Tim Duncan is one of the best power forwards of all time. LaMarcus Aldridge might be the heir to that title. Photo courtesy of Project Spurs.

Blazers: 7-3 (2nd Northwest Division)

Spurs: 7-4 (1st Southwest Division)

Game Details: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX. 5:30 PM. TV: CSN Radio: 750 AM (KXTG)

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 San Antonio Starting Lineup: PG Tony Parker (#9, 6’2”, Paris, France), SG Kawhi Leonard (#2, 6’7”, San Diego State), SF Richard Jefferson (#24, 6’7”, Arizona), PF Tim Duncan (#21, 6’11”, Wake Forest), C DeJuan Blair (#45, 6’7”, Pittsburgh)

Portland is about to embark on a six-game road trip, one-fewer than the total number of home games the Blazers have played thus far. This is going to be an important stretch, not just because Portland has struggled somewhat on the road.

This Blazer team has a lot of elements that it can put into play to help win games. Having said that, they have yet to land on an all encompassing identity. As John Canzano states, this team might be able to forge that identity while traveling together for a week and a half. The road is a good time for guys to bond, especially since Portland is still, in a sense, trying to get the newest pieces to become fully integrated, and to get the team to work as a well-oiled machine night in and night out.

San Antonio is as good a place as any to start what will be a grueling run in the middle of what has already been a long January that is currently only 12 days old.

The Spurs are the Spurs are the Spurs. Some teams rise and fall over the course of a decade, but not this one. Every year they are counted out–or at least every year since the last time they were NBA Champions which was 2007–and every year it doesn’t matter. They compete. And they win. Already this season their core has aged yet another year, they’ve lost Manu Ginoboli for a little while to a broken hand, and all they’ve done is win seven games and grab an early hold on the top spot in the Southwest Division.

The San Antonio Spurs are always going to be good. The best part about that, is that Portland won’t be caught by surprise. The worst part: the Blazers will have to play a tight game, make as few mistakes as possible, and dictate the pace and style of play, and even then it’s going to be hard to come out of the AT&T Center with a victory.

Beating San Antonio is going to have more to do with how Portland plays than how the Spurs play, and that’s the way it’s going to be all season. The Blazers are as good as probably every top level team in the NBA, meaning if they play the way they want to, they’ll be in any game. What Portland has to do is pretty clear at this point. ONE: Play Defense. TWO: Attack the basket on offense. And THREE: PLAY MORE DEFENSE.

The Orlando Magic game tape from Wednesday night isn’t as burnable as the Phoenix game tape. Actually watching that fourth quarter might be the kind of thing that will fire the team up, showing how this team refuses to give up even on a lost cause. Along with that fourth quarter, Portland might want to watch the first quarter, if only to see how not to defend San Antonio’s shooters.

On Wednesday, the Blazers were slow on closing out on shooters, and didn’t rotate to the rim to cut off guards and wings driving through the lane. Coming late on the help-side to protect the rim makes sense against Orlando; you leave Dwight Howard and all the ball handler has to do is toss the rock at the rim and it’s an easy two. Closing out late on the shooters is about execution. The Spurs don’t have the same cadre of gunners that the Magic do, but they do have some guys that can shoot the ball. And every wing in the NBA can knock down an open shot.

When it comes to individual player match-ups, the guys to watch are going to be Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, but San Antonio is a team, and they play a team game. Trying to stop one or two players and not everybody on the court will be a mistake.

Here’s what I’m going to watch for:

• Portland’s ability to play on the road: The road hasn’t been overly kind to the Blazers, but that doesn’t mean they can’t win outside of the Rose Garden. Beating Oklahoma City in Oklahoma City was one of Portland’s biggest road victories in quite awhile. The Blazers won’t have the backing of the home crowd should they get behind. But, again, that doesn’t have to be the difference maker. If, on Friday, Portland can harness the energy of the RG, and make a statement early, they can beat San Antonio. Beating San Antonio will make the next five road games that much easier.
• Gerald Wallace: Crash has been phenomenal most of Portland’s 10 games. He’s hit a couple snags (a zero-pointer in Los Angeles against the Clips and one-pointer in Phoenix), but nothing so bad as to say that he shouldn’t be the focus of Portland’s offense early in games. In fact, Gerald Wallace needs to score for Portland to win. San Antonio is another team that just can’t match-up with Crash. Give him the ball, let him go to work.
• Offensive balance: Portland needs to take a page out of the Magic’s playbook, and get everybody involved on offense. The Blazers are deep. Taking advantage of that depth can be a difference maker.

**Quick note, I’ll be going to Seattle Friday evening to watch Uhh Yeah Dude tape a live podcast so I’ll be watching this game on DVR and posting a recap Saturday morning**

email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

Nicolas Batum guides home a game winner over his friend and countryman Tony Parker. Photo Courtesy of the Oregonian

What can be said about Friday night? Let’s start by looking at the stats. Portland gets out shot 51% to 47% from the field, and 48% to 27% from three. Against the best team in the league, those kinds of shooting stats might mean a loss. The Blazers make up the difference by grabbing 12 offensive rebounds, and those offensive boards lead to 10 more field goal attempts. Those ten extra shots at the hoop might be the difference maker, right? Here’s my answer, who cares.

Who cares how Portland won. Really, they shouldn’t have won, so trying to look at stats to figure out how it happened is basically a waste of time. The Blazers won on Friday for two reasons. Reason number one: they never gave up. And reason number two: they called the perfect play at the perfect time and executed it perfectly. They didn’t play a perfect game, not by any stretch, but an NBA game is 48 minutes long. If this game had been 47 minutes and 59.1 seconds long, San Antonio would have been the winners. It wasn’t, and they weren’t. And it’s those .9 seconds that made all the difference.

And it’s those .9 seconds that belong to Nicolas Batum. But Nic doesn’t get all the credit. Andre Miller get’s at least as much credit as Nic. After all he chucked the ball at the rim that Batum guided home over his countryman Tony Parker, and it was Dre that picked Parker clean just before he crossed half court with 32.9 seconds remaining. Also, give Wesley Matthews a ton of credit. He manned up Manu Ginobili and created a steal and a run out with 7.9 seconds left that allowed Nic to tie the game. The reply showed Manu either dribbled the ball of his own foot or Wesley’s foot, but either way the steal was created by heady defense, so give Matthews credit for making a game saving play. Give LaMarcus Aldridge credit. He missed two free throws with a minute and forty seconds remaining in the game that would have cut a three point deficit to one. Without his misses, as he jokingly observed following the game, Nicolas wouldn’t have been able to do the things he did. While we’re at it, give Brandon Roy some credit too. He did basically nothing for his third game in a row, but was put in for the final play as a decoy. If he hadn’t made so many game winners in his career, maybe the Spurs wouldn’t have keyed in on him, leaving Nicolas to make the game winning cut to the hoop. And why not, let’s give Patty Mills some credit too. After being a big part of some big wins not a few weeks ago, Patty has seen his minutes go from limited to none. Instead of complaining or looking sad on the bench, he’s reverted to his old role, this time with two towels. Give him credit for keeping the team fired up when they were down six, and then four, and then two, and for being the first bench guy on the floor following Nic’s big bucket.

So there you go. Friday was that special kind of game. Two Playoff teams playing hard, battling basket for basket most of the way, playing the game like it’s meant to be played, blah, blah, blah. Nobody is going to remember a thing about this game except for the final 33 seconds. That’s fine by me.

What’s to take away for the Blazers Friday? In my opinion, there’s a lot. First of all, they can play with and beat the best team in the league. Sure they needed some luck, but that only gets you so far. Down 10 with five and a half to go in the fourth, Portland could have easily folded it up and gone home, content in knowing that they put up a gallant fight against the league’s best. This team hasn’t played like that at all this year, even when down double figures to teams they should beat, and this late in the season is not the time to start. Friday Portland showed that if they have an identity it is that of a team that will play hard no matter what. What else can the Blazers take away from Friday? How about having faith in their coach. Nate McMillan catches a lot of flack, sometimes for his clock management, sometimes for his subbing patterns, sometimes because he’s stubborn and he doesn’t like being second guessed by the media and the fans. Forget all of that for a minute, go back to your TV or your computer, and watch Portland’s final play one more time. San Antonio had no chance to stop that basket from being scored. That was the absolute perfect play. A catch and shoot would have been a heave, and would have been well covered because that was what San Antonio was looking for. Sending a leaper with long arms at the rim who is going to be covered by a smaller player because the Spurs were sending their bigger players and better defenders at the shooters allowed Portland to get a high percentage shot. How often can you look at a final shot with .9 seconds on the clock, and say that it was a good look. Almost never. That play is on Nate.

This is also more than just a morale win or a confidence booster, this is a win that Portland needed. San Antonio is in the Playoffs, and are basically a lock on the number one seed in the West. Portland is also practically in, but every win still matters. It feels good to get this one, and in the fashion it was had, there is likely none better. But to hit this tough upcoming road trip with a come-from-behind thievery on the best team in the league has to make these Blazers feel like if the Playoffs were to start tomorrow they would be ready.

The Blazers take to the road for a brutal three-game swing that begins Sunday in Oklahoma City, and continues on Monday and Wednesday in San Antonio and New Orleans.

Just a few quick thoughts:

• Spurs forward Steve Novak played one minute and 27 seconds, and had a single stat is his score line. One turnover. The difference between winning and losing.
• Nicolas Batum has gone over 20 points in each of the last three games. It is his first three-game stretch of 20 or more points in his career. Friday was also Nic’s very first buzzer beater in the NBA.
• In playoff seeding news, New Orleans Hornet’s power forward David West was lost for the season due to a knee injury. West joins Memphis Grizzly Rudy Gay in the category of center piece to a team trailing Portland in the Playoff race to go down for the season. Apparently the Blazers aren’t the only team in the NBA that has to deal with injuries.
• Andre Miller was probably the MVP of Friday’s game in my opinion. Following the game, Dre, who is a very reserved and soft spoken individual, gave probably his most animated post game interview, telling Oregonian beat writer Jason Quick that his lob to Nicolas was the best pass of his career, and that Friday was the best win of his career.
• On a personal note, I was not in the building when this happened in 2008-09. And I have to say that Friday’s game was easily the best finish in an NBA game that I have ever seen. And by best I mean the absolute craziest.

Andre Miller netted 21 points, Friday, and claimed it as one of his favorite games as a pro. Photo courtesy of the Oregonian.

Box Score

Standings

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

It’s been a strange journey so far for Jerryd Bayless. He’s gone from no playing time, to playing time, to being awful in playing time, to being better in less playing time, to offseason excitement, to an uneven Summer League, to Andre Miller being signed, back to no playing time, Team Bayless uniting in his defense, injuries opening the door, having a few breakout games, going back to playing poorly, Steve Blake being traded giving him more minutes, using those minutes to mixed results and finally ending the season on a positive note with an aggressive series against Phoenix.

See much consistency in there? Other than it being a consistently run-on sentence, neither do I. It’s hardly uncommon for young players to see their minutes fluctuate, but the point guard position is the toughest to develop your skills at when you aren’t getting repetitions with certain situations and lineups, particularly when it’s often unclear from game to game whether you’re even playing point guard or not.
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