Of course, there’s another side to that coin. Those things that Portland struggled with on Monday will need to be addressed, and there really isn’t going to be the practice time needed to do the proper addressing. The Blazers will have to use games to improve on the small things things that they didn’t do so well their first time out. If Portland continues to make the mistakes they made on Monday as the season goes forward, they’re not going to win very often.

What were those mistakes? In my opinion, it came down to three things: execution, fitness, and discipline. Luckily, these are the type of things that can be improved upon. No doubt coach Nate McMillan will be putting in an all-nighter, and come tomorrow evening the Blazers will be able to shut the door on the Sacramento Kings, and won’t basically give away a double-digit lead in the final quarter.

Here’s my breakdown of what I think went wrong Monday night, and how these individual things can be improved. Starting with:

Execution: This is kind of a catchall. Portland executed very well in the game’s opening half, meaning they were communicating on offense and defense, moving the ball around, attacking the rim, and knocking down open shots. In the second-half the execution slumped a little bit. Defensive rotations were a little slow, the up-and-down offense ground to a halt, the shot selection wasn’t quite as good as it had been. The Blazers needed scores and stops to coast to an easy win. Shots weren’t falling, and Philly was getting great looks. Twice Portland gave up wide open threes to the same player on back-to-back possessions–first to Andre Iguodala and then next to Lou Williams. Not quite end of the game execution.

How does Portland improve on its execution? Easy, play together a few more times. As the new pieces get more comfortable playing together, and as the rotation becomes solidified, hopefully the issues of execution get resolved. There’s little else that can be done, so as an optimist, I’m choosing to not be too worried at this point.

Fitness: Being not unfit, but less fit is a symptom of not playing, just like execution. Nate McMillan wants this team to run, and he has guys that can run. The problem with running this early in the season is that guys will get worn out. Monday Portland came out firing and running. By the night’s final frame there was no running, and more than that, shots were coming up short. Short shots is indicative of heavy legs, which in turn is an indication of problems with fitness.

How is this problem solved? Again, by playing. Actually, it wouldn’t be totally fringe to think that struggling with fitness early in the season is a good thing. Think about it like this: Nate wants his team to run, and in order to run they have to be fit. If, because of the crammed schedule, Nate decides to bring his guys along slowly, there is a chance that they’ll never get to the fitness level needed to be a team that runs for 20 to 25 minutes a night. Getting these guys out and gassed and running up and down the court from day one will definitely pay off in February.

Discipline: This one is a bit of a stretch, but it was something that I noticed watching the game Monday night. There were a couple of times when the Blazers appeared to lack a little discipline. The play that struck me as the most undisciplined was Raymond Felton’s decision to throw a behind-the-back pass to Gerald Wallace on a pick-and-pop. It wasn’t a game-killing turnover, but there is no need to make that kind of pass when a simple chest pass or bounce pass would have done the trick. Jamal Crawford, also, showed a few signs of being undisciplined. He takes a lot of shots, and sometimes he makes very poor choices with his ball handling. It’s excusable I think, partially because he’s a shooter that needs to shoot to get his rhythm. Also he’s damn fun to watch, and Monday night every error in judgement made by Jamal was made right by great offense and a couple of heads-up defensive plays.

How to fix discipline? This is a bit more difficult because it gets down to the personalities of individual players. I think both Ray Felton and Jamal Crawford more than carried their respective weights their first time wearing Blazer jerseys. They’re both great players, and they will help Portland win. But they are also more loose they Blazer fans may be used to. Hopefully they’ll rein it in a bit, but not so much that they’re effectiveness is limited. Especially a guy like Jamal Crawford has a ton to gain from playing in Portland. The fans are going to love him, but if he goes too far off the reservation, there is going to be some backlash. I expect both Ray Felton and Jamal Crawford to improve their decision making. So I’m not worried.

There were a lot of things Portland did very well Monday night. But what fun is spending time talking about that stuff? Right now it’s about the Blazers getting to the point where they can play 48 minutes of high level basketball. They’re not there yet, but I’ll be ready to lavish them with praise when they get there. Stay tuned.

Portland is back in the Rose Garden Tuesday night against the Sacramento Kings. It’s Jimmer time. Are you ready?

Just a couple quick thoughts:

• Portland had six players reach double figures in scoring. That’s awesome. They have a ton of offensive weapons, and Monday they were all on display. LaMarcus Aldridge co-led all scorers with 25 points, Gerald Wallace was next with 21, Wesley Matthews added 16 points, Crawford and Felton contributed 12 each, and Nicolas Batum scored 10. The most amazing thing is that nobody on the Blazers looked amazing from the floor. Wesley struggled in the first half, Jamal couldn’t hit a shot for a solid few minutes, LA shot 11-of-25. As a team, the Blazers were 40-of-97 from the floor and 9-of-19 from deep. By no means blow-your-hair-back numbers. I’m choosing to believe that means that when Portland’s shooters get their legs under them they’ll make shots, and when that happens they’ll blow some people away.
• I’m thinking about putting a minutes watch in my recaps, just because there are so many players on the roster, and each night is going to be full of difficult playing time decisions for Nate McMillan. So here are the minutes to look at for Monday: 20:37 for Nicolas Batum and 21:53 for Jamal Crawford. This is Portland’s bench. Both of these guys are going to have to put up numbers when they are on the court, and both are probably used to playing more than 20 minutes. Nic is not an inefficient player by any stretch, but he is going to have to start looking for his shot. He did that some on Monday, and he’s going to have to do it more going forward. As for Jamal, he is going to have to improve his efficiency. In 22ish minutes Crawford got up 10 shots, the same number as Nic, that’s great, but if Jamal wants to have a big scoring night–something he is totally capable of–he is going to have to find a way to get it done in limited minutes.
• Armon Johnson was listed as inactive on Monday’s roster. Greg Oden was the only other inactive Blazer, and we all know his situation. Could this be the end for AJ?
• In non-Blazer news, or at least in former Blazer news, the Denver Nuggets blew the doors off the Dallas Mavericks Monday night. NBA League Pass is on a free trial, so I had the chance to watch a bit of that game. It was strange watching Andre Miller not in a Blazer jersey, but it wasn’t so bad. I became a fan of Dre long before he became a Blazer. However, there was one guy wearing a Denver jersey that looked super familiar who I couldn’t quite place. Turns out, it was Rudy Fernandez.

Box Score

Standings

The Sixer Sense

email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

The Blazers came out firing on all cylinders in the first quarter. They double-teamed Stoudemire early and often, leaving the Knicks to throw up bad three-pointers. Their offense was balanced, with Nicolas Batum, Brandon Roy, Andre Miller, LaMarcus Aldridge, Fabricio Oberto, and Wesley Matthews all contributing points, and the Blazers cruised to a 26-19 lead at the end of the opening quarter. The Knicks looked as bad as the Miami Heat in their season opener against the Celtics–their offense was unfocused, and the Blazers had no trouble having their way with the New York defense.

The second quarter belonged to Wilson Chandler, whose back-to-back three-pointers a little over halfway through the period lit the fuse for the Knicks, who dominated the offensive glass and hit key shots for which Portland had no answer. Aldridge in particular struggled, going 2-for-6 from the field in the quarter and missing three of his four free-throw attempts. On the night, Aldridge was 4 for 10 from the line and 8 for 20 from the field. The free throws he missed came in key spots, and he looked particularly lost in the low post, resulting in one of the least-encouraging 20-and-10 performances you’re likely to see all year. The Blazers were up by 12 at one point in the second quarter, and gave it all away to the Knicks in the form of bad shots and avoidable turnovers, and the teams entered the half tied at 44.

The third quarter was more of the same for the Blazers, who played sloppy defense and let the Knicks run amok on the offensive boards. At least they made some shots this time around–Roy and Aldridge got it going offensively and kept the Blazers in the game more or less by themselves. It helped that Stoudemire was banished to the bench about halfway through the quarter after picking up his fourth foul. Despite looking thoroughly outplayed the entire period, the Blazers somehow came out of the quarter tied with the Knicks at 74, making up for their anemic rebounding with a scoring burst from Roy.

