Jan 21, 2013; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers power forward LaMarcus Aldridge (12) shoots over Washington Wizards center Nene (42) at the Rose Garden. Mandatory Credit: Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports

The better team walked off the floor of the Rose Garden Monday night with a victory, there’s almost no way a sane person could disagree with that. Sadly, the better team in the RG Monday night was the Washington Wizards and not the Blazers. Portland now has the distinction of losing twice to a team that has only won 9 games. They’ve also now lost six in a row and four in a row at home. What started as a pretty promising month and a prelude to what could be an unexpectedly promising season has gone south in a hurry.

As Nicolas Batum said very succinctly after Monday’s loss, this team could snap their fingers and be on a ten-game losing streak. And that very well could be the end of 2012-13.

So in the face of all that, I’m going to make a wild suggestion: stay positive. Rebuilding in a league like the NBA takes time. Portland has taken the longer route, choosing to rebuild through the draft and not through free agency. It makes sense considering the Rose City has never been a big free agent destination, that and after last season’s house cleaning the buzz words were long-term fixes not short-term corrections. By choosing to rebuild through the draft, the Blazers took a gamble. I would say that with that gamble they hit the jackpot. Damian Lillard is a bona fide star in the making. Regardless of the development of Meyers Leonard, Lillard alone has made the draft worth it.

Along with winning the 2012 NBA Draft, Portland also came out like gang busters in the off season free agency period. The Blazers may not have landed Roy Hibbert, but Nicolas Batum is certainly earning the paycheck Portland was forced to give him.  J.J. Hickson also could be considered a free agent win. His actual contributions have been schizophrenic, leaning towards detrimental (he’s probably the first guy to look directly at when handing out blame for at least one or two of Portland’s last six losses), but his numbers are good enough to trade him for pieces, and if they aren’t, at least the Blazers are not committed to him for anything after this season.

So yes, losing to Wizards twice in one season, getting beat on your home court by a buzzer beater from 31 feet, trying and failing to come all the way back night after night after night, those are tough things to swallow right now. But if you think about all of that as part of the process, a process that leads to Playoff berths, and Playoff victories, and deep post season runs, then it becomes a little easier to take one big step back from the ledge.

What’s more, the evidence of this process working isn’t hard to find. Forget the score for a minute. Monday night, Nicolas Batum collected his first career triple double (12 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists), Damian Lillard proved that once again he can keep his head in a game in which he struggles for 24 minutes (1-of-7 from the field and 0-of-1 from three for two points in the first half; 6-of-10 from the field and 2-of-5 from three for 16 points in the second half, a perfect 5-of-5 from the field and 2-of-2 from three Monday’s final quarter),  LaMarcus Aldridge collected another double-double (17 points and 11 rebounds), and Wesley Matthews came up with a couple really big shots.

These are the guys to watch, the ones who are going to be around in the future to lead the Blazers to wins. They’re playing great basketball right now. They’re showing outstanding fortitude, significant improvement, and incredible potential. The wins aren’t there right now, they may not be there on a regular basis for the rest of the season, but I’m committed to going blue in the face telling people that winning games right now isn’t what matters.

Most of the talk around Portland’s locker room Monday night was about getting back on track, finding a way to win games, and maintaining an attitude devoid of either panic or desperation. This is not the attitude of a team taking comfort in being better now than anybody expected or appreciating the fact that they very well might be a whole season ahead of their rebuilding schedule. That’s fine. To be honest, that’s good. As professional basketball players, it is the job of every guy on the Blazers’ roster to try and win games. If they can’t actually win games, at least they’re continuing to try.

And if it’s the job of professional basketball players to try and win games, regardless of the outcome, then as fans, may I suggest it is our job to maintain the positivity. This team is four guys strong, and they’ll get there. We just have to try and stay around long enough to be there when it happens.

If you’re looking for an anthem to remind you how to feel about the Blazers at this moment, here’s a good one:

The Blazers are back in action at the Rose Garden Wednesday to take on the Indiana Pacers. If you thought it was going to easier for this team, think again.

Couple of quick things:

• Head coach Terry Stotts mentioned not doing the “little things,” and those little things adding up to a loss. Stotts decided not to expand on what he meant by little things, but I can guess things like turning over the ball (which Portland did 13 times on Monday), not defending the paint (Washington scored 44 points inside), and missing free throws (the Blazers missed four free throws for the game) would count as little things. Those numbers aren’t astounding, 13 turnovers isn’t that many, 44 is a manageable number of points, four free throws is nothing, but taken as a whole, they more than account for all three of the points that separated these two teams at the end of the evening.
• Nene had 17 points in 9:46 in Monday’s first quarter. The big Brazilian shot 8-of-9 from the field to start, and looked completely unstoppable. During the first quarter, I predicted Nene would finish with 25 points (ask Ben Golliver if you doubt me). I make a lot of predictions that are wrong, I’m no Nate Silver after all. Monday, Nene finished with 24 points. He missed a free throw in the fourth quarter, or else I would have hit it right on the head.
• I’ve spent a lot of time defending Martell Webster. I’ve always believed in his potential, and I’ve always really liked his game. As a Blazer he was incredibly frustrating, but when he was hot, he could burn the building to the ground. I started writing about the Blazers in 2008-09 as an intern with the team. That season, Martell hurt his foot in the first game of the preseason, and missed all but one game. In 2009-10, I was adrift on the non-blogging sea, so I probably didn’t write a single sentence about basketball during that season. I came back into the fold with RCP at the beginning of 2010-11, and by that time, Webster was gone. I’ve never had the opportunity to write anything about a guy I more than once described as the “X-Factor” on a team that included an All-Star-level Brandon Roy. Monday, he showed why I believe that as goes Martell Webster, so goes his team. He can beat you in so many ways. His stroke is as pure as it gets so he’ll kill you from deep (4-of-6 from three Monday), and he’s big and athletic so he’s dangerous at the rim (Monday he had two huge backdoor dunks both on Nicolas Batum, the guy who prospered from Webster’s broken foot in 08-09 and drove him out of town after 09-10). The problem with Martell is that he’s always been a one in four or five nights player at best. If he’s relied upon to carry the load offensively every night, he’s a liability. Webster’s managed to stick in the NBA longer than some thought he might. He’s started the majority of his games with the Wizards this season, and he’s making a little bit of hay with the time he’s been given. His 24 points tied Nene for tops among all scorers Monday night. Seven seasons in the league, and we’re still talking potential, but that’s OK since Marty’s only 26. Here’s what I’m driving at, bring Martell Webster back to Portland. He’ll be a free agent after this season. He’s going to be cheap. And in Portland, he’d come off the bench, so his offensive duties would be limited. Win-win-win.
• All of Jordan Crawford’s 13 points came in the fourth quarter.

Box Score

Standings

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Jan 21, 2013; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard (0) reacts against the Washington Wizards at the Rose Garden. Mandatory Credit: Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports

These are the faces of three professional basketball players anticipating their first win of the 2012-13 season back in November. Photo courtesy of USPRESSWIRE.

The Blazers are right now mired in their worst losing streak of the season. They’ve failed to show up in the first halves of their last two games. They recently lost to the 10-win Cavaliers, and played so poorly against the Milwaukee Bucks that most non-Portland based NBA fans would be hard pressed to answer correctly if asked which team, the Bucks or the Blazers, and recently “parted ways” with their head coach. Things aren’t going super great right now.

But nothing lasts forever right? Portland hasn’t played all that well the last week and change, but all things being equal the Blazers aren’t a “bad” team. Developing teams with a strong core and no bench will go through ups and downs. Five straight losses is a protracted down, which stands to reason that any day now Portland should be getting on a roll for a nice little upswing. What better way to kick-start a winning streak than facing the worst team in the NBA?

Alas this is Portland. Nothing is easy, and nothing is guaranteed. Yes the Washington Wizards come into the Rose Garden on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day owners of the league’s worst record (8-30), but of those eight wins a full 12.5% of them have come against the Blazers (that’s one out of eight if you can’t math it yourself). It’s better now than it was for the first month of the season. From October 30th to November 30th, 100% of the Wizards’ wins had come against the Portland Trail Blazers. If there’s anybody that Washington feels like they could possibly beat, it has to be the Blazers.

What’s more, way back when the Wizards beat the Blazers for their first win of the 2012-13 season, Washington was without John Wall, one of the best young point guards in the league. Wall’s back now. Also, Portland has faced three of the league’s best young point guards during this last five-game streak. In those three games, Steph Curry went for 22, Kyrie Irving scored 31, and Brandon Jennings went for 30. Curry was overshadowed by Damian Lillard, who scored 37 in Portland’s loss in his hometown, but Irving and Jennings both got the better of the Blazers’ likely Rookie of the Year.

If young, quick point guards are Portland’s kryptonite, John Wall, though not a scorer like Kyrie or a streaky shooter like Jennings, will likely give the Blazers fits.

