Those shoes are ugly in my humble opinion. Five or six colors that don’t match well. LA’s shoes however got game.

Ike Diogu came on the court to offer a pregame message to the crowd: “I like doughnuts Thanks for coming to help us celebrate the life of the late, great Martin Luther King.” Ike seems like a cool guy. The team should do a tie-in with the “Rip City Row” where Ike and/or Channing sits with the kids during the game to help celebrate their birthday party.

Fumes eh? I’m sure Ike and Frye really wanted to get up and wave to the crowd, who were all taking doughnut-shots at him. Not cool Ben. – Elgin

Best sign: “No Spain, No Gain” surprised I hadn’t seen that before, so simple sooo good.

I thought the Storm Large video was good, especially in contrast with the others they use. As far as I can recall, the Blazers have used 5 intro videos this season, and hers is easily second best. The best is the the other ‘rock’ one with the local band— just feel like those intros represent portland a little better, give some taste of the unique town we have and also pump up the crowd with good, raw, powerful music. The other three intro videos I absolutely HATE: the “This is Our Town” with fans saying that same thing over and over and generally embarrassing all Blazer fans; the one where all the players are posing in the fake rain like Roman statues and all look so ridiculous and uncomfortable, it’s amazing it ever gets used; and the stupid comic book one which is slow and none of the drawing look like the players, anyway.

LMA has been rocking those new Huarache 09s for a week or so, it’s true. They are a guards shoes, just like all the Huaraches, but LMA loves them, he’s been wearing the Huarache 08s all year until wearing these. Personally, I think the 08s are hotter, and iI know from experience they are excellent BBall shoes, haven’t had a chance to rock the 09s yet. It gives a little insight into LMA that he shuns the Nike’s ‘Big Man’ BBall shoes in favor of the more agile guard shoes.

And Ridnour is rocking the BB Zoom I lows. The BB Zoom Is are about 3 years old and have one of the most hardcore cult followings ever, with many saying they were the best basketball shoe ever made. So far, I’d have to agree, I have one hi-top pair i bust out only about once a month to make them last forever. Brandon wore the BB Zoom Is during his rookie year, and the BB Zoom IIs last year, fyi.

I can be mentioned in the same sentence as Ben! Oh, and Brandon Roy too!

Things I saw from higher up

Blake on the bench next to Lucas – lots of talk. Is Blake learning to be a “big man” or a coach?

Bayless sitting next to Blake after his first stint on the floor and Blake talking intensely to him – coaching practice?

Rebecca doing the shoulder jump thing with one of the cameramen pre-game. In her very high heels.

Rebecca taking the game very seriously with her ubiquitous clip board, making notes everywhere she goes. Talking with Mike Rice pre-game, listening in on time-outs, talking to Mike Barrett mid-game.

Blaze up close and personal. The “honored row” (??) was very close to where we sit and he roamed the crowd a bit.

The sign about the biggest little Blazer fan was located in the seats normally occupied by Section323 and her dad a few rows below us. The baby was wearing an Oden onesie – pretty cute.

 One nation is now down and Davka doesn’t have it. :(

Per Ben Above:
"Can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this yet or not but, for your information, Brandon Roy rocks the Blackberry Bold. Same phone as me, which means you can now feel free to mention us in the same sentence. Seriously, please mention us in the same sentence. Any sentence.

What I definitely haven’t written about yet, though, is that Brandon rocks his phone on one of those cell phone hip belts (pictured below), which I guess makes him the coolest person in the world to own a cell phone hip belt or someone who just doesn’t care. Or both."

For starters this phone allows me to go to Blazersedge.com ALL THE TIME!
I just got the phone last week and I thought long and hard about the most basic of all questions, “Am I an Iphone guy or a Blackberry guy?”. I decided I was the black sheep and went away from the pack and chose the more expensive Bold because after all, I am Bold.

But now, hearing that both Brandon Roy AND Ben have this phone, makes it all the more cooler! There you go Ben, our names in the same sentence as Brandon’s.

P.S. Ben didn’t your Bold come with a leather case? mine did! And the phone goes into sleep mode as soon as it enters the case…
P.P.S. this phone is great for recording video of confetti falling from the rafters after another blazers home win!

Who bailed out the women singing the Star Spangled Banner when she forgot the words half way through the song! Whisper whisper….rockets red glaze….oh yeah thanks.

Great job reporting Ben.

Second, I’m really encouraged that Nate and Brandon emphasizing Greg’s hunger and drive needs to carry over to subsequent games rather than just praising him for his success in the Milwaukee game.

Third, It was great seeing Brandon give a tongue lashing to the Bucks player who commited that hard foul on Oden under the basket.

Lastly, love what Skiles had to say about GO, postgame: ‘’Everyone seems to have their coming out party on us, and tonight it was Greg Oden. ’He just dominated us. We didn’t have any answers for him. We tried to front him, we tried to play behind him, and he hurt us.’’

with Lamarcus at the high post. That was definitely a big part of Greg being able to be effective, when LA came up for the ball at the high post, and then fired it at Greg as he stepped into the lane sealing off his defender. Once LA got the ball at the high post, what are teams supposed to do. If they cheat off LA to deny the pass to Greg, LA hits an easy shot up top. If one of the wing defenders step in to harass LA he tosses the ball over their head for a three from Rudy/Travis/Brandon/(Blake in a couple of weeks). The only person who could possibly help would be the PG defender, but if LA faces up his defender quickly that is not an option either. And if Greg isn’t able to get position (unlikely), LA brings the ball down the opposite side of the lane for a post basket, with his defender clogging the lane keeping the help defense (if it is able to get there at all) all to one side of his body, really limiting their effectiveness.

Does anybody see an effective way to stop this?

I want to see Ty Lue’s shoes, they have to be Jordan’s, considering how he plays on our court.