Portland Trail Bloggers

It didn’t take 10 tries this season. The Blazers edged the Magic tonight 106-99 displaying offensive magnificence in the opening and closing quarters. Portland scored 36 in the first and 34 in the fourth. The trouble with that is the frostbitten field goal percentage in between.

But forget about the seven combined field goals from the middle portions of this game. Tonight was about the finish. Steve Blake cooly knocked down eight fourth-quarter free throws. There was no late-game swoon like in Phoenix or Salt Lake; it was straight poise. This confidence, stemming from last Thursday’s classic and the grinding win Saturday, led to the win tonight. When Joel Przybilla went out with his fourth foul, all it meant was someone else was there to wrap up Dwight Howard. When the lid on the hoop was hermetically sealed for the second and third quarters, all it meant was more driving to the basket to get to the free throw line. When the Magic hit a few threes at the end, all it meant were more clutch free throws.

Rudy and Outlaw led the reserves. The rookie from Spain had four threes but, more importantly from hilarity’s perspective, ditched the first person after the game.

“Rudy is not everyday a shooter,” Fernandez said. “He’s defense. He’s passes. He’s assists.”

That’s from Jason Quick’s write-up.

And Outlaw, who’s been struggling to find good shots so far this season, turned in a stellar performance. He played a career-high 41 minutes, more than any other Blazer. Apparently, all it took was a phone call from mom. 

Now, there is some bad news in the midst of our three-game winning streak. Here’s Mike Barrett:

The only negative to come out of the night was the fact that Roy, who had taken a beating once again, pulled up with back spasms late in the game. He told me after the game, on the plane, that he went to challenge a shot with 90 seconds to go, and landed on his heel, jamming his back. He said he was stiff, and would have to wait and see how it felt on Tuesday.

Hopefully (duh!) he’s back for Wednesday’s game at Miami. There is also word that a certain Oden fellow may make an appearance as well. From Casey Holdahl:

And he looked good. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him after shoot around, but it didn’t look like he was experiencing any pain. Granted, it was a hour long shoot around that basically amounts to a walk-through of Orlando’s bread and butter plays, but it was great to see the big man getting up and down the court again, especially considering there was some concern that he wouldn’t even make the trip.

If I were a betting man, I’d take Roy to play and Oden to sit again against the Heat. Holdahl says the team may have wanted the big guy on the trip just to learn some of the new offensive sets McMillan and Co. are implementing. 

That’s it for me tonight. To paraphrase Rudy: Willie is more than just blogging. He’s linking. He’s analyzing. And now he’s sleeping.