Well the first half of this game showed promise, but let’s face it.  The second half was pretty painful to watch.  Player breakdown looks like this for me:

LMA started out shooting the ball well, but it appeared that he started to get intimidated a bit by Amare in the second half.  Caught up in all that and the officiating he let himself get rattled and was largely ineffective in the second half.

Outlaw was a very mixed bag as usual, that nice lefty finish on the drive was nice to see.  The turnovers and defense were not.  He still looks a bit out of shape, and still logged 36 minutes.

Joel was Joel, enough said

Stevey Blake had his best game so far, but defense was suspect again (granted parker and Nash back-to-back)

Roy seemed to be getting calls last year but that certainly wasn't the case tonight.  He as well let the physicality of the game get to him similar but not badly as LMA, but he didn't get the other numbers he usually gets only grabbing 1 rebound, 4 dimes, and a very uncharacteristic 3 TO's

Rudy Fernandez had a very good shooting game but his normal hustle stats weren't there either.  On games like tonight though the Blazers need to realize and take advantage of his offense earlier than they finally figured out to feed him more.  It still doesn't seem that he quite has the green light from Nate yet which makes absolutely no sense...

Boom-boom had a very nice flush and overall contributed well I thought.  Didn't really make any bonehead plays but the Blazers weren't able to utilize him well in the second half by getting him the ball in the open court.

Frye was decent, but clearly can't defend either Shaq or Amare

Sergio played well, particularly in the first half and did wind up with almost 14 minutes for the game.   I feel that he still deserved more PT in this one.  He made absolutely no mistakes on the offensive end and certainly did not play any worse defense than Blake.

Bayless got in because it was at phoenix I would guess....I would have much rather had that happen in the first half.  He will probably be a nice player but did nothing for us in 6 minutes.

General thoughts on the game

Nate is still searching for lineups and rotations that will work...one thing that he does that drives me nuts, and he did a good bit last year as well is that he makes substitutions and takes players/groups out that are in a groove and playing well and goes back to lineups that aren't.

I understand that Roy needs to be in the game, but if people are doing well and there isn't going to be a huge match up problem then you need to run with people who put you in the game to begin with.

Defense, is rearing its head as an issue...Blazers can't expect to have good shots of winning games when they are allowing opponents over 55% shooting.  A lot of this has to do with the help d and defensive rotations are just horrible at this point.  Granted playing against teams with talented bigs makes this worse than it will be against some other teams.  Dropping off Shaq to help on a driving Amare is going to not end well for most teams.  That being said, something needs to be done because guys are not where they are supposed to be.

I don't know if Nate has realized it yet, but Rudy should be the #3 option on most nights for the Blazers.  I don't know if Rudy is still just trying to work his way in or what but during a lot of possessions it appears that he has a shot or a lane and he winds up passing it up.  Certainly at the end of the game they started to feed him the ball and he looked to score, and he was very effective doing that.  I'd much rather Rudy be looking for his shot than Outlaw as he has much better IQ, vision and passing skills.

The PG situation was once again interesting...That's exactly the type of game you can expect to get from Blake on a decent night.  He shot 3/5 from 3 which is nice to have, but once again I'm not sure why he gets a rap as a defender.  On any decent PG he tends to get abused just as much as Sergio does.  Sergio looked great in the first half, 4 dimes, made both of his shots, no mistakes or turnovers and at least as good defensively Blake.  In the second half Sergio didn't really do anything but once again no mistakes.  It's nice to see him not make the mistakes but he looked a bit too cautious in the second half....perhaps the fear of being yanked?  Bayless I suppose played better defense but really didn't do annoying either way in 6 minutes.  I really don't understand why he got into the game when he did. 

Would have been a nice win to get, but it's tough to go to a playoff team's place on the second game of a back-to-back.  Hopefully the Blazers can get a road win earlier than they did last year.  Looking forward to next game!