"Man, you think I can get a new bench on Craigslist? Nah...." (Credit: YardBarker.com)

this crucial point in the season, it’s all about taking care of business. How do you take care of business? By winning games silly. The playoffs are guaranteed but in the battle for seeding, if you’re a Western Conference team you have to keep putting W’s on the board. Despite the nature of the game, let us not forgot that Portland put up a W. Portland’s 98-87 victory over Sacramento last night was not pretty, but it was in fact a win. It reminded me of the type of games that Portland would lose a couple years back against the playoff level teams. You know the ones where Portland would hang around, hang around and then watch the other team pull away in the 4th. That is exactly what they did to the Kings last night. It was not the ideal way that Blazer fans probably wanted to win, not exactly the type of win that’s going to boost your confidence in this team, but is a W either way you want to slice it.

One positive you can point to is that Portland found a way to win without having their best stuff on them. Portland survived a particularly awful 2nd quarter where it looked like things were going to be all bad. The Blazers went scoreless for nearly the first four minutes of this quarter. They ended up turning it over 6 times in this quarter (only 11 for the entire night) and shot a miserable 4-for-13 in that 12 minute span. That being said they still managed to pull this one out. They held an opponent to 90 or less points for the 5th time in the last 8 games. The starting lineup continues to do the heavy lifting, scoring 91 of the 98 points on the night. You don’t see this very often, but every starter not named Marcus Camby scored 20+ points. You have to like the chemistry these guys have developed. Nic Batum had 21 which makes Portland 5-0 when he scores 20 points or more. On the other hand…the bench is a mess. And I’m talking Lindsay Lohan level mess here. I’m concerned that our starters had to log such heavy minutes in an April game against the Kings. Last night the second unit contributed 7 points on 3-for-14 shooting. They got outscored 15-7 by Sacramento’s second unit, I kid you not. This has become a full-fledged problem. If you look at the other Western Conference playoff teams, they can all clearly depend on their bench. It’s not good with 5 games left in the season to say that I’m not sure we can depend on ours. Maybe it was the absence of Juwan Howard….wow I can’t believe I just typed that. It just feels like when Martell/Jerryd/Rudy/Dante go out there it’s either a jumper or a turnover. And sure enough to start the second quarter that’s what the Blazers got…jumpers and turnovers. If you remember last year in the playoffs we struggled mightily because we didn’t get much help from the bench. It looks like this trend may be continuing.

One could argue that if the Kings’ super-stud Tyreke Evans didn’t struggle (6 pts, 2/12 shooting) that perhaps the result would have been different. That’s fair. Ditto for the note about the Kings missing free throws. But also, let’s realize that everyone and their mom not named Tyreke Evans went off on Portland. The whole gang performed well in ways I did not think they could. If you had told me before the game Reke was going 2/12 I would have been sure Portland would have won by 20. They didn’t but you see the point I’m trying to make. At the end of the day Portland won, and really that’s all that matters. Take care of the Clippers and then get ready for that key 3-game, playoff preview stretch. That’s when we’ll learn more about this team, not against lottery opponents.

I calculated the correct trajectory of each floater and everything. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

We’re going to do things a little differently tonight. Since the Blazers won a relatively simplistic game — neither team could defend the paint all that well — in which they followed a familiar pattern in failing to hold a double-digit lead in the fourth, we’re going to delve into how that happened rather than go further into the broader happenings of a contest that played out rather predictably (relatively speaking). After all, we keep telling you that this Portland roster survives on it’s offense and merely gets by with its defense, so why don’t we show you for once. Show, Don’t Tell, the professors like to say.

The Blazers began the fourth quarter up 73-62. Just under four minutes later, after scoring their first point of the quarter, they were tied, 74-74. This is how it happened, spanning from the start of the period to the 8:11 mark, beginning with a lineup of Bayless, Rudy, Webster, Juwan and Aldridge:

