Jan 4, 2013; Memphis, TN, USA; Memphis Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay (22) misses a last second shot attempt defended by Portland Trail Blazers forward Nicolas Batum (88) at the FedEx Forum. Portland defeated Memphis 86-84. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports

At the end of December, when Portland was closing out a nice home stand with a couple of wins, you could have looked at this current road trip and said to yourself, two wins would be nice. Toronto’s not a great team, and the Blazers usually play them very well. There’s a win. The Timberwolves are still a few players short of being the hottest team in the West some forward thinking pundits predicted they might be in 2012-13. There’s another win too. But the Knicks and the Grizzlies, better hope those games stay close so Portland’s spirit doesn’t get totally decimated.

The way Portland performed during their last round trip, you could have been excused for thinking that wins in Toronto and the Twin Cities where far from a sure thing. But here we sit, on a frigid Friday evening with the Blazers looking at a split at worst on a tough four-game trip, having pulled off their two best road wins of the season in the space of less than a week.

Beating the Grizzlies 86-84 on their home turf wasn’t the win of the season, like beating the Knicks ontheir home turf very well might have been, but it was the kind of win that makes Wednesday seem like less of a fluke while at the same time reinvigorating all talks of potential that may have stalled out after the Raptors ran the Blazers up, down, and then out of the Air Canada Centre.

I’m not personally ready to admit that wins and losses are what’s important for Portland this season. Let’s make it through January first. If, come February, the Blazers are at or near .500 and in the neighborhood of the Western Conference’s top eight, then we can start looking at how many wins Portland needs to extend their season.

That doesn’t mean that certain thing coming from individual games aren’t important, and shouldn’t be discussed. Two things from Friday leap to mind. First, Portland’s ability to play timely defense. And second, the Blazers’ ability to stay connected and then win close games.

The Grizzlies on Friday weren’t exactly on fire, but they shot well enough to counter any run Portland made with a run of their own. That is, until the fourth quarter. The Blazers grabbed their first fourth quarter lead with six and half minutes left in the game on a driving lay-up from J.J. Hickson. Memphis would score only two more field goals the rest of the night. In a one-possession game down the stretch, getting stops was the difference between winning and losing.

Not all of the credit for these stops can be given to Portland’s defense, take for instance a string of possessions that started at the two-minute mark of the game’s final period.

The possessions begin with Mike Conley missing a lay-up, then over the course of two seconds, Marresese Speights misses two lay-ups and gets two offensive rebounds. Following the second missed put-back by Speights, Mike Conley secures what is now the third offensive rebound of the trip for Memphis, but then he too misses a lay-up. The ball falls again to Speights, who grabs it and puts up yet another shot that misses. Finally the ball ends up in the hands of Nicolas Batum, and the possessions are over.

If you’re keeping track, that’s three offensive rebounds for Speights and one for Conley, and two missed lay-ups each for both, all with under two minutes to play and their team down by three. It may not have been the best defensive stand by Portland, but defending isn’t about keeping your opponent from shooting, it’s about keeping your opponent from scoring.

Even if the Blazers couldn’t keep the Grizzlies from getting looks late in the fourth, they were able to force Memphis into very difficult and contested looks. On both of the Grizzlies’ final two possessions, Portland in the form of Wesley Matthews and Nicolas Batum, forced Rudy Gay into tough jumpers off the dribble. Gay is one of the best off the dribble shooters in the league, but with a hand in his face, even he isn’t always automatic.

Two tight possessions, one of which would have given Memphis the lead and the other would have given the Grizzlies the win if they’d have taken a better shot, on the final two defensive stands of the evening is very clearly the definition of timely defense.

Timely defense, of course, ties directly into the other major takeaway from Friday night’s game, which is winning close games. Getting a close win wasn’t unique to Friday, Portland has been doing it all season. How they’ve been doing it, though, has changed basically game to game. At Madison Square Garden, it was Damian Lillard hitting a step-back three. Friday, it wasn’t one shot by one guy, not exactly. Nicolas Batum hit a go-ahead three with 3:27 left in the game, but after that, the Blazers iced the game from the free throw line. J.J. Hickson knocked in two big ones and LaMarcus Aldridge split a pair just to make everything a little more interesting. It wasn’t pretty, but not all wins have to be pretty to count.