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

Wizards Starting 5: PG A.J. Price, SG Bradley Beal, SF Martell Webster PF Nene, C Emeka Okafor

It’s hard to really know where to look first when breaking down the top match-ups for Monday’s game. I certainly feel like Portland is the better team, better at basically every position. But a guy like Emeka Okafor is the perfect antidote for J.J. Hickson. Both guys fight in the post, get rebounds, and score on put-backs. Emeka just does it a little better than J.J.

Nene isn’t better than LaMarcus Aldridge or different enough than LA to throw him off his game or negate what he offers. He is, however, a big physical presence, the kind of defender that Aldridge struggles against. Nicolas Batum is a better version of Martell Webster, but Marty can certainly get hot. Portland’s back court of Damian Lillard and Wesley Matthews is better on aggregate than A.J. Price and Bradley Beal, but Washington Wizard fans are certainly talking about Beal the way Portland fans are talking about Lillard. That has to mean something.

I certainly believe that match-up wise the Blazers should have the edge on Monday, but given the way things have been going for this team, and the way the last meeting between these two teams went, I’m not ready to concede anything.

What to Watch For

• Portland’s start. I don’t always read the paper (online of course, nobody reads actual paper), but I’d bet half my paycheck that at least one major local media outlet has a Blazer story that is pegged to Portland starting slowing and having to dig their way out of holes night after night. Far be it from me to call a clear truth reductive, neither is mutually exclusive. The Blazers have started a number of games very slowly, that’s certainly the truth. Having to come back every night wears a team out, that is also the truth. Whether or not that’s the real problem with Portland right now is what I’m not 100% on. However, if the Blazers don’t come out from the jump and compete, there’s a good chance we’ll be talking at the end of the night about lethargic starts and comebacks that are too short.
• Who gets the back-up PG minutes. In the Wizards’ last game (a loss at the Los Angeles Clippers) John Wall came off the bench. A.J. Price played only 17 minutes though, so he was the starter in name only. I listed Price as Monday’s starter, because that’s my process. If John Wall starts and A.J. Price comes off the bench, whether Portland’s head coach goes with Ronnie Price or Nolan Smith won’t make that big of an impact. However, if one of those two guys (especially if that guy is Nolan Smith) draws John Wall in a first shift, things could get ugly. Remember, it took only two and a half minutes on Saturday night for the Bucks to put the Blazers in a tailspin with Damian Lillard on the bench.
• LaMarcus Aldridge. The Blazers sent out a nice little packet informing the media on why they think LA should be in the All-Star Game. Blazersedge has a breakdown. I certainly think LaMarcus is an All-Star, whether or not he gets selected remains to be seen of course. There is big potential for LA on Monday night, especially considering how mediocre he was against Milwaukee. I think LaMarcus goes for around 30 on Monday (is that too high of an expectation?).

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

A big night from LaMarcus Aldridge leads Portland to a much-needed road win. Credit: Brad Mills-US PRESSWIRE

I waited a while to write this recap of Saturday’s well deserved, if not quite awe inspiring, Blazers victory over the Washington Wizards primarily because I needed to take some time before I committed to what I wanted to say.

So, after letting a little time pass, after watching a little NBATV, and looking at the standings and the upcoming schedule, this is what I’ve decided. It’s not quite over for Portland. I’ve also decided that choosing to believe that the Blazers still have a chance to make something out of this season is going to make it that much more difficult the next time Portland looks uninterested, can’t hit a jumper, and can’t play a lick of defense. So be it. There are games left to be played. And if they have to be played, why not continue to expect the best out of the Blazers.

Saturday wasn’t the best of the Blazers, but it was good enough to beat a bad team, and that has to be worth something to these guys. Last season Portland went through a dark spell. And that dark spell hit it’s deepest level with a loss in the nation’s capital to a team that at the time had won only five games. That loss dropped the Blazers to three games under .500, as bad as it would get for the season, and made me really think the brass was going to pink-slip coach Nate McMillan and start all over again from scratch.

A loss Saturday would have pushed Portland again to three games under .500, and with fewer games remaining now than there were on December 3rd, 2010, probably would have been death knell of the season. Beating the Wizards doesn’t mean the season won’t be deep-sixed on Tuesday in Indianapolis. But it doesn’t NOT mean that either. Sorry for the triple negative there. What I’m trying to say, is a win at any time during this pretty abysmal stretch of basketball should be cause, at least on some level, for even the slightest bit of hope.

Here’s my thinking on this. Mike Barrett and Mike Rice made a rather astute observation mid-way through the first half of Saturday’s game when they said that Portland seemed to start this slide/tail spin following the home loss in overtime to the Oklahoma City Thunder that can be credited in a large part to a blown goal-tending call. The Blazers had problems before that point (not being able to win on the road), but that game stung, and Portland didn’t recover from it right away.

That’s the thing with this season. There is no recovery time. One or two bad games can turn into a bad week, which can turn into a bad month, and then you end up where the Blazers are right now. The reverse is true too, though. A good game, or preferably two or three or four, can turn into a run of wins, which can change a team’s whole landscape. Do I think winning in Washington is the spark Portland needs to go on a run and make up the ground they’ve lost over the last week and then some? No. But there’s no reason why the Blazers shouldn’t come away from Saturday night with a little regained confidence.

As has been noted, Washington is a bad team, and they didn’t play particularly well Saturday–a notable stat: 16-of-25 from the free throw line–but Portland still had to play the whole game. The Wizards didn’t just give it to them. But more than that, the Blazers did seem to make a couple of adjustments that indicated at least some level of game planning and execution.

For instance, on Valentine’s Day in Portland Nick Young destroyed the Blazers from three (7-of-8 from deep finishing with a game-high 35 points). Saturday Young was 1-of-6 from downtown and 4-of-16 from the field for 10 points. Of course Nick Young is a shooter in the mold of former Washington Wizard Gilbert Arenas, he’ll shoot from anywhere at any time, but it did look like the Blazers were making a concerted effort to close him out in the half-court and find him early in transition. That’s an indication that Portland knew what they were supposed to be doing on the defensive end. Knowing what is to be done on defense sounds pretty elemental to being successful on the basketball court, but lately Portland has played like they don’t have a clue about how to effectively defend in any capacity. Saturday’s defense was a step in the right direction.

Offensively, too, the Blazers looked better on Saturday than they have in a while. The ball was getting inside to LaMarcus Aldridge (fantastically efficient line from LA: 12-of-15 from the field 6-of-6 from the line, 10 rebounds, three assists, two blocks, a steal, and a game-high +12). When the ball wasn’t getting inside to LA, Portland’s guards avoided playing one-on-one and chucking jumpers at the rim. The ball was actually moving. Jump shots were actually open. The Blazers shot a more than decent 51% from the field, and if they’d been able to knock down a couple of threes (4-of-17 from deep as a team), this would have been a legit blowout.

And even without a legit blowout, Portland should feel good. Wins make it all better. A couple more wins, and maybe everybody will forget that in early March the season was deemed over and done with.

The Blazers travel to Indy for game four of this trip. The Pacers dropped a heart-breaker in Miami, Saturday evening. Indianapolis is half-way through the Miami/Orlando back-to-back Portland avoided thanks to the lockout. The Pacers are a tough team. Hopefully they have their get-well game against the Magic, and totally forget about having to play Portland while they prepare for the second night of Portland/Philly home b2b.

Couple of quick things:

• Marcus Camby got tossed in the second quarter after catching a forearm to the throat from Kevin Seraphin led to a brief, non-violent shoving match and war of words. Seraphin received a technical on the play, and following the referees announcement Mike Rice broke Kayfabe when he took off his headset to talk directly to Nate McMillan. Also, Mike Barrett showed an impressive ability to self-sensor when he avoided dropping an f-bomb in the middle of letting out an exasperated “you’ve got to be kidding me.” It was a poor choice by the referees to toss Cam and not Seraphin. Just adds to the growing suspicion that Scott Foster either hates the Blazers or bets against them and doesn’t like to lose. Either way. The Camby ejection could have derailed this game, and thankfully it didn’t
• One more thing about the Seraphin situation. Kevin Seraphin is one of the bright stars of French basketball. I hope that when Nick Batum corralled his international teammate to keep him from getting into fisticuffs with Marcus Camby he said something to him in French along the lines of “dude, that old guy will mess up your face.”
• I’m not ready to get back to watching the standings, since the Blazers still face an upward battle to get back into the top eight. However, the Minnesota Timberwolves were dealt a serious blow when it was announced that Ricky Rubio had indeed torn his ACL and that his season was kaptunik. Not that anyone would ever wish an ACL tear on any other person ever, but what’s bad for the T-Wolves is good for the Blazers (that’s the nature of the beast ladies and gentlemen). Minnesota fell to the Hornets at home in their first game post Ricky. Minnesota was 3-7 before Rubio was inserted into the starting lineup.
• Two other teams to watch as far as potentially falling out of the top eight so Portland can jump back in are Houston and Dallas. Before beating the Nets Saturday, the Rockets had lost five straight. Dallas is all kinds of messed up.

Box Score

Standings

Wiz of Awes

Email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject