Say it with me: 4-1
Feels good don’t it. It;s like Shake N Bake you could say it a million time sand it would never get old. The Blazers wrapped up a wildly successful road trip with another tough and gritty win in Toronto. It’s not pretty but it’s effective. Like I stated earlier during this trip, any road win is a great win. I remain impressed with the character of this team. There’s a lot of hunger, a lot of heart and a lot of confidence. Against Washington and New York the Blazers overcame instances where they didn’t have their best stuff. Today, Portland took Toronto’s best shots. They took the ridiculous first quarter when the Raptors were clearly fired up. Things looked bleak until you realized the Blazers had about 10 turnovers in the first 14 minutes of the game and that the Raptors were shooting 55% from the field. Neither held true and the Blazers were able to battle back and cut the lead to two. They responded well in the third and extended a lead but watch it whittle away in the 4th.
And by whittle away, I mean whittle away like Tara Reid’s life. Toronto’s 17-2 run in the 4th quarter could have been devastating. Could you imagine the bitter taste in everyone’s mouth had the Boston Tea Party been combined with that Canadian Stampede? It would have been like eating chocolate cake with tuna on top. Rough. But in comes the character and what has become my favorite trait of this Blazer team. After Kapono’s little runner to put Toronto up 95-90 the Blazers locked down. They did the same thing against Washington, New York and Detroit. They dug in and locked down and all of a sudden the Raptors didn’t score for over 3 minutes. I can’t be the only one impressed by the Blazers response to that run can I? And they are doing these things in December which puts that ceiling at a scary level if you look your mind wander.
Also think about this, after that 17-2 run they could have packed it in and we all could have found several built-in excuses.
- Youth and inexperience.
- A hungry Toronto team fired up by their new coach and rejuvenated crowd.
- The final game of a road trip.
But they didn’t pack it in. They didn’t put their minds on that bus. They roared back and just willed their way to another victory. I mean honestly you never, ever, ever want to blow a lead like that but I don’t see the necessity of droning on about it when the win was pulled out.
Other thoughts:
- You have to love Steve Blake. Or should I say Contract Year Steve Blake? Dear lord this man is on a mission.
- Is there anything better than seeing the ball in Brandon Roy’s hands in a clutch situation?
- I didn’t even mention one peep about Jermaine O’Neal so of course he decides to party like it’s 2003 and go to work. Real mature Jermaine, real mature.
- Chris Bosh, meet Greg Oden’s elbow. Greg Oden’s elbow, meet Chris Bosh. Now bleed.
- Bargnani’s poor play made me think of this…So when can we officially call the 2006 Draft Lottery one of the worst of all time? It’s like the anti-04. Actually the majority of that first round was bust material. I mean you take out LMA, Roy and Rudy Gay and…well….Bargnani, Adam Morrison, Shelden Williams, Randy Foye, Patrick O’Bryant, Saer Sene, JJ Redick, Hilton Armstrong.