Starting out with the pregame show, I think Scottie Pippen has gone slightly crazy. I love the guy, and most of what he said about the Bulls is true, but those comments were completely out of left field and not what you want to be saying if you want to coach. Chuckster had my back and said Pippen isn’t a rocket scientist nor should be be coaching. There ya go.
5:15 — How dumb are the coach mic’s? What did the league think this was going to do, confirm that the teams talk in the locker rooms and they don’t appear out of thin air before tip off. You can tell McMillan really hates it.
5:17 — Doug Collins and Kevin Harlan tonight. Sigh… Collins calls this a must win for the Bulls, I think it might be a little early for that buddy.
5:18 — Martell pulls up and drains a 3 on the Blazers first possesion. Good sign, but it’s happened before and he’s dissapeared. Lets hope he cracks the second half lineup and hits a few then.
5:20 — Hinrich hits a 3. Not a good sign for a streaky guy like him. Martell responds with a turnaround jumper in the post. Beautiful. You know, for a guy who gets paid as much as Ben Wallace does for defense and rebounding, he sure doesn’t do a whole lot of either. He just matador’ed Steve Blake and gave him a layup.
5:22 — OK, Hinrich has gone back to sucking and I’m less worried. SJ lets me know that he’s about 40 minutes from getting demolished by the Ducks and he’s nice and sweaty. He’s got his buisness socks on.
5:24 — Martell gets away with a blatant double dribble, and it leads to a Steve Blake long-2 getting ruled a 3-pointer. Could this be the first time in 4.37 years the refs are on Portland’s side? We shall see.
5:30 — I used to really love Luol Deng, but as the season goes on I’m starting to think he’s really just a very good third piece. It’s very easy to forget he is even on the floor.
5:36 — Hinrich hits again, maybe I spoke too soon. 22-21 Bulls so far, with both teams going back and forth fairly frequently. Just saw a trailer for that terrible looking horror movie One Missed Call. The last week or so the previews for it I’ve seen had that quiet forboding music going on, but now they are using loud annoying prog rock. Funny thing is, neither is going to work.
5:44 — Portland’s white unit isn’t looking so hot, turning the ball over and just looking real funky. Travis is rebounding well, and the offensive boards are landing in Portland hands, but the offense hasn’t arrived yet. Fairly stale contest.
5:49 — Those Honey Chipotle Crispers from Chilis look tasty. And no I do not work for them.
5:52 — Nocioni hits and puts Chi-town up by ten, 33-23. I think Roy better get back in there. And would you look at that, Nate puts him back in. Now Roy is getting doubled and Outlaw has hit two open shots as a result. 35-30 Bulls. Then Roy gets to the line. This is an important final six minutes. If Portland can come back and take the lead going into the break, you have to wonder if the Bulls will be able to mentally come together and stay in the game. We just don’t know if Jim Boylan has done anything about those fragile young minds.
6:01 — James Jones gets fouled on a 3-pointer and hits it. Is there anyone better at getting four-point plays right now? I’ve seen him get at least five of them in the last 12 games.
6:03 — Portland’s offense is coming around, but Chicago is getting a mish-mash of scores from guys like Duhon, Wallace and Smith. Hell Ben missed a dunk but finished a lefty layup over Pryzbilla. Back to the refs for a moment, you can tell they are starting to give Roy some star-quality calls — a change from even yesterday’s T-Wolves contest. He doens’t get Kobe-like calls, but he’s getting the benefit of the doubt. It’s a bigger deal than it sounds like. 43-37 Bulls.
6:11 — If there’s two things Zach Randolph does better than LaMarcus Aldridge, it’s rebounding and finishing in traffic. Aldridge is much more athletic though, and needs to start dunking on shotblockers.