• Offensive Possession One: Bayless swings the ball to Juwan at the top of the key, who gives the ball to Rudy on the left wing. Juwan sets a moving screen that, despite not making much contact, helps free Rudy to drive the middle with a burst of speed. Rudy then attempts a floater over Jason Thompson, hitting back iron. 73-62, 11:45.
• Defensive Possession One: Garcia, with Rudy defending, brings the ball up and passes to Tyreke Evans coming off a down screen, right wing. As Evans waits for a pick, Garcia retreats to the left wing, Rudy stays right side to watch Evans. Evans gets the pick and moves forward with one dribble. LaMarcus Aldridge steps in to cut off Evans, but Rudy is still there, swiping at the ball and watching the pass sail over his head to Garcia, who hits an open three. Martell Webster was in the area to rotate onto Garcia, but had to watch his own man cutting back door. No rotation should have been necessary. 73-65, 11:28.
• Offensive Possession Two: Bayless comes down left side, giving Rudy the ball top key as he splits a screen in the paint to free himself. Aldridge is there to set a pick, but Rudy seemingly calls him off, directing the offense with a pointed finger. Defending is Sean May, so Rudy goes isolation on the right wing. He dribbles between his legs twice and gets by May going baseline. Both Kings forward come over to defend, but Rudy flips up another floater that hits glass and spins off the rim. 73-65, 10:59.
• Defensive Possession Two: Evans brings the ball up with Bayless defending. Evans waits for a May pick and gets Bayless caught briefly. Bayless goes over the top of the pick but Juwan, who was on May, was behind the play ready to help. Evans passes to May, May makes a jumper with Juwan closing out. 73-67, 10:45.
• Offensive Possession Three: Bayless to Rudy right wing. Rudy gives to Juwan top of the key. Bayless uses a baseline-cutting Webster to get open left wing and receives the ball from Juwan. Bayless enters the ball into Aldridge, 17-feet away. Aldridge tries to take Thompson to the middle, but Thompson draws the contact, falls back, and Aldridge is whistled for an offensive foul. 73-67, 10:23.
• Defensive Possession Three: Evans brings the ball up on Bayless, crosses over and drives middle. Bayless stays on his right hip while Aldridge steps up to meet Evans in the paint. Evans jumps and hits Aldridge’s man, May, who was five feet away being help defended by Webster. May catches and takes one dribble to back up to the free-throw line. Webster releases and four Blazer defenders within eight feet watch as May makes the uncontested jumper. Mike Barret implies that May should have been called for three-in-the-key. May, having deftly stepped out of the key as the play developed, was in the key for 1.9 seconds. 73-69, 9:56.
• Offensive Possession Four: Bayless brings it up, Aldridge sets a screen and Bayless winds up with Thompson defending right wing. Bayless crosses over right, beats Thompson inside and misses a layup with Thompson recovering. Offensive Possession Five: Aldridge grabs the rebound and passes out of a cluster of defenders to extra-super open Webster, who hits front iron. 73-69, 9:37.
• Defensive Possession Four: Garcia comes up the left side on a slow break with three Blazers trailing. Aldridge is in the paint, shading toward Garcia as May sprints down the middle. Aldridge commits to neither, though Webster is nearby to rotate over, as Garcia draws his eyes right and hits May in the middle. Aldridge slaps down on May, who gets to the free-throw line and makes one. 73-70, 9:31.
• Offensive Possession Six: Miller subs in for Bayless and brings the ball up. He hits Rudy left wing, who then tries and fails to use an Aldridge screen. He gives a bad pass to Aldridge, who passes back and sets another pick. Rudy bursts towards the rim and misses a floater, back iron, as May decides to wait on the rebound and not to step up and defend. 73-70, 9:09.
• Defensive Possession Five: After a Howard foul, the ball is inbounded top key to Evans, with Webster defended. Evans dribbles right, drives left and finishes at the rim with Webster riding his right hip. Both Aldridge and Juwan were taken out of the paint by the offense, but Miller was feet away from stepping in and taking a charge. 73-72, 8:55.
• Offensive Possession Seven: Rudy and Juwan work a pick on the right wing. Juwan pops out as Rudy takes the ball top key. Rudy passes to Juwan, who posts up May, drives left into the paint and is fouled by Thompson. Juwan makes one of two free throws, scoring Portland’s first point of the quarter. 74-72, 8:37.
• Defensive Possession Six: Batum subs in for Webster. Evans begins top key with Batum defending. Evans goes left wing, using a pick by Thompson, passes to Thompson and gets the handoff coming back, but Batum fights through the pick. Evans dribbles left, spins back into the paint with Batum perfectly situated between him and the basket. Evans shoots from eight feet away off his right hip, misses left and gets his own offensive rebound with three Blazers in the area. Defensive Possession Seven: Evans passes out to Thompson on the left free-throw line extended. Thompson drives middle and draws contact from Batum, who had rotated over a hair late. Thompson makes the running hook after the contact, but misses the extra free throw. 74-74, 8:11.