Portland will have nights where their offense is flowing and they get their last couple, game-winning, buckets on well designed plays that either open up Nic or Wesley for a long jumper, get J.J. going to the hoop for a dunk or LaMarcus to the elbow for a J, or Dame for yet another step-back. Those will be the nights that light up the highlight reels and get replayed on the JumboTron at the Rose Garden over and over. Those nights are great.

There will also be nights when the Blazers shoot a hair above 40%, every possession goes into the final ticks of the shot clock, and it seems like every single point comes after working really really hard. On those nights, Portland will have to do the little things, make at least one free throw to ensure they can’t be beat by a two-pointer, hustle after loose balls, and fight for offensive rebounds even if it’s the third or fourth time they’ve had to do it on a single possession if they want to get a close win. They did all those things Friday, and although very little of what went down in Memphis will make the highlights, it’s equally important to the development of this team.

Portland closes out this road-trip on Saturday in Minnesota against the Timberwolves.

Couple of quick things:

• Zach Randolph did not play Friday due to the flu.
• Portland’s bench continues to take two steps forward and one step back. Friday Luke Babbitt and Will Barton were the only bench players to score, combining for nine points, and none of Portland’s reserves reached the 11-minute mark in playing time. Joel Freeland had a rough night, missing all four of his field goal attempts in eight minutes on the court. Ronnie Price and Sasha Pavolvic played but didn’t do much. Will Barton had nice couple of hoops but contributed very little. And Luke Babbitt shot 1-of-5 from three. I’m really starting to get behind Babbitt’s play, but he’s next big step is building some consistency.
• Speaking of consistency. LA is becoming one of the most consistently bad free throw shooters in the fourth quarter with the game on the line. Just putting it out there.
• Damian Lillard’s line was nice, even if his shot was a bit off. He finished with 11 points, eight assists, and five rebounds. That triple-double is in sight.
• LA and J.J. both collected double-doubles. 15 points and 12 rebounds for Aldridge; 19 points and 11 rebounds for Hickson.

Box Score

Standings

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

Jan 4, 2013; Memphis, TN, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard Wesley Matthews (2) drives to the basket against the Memphis Grizzlies at the FedEx Forum. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports

Marcus Camby set season highs in rebounds and blocks in Portland's win over Memphis. Photo courtesy of the AP.

It seems like it’s been a long time since Blazer fans have had something to feel genuinely positive about. In fact, just this morning I was listening to Ryen Russillo on ESPN’s NBA Today Podcast talk about how after two-plus weeks the Blazers were the popular pick to come out of the West, and now here we are, not quite at the end of January, and they aren’t even in the Playoff picture.

Of course it’s too early to say a team is either a contender or a bust (unless you’re talking about the Thunder, contender, or the Wizards, bust), but it does seem like since that early hot start the attitude towards this Portland team has been a combination of negativity and qualified optimism. Negativity when they drop winnable road games and get a shooting clinic from the Orlando Magic; qualified optimism when they beat the Sacramento Kings but have to leave their starters on the floor up until the final minutes of the game’s final quarter.

Rejoice, Portland fans. Tuesday’s win is just about as close to a total positive as you are going to get. Memphis comes in as one of the hottest teams in the league, can match up pretty well with Portland, and plays the kind of turnover producing defense and up-tempo offense that can be a killer for a Blazer team that hasn’t taken good care of the ball as of late, and relies very heavily on long and mid-range jumpers. Tuesday’s game could have very easily gone the other way.

It didn’t. And it didn’t not by luck, or because Memphis took the night off. Tuesday, Portland won because they delivered a balanced scoring attack that started out working the ball inside and getting good looks from in close, because they played defense, at least matching the defensive intensity–if not the execution–of one of the best defensive teams in the league, and because they rebounded.

The Blazers won the battle of the boards 50-to-39. Marcus Camby led the way with an astounding 22, but everybody pitched in. Gerald Wallace snagged 11, LaMarcus Aldridge had six, and six other Blazers had at least one. The extra effort to crash the glass helped negate some of the damage done by turning the ball over, something Portland did 20 times.

Offense wins games, though. And Tuesday Portland looked nearly as fluid on offense as they have all season. They worked the ball inside to Aldridge, who was on fire in the first quarter hitting 5-of-6 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the line for 14 points, and they also attacked with their wings.

There aren’t a ton of teams that have one guy that can defend Aldridge one on one for a full 48 minutes (or the 31:22 which he played for the purpose of accuracy). Memphis tried a bunch of different looks throughout the night. Rudy Gay was the most successful, although his tactic was to play behind LA then foul if LaMarcus got a spin on him towards the hoop. The least successful was Marreese Speights. Aldridge primarily beat up on Speights with his outside shot, but also took him down low a couple of times. Gay’s defense worked because with his length he could challenge the outside shot both when LA faced-up or spun away from the hoop. Marc Gasol had a couple of sequences on LaMarcus too. At least once, LA took the ball outside, isolated Gasol, and just drove by him. You know it’s a good night for the Blazers when LA has a different tactic to deal with each defender he sees.

As for the wing play. Wesley Matthews, Jamal Crawford, and Gerald Wallace were looking to put the ball on the floor and get to the hoop more Tuesday than they had in awhile. Gerald attacks by default, but Crawford and Matthews sometimes play like they need to be convinced. Wesley especially can benefit from driving on nights when his shot isn’t falling. Tuesday, Wesley was 3-of-9 from the field and 1-of-6 from deep, but he did hit six free throws. He needs to keep getting in the lane and keep getting to the line, and maybe that way he can shoot himself out of this extended slump.

Crash didn’t score too much Tuesday, but he had at least one lay-up. At some point it might be nice to look at HoopData and see if Gerald’s best games are when he scores two lay-ups for every jump shot. I know there are nights when he can knock down threes and long twos, but in my opinion, Wallace should be trying to score at the rim every time he touches the ball.

Crawford is a bit of a tricky call when it comes to attacking. He isn’t as big as Wesley Matthews–bulk-wise–and he isn’t as bulky or as tall as Gerald Wallace, so his shot is the most likely out of those three to be blocked at the rim. In fact, Tuesday night, Crawford had a possession when he shook his defender with a crossover (I think it was O.J. Mayo but I can’t be sure, whoever it was ended up on their backside), only to have his lay-up attempt sent away. I still like the idea of Jamal attacking the rim though, primarily because he is such a great free throw shooter. If Crawford is going to be as helpful to this team as he needs to be, helpful enough for Portland to live up to some of that early hype, his efficiency needs to improve. The best way for him to do that is by getting more free throw attempts. Crawford, though, loves his jump shot, and he very rarely looks to drive to the rim as his first recourse. Tuesday, Jamal scored 15 points to lead a productive Portland bench, but he took 13 shots. By comparison, LaMarcus Aldridge took 13 shots and led all scorers with 23 points.

The Blazers have now completed stage two of the three stage gauntlet that is their first back-to-back-to-back–or as Matt Moore of Hardwood Paroxysm so aptly dubbed it a b3b–with easily the most difficult stage yet to come. Portland travels to Oakland tonight to take on Golden State tomorrow, a team they almost never beat in a place they almost always lose. The Warriors have a lot in common with the Grizzlies. They like to get out and run, they’re driven by strong guard play, and they have a tendency to make costly mistakes or play themselves out of a game.

If the Blazers can play Wednesday the way they played Tuesday, they’ll be in pretty good shape. I think going 3-0 on their first b3b might begin to make up for their 2-4 roadie.

Couple of quick things:

• Gerald Wallace took a beating Tuesday night. He got hit in his bad hand, and at one point got leveled by Marc Gasol. I have no doubt that Wallace will go in Wednesday’s game, but I expect he will be pretty sore.
• Coach Nate McMillan once again hesitated to clear his bench, waiting until Memphis skipper Lionel Hollins rotated in his garbage time guys. Nate’s choice to sub, or not sub, has become a point of contention on Twitter, and a bit of a running joke in Nate’s post game media debriefing. I tend to agree that Nate could pull his starters a little earlier every now and then. But I see the point of keeping them out there too. A game is 48 minutes long, and it’s never over until it’s over. Nate isn’t intentionally trying to wear his guys down, but he also isn’t about to give up a comeback in the final stages of a game. One thing he might think about, though, is that his end of the bench guys–at this point that’s Elliot Williams, Luke Babbitt, and Chris Johnson–aren’t getting a chance to run that much because there aren’t that many practice days with this schedule. When those guys did get in Tuesday night, they did not look great. Chris Johnson had a nice dunk, but other than that it was pretty disorganized. There might come a time this season when one or more of those guys has to play, it might help them to get just the smallest bit of meaningful game time action prior to that point.
• One more note on the young guys coming in at the end. If you look closely at the box score you’ll notice that Portland finished with 97 points, three shy of the good stuff. Nolan Smith had a look at three for the chalupa, passing up the chance to give Luke Babbitt the almost unheard of back-to-back chalupa bucket, but it clanked off the rim. The Blazers did get the last possession, but with no shot clock on and no defense, Elliot Williams made the grown-up decision and didn’t put up a shot. Another sad day in Blazer-land.
• Craig Smith had another nice night. 3-of-8 from the field 2-of-2 from the line, eight points in 13 minutes, punctuated by a throw down on a run-out feed from Jamal Crawford. If Portland can get eight points for every 12 to 13 minutes of court time for Rhino they should be very happy. I know that it won’t take too much more for Craig Smith to be a fan favorite, greeted by a standing ovation every time he checks in. Get to the fan shop now, because in a week I bet they’ll be out of Smith #83 jerseys.
• Minutes watch: 2:42 for Luke Babbitt. The only Blazer not to score, and the only Blazer not to attempt a field goal. I know it’s mean to pick on Luke, but, Nate has shown he’s a lot more likely to play Luke in regular game time than Elliot Williams. Luke looks lost when playing with the starters and regular bench players. With the last guys on the roster, I expect him to play with a little more confidence. Let’s be honest, he is the leader of Portland’s garage time unit, seniority rules. Next time Portland is at the end of a blowout, and Babbitt is on the floor, I would like to see him demanding the ball.
• New thing here, not sure if I’ll do it every night, but I thought about it since even this early in the season every game changes Playoff positioning. Standings watch: Portland came into the game in 9th place in the West, Memphis in 4th. With the win, Portland jumps to 6th, Memphis falls to 8th, Dallas bumps up to 7th, and Houston falls out of the race.

Box Score

Standings

email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

Follow Tony Allen on Twitter (@aa000G9) it's worth it. Photo courtesy of the AP.

Yep...that boy good. He's like a one man Nation of Domination. (Credit: YardBarker.com)

Some classes in college, are easy and some are difficult and you generally figure that out within the first couple weeks are so (hell sometimes Syllabus day tells you all you need to know). There are those classes where you can do the homework and get points, do the quizzes, get the attendance, and you might have an A but you never truly know what your grade is until that first test.

Today was Team USA’s first test, and they passed.

I used that college analogy because it fits here: had Team USA lost this one, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. Just like failing that first test doesn’t mean you’re going to fail the class. It would have taught them a lesson and better prepared them for the real pressure cooker: the single elimination round. By passing, they have a better understanding of where they are at and know what to do in the future to get good results. And just like in college, sometimes you get lucky and the teacher gives you an answer or gives up free points. That’s what I’d call Huertas missing that free throw and Barbosa missing that layup.

It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t pretty but the Red, White & Blue prevailed. The odd part about this game against Brazil is its as if all of the concerns about this team coming in–interior size, pick and roll defense, experience, offensive ability, turnover–rolled together to create an awful storm which nearly bowled them over. Give all the credit to Brazil, they played a magnificent game, but Team USA could have helped themselves a lot more than they did. Brazil had an insane first quarter, shooting 14-for-21 from the field, 5-of-7 from three and scored 28 points on 19 possessions. While those may seem like numbers in a video game when the computer decides you aren’t winning, credit Brazil…their offensive movement was smooth, crisp and Team USA seemed to have no answer.

Problem #1 was pick and roll defense, something many were concerned with going in and something that was validated today. For some reason, for the majority of the game Team USA couldn’t put it all together. There were times where Lamar Odom was in no man’s land–not helping the guard and not putting himself in position to challenge the shot. Then there were times when he was there, but the guard couldn’t get back in time. Then there were other times when the helpside D sucked in just a little too much and Brazil found the open guy for a 3. It was almost like watching the Utah Jazz and the way they can pick people apart on the pick and roll. I now realize that this is where Team USA truly misses a ‘big’ center who can challenge opponents at the basket. Tyson Chandler didn’t play much, but when he did Brazil’s mindset changed. Instead of looking to score of their penetration they were looking to kick which made life a lot easier on Team USA.

Problem #2 was sloppy offense. Taking the first quarter and the first minute of the second quarter, Team USA had 7 turnovers…or as many as they had in 40 minutes against Croatia. As great as Kevin Durant was (27 points, main reason why the US was able to stick around), he can’t have 7 turnovers. Against a better team, 22 turnovers could be the death knell and some of those were just non-sensical. Not only that, but there was a little bit too much isolation offense for my liking for the majority of the game. Quick, contested jumpers can really hurt you in the international game because it’s either going to create a fast break opportunity for the defense or (even worse) you could end up having to play D for a full shot clock.

The good news is that Team USA was able to play different kind of styles in this game. From the jump, Brazil was the first team we’ve seen that was not afraid to push it right back at Team USA and play a faster game. To their credit, Team USA made the adjustments. Not only that, they were able to play a slower, smarter, half-court game in the second half to get the win. It wasn’t perfect, but showing that they are multi-dimensional and have that capability will be big in later rounds.

Durant, Derrick Rose and Chauncey Billups did the majority of the scoring, combining for 53 of the US’s 70 points. They need help, relying on Durant to drop that many could get this team in trouble. While he took some questionable shots, Billups was huge in the second half with the way he attacked Tiago Splitter. It was almost as if he took it personally. Rose was solid and sprinkled in some of his unreal athleticism. Lamar Odom has got to find a way to be more of a factor, because for the majority of his time out there he wasn’t. I thought Tyson Chandler did a phenomenal job in his 5 minutes of action, moreso because of the impact that he had on Brazil’s offense than anything he did in the box score.

(Speaking of Splitter, he looked solid and just looks like a guy who should be in a Spurs uniform. I don’t know if he’ll get the kind of freedom he had here, but he’s going to contribute for them from the jump.)

The starters had to do a lot of the heavy lifting tonight (all 5 playing 29+ minutes Durant playing 39), possibly because Coach K didn’t trust his bench or they didn’t perform. The depth that we had all fawned over the past couple games just wasn’t there. Russell Westbrook, Rudy Gay and Eric Gordon all were spotlighted as being great sparks off the bench before the game by Fran Fraschilla–they combined to score 3 points on 0-for-5 shooting and were a non-factor. I still maintain that Kevin Love is a major factor on this team–confirmed by Coach K picking him as the first big off the bench and one of the first subs–but this was not his match-up. He can rebound and defend in the post, but he struggled a bit in the pick and roll simply because guys thought they could finish over him. The bench has to be better.

The good news is the starters should be able to get some rest and the bench should get their swagger back over the next two games. Barring a weird or wacky performance, they should steamroll over the bottom 2 in their group: Iran and Tunisia. A well deserved day off tomorrow before returning to the court on Wednesday against Iran…get your Haddadi jokes ready.