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Multiple players on the floor scrambling for loose balls would probably help Portland win this game.

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Game Time:  7:00 p.m.  TV:  Comcast, NBATV

The Thunder are one heck of an interesting team right now.  They're good, playing extremely well right now in fact, but they're young.  Their season has been typified by short streaks:  win 2, lose 3, win 4, lose 5, win 3 and so on.  Put it all together and you have a 29-21 team that's capable of winning on many nights but could also throw the unexpected stinker performance in there.  To be fair, though, 17 of their 21 losses have come against teams who could plausibly make the playoffs this year.  On the other hand only 12 of their 29 wins have come against such teams.  The best way to put it is that you can't pencil in a win against this team anymore.  Not even close.  But if you play well you can still give them trouble.

The season really turned for the Thunder around Christmas when they rattled off a 5-game winning streak.  Since then they're 16-7 with victories over Phoenix, Utah, Atlanta (twice), and Denver, some of those on the road even.  Although there have been exceptions when they beat good defensive teams in general they need to score to win.  They've averaged 105 in their last five games, all victories.  A huge part of their scoring is Kevin Durant, who is playing out of his mind.  Since December 23^rd he has failed to lead the team in scoring only once.  He's topped 35 points 7 times during that span.  He's simply destroying everyone in his path.  They key to his surge has been the 10 free throws he draws per game now.  Those make average nights good, good nights great, and great nights into Hall-of-Fame moments.  He shoots them at an 88% rate too.  He's not shooting as well from distance as he did last year but he's getting more quality shots overall, having developed a sense of timing governing which shots to take and when...wholly absent in his earliest years.

On one side of KD is point guard Russell Westbrook who is having a hard time shooting the ball this year (a miserable time from three-point range) but still gets his shots and averaged 7.5 assists (thanks, Kevin!) and 5 rebounds besides his 16 points.  One some nights he looks like a bona fide star.  On others he makes you bang your head against a wall.  He came into the league with a lot of talent.  The question will be how well and how quickly he develops the subtle parts of the game that will take him from whiz-kid to dependable point guard.  On Durant's other side is forward Jeff Green who also went up and down a little bit early but lately has returned to steadier form.  He's an all-around player whom I have coveted since he came into the league.  He can score a little, rebound, plays smart, and finds the right moments to contribute.  If there's a caution to his game it's that he might be drifting outside too much on offense and his shooting percentage from range doesn't justify him becoming a sniper.  But if the Thunder flourish in years to come Green will probably become known as the king of the complementary players in the league.

The Thunder have surrounded these three with a bunch of guys tailored to specific roles.  They wanted a 7-footer who can contribute on offense without clogging up the lane.  They got Nenad Krstic.  They needed better defense on the wing.  They got Thabo Sefolosha.   Nick Collison provides rebounding.  James Harden shoots threes.  The supporting cast isn't the strongest in the world but they know how to play around the three main guys and are more than capable of not losing the game for Durant, Westbrook, and Green.

The Thunder make bank in several ways besides the obvious.  Their defensive efficiency is 5^th in the league overall.  They get back on defense nowadays, part of their new commitment to winning.  They still have trouble allowing points in the paint as their interior defenders are not strong and their perimeter guys lose contain in the halfcourt.  Despite that they're 4^th in the league in field goal percentage allowed.  If you don't penetrate on them they can get long, rangy defenders over to bother your shot.  They're good at bothering three-point shooters.  They're not great defensive rebounders.  On offense they feast on free throws and offensive rebounds.  They're neither great shooters nor three-point shooters.  They want Westbrook to break you down or Durant to overwhelm you while everyone else looks to clean up the mess.  If you can force them to execute in the halfcourt, running back-up options instead of taking you to the cleaners with mismatches every time down the court, they tend to fall apart.  Plan A is great for this team.  Plan B, not so much.