There you have it. Fourteen possessions and a 12-1 run later, the game was tied. Of Portland’s seven offensive possessions, three were used by Rudy. In all three, Rudy either used a defensive mismatch or a pick on the perimeter to get near the rim. In all three, he shot a variation of a floater. Two were defended, one was ignored by the help defense, all three shots missed. Another possession ended with Aldridge charging into Thompson, a questionable (with a bad camera angle) but not terrible call, while the fifth was Bayless missing a similar shot to Rudy’s misses, Aldridge grabbing the board and Webster missing an open three. The last possession, Juwan got to the free-throw line.

If we decide that Rudy freeing himself for a floater in or around the paint is a quality offensive possession — it remains to be seen whether it actually is or not — then six of the seven offensive sets resulted in good shots, the outlier being Aldridge’s charge. So, there was not a huge problem on offense other than, with most of the early plays being for him, Rudy being unable to finish at the rim.

The run happened, as it has happened so many times before, because of the defense. If we define a quality defensive possession as one where the shot is well defended, whether or not it goes in or not, only one of the seven Kings sets was well defended, when May hit a Juwan-contested long two. The Blazers allowed two open jumpers, one layup, an and-one after an offensive board and put the Kings on the line after getting beat in transition. The best defensive possession was when Batum stuck Evans and defended an awkward shot in the lane, but the Blazers failed to secure the rebound (Evans got it), so it cannot count as a complete quality defense.

In two of the cases Evans broke down his defender in isolaton — understandable given his talent — but the true problems, as shown in the play analysis, were simple defensive recognition and help rotations, whether it was simply failing to step to the side and meet a driver or outright forgetting about and failing to communicate responsibilities. These problems have hounded the Blazers for most of the season, and I wouldn’t be surprised if, in looking back at all the leads the Blazers have nearly or fully lost, they were at the root of most of the evil.

Portland returns home to the RG for a two game mini-homestand before heading back on the road for a trip I’m not emotionally prepared to talk about. Let’s just say these are a big two games for Portland to win. Coming off a rough 1-3 East Coast trip, the Blazers hope they can find their winning ways/swagger at home. You can argue (its a small argument but it exists) that Portland could very well have come back 3-1 as they had chances in Cleveland and Milwaukee. But they didn’t and reality is setting in. That reality being that every night for a while is going to be an adventure. The margin for error is slimmer than going through a day and not hearing about Tiger Woods. Games like these against ‘inferior opponents’ are now must-wins and no longer the gimmes they used to be.

The good news: no matter how talented a young team is, young teams struggle on the road early in the season. The Kings are no exception as they are 1-9 away from Arco Arena this season and have dropped their last 6 road games. That one and only road victory came at Utah on November 6th. The not-so-good news: one thing that the Kings have proven they can do under Paul Westphal is score the basketball. Fun fact: Sacramento has dropped 100+ points in 17 of their 22 games this season. Not so fun fact: Portland is 0-7 this year when they give up 100 points. Hmm. Don’t get down though because Sacramento has given up 100+ 15 times out of 22 which means they obviously love the Situation more than they do playing defense.

The Kings have managed to somewhat tread water without Kevin Martin because of the emergence of Tyreke Evans and their newfound offensive balance. Sacramento has 6 guys currently averaging double figures: Evans (20.0), Jason Thompson (14.9), Beno Udrih (13.8), Andres Nocioni (11.5), Spencer Hawes (11.2) and Omri Cassipi (11.0). It’s much tougher to guard a team full of guys who can hurt you than just a couple guys. Unfortunately, Portland’s struggling guarding anything. Memories of the Blazers struggling with an offensively challenged Pacers team do not inspire confidence.

Obviously, the guy who scares me the most is Evans. After watching us struggle with Luke ‘bleeping’ Ridnour, I’ve definitely got the hibbie jibbies about Tyreke Evans. He’s got playmaking abilities not only for himself but for others. He can take over a game when necessary but also tends to make the right play at the right time. When you average 20/5/5 as a rookie for the Kings you earn this kind of respect.
My concern is who do we have to guard him? He could outquick Miller, could bully Bayless and…yeah you know what he could do to Blake.

Keys to the game

-Defense: With this many options, the Kings are not necessarily a team you can shut down. They are a team you can render inefficient and that should be the main goal. Truthfully, Portland just can’t let them get to 100, because as the stat showed earlier bad things tend to happen.

-Score: The Kings can’t play D but we’re only going to be as good as Roy and LMA are. I’ve given up on third option talk for the time being. The stars have to be efficient for this to work. That means Roy can’t go for 8-22 because while he scored 20 or something it wasn’t an efficient 20 and the Kings win that battle.

This one feels weird in that right now it feels as if the result could go either way. I guess only time will tell.