Portland Trail Bloggers

Quick timeout from gift-giving and hot chocolate-sipping to let you know that our very own Rudy Fernandez has a chance to compete in the dunk contest come February. Dwight Howard, the reigning champ, Rudy Gay and Nate Robinson are already in. The final competitor will be determined by a fan vote. The Spanish rookie is up against fellow first-years Joe Alexander of the Bucks and Russell Westbrook from Seattle Oklahoma City. Make your voice heard.

Vote here for Rudy.

Brandon Roy, shooting here over Matt Barnes, scored a career-high 52 points Thursday night. The Blazers won 124-119.

Two nights after the Blazers retired the jersey of team legend Terry Porter, the newest legend in Rip City lore torched the coach’s new team and led Portland to its signature win of this young season.

By now, you’ve heard. You’ve heard of Brandon Roy’s 52 points. The way he continued to battle even though the Suns had just hit yet another three. The way he torched every Phoenix defender on his way to 21 free throw attempts (he made 19). And the way he did it at an efficient rate without ostracizing any of his teammates.

Of course, there were other heroes on this night: Steve Blake scored a season-high 22, not to mention some redeeming last-minute free throws. Travis Outlaw elevated above everyone to hit some clutch jumpers. LaMarcus Aldridge, thank goodness the bank was open on that last shot he hit, played well.

But the story of the night is the one that we will remember for decades. The number itself is intimidating, 52; but the way he got them is what will really stick with fans. The Blazers needed all of them: they needed his drives, crossovers, pull-up jump shots and timely trey bombs.

This wasn’t like a couple of seasons ago when Zach Randolph broke the 40-point plateau by hosting up a variety of offense-clogging shots. This was fluid. This was Brandon Roy. All 14 of his field goals and all those accompanying free throws were timely, necessary buckets.

It didn’t matter who the Suns threw at him. With the longer Matt Barnes on him, Roy simply drove around for a layup. With the quicker Jason Richardson on him, Roy relied on a perimeter game that has excelled in his third NBA season.

He was unstoppable and that led to the Blazers breaking free from the Suns, snapping an 11-game losing streak. This was the win the team has been looking for. Sure, wins against the Spurs, Rockets, Hornets, Magic and Pistons have been nice. But tonight was different. The Rose Garden was rocking like a playoff game. On several occasions the crowd was hushed by a Phoenix three, then you could hear 20, 650 collectively gasp as Roy started his drive, then the subsequent roar as the official signaled for an and one. It was awesome. We’re all going to come out from this with more than just the one victory that will show up in the standings. We’re going to remember, for a long time, Roy’s night.

On the same evening where the organization put Bobby Gross into the rafters, Roy delivered a performance that makes us think of a future where a red banner with a white number “7” will wave gallantly high above the court.

1) The rotation. Sergio out, Blake in. Blake out, Rudy in. Bayless, Frye in, Outlaw, Roy out. Bayless out, Roy back in. Last night was a real head-scratcher in terms of the rotation. If this team is going to be successful i.e. playoffs, then they are going to need definitive roles. Bringing me to my next point…

2) Has Sergio surpassed Blake? His PT has risen dramatically since the “He wants a trade” comment from his Spanish agent a few weeks ago but has his play really raised that much to warrant such an increase? Although that rebuilt shot makes it prettier to watch, it’s still missing more than making. He’s hitting 33% of his threes while Blake is at a more respectable 40%. With Oden taking Pryzbilla’s minutes (and rightfully so) and playing most of the final period, there’s more chances for trey-bombs now than ever. The D collapses on the redshirt rookie and he’s doing an okay job at kicking it out. Now would you rather have Blake firing away or Spanish Chocolate?

Sergio still is dribbling too much. He’s gotten better at getting the team into the offense and gone are the possessions where he dribbles away the bulk of the shot clock. But he can’t slide over to the off-guard spot like Blake can/does in the 4th when Roy needs the ball. Last night down the stretch run when we had several chances to come back, it was Sergio running the offense not Roy. I’m not blaming Sergio at all but this team has proven that in the fourth, during close games, Brandon Roy is the best point guard on the team. Why wasn’t he doing it as much last night?

3) LaMarcus Aldridge. I’m not sure if you heard but yesterday was the NBA’s official “Let’s call as many offensive fouls as we can on power forwards from Texas Day.” Okay. It wasn’t. But it certainly seemed that way. At least three of LA’s six fouls were offensive. Corey Maggette is listed at 225 pounds just 15 lighter than Aldridge but last night he was going down faster than Kimbo Slice in that fight a month or so ago. Despite the trouble from the refs, LA has got to find a way to get it going. He hasn’t had a real good game since Nov. 8 against Minnesota when he went for 24 and 13. He’ll turn it around but sooner would be better than later.

4) Kudos to the Warriors for taking advantage of the officials and getting the calls all night. They excelled at that. Every loose ball foul was against the Blazers. The obvious one is the last one when Rudy was called for holding Anthony Morrow (who’s the steal of the draft, oh wait he wasn’t even in the draft) despite a stretched out jersey and a bright red scratch mark on his chest. And there were lots of others that went the G-State’s way. McMillan said after the game that Portland hasn’t done anything to get the benefit of the doubt from the refs and he’s right. We in Portland know the team as a fun, friendly, great bunch of guys but who knows? Perhaps the refs think they are dastardly pirates who pillage local villages when there’s not a game or practice. I don’t know, it was just tough to watch last night because you knew whenever the whistle was blown, the ensuing call was definitely going against the away team.

5) ODEN. Finally, something fun to talk about. The good news: He didn’t get hurt and he went for 22 and 10. And the Warriors arena maintenance people are probably glad he didn’t pull down the shot clock on any of his equally thunderous dunks. He had good hands catching lots of passes from Roy in traffic before going up for a shot that looks so much better than it did this time last week. Then of course there’s the defense. He had a couple of blocks, altered more and was diving on the floor for loose balls.

Unfortunately, there’s some bad news. His plus minus was -11 meaning the team lost 11 points when Greg was in the game. His counterpart Joel Przybilla was +10 tied for tops in the game. Granted, plus minus is one of those less conventional statistics that is hit or miss sometimes so take this one as you like it. The team though, did looked clogged when Oden was in there. It wasn’t as bad as the Laker game but there a bunch of possessions with lots of people standing around. That’s not the best way to use him right now. He doesn’t have the back-to-the-basket skills yet. He still shuffles his feet on pump fakes when he knows a big dunk is imminent. He looked the best coming off of pick and rolls with Roy although it takes him about three hours to roll towards the hoop. But when he does, man, watch out. He’s got rookie stuff to work on like keeping the ball high when he’s going through traffic. If he keeps the ball up, there will be less and less nights of five turnovers from Mr. Oden. Still, despite all that 22 and 10, playing 30 minutes, not getting hurt, pretty exciting.

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.