6:13 — Outlaw hits a pull-up jumper in the lane with .8 seconds left. Portland would easily be down double digits without Outlaw. Then again, Portland would easily be in the lead if Joe Smith and Ben Gordon weren’t going nuts. It’s 48-41 at half, and the tempo hints at a third quarter Portland run, but Gordon could have something to say about that.
6:19 — Kenny Smith says Portland makes the playoffs. That’s fine. Chuckster says they won’t because they are a jump-shooting team. That’s fine, too. But then Charles says the Bulls will definitly make the playoffs. Granted, it’s much easier to do in the Eastern Conference, but aren’t the Bulls basically a jump-shooting team as well? I don’t see how Barkley can write off Portland for taking so many jumpers and yet say the Bulls are a playoff team, especially when Portland has so many players that can shoot (Jones, Webster, Roy, Alridge, Frye, Outlaw, Blake, Jack [sometimes]) at a reasonably high percentage. How many good shooters does Chicago have?
6:35 — 53-41 Bulls after about 90 seconds. Not a good start, as if you needed me to tell you. Fortunately the crowd is dead and the door is still plenty open.
6:39 — Remember what I said about Roy starting to get star calls? Forget about that. Same about Ben Wallace’s rebounding. I must’ve forgot the Blazers enjoy playing volleyball with rebounds.
6:45 — Trout gets called for goaltending on a Duhon floater even though it was obviously going to be about three feet short of the rim. You explain it. Blazers are hanging around since the Bulls don’t seem interested in pulling away anytime soon (sort of like how Portland does sometimes).
6:46 — 59-52 now, and Jim Boylan calls time to avoid any sort of run happening. What a dead game for both teams. It’s like their playing hot-potato with the victory. If anyone would actually show they wanted to win, they could runaway with it.
6:55 — Joe Smith is keeping Chicago in the game. 22 points through the third? Fortunately Outlaw is killing and it’s only a five point game. Three point game now after Jack drives in. And Blake ties it with a 3. 26-12 Portland run, thank you Doug. But there’s still just no energy in the arena at all. It’s like a hardwood-floored mausoleum.
7:04 — Outlaw just got a Kobe-call. He got Noah in the air and got grazed on the elbow, but it was enough to give Portland the lead. Lakers fans don’t complain, so neither will I.
7:06 — Now things are picking up. Guys are fighting for loose balls. Somehow, Adrian Griffin finds a way to score inside. Bulls go back up by 3 and I think it’s time to get Brandon back on the floor.
7:13 — Roy is back. Huge three from Jarrett. That’s a hill, can we not see the valley till the first quarter of next game, por favor? Aldridge hits his second jumper in the last two minutes and the Blazers take a 80-76 lead.
7:17 — Gordon hits a jumper, so according to his shooting percentage he should miss the next two at least. Hinrich goes ahead and misses one for him. Aldridge tips in a Roy miss. Woops, Gordon hit another…82-80 Portland with 5:45 remaining.
7:19 — Alridge grabs another offensive board and gets to th
e line. He’s stepping up on the glass, big time. Hinrich hits, but the Bulls are only sticking around cus they are hitting highly-contested jumpers, this looks like Portland’s game.
7:21 — That was one of the worst flops I’ve ever seen, Mr. James Jones. Then Roy hits a disgustingly tough jumper. Joe Smith tips on in. Tie game. Roy spins into the lane for 2. This is getting fun. Doug Collins tells us for the 1,045th time that Portland does not do a good job rebounding. Good stuff.
7:27 — Big rebound Roy after Gordon misses a jumper. Fantastic sequence as about six players dive on the floor and Portland comes up with it. James Jones’ 3 from the corner bounces off the rim long. Bulls ball, timeout.
7:30 — Somehow Ben Wallace draws a foul on Aldridge even though he was behind LMA. Either way, Big Ben clanks two free throws, only for Nocioni to tip (wiping out Roy in the process) the offensive board and Gordon ties things up with a jumper. Friggin’ A.
