. Tuesday comes right on the heels of Monday, obviously, and that means there is absolutely no rest for Portland.

Game 2 has a second level to it too. Looking at the schedule when it was released, and thinking about how this season was going to play out in real time, I developed a theory. That theory is, some young teams are going to have a major advantage. Young guys don’t tire as easily as their older counterparts. There are a lot of young teams in the NBA. One of them is the Sacramento Kings, the team that takes the floor opposite Portland in the second of a three game homer to kick-off this most recent campaign.

Sacramento’s roster boasts three players born in 1990 (DeMarcus Cousins, Tyreke Evans, and Tyler Honeycutt), three players born in 1989 (Jimmer Fredette, Hassan Whiteside, and Isaiah Thomas), and two players born in 1988 (Donte Green and J.J. Hickson). By contrast, Portland starts a guy born in 1974 (Marcus Camby), and plays another born in 1972 (Kurt Thomas). The Blazers aren’t old, not really, but they aren’t as young as Sac-Town.

Camby logged nearly 30 minutes in the season opener, which isn’t too high for him seeing as he averaged 26.1 minutes in 59 games–51 starts–in 2010-11. But with a preseason that only included one game, there’s a pretty good chance Cam’s not quite in tip-top game shape coming into this one, and will feel some of the effects of Monday’s night. That could be bad, seeing as he might have the assignment of guarding second-year big man DeMarcus Cousins.

Cousins leads Sacramento’s crew of young, and highly touted players. Any team that has three straight years of lottery picks is probably one that isn’t on the right track, but disregarding that history, this is a team of ballers, and they can ball.

Just ask Kobe Bryant. In Sacramento’s home opener last night, the Kings handed Kobe and the Lakers their second straight lose of the season. Last night Sacramento was led by 27 points from Marcus Thornton and 20 from Tyreke Evans. These two are the driver behind the Kings offensive success, and will be the main focal point of Portland’s defensive scheme. However, losing sight of the inside guys would be a mistake, as would overlooking high scoring combo guard/forward John Salmons.

Salmons is on his second go-round with Sacramento, and he isn’t quite the scorer he was in 07-08 and 08-09, but he can still put the ball in the basket. The Kings are probably going to be a lottery team again this season, they lack the cohesion that takes a young group of overachievers into a real contender, but on the second night of a grueling season, coming off a pretty darn impressive win, they should be approached with caution. These guys will be able to score. A failure to win the game on the defensive end could really hurt Portland.

Here are the things that I’ll be watching for:

• Recovery: There are going to be very few times this season when teams are going to get more than one day off. Now is a great time for Portland to figure out how they play on short rest. My guess is that Marcus Camby will get fewer minutes, and one of the bench guys–maybe Jamal Crawford, possibly Nicolas Batum–will get a bit more time. The Blazers are deep. Getting fresh guys on, and keeping the pace up on the second night of a back-to-back will be a key all season long.
• Jimmer Fredette: Lots of rookies come into the league every year that register very high on the “must watch” list. Very few come in like Jimmer Fredette. He’s not the best guy in the lot, he didn’t come from one of the country’s leading basketball mills, he isn’t a college national champion. But he is a guy that has the eyes of the basketball world on him. He shoots all the time, he’s basically a one-man team, and he has the one thing that interests people more than almost anything else. There’s potential that he will fail. There is almost nothing more intriguing to NBA fans than the possibility that some big name college player will fall on their face in the big show. Don’t believe me? Why does anybody still care or talk about Adam Morrison? Jimmer went 3-of-8 from the field against the Lakers, and didn’t try a three. I bet in his second night out he’ll take a couple more shots.
• If problems have been fixed: There’s no way all the issues that came up in Monday’s win were addressed this morning, but it will be interesting to see how Portland develops from game to game. The Blazers still are a work in progress. Every minute they play together the closer they become to reaching the status of a whole team. I expect communication will be better tonight, and I also expect Portland’s slashers will finish a lot better at the rim. Other than that, addressing their early issues are what these games are all about.