The other thing you have to consider with Oklahoma City is that they have the Blazers dead in their sights.  The division rivalry makes it a natural, but the Thunder just passed the Blazers in the standings and are now half of a game ahead.  They're not going to want to give that up tonight.  Plus there's the whole Oden-Durant thing.  Plus there's the former Sonics thing.  Plus OKC has heard for a couple of years now how the Blazers are stacked and the Blazers are the rising team in the West and the Blazers are on a short track to greatness.  Excuse them, but while Portland is doubled over nursing injuries they're more than happy to steal that crown and all of the monikers that go with it.  They want to be the Next Big Thing.  As such they'll be invested in leaving their logo tattooed on the forehead of the former owners of that appellation.  This game won't mean much in the long run, but a victory tonight, placing Portland even further behind them, could confirm a lot of things about their season and give them confidence that they, not the Blazers, are playoff bound this year.

Keys to the Game

The difficulty for Portland tonight is matchups.  Kevin Durant is going to be a tough cover for anybody on the team.  The best we can probably do is sick Nicolas Batum on him with instructions to give him any jumper but not let him put the ball on the floor.  If Nic can stay out of foul trouble this could limit Durant to merely a good performance instead of an immortal one.  If the Blazers had Brandon Roy breaking down their perimeter players and Greg Oden shoving around Krstic and Collison the Blazers could claim matchup advantages of their own.  Is it is the threads are pretty thin.  Most of our strong offense guys are jump-shot oriented and OKC likes to cover that kind of player.  Without the two-handed chopper to lop the Thunder's heads off the Blazers will have to settle for a thousand little dagger cuts.  Bayless and Miller have to penetrate and get fouled, particularly if that speeds the Thunder into their bench players.  Portland will have to execute on their screens and cuts, not just to score but to make sure guys like Martell Webster and Rudy Fernandez are open on their long shots.  If the Oklahoma City defenders don't have to move away from our shooters then our shooters are going to have a lousy night.  If they play smart the Blazers should be able to score on this team.

Back to defense for a moment, I think you do your best against Durant while privately deciding to live with whatever he gives them.  You don't want his teammates running roughshod on you though or this game will be a blowout.  To that end you keep the game slow for them, make them play in the halfcourt, and rebound every miss.  You concentrate on Westbrook and Green, trying to make them have substandard nights, daring anyone else besides them to provide enough points to support KD.  If you can keep the Thunder below 100 you have a chance.  Durant could give them 40.  You want everyone else to choke trying to provide that other 60.

The Blazers need to match Oklahoma City's intensity about winning this game.  It goes without saying that energy will be important.   Conference and division standings matter to the Blazers as well, even in this bombed out wreck of a season.  Keeping the Thunder behind them would be a big deal.  Also picking up tomorrow's game in Phoenix will be hard and going into the All-Star break losing three straight and four of five overall would be discouraging.  The Blazers have pulled out so many "better win this or it gets depressing" wins so far this season.  It would be selfish to ask for one more.  But we need one more tonight.

Check out the surging fan base at WelcometoLoudCity.

Enter tonight's Jersey Contest form here.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

Pretty quiet day at practice today.  

New Starting Line Up

As expected for awhile now, Nate McMillan is publicly entertaining the notion of a starting lineup shuffle.  

We're looking at it. We'll look at it tomorrow. We're looking at everything. Where we are, we want to finish strong before going into the break. 

I asked McMillan whether the change of heart regarding his current lineup was caused by the team's recent stretch of up-and-down play or by the news that Brandon Roy is out indefinitely.

A bit of both. A little bit of both. We're looking at that.

As discussed previously, it seemed like McMillan has been in a holding pattern for the last week or two as he waited for Roy's return. Now that Roy's return isn't pinned down to a specific date, he no longer has the luxury of waiting.  Indeed, McMillan said any thoughts regarding Roy's return and its impact upon his lineups and rotations will be postponed until after the break.

For us, we know he won't be back before the break so I'm not looking at that until we get back. We'll start to think about how we're going to approach it once we get back. 

With that said, he gave off a pretty clear vibe that something needed to change and soon.  The most obvious move, one discussed this morning on the radio and for the last week or so, is replacing Jerryd Bayless with Nicolas Batum and shifting Martell Webster down to the off guard slot.  

