Damian Lillard has faced Steve Nash twice in his career, once in the preseason and once in the regular season, he has yet to lose. Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

In the world of professional sports, narrative is everything. We come to the games to see competition at it’s highest, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat and all that, but we pay attention because of the stories. Think of the Olympics. In a competition that lasts a month, the only thing that matters is the back story of how athletes we’ve never heard of, participating in sports that for the most part we care very little about, sacrificed their otherwise regular lives to devote themselves to the quest for Olympic Gold.

It’s the liberal application of these stories, bookended by some of the most intense competition ever that makes the Olympics an international television success every four years.

More than almost every other professional league, the NBA thrives off of narrative to keep it going. Eighty-two games is a long season. Fans, especially casual fans, need some through line to hold their interest from start to finish. No team in the NBA is more steeped in narrative. And no Laker narrative has been quite like the narrative of the Lakers in 2012-13.

Friday, when Portland travels to the Staples Center to try and go 2-0 against the Lakers on this season, very little of what’s at stake will have anything to do with the Blazers. The New Jersey Nets may have just fired their coach and are looking like one of the league’s most over-hyped teams, but nothing has overshadowed the Lakers mixture of futility and dysfunction. Even a story as interesting as a 15-game winning streak by the Los Angeles Clippers is framed against the failures of their Staples Center counterparts.

So, are the Los Angeles Lakers a bad basketball team? I don’t think so. Any team with four of the best players in the league (one of them the arguably the best player ever) can’t be that bad. I do think, though, that Dwight Howard might not be best suited to the personnel around him. I also think that with a bench as thin as LA’s they have very little room for error.

When the Lakers faced the Blazers at the Rose Garden to kick off Portland’s season, they’d lost nine straight (eight of those in the preseason and one to open their regular season campaign). I expected the Blazers to beat the Lakers since Portland almost always beats LA at home. I’m pretty sure nobody expected what would follow. There’s no need to go into the details of the Lakers’ foibles, anybody who has watched SportsCenter in the last two months knows them up and down.

With Steve Nash back in the lineup, the Lakers are a much better team. One of the best point guards in the game will have that impact on a squad. Kobe Bryant is still Kobe Bryant. In fact, he’s playing like the Kobe Bryant who knows in his heart of hearts that for his team to have a chance he’s going to have to play at an MVP level. Even so, the Lakers remain seriously vulnerable.

LA can still become one of the best teams in the West, counting them all the way out 30 games in is foolish, they just aren’t there quite yet.

Blazers Starting 5: PG Damian Lillard, SG Victor Claver, SF Nicolas Batum, PF LaMarcus Aldridge, C J.J. Hickson

Lakers Starting 5: PG Steve Nash, SG Darius Morris, SF Kobe Bryant, PF Pau Gasol, C Dwight Howard

First-five on first-five, Portland is slightly over-matched, especially with Wesley Matthews (most likely) out of their lineup. A front line of Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard should be able to overpower LaMarcus Aldridge and J.J. Hickson. Anything Nicolas Batum can do on offense will be doubled or tripled by Kobe Bryant. Steve Nash may be old, but he’ll be a tough cover for Damian Lillard.

The key for Portland Friday will be trying to replicate some of the things they did so well against the Kings on Wednesday. Those things would be getting stops, turnovers, and easy buckets. The Lakers, regardless of how poorly they may be playing, are not the Kings though. Whereas Sacramento basically abandoned their half-court offense once they got way behind, playing into the Blazers’ man-stopping perimeter defense, a Kobe Bryant-Steve Nash led Laker team will commit to playing a full 48 minutes in the half court. Because this will likely be a half court game, Portland needs to put even more of a premium on defensive rebounds and running whenever possible.

The Blazers will also need to find a way to score inside. Scoring inside is part of the easy baskets thing, and was something Portland did basically at will against the Kings. Dwight Howard is the definition of a force in the paint, but the Blazers can’t be tentative in attacking him. I’ll take getting to the free throw line as a by-product of trying to score inside. Wednesday, LaMarcus Aldridge shot 6-of-7 from the line, but Damian Lillard didn’t even take a free throw, Nicolas Batum only took four, and J.J. Hickson only had two.

Portland got a lot of dunks against the Kings, part of the reason they didn’t shoot many free throws. I’ll take dunks over free throws any day of the week, but I would love to see the Blazers  getting to the line more often. I would especially like to see Meyers Leonard make more than one trip to the stripe. He’s proven to be quite a free throw shooter, and without much height coming off the Laker bench, there will be plenty of good opportunities for Meyers Friday night.

What to Watch For

• Can Portland not get beaten by LA’s reserves. Kobe Bryant will get 30. Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol, and Steve Nash are still All-World talents. A strong all around game from Portland should be able to hang with a strong came from LA’s four All-Stars. If Portland lets somebody like Jodie Meeks have a big night, they’ll probably be in trouble. That goes for Metta World Peace as well. Although, as somebody noted on Twitter the other night, a good way to beat the Lakers might be to let MWP have a big quarter early in the game. In the event that happens, he won’t stop shooting, and will likely put up a shot or two in the fourth quarter that will sink the Lakers.
• The battle of the benches. Portland’s bench is bad, but so is LA’s. Will Barton had a great night Wednesday (I’m keeping him out of the starting lineup because I’m betting head coach Terry Stotts sticks with Victor Claver), so he could have a big night against the Lakers minimal reserves. Meyers Leonard could be effective too. Jordan Hill is LA’s only back-up big who plays. Meyers should be able to do some work offensively against Hill.
• Will Portland go to Hack-a-Howard, and if they do will it work. The Blazers didn’t need to rely on Dwight Howard’s historic inability to make free throws to beat the Lakers on Halloween. I’m all for putting Howard on the line every time he touches the ball. My only problem with it is that Dwight tends to make free throws against the Blazers. He once made 13 free throws in a game against Portland. To be fair, though, the Magic lost that night, proving a Dwight Howard team can lose when he misses a lot of free throws and when he makes a lot of free throws.

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

Kobe Byrant is having a great season, but it hasn’t always meant wins for his Laker super-team that sits a game below .500. Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

Damian Lilard’s Blazer debut was about as good as anybody could have hoped for. Credit: Jaime Valdez-US PRESSWIRE

It’s going to be hard to stay rational when discussing Wednesday’s home opener, a convincing 116-106 Portland victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. Mostly because some of what we saw flies in the face of rational thinking.

I would guess that most seasoned Blazer fans know that when the Lakers are in town the team and the city take it to a higher gear. Having the entire off-season to prepare for one night doesn’t do anything to dampen the energy or the drive of either the Blazers or their fans. Because of that, I was pretty confident that if Portland didn’t beat LA to start the season, they would at least put up one hell of a fight.

Things took a turn for the more interesting yesterday evening when the new-look fully loaded Lakers got handily whipped by the no-Dirk, no-Terry, whole new roster Dallas Mavericks. The Lakers took a dive in the preseason, that’s for sure, but falling apart on opening night is a horse of a different color. My personal expectation for Wednesday’s game was that Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Dwight Howard, and Pau Gasol would pull their heads out, realize that they have a zillion All-Star games between them, and come to play against the Blazers. I was wrong. But that was only half of it.

I’ve spent much of the last month and change watching footage of the Blazers in practice and preseason games, reading about how the team is developing, and trying to figure out what this season is going to look like. I’ve convinced myself that Damian Lillard is a top-flight point guard. I’ve convinced myself that Nicolas Batum is the kind of player who deserves to be paid a TON of money. And I’ve convinced myself that if Wesley Matthews doesn’t finally get it together then he can at least be traded. I’ve also convinced myself that this Blazer season is going to have a lot more losses than wins, it’s going to end before the Playoffs, and it’s part one on a two or three part major rebuilding effort, and I’ve gotten to the point where I’m OK with that.

That’s why we have to tread very lightly on Portland’s first of 82 games. Damian Lillard was spectacular (or at least one or two turnovers short of spectacular). LaMarcus Aldridge looked like he’d spent his entire summer in the gym shooting jumpers until he couldn’t lift his arms anymore. Nicolas Batum and Wesley Matthews made timely shots, limited their stupid offensive possessions, and totally manned-up on defense. Those are the things we should expect for this season. We should also be prepared for four guys playing well to not be enough to win many games.

And once again I’ll say, Blazer fans let’s take a deep breath and talk about the things that happened Wednesday night that don’t fall into the category of things that will likely happen every single night of the season. Let’s start small.

Nolan Smith looked absolutely, positively, god awful in the preseason. So bad, in fact, that Portland has basically said nice to know you hope some other team feels like developing you into an NBA player by passing on his option. (The party line is that declining Nolan’s option is a move to increase cap flexibility in the off-season, but come on we all know the truth. When a camp invite makes you look expendable, you are expendable). Nolan wasn’t incredible by any stretch Wednesday, especially considering that the Rose Garden fans were getting a first hand glimpse of a real point guard of the future, but in just under 14 minutes he was able to keep the damage he caused to a minimum. He controlled the offense. He didn’t turn it over. And he didn’t get totally exposed on defense. It might not sound like much, but it was far and away better than anything we saw from Nolan in his preseason appearances.

OK, on to Meyers Leonard. Again, not a great line, but he managed to get through 23 minutes while guarding Dwight Howard and only accumulate three fouls. Remember, Leonard had two five-foul nights and one six-foul early termination in the preseason, and in those games he wasn’t guarding the mountain who plays basketball. Howard did basically whatever he wanted to against Meyers, but you could almost see Leonard improving as the game wore on. By the end of the night, Meyers was standing up to the big fella, and keeping him from scoring in the paint while also keeping him from going to the free throw line.

I’ve covered Meyers Leonard and Nolan Smith, two guys that produced better than expected, so now I’m going to dip into some dangerous territory. There are two Blazers who seem to stand out above the rest when it comes to unmitigated disdain, or at least that’s how it looks on my Twitter timeline. Those two are Sasha Pavlovic and J.J. Hickson. My thinking is that these are the two players who could be considered outliers in Portland’s rebuilding plan. Neither is very young, both are on one-year deals meaning their long-term importance to the franchise is basically null, and both are potentially stealing minutes from younger players looking for long-term deals who will be pillars of the franchise two or three seasons down the road. Also, a lot of people I follow on Twitter think they just aren’t that good.

Pavlovic shined Wednesday in a short stretch in the third quarter, a stretch that included bricking a free throw, and then getting his own rebound and turning it into an easy lay-up, and helped the Blazers turn a close game into basically a blowout. But more than that, Sasha logged 18 minutes whereas Will Barton, Victor Claver, and Joel Freeland (guys that might be factors at some later date when Pavlovic has moved on to some other squad) all grabbed their first DNP-CD of the season.

But where Pavlovic was good and effective in a short burst, Hickson was solid all night. J.J.’s line was 13 points, 10 rebounds, five offensive rebounds, two blocks, one assist, and one three. He was active under the hoop, he attacked the glass on both ends of the floor, and he did the best he could to neutralize Dwight Howard. All in all a very solid night from J.J. Hickson.

And it’s because of Hickson’s great line, Pavlovic’s spark off the bench, Nolan’s ability not to throw the game away, and Leonard staying on the floor for almost an entire half that I reiterate that rationality is key at a time like the present. A win, a great win, doesn’t change the fact that this team has a long way to go. We need to remember that next week and the week after. We need to remember that in February.

Celebrating a win is the best part about being a sports fan. But when you celebrate too early you’re bound to spend at least a little time eating crow. I’m not trying to be a downer here, I’m as excited as all of you are about the potential of this team, I’m just saying that if we take a step back, try and remember that this is a long season, and don’t get too caught up in the significance of one single game, it will make gloating that much easier when the wins start piling up and NBA fans across the nation are jumping on the Blazer bandwagon.

Portland travels to Oklahoma City to face the Thunder on Friday. That game will be OKC’s home opener.

Just a couple of quick things:

• Portland’s lottery picks are going to be a must-watch all season, on and off the court. Damian Lillard’s line was, as I said, basically phenomenal: 7-of-17 from the floor, 8-of-8 from the line, 11 assists, three rebounds, and 23 points. He did have six turnovers, so clearly he’s not perfect. Meyers Leonard had a more modest stat line (four points on 1-of-2 from the field, three rebounds, and an assist) but for Meyers right now it’s going to be more about staying in the game. Both rookies had telling post game experiences also. Leonard was out of the showers first and dealt with a small contingent of media. He’s a super pro in front of the camera, but when the cameras go away and the reporters turn their attention elsewhere, it’s clear that he’s really just a big kid. Meyers was joking around with Blazers.com writer Casey Holdahl about his watch being the lynchpin of his outfit. He also showed Casey a ticket he’d found or more likely been given for the game, sliding it into his pocket while saying that since it was a ticket for his first NBA game he was going to be keeping it forever. Leonard left the locker room, as his teammates were doing their interviews, barefoot with his shoes in his hand. Lillard’s post game was a little more dramatic. He was one of the last guys out of the shower, and there were a lot of reporters waiting for him, so many people in fact that Nicolas Batum, who had already finished his post game, came over to the scrum and started making jokes about how it was Damian’s first pro game and he’d been in the league for years so it didn’t make sense for people to want to talk to Lillard instead of him. Like Meyers, Damian handles himself very well in front of the camera, but unlike Meyers that business-like mentality doesn’t go away when the cameras do. He lets his guard down some, he joked with Jason Quick of The Oregonian about not being packed and not knowing what to pack for the trip to OKC, but for the most part he’s a serious dude. It makes sense. He feels, and rightly so, that he’s got a lot to prove at the NBA level. If he can maintain the attitude that just getting to the league wasn’t enough, he’ll very likely be a star before he knows it.
• Kobe Bryant finished with 30 points. He took 20 shots to get there.
• Dwight Howard went 15-of-19 from the free throw line following an atrocious 3-of-14 from the stripe on opening night. Howard’s night from the line wasn’t really regression towards the mean (after two nights he’s shooting 72% from the line and he’s a 59% free thrown shooter for his career) but I don’t really think he became a good free throw shooter overnight. In his post game, head coach Terry Stotts said they weren’t fouling Howard on purpose. Whether you believe that or not is up to you, but if I’m the coach and Howard has made 10 straight from the line, I’m still fouling him. In fact, math tells us that if he’s made 10 in a row, he’s a lot more likely to miss a few than if he’s already bricked a bunch.
• Speaking of math, I had a short chat with Kevin Pelton and John Hollinger after the game, no word yet on when they’ll be throwing down with Reggie Miller. I imagine it will be sometime soon.

Box Score

Standings

Lake Show Life

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

Timely shooting by Wesley Matthews helped to keep the Lakers at arms length in Portland’s opening night victory. Credit: Jaime Valdez-US PRESSWIRE

Damian Lillard out dueled Steve Nash in his first NBA action. Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

I held off on writing a season preview for a number of reasons, but for one reason that stood out above the rest: I had no idea what this Blazer team was going to look like. With the shake-up last season and the almost 100% turn-over personnel-wise, I didn’t feel like I could come up with a prediction for 2012-13 that wasn’t going to be either shameless and baseless optimism or equally baseless and fatalistic pessimism.

Following tonight’s sound(ish) victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in their opening game of the preseason, I still can’t really say what the rest of the season is going to be like. However, I can say that regardless of winning percentage, 12-13 is probably going to be a lot of fun to watch.

Preseason, as I said in my preview and as every NBA fan should know, is basically meaningless. Wins and losses don’t matter. Most teams have their rosters and rotations already set and the position battles are mostly academic. Offensive and defensive schemes are only overhauled with the introduction of new coaches. So there’s no reason to dwell on how good Portland looked at times in their offense, just as it’s pointless to mention that the Laker team the Blazers dispatched in Ontario did not include Kobe Bryant or Dwight Howard.

What we can talk about though, and what might have an impact for Portland in 2012-13, was the demeanor with which the team played Wednesday night. They played like a bunch of guys with something to prove. And that’s what they are. Damian Lillard needs to prove he could be a franchise level player. Nicolas Batum needs to prove he’s worth his enormous new contract. Nolan Smith, Joel Freeland, Ronnie Price, Jared Jeffries, and Luke Babbitt need to prove they con be contributors. Adam Morrison, Sasha Pavlovic, and to a lesser extent Victor Claver need to prove they belong on an NBA team.

When you have a team where every player has something to fight for, they are going to fight. That’s good for Portland because when the regular season starts, when the Lakers suit up Kobe and play Steve Nash more than 25 minutes, they are going to have to fight for every inch.

As for the actual game? Like I said, it didn’t matter. The win was nice. It was nice to see Portland not give up when they slumped in the second quarter. It was also nice to see that a second quarter slump turned into a third quarter offensive explosion. But still, none of it mattered.

The Blazers have two more road games and three home games before the regular season starts. Those games will probably be a lot like Wednesday’s with a lot of different lineups and a lot of minutes for guys that won’t see time, or a paycheck from Portland, during the regular season. They’ll probably be fun to watch too. And they will be equally as meaningless.

So there you have it. The Blazers’ season has started. In no time at all there will be plenty of things to talk about, plays to break down, All-Star ballot boxes to stuff. I should say enjoy this victory. I’m not going to say don’t enjoy it, but enjoying a great win (what some might even consider a BIG win) would run counter to the obvious fact that preseason is meaningless.

Portland goes to Phoenix to play the Nash-less Suns Friday.

Here are a few notes:

• There are a few players to watch closely throughout the course of the season. No two Blazers will be watched more than Damian Lillard and Nicolas Batum. So, with no further ado: Lillard Watch: 24 minutes, 6-of-11 from the field, 2-of-5 from three, five rebounds, seven assists, two turnovers. Not a bad debut. Batum Watch: 22 minutes, 5-of-12 from the field, 2-of-3 from three, one rebound, two assists, two steals, 12 points. Also, not bad.
• Along with Damian Lillard and Nicolas Batum, two guys to watch are Adam Morrison and Sasha Pavlovic. These are basically the two guys fighting for Portland’s last roster spot. Morrison and Pavlovic are going to be spot minute guys at best, but they’re both playing like their professional lives depend on how these preseason games shake out. Here are their lines: Morrison: 12 minutes, 4-of-6 from the field, 1-of-2 from three, one rebound, one turnover, nine points. Pavlovic: 15 minutes played, 1-of-5 from the field, 1-of-3 from three, two rebounds, one assist, two steals, three points. Morrison looked confident and wanted to shoot. Pavlovic had a more complete game. For what it’s worth, Pavlovic finished +5, Morrison was an even zero. At this point, my money is on Morrison, but there is a very good chance, because of where Portland is deep and where they aren’t, Pavlovic gets that last roster spot.
• Meyers Leonard has been a bit of a forgotten man with all the hype around Lillard and Kim Hughes saying he’s be struggling a bit in practice. Wednesday the Blazers’ newest rookie center wasn’t as dominant as his PG counterpart, but he had himself a nice night. Eighteen minutes, 4-of-4 from the field, 2-of-3 from the line, five rebounds, 10 points. Leonard did have four fouls and finished with a -1 in the plus/minus. That being said, if Meyers can get some solid minutes against second units, meaning J.J. Hickson can hold his own as the starting center, it will be sooner rather than later that he is ready to be the center of the future this franchise needs.
• My stat of the night. Tied for highest plus/minus of the night: Jared Jeffries +15. Tied with LaMarcus Aldridge.

Box Score

email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge watch as Portland finishes off the LA Lakers to start their preseason. Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE