This may be weird but stick with me. For some reason at the end of this game I was humming the theme song to that old Nickelodeon show, GUTS. Why? Because that’s exactly what it took for Portland to pull this one out. And I’m legally insane. GUTS. There was some good, some bad and some ugly and before I can go any further I have to acknowledge the guts of this team. Back-to-back’s are never fun. Back-to-back’s on the road are even worse. To pull out a 3rd straight win on the road, their third game in 4 days is very nice. That must be said. Kudos to Nate for having this team ready to win night-in and night-out.
And we all need to take a moment to enjoy some statistics.
- 14-6 nearly 1/4 of the way through the season.
- 7-6 on the road. That’s above .500 with nearly 25% of the road game down.
- 3-0 on this road trip and a second consecutive winning road trip.
Feels good don’t it. To the game.
It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t always fun, but it was a win. And no matter how they come, road wins are always nice wins. As I stated before tonight was gutsy, gritty, rough win for Portland. But like a lot of people have been saying this year (including us) winning on the road is an art. Road wins do not have to be pretty, at the end of the day it comes down to getting the job done. And so far on this road trip the Blazers have gotten the job done time and again. For the third consecutive contest Portland took over the game when it was winning time. After watching their 77-72 lead at the beginning of the 4th quarter turn into a 77-81 deficit nearly three minutes in, enough was enough. Brandon Roy took over. From that point on Roy scored 9 of the Blazers next 11 points. Add in Oden’s tip jam and Rudy’s offensive rebound and Roy’s game-icing layup….winning plays people, winning plays. I’m not sure what more can be said about the way he’s performing this season. He’s an MVP candidate. I said it. I don’t think that statement is false at all either. Will he win it? Goodness no, this is LeBron’s world everyone else is just living in it. His statistics may not overwhelm at all, but the things he does for this team are invaluable. I’ll argue for him just like I used to argue for T-Mac when he was in Orlando and AI when he was in Philly.
Watching this game it was clear from the start the Blazers didn’t have their best stuff. Seven turnovers in the first quarter. Sheesh. I mean…there were times when that first quarter was rougher than watching an adult film star age. The turnovers were an issue but so was the defense. I’m going to go ahead and put all of that on the second half of a back-to-back. How else can you explain the offensively deficient Wizards shooting 50%? They didn’t sell their souls to the devil I’ll say that much.
Now comes the very interesting part of this road trip. We know the Blazers have come a long way from October 31st. Friday we find out just how far. The Celtics are human but the Celtics are also a juggernaut right now. The last time we faced a juggernaut it got real ugly, real fast. It was the first game of the season but still. If you don’t show up to compete they will chew you up and spit you out. This is like a mid-term exam. You can fail it and still be alright but you definitely want to at least get a C.
Let’s compete on a national stage.
Other thoughts:
- Watching NBA Fastbreak and they said Rudy was nicknamed The Majorcan Rocket. This is the first I have heard of this…AND I DON’T LIKE IT. I feel like Jon Barry was behind this.
- Oden powerdunking is just fun to watch. I could watch it all day.
- Great play from the PG position tonight. Blake and Sergio combined for 12 assists and just 3 turnovers. Cannot ask for much more on the road at all.
- More and more I’m seeing that the play of Batum may actually make Channing Frye more expendable than anyone. We know Travis can play the backup 4, we know Batum can play with just about everyone in a Portland uniform. We’ll see how long he’ll want to keep Portland weird.