Given the size and skills of "Oklahoma City's" perimeter starting trio -- Russell Westbrook, Thabo Sefalosha and Kevin Durant -- Andre Miller, Martell Webster and Nicolas Batum seem to match up as well as any other trio McMillan could throw out there.  Batum told reporters today that he and McMillan had discussed possibly starting him against the Lakers but the change wasn't made once Kobe Bryant was announced as a scratch. 

Defending Kevin Durant

The big task tomorrow will be defending Kevin Durant whose game log is absolutely ridiculous. 25+ points in every single game since December 19.  In those 24 games, the "Thunder" are 16-8.  The last time these two teams faced off, you might recall, Martell Webster did a superb job of making Durant work in limiting him to 16 points on 20 shots.

Today, McMillan praised that effort from Webster...

Martell was guarding him and doing a good job of just bodying him. Making him catch out. He missed some shots in that game but we did a nice job of just trying to keep him in front. Limit his catches. A guy like that, the more you can take away his opportunity to play with the ball, the better. You've got to crowd him. Not give him open shots because he doesn't really have weaknesses. He can shoot the 3 ball, get to the basket, I think the strength of his game right now is getting to the free throw line.

McMillan also said he would alternate Webster and Batum on Durant because "OKC" has been running so much of its offense through him.

We knew he would be a good player and he's living up to that. Each year he is getting better and more confident on the floor.  He has become an all star this year. Knew he had a lot of talent, knew he would be good in this league and that potential that we thought he had, he's starting to show it.

....

Of course Martell and Nic and those guys will get the opportunity on him. You're going to need that [alternating] as far as [how well] he's playing. He's getting a lot of touches. They're playing through him a lot and he's playing well.

Andre Miller's Value

Andre Miller has caught a lot of flak this season. 52 point game aside, he probably hasn't gotten as much credit as he deserves for keeping the Blazers ship at least somewhat afloat during Brandon Roy's lengthy absence.   No question, Miller has stepped up his play significantly since his argument with Nate McMillan; He's carried the scoring load at times and has facilitated the offensive development of guys like LaMarcus Aldridge, Martell Webster and Jerryd Bayless.  He still struggles at times with consistency but his contributions, especially since the new year, have been irreplaceable.

With that said, I thought it might be a good time to take a look back at some of the big names that hit the trade and free agent markets last summer.  Miller has often been called the Blazers' third option after the failed attempts to land Hedo Turkoglu and Paul Millsap.  At the time of Miller's signing, Kevin Pritchard was careful to note the reasonable size and length of Miller's contract and the value it provided.  Earlier this year, as the Miller/McMillan Express may or may not have been coming off the tracks between, Miller's contract seemed like it would be difficult to move.  An abundance of productive point guards on their rookie deals and questions about Miller's age and attitude made it seem unlikely that a team would pay a premium for his proven abilities.

The age question and Miller's fit with this team once its fully healthy are still open.  But the value question for this season has been settled in my opinion.

Take a look at the following chart.   Click for the full size version.

This chart compares some of last summer's major trade and free agent targets around the league. The X axis shows the average per-year salary each player was given (either in a new contract or an existing contract absorbed in trade) and the Y axis shows that player's PER ranking for this season as of today.

Obviously PER isn't a perfect player ranking system.  But viewed in this context, the return on Andre Miller's signing looks pretty good, doesn't it?  Perhaps better than most of those deals? And don't overlook the fact that there is just one guaranteed year left on his deal after this season is up.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

PS Joe Freeman notes that Brandon Roy's plan to skip All Star weekend in Dallas runs afoul of league rules.

Stop the presses. Tom Haberstroh of Hoop Data just blew up the internet. Here's the coolest and prettiest new tool to hit the NBA blogosphere in ... ever.  Make sure you have Internet Explorer 9 to get it to work. So sweet.

Here's what you might have missed on Blazersedge this weekend...

B. Roy's Presser | Lakers Recap | Lakers Media Row Report | Outlaw Drill Diagram

Scroll down for Dave's great look at the start of the new CBA negotiations.