The Knicks built their lead to nine early in the fourth quarter before the Blazers went on a 17-3 run to close out the game in what is quickly (and worryingly) becoming their normal fashion. Even this run was plagued by some crucial missed free throws on the part of Aldridge and Miller, but Miller’s stellar, unselfish play down the stretch (with five fouls, no less) allowed Roy (who led all scorers with 29 points) and Matthews (who had a strong shooting night after struggling on Wednesday against the Clippers) to get to the basket. But the real story of the fourth-quarter run was the Blazers’ improved defense, which essentially shut the Knicks down in the final six minutes of play.

The turning point–the moment when this moved from one the Blazers would have to hope for some lucky breaks to win to one that we started to feel like they would win–came with Portland up 96-95 with 25 seconds left. Raymond Felton took advantage of Matthews’ slip and used the opportunity to drive to the basket, only to be met by both Camby and Batum. The block was credited to Camby, but he told the bench after the play that it was really Batum who made what turned out to be the game-saving play. A couple of Portland buckets and an Amar’e Stoudemire turnover later, the Blazers were looking at their first 3-0 start since the 1999-2000 season and no less than an even split of this opening road trip, which will take them to Chicago on Monday before concluding in Milwaukee the following day.

While this is the kind of close road win that separates 50-win teams from 55-win ones, the Blazers simply cannot afford to win too many more games in the fashion that they did tonight. The late runs look impressive on highlight reels, but they shouldn’t be necessary. In all three of their games so far this season, the Blazers have been the better team on paper, and they’ve begun each game playing as such. But their tendency to fall back on lazy jump shots and let opponents destroy them inside in the middles of games is going to come back to bite them. They’ve proven they can turn it on late against high-lottery-to-low-playoff-caliber teams, but against the Lakers, Celtics, Magic, Heat, and Thunder, that probably won’t be enough. We can chalk up their pathetic performance on the offensive glass tonight to Camby’s foul trouble, but until Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla come back, that’s likely going to be a recurring issue for them, and it will hurt them. Enjoy this win, be happy that they are guaranteed to be above .500 the next time they take the floor at the Rose Garden, but there is work to be done.

Email me | Twitter: @ripcityproject |@shighkin

“We just scrapped,” Roy said. “It was one of those games where it wasn’t pretty, but it was kind of one of those situations where I felt it was kind of a playoff-type of game and it was good that we’ve been there before to get that experience.”

The above quote from Brandon Roy was stolen from the Associated Press report of the game, but it was appropriate and I had to use it. Portland went into last night’s Northwest Division battle with Oklahoma City, playing some of their best basketball of the season. They had won 13 of their last 16 games but it felt like something was missing. Wins in late February/March are wins, but admittedly they came against some pretty weak opponents. Of those 13 wins, only Dallas carried a record above .500. If this was college hoops, Doug Gottlieb would probably be attacking our strength of schedule like they did the Pac-10 schools this season. Last night’s 92-87 victory over Oklahoma City was a huge one. Not just because of who it was against and where it was played, but how the game was won. It was not pretty, it was not easy, but Portland managed to grind out a tough victory, on the road, against a playoff contender. And honestly, what more can you ask for at this point in the season?

These are two teams that will be linked for the next decade or so because of the whole Durant/Oden thing. This is something I believe most Blazer fans are coming to grips with. They are somewhat linked because of the similarities in ‘young teams making noise’, GMs who built the team up through youth and smarts type thing. That intrigues me because the Thunder remind me a lot of Portland last year. And what Portland did to Oklahoma City last night, reminded me a lot of what the Rockets did to Portland in last year’s playoffs. I would say that the game against Dallas on Thursday and last night’s victory were probably the most mature basketball the Blazers have played all season. Not exactly the best basketball of the season, but just mature, we-have-to-find-a-way-to-win type of hoops.

The beauty of this game came in Portland always having an answer for Oklahoma City’s runs. Every single time the Thunder would make a run, Portland had an answer. After every Durant/Ibaka dunk that brought the Ford Center to their feet, Portland answered. Every time it looked like Durant had the ‘I’m about to score 26 straight points and there is nothing you can do about it’ look, Portland had an answer. Every time James Harden’s beard screamed ‘Rosssss’, Westbrook looked to go on a tear or that stupid Thunder theme song played the game to a commercial, the Blazers had an answer. Point blank, they just kept making winning plays. And at this point in the season, that’s what the good teams do. They make winning plays. At the end of the 3rd quarter when Kevin Durant was in the midst of his personal 8-2 run, closing the gap on the Blazers and driving their fans wild…Marcus Camby drilled a pullup J to put the lead back up to 3. Durant found Ibaka on that alley-oop to cut it to one, crowd is going wild….B-Roy hits that crazy banker to suck the energy out of the arena. Then LaMarcus comes out to start the 4th and scores in the post, boom 5-point lead. Then we OKC tied it at 84 in th 4th, Portland kept their composure and pushed it back to 5. If this was a boxing match, Portland was ready to go to the distance and just kept delivering body blows before it was time to take over.

(Sidenote: Maybe Coup will be able to pull it up when he watches film again, but does anyone remember Camby’s El Matador-esque Ole Defense on one of Durant’s drive and dunks in the third quarter. For some reason it made me laugh (and cry) at the same time.)

Any time you can win a road game when your stars are not playing their best basketball is a good thing. Brandon Roy scored 20 points on 22 shots and the Blazers found a way to win. Not only that but Roy also managed to stay involved despite not having his most efficient game of the season. Now you know I’m not the biggest fan of when Roy struggles like this, but I’ll take his 7 assists and willingness to attack the basket late instead of settle. LaMarcus Aldridge had 14 points on 14 shots and the Blazers found a way to win. The bench was nearly non existant, scoring only 12 points and half of those came from Juwan Howard (who made a huge shot by the way)…and Portland still found a way to win. (Sidenote, come on now Rudy/Martell/Bayless we need one of you to start playing). How? I give a lot of credit to Andre Miller. Not just because of his 26 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Oh no. But because of the way he won the battle against Russell Westbrook. I love Westbrook’s game, but it looked like he wanted no part of Miller at the end. You ever been in a pick-up game and see a guy just drop almost all of the points needed to win on one guy, and said guy quietly walks off and walks out of the gym. That’s how I imagined Russell Westbrook after last night. I will say this Dre…if I see you run an iso for yourself against Thabo Sefolosha after Roy’s been struggling with that exact same play all night, I might cut you.

I continue to like the Blazers defense. Not counting the New Orleans non-game, the Blazers have held opponents to the following numbers of late: 74 (Wash), 87 (PHX), 89 (Dallas) and 87 (OKC), Three of those four teams are headed to the playoffs and all of them can put the ball in the basket. I believe we’re starting to feel the impact of Marcus Camby and how much easier he is making it for everyone else on the defensive end. There is still work to do, but things are headed in the right direction at the right time. For example, we had no real answer for Kevin Durant. If he could have gotten some help from his buddies this might have been a different game. Credit Portland for making Green (14 pts, 6/14 shooting) and Westbrook (12 pts, 5/14 shooting) struggle but make no mistake about it he was ready to take over the game. And in the third quarter he basically did. It just felt like he was about to take over, his eyes were screaming it through the TV.

Portland has a couple of days to prepare for the Knicks before heading on the road for three games. Again, a huge win for Portland last night especially when you consider what was on the line. The win gave Portland a 2-1 advantage in the season series against Oklahoma City with one more battle to take place in the Rose Garden. Tiebreakers are huge around this time of the year, especially in the Western Conference where there is next to no such thing as separation. The win also moved Portland into a virtual three way tie with OKC and San Antonio for that 6-7-8 spot. Impressively enough it gave Portland their 21st road victory of the year, the third most road wins in the Western Conference behind LA (23) and Dallas (22) and sixth most in the entire NBA. That 21st road win also puts Portland one game ahead of their road record for last year and is their most road wins in a regular season since the 2002-03 season when they won 23.  So kudos for improvement.

(Photo Source: Yarbarker.com)