Road Trip Re-Thoughts

Six days ago I wrote about how this road trip scared me. I wrote about how the worst-case scenario was for the Blazers to go 2-2. And we went 2-2. No….The sky is not falling. Nothing to be too upset with, I thought I would be a lot more disappointed. I guess I’m thinking about the ways we lost. Had that game last night gone a little differently I might be upset but think about this. Portland’s two losses on this trip can be chalked up to the general wackiness involved with an East Coast road trip. I know half of you didn’t believe me when I said it but East Coast trips scare the bejeesus out of me because weird things happened. Sure enough some weird things happened. Loss #1 came because Philadelphia uncharacteristically made a ton of three’s and the Blazers uncharacteristically turned the ball over alot. And Philly is just surging they killed the Spurs a couple days later. Loss #2 came because Gerald Wallace had a night that just made you shake your head. And the Blazers turned into Shaq and couldn’t hit free throws including B-Roy going 3/10. Wacky. I’m actually unhappy with myself for calling Wallace going off like that but I did last week. And he delivered. And Emeka Okafor hit clutch free throws. And Juwan Howard had 8 points. Wacky right? Le groan.

I may be making excuses but those losses are easier to swallow. I wish we had been able to eek out the Charlotte win and be 3-1 but c’est la vie. I almost forgot. Here’s what makes it even easier to swallow:

During this road trip, Phoenix has lost 2 in a row, Utah dropped 2 of 3 and Dallas dropped 2 of 3.

We’re going to have to beat one of those teams out and the fact that they didn’t make any significant ground as we “struggled” makes me feel pretty ok.

Even though I’m about to list some thoughts that “scare” me, remember this: In mid-January the Portland Trail Blazers are 2 and 1/2 games out of the #2 spot in the Western Conference. You can’t be mad after seeing that. Can’t.

To the thoughts that scare me:

1. Denver winning 2 of 3 while we went 2-2. Sort of a missed opportunity right there.
2. Greg Oden got dunked on. Really bad. Like he got shitted on, excuse my freakin french. To the point where I’m worried that any shred of confidence and fun he had in there is going out the window. If you’re out there Greg..avoid the internet until the All-Star break. I’ll probably post more on this later.
3. Steve Blake is out 2-4 weeks. Jerryd is playing pretty dang well but the fact that we HAVE to depend on Sergio for a while makes me cringe. Sergio is kind of like those friends who you don’t necessarily hate but you can only handle them in doses. Like if you go out with them on Friday it’s all good, but if you go out with them Thursday, Friday and see them Saturday you just want to kil someone. That’s how Sergio starting makes me feel.
4. Brandon Roy uttering these words: “I haven’t felt great since I came back from my hamstring [injury],” Curse words.
5. The fact that the Gerald Wallace to Portland bandwagon is beyond capacity.

That’s all I got. The 2-2 isn’t the prettiest in the world but there were some positives. Mainly the play of Jerryd Bayless. And let’s all thank goodness a certain situation with a certain individual who used to hang out with Quentin Richardon and beat his head is over. Done. Finished. Even if he is killing and I allowed myself to think ‘What if we kept him?’ for .2 milliseconds. Just a thought.