Click through for a few trade rumors, a nice look from California at Andre Miller's 52 points, reaction to the Lakers game, national takes on the start of the CBA discussions, some early draft talk (had to happen...) and much more.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

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More photos » Sam Forencich - NBAE/Getty Images

Losing time in his prime to a lockout would be a sad eventuality. But he may have to take less money over the course of his career to avoid it.

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One of the hot topics around the virtual water cooler this weekend (at least if you could get anybody to talk NBA in the face of the Superbowl) was the proposal submitted to the Players' Union by David Stern on behalf of the owners.  Ric Bucher has the story and Chris Sheridan the off-the-cuff response from union vice-president Adonal Foyle.  Points in a nutshell:

• Maximum salaries for vets could be slashed down to around one-third of what they are eligible for under the current bargaining agreement.
• Maximum salaries for those under rookie contracts would also be reduced significantly.
• Pre-existing deals would be revised to conform to the new standards.
• Contracts would be limited to four years in length.
• Contracts would no longer be fully guaranteed, with the target assumed to be less than one-half of each contract subject to guarantee.
• Bird Rights, mid-level-exceptions, and other cap-bending provisions would be abolished, in effect creating a hard cap.

Sheridan has Foyle describing the proposal as "ludicrous" and "far-reaching", though I'm comfortably sure that off the record players aren't using 9- and 10-letter words in their reactions.  Given the gravity of the proposals I'm thinking four-letter words liberally repeated is more the norm.

Let's take a look at what's probably going on here as well as some of the implications of the proposals.

First of all, one has to expect that any proposal submitted 18 months before the expiration of the current deal is going to be wholly one-sided.  Nobody is going to be accepting that proposal, or even seriously debating it.  It's meant to set a baseline from which to start negotiations.  Everybody knows the two sides will be meeting somewhere in the middle.

However the starkness of these proposals shows that the owners do mean business and are probably more committed to getting what they want than they are making their opponents happy.  They have a couple things going in their favor.  The economy is in the pits.  And as the players found out during the last lockout, it's far easier for the owners to remain close to their standard of living without basketball than it is for the players to remain close to theirs.  The last time work stopped the players all but capitulated.  That started a slippery slope that has culminated in them fighting to keep a CBA that they once fought to avoid.  

Between the momentum and the economy the owners are swooping in for the kill this time.  They intend the players to come a long way and they've just raised the war flag to communicate those intentions.  No matter how much the players end up salvaging, the NBA we've known for the last couple of CBA cycles is going to change.

As far as the specific changes, the lowering of the maximum salary is a provision we've discussed many times in this space.  They want it not just for the money they'll save on superstars but for the trickle-down effect it will have on salaries league-wide.  Hardening the cap will reinforce the provision.  I don't know that the cuts will be as draconian as proposed or the cap as impermeable as desired but the owners are likely to fight hard for these provisions. 

Lowering the max salary is an issue that will receive popular support (in general terms at least) as the overpaid athlete is a universal cliché.  Cap laws remain arcane to most fans and limiting exceptions should receive some support as well.  The hidden consequences of these moves may not be as popular.  Though the financial peril of small-market teams will likely be a selling point on the owners' side in practice these moves will probably disadvantage those same markets when it comes to attracting or re-signing stars.  The more basketball income is limited the more non-basketball income (read: endorsements) becomes attractive.  If a player makes $20 million then a $2 million endorsement deal represents a 10% raise.  Cut that player's salary to $10 million and the same $2 million becomes 20%.  Getting that extra 20% in Los Angeles but not in Sacramento becomes a significant incentive.  If Sacramento can no longer use Bird Rights to exceed the cap and offer the player more than the Los Angeles team its negotiating power is gone.  The first time a home-town franchise's superstar departs for the big city while the front office chases after him with a useless check people are likely to start screaming.

