The Blazers pulled out a 111-109 win this afternoon in Atlanta because of one reason: luck…and Travis Outlaw. But the post is titled Lady Luck for a reason.
You might be curious as to why my brain immediately goes to luck instead of ‘hard fought victory’. Frankly because against a better team Portland does not get the win. How so? Portland gave Atlanta six offensive rebounds in overtime. Even worse is that four of them came on one possession. I repeat: Blazers gave Atlanta FOUR chances to score on one play in overtime. Still don’t believe me? Check it out: up 109-107 with 1:31 left in the game. Josh Smith blows by Outlaw and misses a layup. Smith snags his own miss and tries to tip it back in. He misses it again. Gets another rebound and kicks it to Joe Johnson, who drives to the rack..and misses a layup. Enter Josh Childress with the rebound, he finds Josh Smith behind the arc who…clanks a wide open three and the ball falls in Jarrett Jack’s hands. As a fan…I’m counting my lucky stars that the Hawks can’t make layups. Call me insane, but I for some reason see that ball bouncing to a Jerry Stackhouse or Stephen Jackson and a heartbreaking loss being around the corner.
Besides that sequence and the fact that rebounding is becoming an issue, the game really was a hard-fought victory. The bench saved the day, let by Outlaw (still not really keen on calling him a fish). Steve Smith was doing the game and kept talking about how the Blazers were going to go to B-Roy…and they kept going to Outlaw. And he kept being surprised, but more on him later. Outlaw shined on a day where pretty much everyone struggled, including LMA and B-Roy. The sad part is for the second road game this season (Memphis), Outlaw went from hero to goat to hero about three times before the end of the game. He had a costly turnover with 1:34 left in regulation when the Blazers could have put the nail in the coffin (were up 4). Had another turnover with 28 seconds left in overtime because he couldn’t seal Josh Smith off and get the ball. But he saved the day with a beautiful pullup jumper from the top of the key with .9 seconds left to give Portland the win. Even Steve Smith had to yell like he was Mike Rice.
(Sidenote…I love Atlanta’s announcing team, I might watch more Hawks games because of them. They have chemistry together and are not homers. Smith manages to toe the line (and cross it sometimes) between being goofy and funny and extremely knowledgable. He really throws himself into the game emotionally with his reactions, its fun to listen to an analyst who seems like he is actually enjoying the basketball he is watching. And then 2 seconds later he’s relating a story of what he did back in his playing days. He’s not perfect but he’s very watchable, certainly much better than 90% of ESPNs guys.)
For the most part Blazer fans have to be happy with the way the game was won. Outlaw was not the only one to step up as the bench really came up big. Sergio had 16 (in 16 minutes, I’m surprised Hollinger isn’t calling him the best PG ever), James Jones had 10 and Channing had 9 and 7. Although one minor, itty-bitty complaint I would have is why Joel Przybilla only played 18 minutes. I know I sound like I have him on my fantasy team (I don’t) but his presence is about 10x better than Channing’s. The starters struggled. LMA had his 2nd rough game in a row and Martell only made 3-pointers. At the end of the day a win is a win.
(PS…Joe Johnson looks deadly when he has the ball in his hands. I shudder to think how good Phoenix would have been had he stayed.)
Portland has managed to survive this road trip. Despite the last game at New Orleans still looming ahead, going 3-3 on an extended road trip sends a message. Especially when those 3 losses were very winnable games for the most part. I still don’t want to spew that dreaded P word about this team…but now it’s more out of fear of jinxing than lack of ability.