email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

Suns: 11-11

Game Details: US Airways Center, Phoenix, AZ. 6:00PM. TV: KGW. Radio: 95.5 FM (KXTG)

Projected Portland Starting Lineup: PG Andre Miller (#24, 6′2″, Utah), SG Brandon Roy (#7, 6′6″, Washington), SF Wesley Matthews (#2, 6′5″, Marquette), PF LaMarcus Aldridge (#12, 6′11″, Texas), C Marcus Camby (#23, 6′11″, UMass)

Projected Phoenix Starting Lineup: PG Steve Nash (#13, 6′3″, Santa Clara), SG Jason Richardson (#23, 6′6″, Michigan State), SF Grant Hill (#33, 6′8″, Duke), PF Channing Frye (#8, 6′11″, Arizona), C Earl Barron (#30, 7′0″, Memphis)

This is kind of like a home-and-home back-to-back, and a little like a mini-playoff series. Although its unlikely that Portland and Phoenix will meet again when the playoffs roll around in 2010-11, it might be good for the Blazers to think about these games against the Suns as the playoffs. Portland and Phoenix are both at .500, and barring any major changes are probably going to be fighting for the final spots in the Western Conference playoffs. Portland has beaten Phoenix twice already this season. Holding that tie-breaker would be big. Winning on Friday gives Portland that. It’s a minor victory, but this season, minor victories are good.

The Blazers are coming off easily the most important three-game home stand in recent memory. Dropping six games in a row can change the course of a franchise, and winning three to break the losing mojo has thus far kept Portland from making wholesale changes. We’re not out of the woods yet, and Friday’s game kicks off an incredibly difficult road trip that includes a tough back-to-back with San Antonio and Memphis, and a match-up against Dallas. The Blazers are also smack in the middle of a stretch that includes nine games in 14 days. A few wins on this road trip, and we can officially say this ship is back on course. Another O-fer, and were back to where we were before Portland snapped off victories at home against the Clippers, these Suns, and the Orlando Magic.

The key to beating the Suns in the last meeting between these two teams was applying pressure to Steve Nash. Portland threw the whole team at the former MVP, and they were able to limit the damage he caused. Phoenix struggles to generate offense from the low post, and making guys like Hakim Warrick and Channing Frye beat you is probably a good tactic. Oh yeah, Jason Richardson scored only six points in Tuesday’s loss. Look for Richardson to have a big night. J Rich alone doesn’t spell doom for Portland, but if he goes off, the Blazers have to make sure that one of the other middle of the bench Suns doesn’t go off right with him.

The Blazers can beat Phoenix with Steve Nash and Jason Richardson scoring in the 20s, the equation changes if Richardson is in the neighborhood of the 40s, but they have to pay attention to guys like Jared Dudley, Grant Hill, and Goran Dragic. These guys are capable of putting up decent offensive numbers, and although they can’t win a game on their own, if they have big nights it might be too much for Portland to handle.

Portland grabbed at least two of their last three wins on pure heart, and have been pushed over the edge by guys coming back or being inserted in the lineup, providing an emotional spark. Andre Miller won’t be coming off a suspension, Patty Mills won’t have a “big” night, and Joel Przybilla has had his season debut. The Blazers are going to need to dig deep, play hard basketball, and work on executing their game plan if they want to stretch this three-game streak to four. If you want to look for positives coming in, there were plenty in Thursday’s victory over Orlando. The Magic are the best team that Portland has beaten thus far, and they did it by attacking the hoop. If the Blazers can match their 50 points in the paint against Phoenix they’ll win.

The Suns have lost their last two ball games, once to Portland and more recently to Memphis. Look for Phoenix to come out with energy, and try to knock the Blazers out early. The Blazers are 4-8 on the road. The best way to permanently erase the memory of the most recent road trip will be for Portland to go out a get a couple wins. There’s no better place to start than Friday in Phoenix.

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject