Mar 27, 2013; Portland, OR, USA; Brooklyn Nets power forward Reggie Evans (30) shoots against the Portland Trail Blazers at the Rose Garden. Mandatory Credit: Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports

There were a lot of interesting descriptors being thrown around by the Blazers following Wednesday’s blowout loss to the Brooklyn Nets, a loss that comes as a pretty severe blow to what shred of hope still remains that Portland will be participating in this season’s playoffs.

Head coach Terry Stotts questioned his team’s focus and its consistency. Meyers Leonard called the game embarrassing and Damian Lillard agreed. J.J. Hickson said the Blazers got punched in the mouth and didn’t respond. Overall, the team seemed to be searching for a deeper reason as to why, following a relatively successful final extended road trip, they played arguably one of their worst home games of the season.

But for my money, it’s far more simple than being unfocused and inconsistent, being mental unprepared and unable to react. Brooklyn does things Portland can’t, they have a roster and a rotation designed to attack a team like the Blazers where they are weakest. Wednesday Portland was weak in the interior, both on defense and on offense, Brook Lopez and Reggie Evans took advantage of that.

I know that might sound like an oversimplification, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. The Blazers have struggled all season against teams that are big and physical down low, and it really has nothing to do with lack of focus or inconsistency. It is a direct result of gaps in personnel. J.J. Hickson is a good rebounder, but he’s not a great rebounder like Reggie Evans. Hickson is not the kind of rebounder who excels in traffic or when the man he is fighting against for the ball is as good at positioning as Evans is. Wednesday, a few of Hickson’s defensive rotations were slow and his box outs were soft, that was all Evans needed.

As for Brook Lopez, LaMarcus Aldridge really isn’t able to guard him. He did better than Hickson or Meyers Leonard, but he could really only slow the Brooklyn big, he couldn’t stop him. And that has nothing to do with LA’s defensive abilities. LaMarcus can’t match up against arguably the best center in the league because LA is not a center.

Wednesday was the nightmare come to life Neil Olshey was having last off-season when the Pacers matched Portland’s offer sheet to Roy Hibbert. It was the shining example of why a project big like Leonard maybe doesn’t belong on a team like the Blazers with aspirations for the playoffs this season and for sure next. It showed that for all J.J. Hickson has done to boost his stock in 2012-13, there are a lot of guys out there who are simply better than J.J. at the things he supposed to be so good at.

Portland has a few options left for the 11 games that remain this season. Brooklyn was the Blazers’ last Eastern Conference opponent. The final stretch includes two games against Utah (home and away), and home games against Memphis, the Lakers, Oklahoma City, Houston, and Golden State. There are no easy games left, but there are enough meaningful games that should Portland get hot and close the season with some wins, they might (emphasis HEAVILY on MIGHT) give themselves a shot. That means playing every game like it could be the last game of the season. That means shortening the rotation. That means not pulling LaMarcus Aldridge when he rolls an ankle in the first quarter. That’s one option.

The second option is to bag it. There’s no way at this stage in the season the Blazers can make the kind of adjustments needed to get the right amount of wins to get themselves into the playoff picture. It’s just not possible. So maybe it’s time to give up. Stotts doesn’t need to bench his whole rotation, but how about cutting LA’s minutes in half, playing Meyers Leonard and Joel Freeland together for at least 20 minutes a game over this stretch, and what about Will Barton? There are guys on this roster that could use the extra time, plus these last 11 games could be used as an extended try-out/audition for Luke Babbitt and Nolan Smith. They might still have value in a sign and trade scenario, but Portland won’t know unless they play.

Really, there’s no reason not to go with this second option, the Blazers will certainly miss the playoffs, but that’s going to happen regardless, and when they get blowout big by the Thunder and the Grizzlies, the team will have the built-in excuse that it was a result of playing deeper rotation guys. Option one is a win if (and only if) Portland gets the wins and makes the playoffs. It’s a lose if anything bad happens at all, an injury to one of the core four being the worst thing that could happen. Option two is a win-win.

Wednesday Stotts employed a third option by combining option one with option two. We’ll have to wait an see if that’s going to be the game plan moving forward. Portland’s regular rotation got the bulk of the minutes in Wednesday’s first three quarters, then were pulled early in the fourth. A lineup of Will Barton, Nolan Smith, Joel Freeland, Meyers Leonard, and Victor Claver cut a 30-point deficit to 14 and flirted with getting the game closer. Nets head coach P.J. Carlesimo, who had been playing his bench too at the time, went back to his starters, Stotts didn’t, and that was that.

Smart money says that Portland continues their quest for the playoffs up until they are mathematically eliminated from contention. The Blazers are three and a half games behind the Lakers, so that mathematical elimination could come as early as next week. The approach changes slightly once there is no chance Portland makes the post season. Until then, though, expect more of the same from the Blazers.

They’ll come out talking about the playoffs, and if they play well they’ll continue to maintain that they have a chance. If they play like they did Wednesday, they’ll react the way they did Wednesday night: dejected, embarrassed, as if their season is slipping away. That’s fine for where this team is in it’s development, plus I’m not going to be the one to tell them their season was over in the middle of last month.

Portland faces off against the Utah Jazz Friday in their final home game of March.

One quick thing

• Terry Stotts was asked in his post game presser about not going back to his starters late in the fourth quarter. He said he left his bench guys in because they made the run and they deserved to see the game to its conclusion. It was an interesting scene Wednesday night to see Deron Williams, Gerald Wallace, Brook Lopez, Reggie Evans, and Keith Bogans check in with five minutes to play up 14 in a game that was certainly over. It was even more interesting to watch how easily Brooklyn’s top five sucked the air out of Portland’s run and dominated that final run of the game. I’m not sure how I would classify P.J.’s move. The Nets want to win, certainly, but don’t his second unit players deserve a chance to try and keep a game from getting away from them? Does he really need to put all his starters back in? Did he expect Stotts to put his guys back in too and his strike was preemptive? It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. What did make sense was the reaction to the question about his tactics. This game was never close, even after that run. Stotts was sticking with his second unit guys because the game was over. Now if Portland had cut the lead to 10, you can bet Stotts would have had his guys back in the game. And if he hadn’t, that would have been Wednesday night’s main story.

Box Score

Standings

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Mar 27, 2013; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers center J.J. Hickson (21) blocks Brooklyn Nets power forward Reggie Evans (30) at the Rose Garden. Mandatory Credit: Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports

To the game, the Raptors come into tonight having won 10 of their last 12. In that stretch they have gone from 21-22 to 31-24 and are now firmly in the #5 spot in the Eastern Conference. They are led by their All-Star, All-Everything Chris Bosh who is being reported all over twitter as being OUT tonight. Thus his 24.5 points a game, 11.4 rebounds and dreadlocks mean nothing to this preview. This is good news for Portland but not great because the Raptors have been without Bosh the past couple games and are 2-0. I should say those wins came against the Nets and Wizards but I feel like that would kill my point. Anyways, without Bosh not only do they lose their leading scorer and rebounder, they lose their interior presence on both ends of the court. Enter Andrea Bargnani….and I’m not kidding. Bargnani is having a career year, finally resembling the #1 pick that no one thought he could ever become: 17.5 pts, 6.3 boards, 1.5 blocks a game. Bargnani may be blocking more shots but the Raptors don’t exactly look for him to score on the low block which is where the Raptors will miss having Bosh the most. There is a big difference between him and Rasho Nesterovic/Reggie Evans/Amir Johnson. Behind Bargnani is Turkoglu, our old friend Jarrett Jack and Jose Calderon. I have a personal, fantasy basketball related vendetta against Calderon thus I won’t be wasting anymore words on him. We all know what to expect from Jack, as he could drop 25 or 2. The Raptors are a bunch of capable but inconsistent players.

Despite the absence of Bosh there is still a lot working in the Raptors favor. They are currently 4th in the NBA in points per game, putting up 104.7 a game. This is bad news for Blazer fans because when opponents score 100 or more, all hell breaks loose and it’s usually a loss. Toronto also plays tough in the Air Canada Centre with a record of 21-7 at home, tied for the 5th most home victories in the league. They also have won 15 of their last 17 games at home and that stat dates all the way back to December 13th. Toronto is not exactly a team that is going to beat itself as they don’t turn it over a lot. They also attack the basket and find their way to the line. Say what you want about the inconsistencies surrounding guys like Jarrett Jack, Jose Calderon and Turkoglu but they can all create offense for themselves and others.

With both Marcus Camby and Chris Bosh being out for tonight’s contest, things got a lot more interesting. In Toronto’s case they take a huge hit offensively as they lose a low post presence and their superstar. Portland however loses the guy that allows them to look like something resembling a defensive unit. You would like to see LaMarcus Aldridge go to work on Toronto’s frontline without Bosh. I’d venture out to say it may be disappointing if he doesn’t. I’m interested to see how Brandon Roy’s hamstring holds up on a back to back. I compared his hamstring to a stripper the other day and then he comes out and drops 28 points on 14 shots. Let’s aim for him continuing to look better and better but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t be ok with no setbacks. Andre Miller also should have some opportunities and space to work against Calderon and Jack.  All of this being said, we all need to page Batum/Martell/Rudy so they stop being a 3-headed vacuum. I’m just waiting for one of them to break out and it’s like all of them are resisting the idea of just going out and beating the others. I swear the last few games everytime I look at their three stats they combine for 4-for-14 or 3-for-16 or something like that. The team needs more production from them especially with Bayless hobbled/adjusting to not having Blake around anymore. The Blazers can’t win tough road games without them playing well and they can’t make a serious playoff run with them playing like this.

(And sidenote, when I was little I learned that you can’t really complain about something if you aren’t in a good position too. Like I couldn’t complain about not getting to eat dessert if I hadn’t touched my vegetables. Or I couldn’t complain about not getting a video game if my grades were straight poopy. Taking those wacky transcripts with a grain of salt as usual, but really Rudy? This month you’re averaging 6 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1.4 turnovers, shooting 31.9% from the field and 25.6% from three and you’ve shot three times as many threes as you have free throws. I’m just saying. Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t. You can say this and that about your role, missing Sergio, all of that. The numbers aren’t really saying you should get a bigger role in the offense. I’m just saying….You might want to chill out until you start producing, brah.)

For the Sixers, well, they must be banking on Elton Brand staying healthy for a full year and/or Speights continuing to grow, because now they only have them, Dalembert, Jason Smith and Donny Marshall under the boards (and that’s being Christmas generous to Marshall) to pair with Iguodala and Young at the 3 spot. They did need a shooter, though, and now they’ve got a fine one.

The big question that must be raised is, why didn’t they just keep Kyle Korver in the first place?