7:32 — Roy time with 1:05 left. Roy gets hit to the floor, no call. Gordon misses a jumper (notice a pattern?) and Roy gets pushed to the ground by Wallace but comes up with the rebound on his side and calls the timeout. 21 seconds left, 88-88, Portland ball.
7:36 — Roy misses a falling jumper just before the buzzer goes off, overtime. The final play was a clearout for Brandon, which is all well and good, but I would’ve rather seen a high pick-and-roll with LaMarcus.
7:39 — Wallace goes to the line and actually hits a two freebies. You read that right. Gordon comes back down and gets a layup. Outlaw responds with a pull-up jumper. 2-point Chicago lead. Jarret hits a big-time floater. Tie-game. Portland ball. Roy posts up Hinrich, spins off and gets the and-one at the rim. 3-point Chicago lead. Joe Smith gets free for a layup. And Jarret Jack AGAIN. For 3! Gordon responds with another jumper after Outlaw got his shot foul/blocked. Tie game again with 1:18 remaining. Portland ball.
7:47 — Aldridge hits the pick-and-pop and Portland takes the 2-point lead. Just don’t give Chicago any open 3’s now. Joe Smith backs in about 10-feet and hits a righty hook. Jack gets his jumper blocked but Aldridge comes up with the ball, gets it to Outlaw, and Outlaw drains the skying pull-up. Two-point lead again. Joe freaking Smith gets an offensive board and gets to the line on a phantom foul, hits the first, hits the second. Tie game, Portland ball, 10.2 left. Just like the end of regulation, the ball will be going to Roy for the final shot. The clear out might work this time, but I would like to see the pick-and-roll. But there’s plenty of shooters in, so anything could happen. Chicago had a foul to give and used it on Roy and now there’s 5.1 seconds left.
7:55 — Now I think Roy gets it and goes straight to the bucket for either the foul or layup. Roy spins off Hinrich and passes off to to Jack, who misses the 3 at the buzzer. If there had been .9 seconds left, Outlaw would have had the put-back dunk for the win. But as it is, we go into overtime numero does.
8:00 — Collins tells us Portland is a bad rebounding team, again. Trading misses now. Everybody looks exhausted. Jack drives for a layup for the first points of the period. Portland forces Chicago into a 24-second violation. Great defense. Nocioni hits a jumper and ties it. Aldridge drains another huge shot from the free-throw line. Now Ben Wallace is back at the line when Roy fouled him on the dunk attempt. Now way he hits two in a row again. But he hits the first. And the second. Tie game again.
8:06 — Outlaw misses his second driving layup of the overtime and the Bulls get the ball with 1:12 remaining. Gordon hits a crazy jumper over excellent D. 108-106 Bulls.
8:11 — Roy draws the pump-fake foul and gets to the line — getting poked in the eye in the process. Hits the first, hits the second. Tie game again. James Jones tips the ball away from Gordon, Jack takes it, drives down the floor and converts on a flipping and-one play. Let me put this in the biggest cliche I can think of, Jack has stepped up big-time exactly when the Blazers needed it. Three-point Blazer lead with less than forty seconds left.
8:15 — Wierd phantom foul on Smith, who’s at the line now. Probably will hit both, but he misses the second and James Jones gets the biggest rebound of the night on the long miss, gets fouled, and he’s going to the line. He hits both, because he hits his ft’s, and Portland is up 4 with 12.2 seconds left. Uncanny.
8:20 — And Jones blocks Nocioni’s 3. Hmmm, haven’t we seen something like that before? Jones at the line, hits both, Portland up six. Gordon misses, BUZZER, PORTLAND WINS, PORTLAND WINS (and yes I just ripped off the Rose Garden PA announcer). What a fantastic win. Joe Smith scored 30 points, Ben Wallace was hitting free throws, cats and dogs were living together, and yet Portland guts out the victory on the road. If this win doesn’t make you believe this team can make the playoffs, I don’t know what would.