As far as the retroactive provision, I'd need to know more about the specific wording to understand how big of a sticking point it's going to be.  The headline of the Bucher article indicates that the agreement would affect contracts signed in 2010 which leads one to presume it would affect all existing contracts.  Would the provision only affect the max contracts that exceeded its limits or would the hard cap take effect and require everybody's contracts to be scaled down?  Either way it's an incredibly problematic proposal.  Imagine, for instance, a player who signed a contract which had its max payout in its final years...a guy who had perhaps taken less in the early years of the deal in anticipation of that later payout.  Now he's given his services below cost and seen the promised payoff scooped back into the owners' coffers.  If the proposal flies I'd imagine there would be severe limitations regarding how long ago the contract was signed and how much it was reduced.  Even that is so odious that I don't believe the owners will be able to get their way on this one.

The real negotiations will probably come in the area of contract length and guarantees.  It's going to be easier for the owners to get concessions on the former than the latter.  A short contract length could be advantageous to players as well as owners, giving the former more opportunities to negotiate as it gives the latter the security of not being on the hook forever for a bad decision.  When push comes to shove most players will probably believe they'll be worthy of a better contract in four years anyway. 

The guarantee issue will scare the players silly, especially with the rash of injuries we've seen this year around the league.  They're not going to want to budge but it's unlikely they'll be able to hold their position without giving up significant ground in other areas.  The owners will probably say, "Either make our contracts cheaper overall or make them non-guaranteed."  The knee-jerk reaction would be to guarantee most but not all years, perhaps omitting the final year of every contract from guarantee.  The problem there is that most contracts are based on raises, which means players would be losing the most attractive years of their deals.  Also if the maximum contract length is shortened to four years then each contract really covers only three.  Perhaps they will allow five-year contracts with the fifth year non-guaranteed.  Or perhaps they'll try to define mutually-agreeable circumstances in which a team can void a contract, circumstances which are looser than the current setup but have to do with situation rather than contract length.  Whether that's possible remains to be seen. 

One way or another contract amount, contract length, and contract guarantees will be scaled against each other.  The players will buy concessions in one area with their own concessions in the others.

The billion-dollar question on most people's minds is whether there will be a work stoppage.  The opening salvo looks ominous but I'm still hopeful that in 18 months this can be resolved, though the actual resolution is not likely to occur until the final moments.  Lockouts and strikes benefit nobody in the end, save maybe some European teams that might inherit a player or two.  The players will never recoup the money they lose.  The owners have to know that interrupting play will hurt the league.  Most fans don't care what the two sides agree to as long as the games continue. 

The players will have to take a long, hard look at history and their current situation and decide one or two points they feel are most critical to their viability.  They'll have to bend with the wind on the rest.  Even a $1 million per year job is impossible to find outside of the league, let alone one that pays you multiple millions.  At the end of the day, that's going to tell the story. 

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)    

More photos » Sam Forencich - NBAE/Getty Images

It was just that easy.

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The last time the Los Angeles Lakers came to town it was all laughs and smiles for the Portland Trail Blazers; Tonight it was mumbles and slumped shoulders. The Lakers walked into the Rose Garden and exerted their will from start to finish, dominating the Blazers 99-82 and forcing Blazers coach Nate McMillan to waive the white flag and empty his bench with almost 2 minutes to play. A rare sight in the Rose Garden but a merciful one tonight.

Pick just about any way to break this game down and you'll find yourself staring eye-to-eye with a Lakers advantage.

On the boards? Lamar Odom had more rebounds (22) than the 5 Blazers starters combined (20).  He had more offensive rebounds (3) than the Blazers 11 man active roster combined (2).  The Blazers bench, known for its hustle, combined for 0 offensive rebounds in more than 91 combined minutes.

In the paint? 48 points for LA, more than double the Blazers.  Second chance points?  The Blazers had 0.  You might find this surprising but the Lakers had more than that.  Shooting from the field?  The Lakers had 10 more makes and 13 more attempts.  From distance they shot 14% better.  They had more assists, fewer fouls, and more steals.  

In short, the Lakers offense hummed and their defense intimidated, despite the absence of All Star Kobe Bryant and the limited play of center Andrew Bynum, who left the game in the first half due to injury and did not play in the second half.  

As the game wore on, the Lakers dominance tranformed from physical to mental.  Up and down the roster, Blazers flinched in the face of a bigger, stronger, tougher, more experienced and more focused opponent.  Martell Webster seemed to have a nervous hitch in his three point stroke, going 0 for 4 from deep.  Nicolas Batum found himself in isolation on the wing, took one look at Ron Artest and then shuffled the ball off to LaMarcus Aldridge and passively hid in the opposite corner.  An ice cold Steve Blake pushed the ball in mini-transition and uncharacteristically pulled up to clank a three, forcing the issue hopefully as he saw no better alternative. Rudy Fernandez drove the lane in apparent fear, anticipating contact that never came and wildly flailing in hopes of salvaging the play. Jerryd Bayless went to the basket tentatively and indecisively in the first three quarters; His 10 fourth quarter points were far too little, too late.

The Blazers locker room reaction was as uncomplicated as it gets: pure deflation.  A lot of bowed heads. A lot of whispered, forced answers.  A lot of talk about moving on to the next one.  And, not surprisingly, a lot of credit given to the defending-champion Lakers.

 "You look one way, you look another way, [Pau] Gasol was all over the place tonight," Martell Webster said flatly.  "He played a great game. Making his presence felt down in the low post."  

"They played more aggressive than us. They played better," admitted Rudy Fernandez. "They played more aggressive to the basket.  The boards, they dominated."  

Juwan Howard gazed into the distance with a blank look on his face and summed it up tidily. "You've got to give the Lakers credit. They came in with a good gameplan, they performed it to a t and they played very well." 

The Lakers put their foot down convincingly tonight, showing that they were sick of hearing about the Blazers' invincibility in Portland.  There was nothing the Blazers could do to stop a more talented and more physical team looking to prove a point.  They clearly realized that better than anyone.  

• The pre-game gamesmanship was fast and furious as the Blazers held a press conference so that Brandon Roy could address questions about his injured hamstring while at nearly the same moment and just down the hall Kobe Bryant was deciding that he would hold himself out tonight.  
• Tonight was the first time that it really seemed like Roy has come to terms with the seriousness of his injury.  Over the past few weeks, his treatments and evaluations have been coming so regularly that he likely hasn't had the opportunity to take a step back and put the magnitude of the injury in perspective.  He has been fully focused on the next test and the next treatment and, more than anything else, hoping for good news and the right feeling when he explodes off of it.  But with the decision and announcement that he would miss the next three games and All Star weekend -- something that he wasn't expecting as recently as last week -- the day-to-day, evaluation-to-evaluation aspect of his life stopped, at least for awhile.  What was left? Judging a book by its cover: disappointment and then confusion and then resignation.  
• While fans and media members might have been disappointed by Kobe Bryant's game time decision not to play (Bayless versus Farmar just doesn't quite have the same ring to it as Roy versus Bryant), the ticket scalpers were surely elated he waited until the last minute.  Once or twice a year, the scalpers have a field day peeling greenbacks out of the pockets of transplanted Lakers fans, many of whom likely sold their plasma and semen to ensure they would have enough money to spend whatever it takes to pay homage to Bryant. 
• In all seriousness, congratulations to the Lakers fans who finally had their day in the Rose Garden. But bigger congratulations to the lone Blazers fan who held a "Beat LA" sign and spent nearly five minutes jumping up and down like a maniac, flipping off every single Laker fan in sight without regard for human decency or first world mores.  Just hop hop, flip flip, hop hop, flip flip and a few fight-provoking yells, which drew sidelong glances more than anything.  If Nate McMillan could have borrowed some of that energy and enthusiasm for his guards maybe this game plays out differently.
• Jerryd Bayless said he wasn't sure whether he would practice on Monday but he expects to play through his quad injury on Tuesday night against Oklahoma City.
• Everyone's favorite sign tonight was the one featuring Pau Gasol in a side-by-side picture with the Geico caveman.  It wasn't particularly original the first time it was shown on the jumbotron and by the third time it was bordering on tacky. 
• Nate McMillan wasn't quite feeling a question from Andrew R. Tonry of Portland Roundball Society. Check his video at the 1:21 mark. When you get frustrated with a question asking how frustrated you are, you kind of prove that you're especially frustrated.  A relatively rare slip from total composure for McMillan.

Nate McMillan's Post Game Comments

Opening remarks

I thought they had match-ups and they came in with a plan to slow this tempo and pound the ball inside with Odom and Gasol and Artest. They did that. They just pounded it inside, forced us to double team. If we didn't do that, they were able to score. I thought their defense was good. They limited us to only one shot, they totally controlled the boards. They are the world champions for a reason. It's a good team. Tonight they executed in the half court, sharing the ball, and if we don't get fast break points or second opportunities it's going to be hard to beat this team.

Offense in second half

Again, good defense. You've got length with Odom and Gasol and Artest. We couldn't get to the paint. And our shots didn't fall. If your shots are not falling, and you're not getting anything easy, no second opportunities, it's going to be a tough night.

Where does this one stack up in terms of frustrating losses this season?

Frustrating losses? That's a question you ask every night. It's a loss. It's a big loss. In the sense that it's a good team. You have to give them credit. Every loss hurts but the Lakers played great basketball tonight. We couldn't get anything easy and when we did get open looks we didn't knock down our shots.

Worried about emotional letdown with no Kobe playing?

I talked to our guys about that before the game. As I told them, we're not playing Kobe, we're playing the Lakers. I felt that that could have been done on purpose. I think Phil challenged them last night and thought they had a letdown without Carmelo playing and sometimes coaches do things like that. Where you challenge your team to see if you can play without a star. We've been in that situation all season long, playing without guys, and guys have stepped up and played. Odom 22 rebounds and 10 points. They were solid.

You're suggesting Phil Jackson might have held Kobe out intentionally?

I mean, I don't know if Kobe got hurt. I don't recall him getting hurt. You look at it as, 'we'll rest you' and challenge your team to play. If this was a different game could he have played?  Maybe?

Artest's 3s at the end of the first half

They were big. They were big. We didn't guard him on that last one but I think the 3 right before that we had a misread. We were on Artest and we rotated to Lamar, that should have been a bluff. You make Lamar shoot the ball. We gave Artest an open look.

Worried about letdown without Roy

We're in a fight. We're in the fight of our lives. We've been in that for a long time. Without our guys and it continues. So we're in the same situation going into the break as we've been pretty much all season long. You gotta try and win games and tonight they were good. And we weren't strong enough. We need to come back on Tuesday against Oklahoma CIty, take it one game at a time, take care of business.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

More photos » Rick Bowmer - AP

My Kung-Fu is stronger than your rebounding! Oh wait. No it isn't.

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Long Story Short:  In a game which featured neither Kobe Bryant nor Brandon Roy the supporting cast of the L*kers outhustled and out-executed the supporting cast for the Blazers.  Portland showed no signs of a run in the second half and succumbed to L.A.'s experience and talent.

The Game

I'm not sure there's too much to say about this one honestly.  The Blazers started out well behind the play of Juwan Howard.  The initial L*kers lineup of Bynum, Gasol, Odom, and Artest looked to exploit their significant height advantage.  Initially this meant force-feeding Bynum.  But Juwan kept a body on him on the defensive end and hit jumpers on the offensive end, daring Bynum to come out and cover him (which Andrew never did).  When Howard put Bynum out at the 7:00 mark of the first quarter with a hip bruise you wanted to pin a medal on him.  It looked like one of L.A.'s strongest edges had disappeared.  Behind the jump shots of Howard and LaMarcus Aldridge the Blazers built a 29-26 first quarter lead.

But that's when the wheels fell off.  Or wait...that's far too dramatic.  The remainder of this game was more like having all four tires go flat at once but it's 35 miles to the next exit so you trundle along at 10mph hearing "Thudda-whump, Thudda-whump, Thudda-whump" for the next three hours.

People are going to look at the Blazers' 19, 16, and 18 point production for the next three quarters and say, "The offense went bad."  That's true, but it's only part of the story.  Portland never stopped shooting jumpers for any length of time.  When you do that you're at the mercy of the hotness streak.  Aside from a brief stretch in the second period the Blazers never got hot enough to make a dent in L.A.'s gradually extending lead.  But the truth is the defensive and rebounding energy weren't there to create shots other than jumpers.  Los Angeles shot 49% and made only 10 turnovers which dampened Portland's ability to push the ball up the floor.  The L*kers outrebounded the Blazers behind 22 from Lamar Odom.  To put that number in perspective, the entire Portland starting lineup totaled 20 rebounds.  Odom outrebounded the whole other side.  And it's not like he was an obvious demon on the boards.  He was just getting position first and best because Portland's fire wasn't there.  The Blazers had 2 offensive rebounds on the night.  The way Portland depends on O-rebs for easy points you know that's going to spell disaster.  Portland ended up with 22 points in the paint for the night, which is a decent total for a half.  The only way that number should show up at the end of a game is after Dwight Howard's name.  L*ker reserve Shannon Brown dropped 19 on us through energy alone. 

The Blazers only controlled the ball in this game during the moments when they were trotting it up the court to begin another offensive possession against a set defense.  In the end, that's what killed them.  When the L*kers were cold from the field they stayed even.  When they got hot--behind Ron Artest's open threes, for instance, or a couple of Pau Gasol cuts through the lane--they charged ahead.  The Blazers weren't making up a two-point deficit tonight, let alone a double-digit one.  The L*kers snapped their fingers, the Blazers rolled over.  End of game.  L.A. by 17.

Individual Observations

It was a bit of a lifeless game...one in which people fell into familiar patterns as far as things done wrong.  Since we have a pretty good idea of each player's shortcomings by now and because (to be fair) the Blazers manage to overcome them most nights, I'm going to save time by listing what went right.  If you want to ask whether LaMarcus had trouble scoring in the lane, Rudy was hesitant on his shot, Martell went cold, the point guards had trouble defending, the forwards had trouble dealing with their counterparts' size and drive to score near the bucket, and whether the whole team had problems helping and recovering or dealing with picks the answers are "Yes".  Just assume whatever weakness a given player had showed up tonight unless told otherwise.  And give some props to L.A. for knowing how to exploit them.

Juwan Howard scored 10 points on 5-7 shooting and contributed 7 rebounds in 28 minutes.  He was one of two guys who looked willing to punch the bully right in the nose tonight.

Andre Miller and Steve Blake had 6 and 7 assists respectively.  Miller had a couple of nice drives.

Jerryd Bayless also had a couple of aggressive drives late and drew a team-leading 6 foul shots, hitting 5 en route to 13 points in 21 minutes.

Dante Cunningham was the other guy who was ready to smack somebody around tonight.  5 rebounds, 8 points, and some active defense in 21 minutes.

Final Thoughts

Some people are going to want to talk about refs because most of the calls in the first quarter that could have gone either way went to the visitors.  The game evened out after that though.  And frankly Portland gave the officials no reason to see anything their way this evening.  This was a non-factor.  Blow 10 more whistles for the Blazers and they still lose.

Frankly this was the kind of game a lot of people expected to see from the Blazers after all of the injuries went down: overmatched, outhustled, looking for luck instead of grabbing the game.  The fact that it was somewhat of a shock to the system speaks well of the team's play to date.   We also have to remember that the wins against Charlotte and San Antonio cushion the losses to Utah and L.A.  Because the Blazers have scraped by so far this month this game wasn't a killer.

If Portland was missing Roy after his return was rumored and then quashed, or alternatively if the Blazers were anticipating the All-Star break and the week off it brings, they have to remember there are two games left.  Losing both would not be a good idea.  OKC and Phoenix are both in Portland's league in the playoff chase.  The Blazers need to summon enough energy and mental strength to win at least one of the remaining two in order to go into the break with heads held high.

Boxscore

See the monkey off the back at SilverScreenandRoll.  If it's any consolation Kobe still hasn't won in Portland since 2005.

See your Jersey Contest score for this game here and enter Tuesday's game here.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)