I've heard a lot recently about how the blazers last few games were ugly wins. What I saw, during the past 2 games especially, was a team that even on a bad offensive night found a way to win. It is impossible for a team to have a great shooting night every game just by the law of averages. If a team shoots 50% over the course of a season that means half the shots they take are misses, and sometimes those misses happen in bigger bunches than others. While the team is struggling on offense you have to play great defense and slow down the pace of the game so you can still score more points than the other team. If you think about the conference finals from last year all the teams, the Nuggets, Lakers, Cavs, and Magic, were teams known for their defense.

I think the last two ugly games were exactly the kind that shows a great team who finds a way to win their games with D. I did a calculation of how many points opponents score against the blazers compared to their average points per game.

                   Avg ppg    Points    Difference

Rockets-   103.66       87         -16.66

Nuggets-   106.2         97            -9.2

Rockets-    103.66     111        +7.44

Thunder-    92.75        74         -18.75

Hawks-      106.55       97          -9.55

Spurs-        102.42       84         -18.42          Average difference =-10.83

Twolves-     90.5           93          +2.5

Grizzlies-     99.88        79         -20.88

Twolves-     90.5           84          -6.5

Hornets-      97.7           78         -19.7

Bobcats-      83.5           74          -9.5

Avg ppg from- http://www.nba.com/statistics/sortable_team_statistics/sortable1.htm

So if the blazers are holding their opponents to almost 11 less points per game than they normally score it means our defense is doing something right. It sure seems like a lot of top tier players have bad shooting nights against the blazers smothering defense. The blazers also have the uncanny ability to convince opposing point guards to sprain their ankle, its a really rude superpower to have but secretly i like it. But that's beside the point. The point I get at is that if our defense keeps performing as exceptionally as they have, and the blazers can find the way to get a late lead and ice the game with free throws like they have, then the blazers are championship contenders this year. Ugly wins just mean the blazers had a bad night but their defense made their opponents night worse, and I think winning is beatiful.