And this is the drawback to scoring 52 points.
Tonight, Brandon Roy scored 8 points. How? Why? I’ll tell you. A combination of foul trouble and Denver drawing a line in the sand and saying ‘You’re not beating us’ is how it happened. They were sending guy after guy at number 7. And that withstanding the Blazers still had a chance at winning this game. On a night where Roy didn’t have his best stuff, the Blazers weren’t able to overcome the Nuggets despite the fact that Carmelo Anthony was on the sideline. This loss makes tomorrow’s game all the more interesting and frankly all the more important. I’m definitely looking forward to what adjustments Nate and company will have for tomorrow night.
At first I was disappointed with the loss. I expected the Blazers would be able to take care of business. Denver threw a wrench in the plans with their energy but also with their defensive scheme on Roy. As this team evolves, B-Roy is going to have to get used to the extra attention that comes with territory. The combination of Melo being out, Roy struggling and the Nuggets pulling it out in the 4th quarter left a bitter taste in my mouth. Make no mistake about it, Denver went out and won this game. Don’t get down though. Let’s think about it. Our best player was held to 8 points. Pat Denver on the bat for sending 2 guys at him. But again, our engine scored 8 points. We live and die with Brandon Roy. You know, I know it, everyone knows it. The fact that we were still in a game late despite Brandon Roy only scoring 8 points speaks volumes about the potential of this team. You can accuse me of digging for a positive and you may be correct, but I can take a loss like this. We all know two things. 1) Roy will tend to not have nights like this and 2) We live and die with B-Roy. He had an uncharacteristic off-night and we came out with an L. Somewhat easier to swallow when I thought about it that way.
Tonight the Nuggets were by far the aggressor. I’m not sure you can argue this point at all. They had more energy from the jump. Two key stats you want to look at are rebounds and free throws. The Nuggets beasted Portland on the boards, 43-32. That’s a stat that’s tougher to swallow than anything else. Portland boasts a great front line and it’s a tad disappointing to watch them get out-boarded like that. Consider this: Nene and Kenyon Martin had as many defensive rebounds as our entire team did (23-23). Come on now. That can’t happen if the Blazers want to win, especially on the road. 12 offensive rebounds for the home team is just asking for trouble. Denver also spent a ton of time at the line tonight with 39 attempts to Portland’s 19. It just seemed to be their night and their game. Not to say it was luck or anything but they came out in attack mode from the beginning and seemed to want it just a little bit more than the team in black. I won’t dare say that Denver is better without Carmelo in the lineup but I will say their offense looked a lot more fluid. There was a lot less 1 on 1 and a lot more 5 on 5 on Denver’s part. The numbers don’t lie: 5 guys in double figures. And for a team like Denver, if they can get multiple guys in double figures they are more than likely going to win. It’s just complete danger to let their role players get going. In the preview I stated how the Blazers couldn’t let guys like JR Smith, Kleiza or Chris Andersen get it going. Well tonight they all did. Smith had 15, Kleiza had 17 and Andersen had 11. Smith and Kleiza were all over the place in the 4th quarter. Together they combined for 15 of the Nuggets 19 forth quarter points. Both made big plays whether it was Smith’s jumpers or Kleiza’s back-breaking dunk and huge three when the Blazers cut the lead to 2 in the 4th quarter. Let’s also not forget the play of their bigs. Andersen swatted 6 shots and Nene and K-Mart looked like assasins out there, both notching double-doubles. Nene was especially active on the offensive glass with 5 offensive rebounds. Their defense was aggressive. Their gameplan was basically to make someone else on the team not named Roy beat them, and frankly no one did. Stick a feather in Denver’s cap, they earned the win tonight.
I felt like the Blazers definitely could have had more attack in them. If you want to win in the Western Conference you need to have more than a handful of buckets in the paint per game. Tonight the Blazers continued the trend of living outside the paint and it’s tough to win road games if you’re shooting jumpers because it leads to fast breaks on the other end. I feel like I’ve said this a lot this year and I guess it’s time to admit that we’re a jump-shooting team. Our two best scorers are jump-shooters. Travis Outlaw is a jump-shooter. Rudy = jump-shooter. Steve Blake = jump-shooter. It’s not necessairly a bad thing, hey the Celtics won with a jump-shooting team…but we need someone to start attacking the basket more. We’re not quite advanced enough to live and die with the jump shot. And as the season drags on and on that bullseye will begin to lock in on LaMarcus Aldridge. I dread that I compared him to 2000 Sheed because it seems as if he’s avoiding the post. Tonight he took shots in the paint but couldn’t knock them down. If we want to be at the level we all expect us to be at, this needs to be remedied.
I’m not sure what else can be said about tonight’s game. Our number one guy struggled. Denver out-rebounded, out-hustled and out-aggresived (made up words rule) us. Their X-Factors went off. Portland stuck in there and survived run after run before finally succumbing in the 4th quarter. Portland looked a little flat and the Mile High Struggles continued. Pretty much, case closed. We’ll see what the Blazers bring to the table tomorrow. For those who want to put their ‘future’ glasses on, if this team makes it to the post-season they will be dealing with familiar opponents often. Adjustments are key in the spring. Tomorrow night we see just how well Nate and the players can implement adjustments. That will be more important than anything.