Did you miss the games this weekend?  Here are Dave's recaps: Rockets and "Thunder."

LaMarcus Aldridge suffered a knee contusion last night, banging knees with "Oklahoma City's" Jeff Green. Joe Freeman tweets the latest...

He underwent x-rays at the Ford Center and they were negative. ... his status is unknown for Tues nite.

Mike Barrett writes...

Maybe the most impressive part of this win was the fact that the Blazers went most of the way without LaMarcus Aldridge, who went knee to knee with Jeff Green in the first half. He tried to get it loose at halftime, but was in too much pain. It's just a bruise, so isn't serious. Aldridge told me on the flight on the way home that he's just sore, but should be fine to play on Tuesday against Atanta.

Click through for the rest of the Full Court Press!

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

Joe Freeman on the victory in OKC...

"It was like, whoooooooo," Roy said, sucking in a deep breath of air and exhaling to illustrate the feeling. "This was a sigh of relief." 

Dwight Jaynes on the victory in OKC...

Look, I give Martell Webster all the credit in the world for hustling around and doing his best. Webster's effort level this season has been among the best on the team. But Durant was awful. He missed a ton of shots he's usually going to make. He was just out of kilter.

Royce of DailyThunder.com on the game...

I have never, ever seen Kevin Durant shoot that poorly. Never. Ever. I wanted to cry. As someone that scours over box scores more than a normal human being should, "3 for 21″ sticks out like a white guy at a Tyler Perry movie. I'm telling myself he just got the bad one out of the way early. He went 3-21 from the field, yes, THREE of TWENTY-ONE. He even missed an easy cram towards the end of the game. But you know what? It happens to every good player. It just does. A couple of shots don't fall, then a couple that you KNEW were going in don't fall and now you're not shooting, you're guiding. You just want to place the ball on the rim and hope it somehow slips through the net.     

Wendell Maxey on the game...

Another chapter of the "Oden versus Durant" book was written on Sunday in Portland's early season win. And who knows how thick this showdown book will finally read as these two careers meet as one on the court.

One thing is for sure: Greg Oden and Kevin Durant are perpetually connected.

Dwight Jaynes on the team defense...

These guys do not seem to have a team-defense system that allows them to consistently rotate and find defensive help, the way the good NBA teams do it. We saw the same thing last season. But people are constantly fooled by one-game shooting percentages. Just because a team doesn't make shots against you, doesn't mean you are playing great defense. It's one indicator, but hey - some nights opponents just don't make open shots.

SJ of Rip City Project on the Rockets game...

I don't mean to sound like a broken record but the Blazers need guys to consistently step up alongside Roy and Aldridge. Tonight that didn't happen. Its funny because people criticized Coup after Game 1 for not bending over backwards to compliment Travis Outlaw's big game. Nights like these when Bad Travis shows up are a reason why. Andre Miller had his good moments (beasting Lowry) and his bad (ill advised jumpers and running over Aaron Brooks on a fast break). Oden was working down low but I wish someone would tell him to never try the quick spin against an undersized defender. It just isn't going to work.    

Runyon of Trail Post looks at the +/- of various Blazers...

Thus far, Martell and Travis have been by far our best players in terms of the incredibly flawed +/- stat. However, anyone who's watched a game thus far this season, could probably assume that Martell would be up near the top. His energy and effort completely changes the complexion of games. Travis' new commitment to defense and rebounding is obviously showing up in this. LA was plain bad to start the season, yet recovered nicely over the weekend. Oden has been the other consistently good player for the team, another fact that's been obvious over the games. Roy has been middling at +1/-1 through the first three, which is probably a product of time played and the closeness of those games, though he picked up a big + with the rest of the starting unit last night. Blake has been good, but did almost all of his positive last night.    

Jason Quick on a more vocal Greg Oden...

Oden ended up with 12 points, 10 rebounds and one block in 29 minutes, but everyone -- including Oden -- agreed his biggest contribution didn't end up in the box score. 

"Look, I know I'm not a big scorer on this team, so I'm just trying to bring something else, something that doesn't show up on the statistics," Oden said. "And that's talking, bringing energy."     

Jason Quick on how Oden dealt with missing two free throws late in the Denver game...

Blake remembers getting consolation from teammates and coaches that night. Blake said the words barely registered that night. He said he ended up laying awake all night thinking about the misses. 

"With Greg, it's not something he is going to get over by saying something to him," Blake said. "After I missed, what people said didn't mean anything to me, because I knew I let the team down. I mean, it was nice to hear the support from the team, but only time will make it feel better for Greg."     

Kevin Pelton on Channing Frye's early success in Phoenix...

On the plus side, Channing Frye has been a revelation as Phoenix's starting center, putting up 47 points in the last two games. Now, given that he's shooting 65.0 percent from three-point range and has 13 triples in three games, a severe drop-off is likely in the offing. However, even if Frye regresses all the way to last year's 33.3 percent shooting beyond the arc, it's the mere fact that he is trying threes that should make the difference. Last year, 12.3 percent of Frye's attempts were threes; so far, that number is 55.6 percent.

Consider this: Frye hit long twos (from about 18-22 feet) at a 41.6 percent rate last season. To be equally efficient while shooting threes, all Frye would have to do is shoot 27.7 percent. Surely, he'll do better than that, so every long two attempt that turns into a three attempt makes Frye a much more efficient shooter.

Prior to Blake's nice night in OKC, Brian T. Smith on the Blazers' point guards...

While Andre Miller has looked smooth and strong running the floor at times, he is also shooting just 27.2 percent (6 for 22) from the field and has posted two straight 3-for-11 outings.

Meanwhile, Steve Blake has been even colder. Portland's (1-1) starting point guard is averaging 3.5 points and is 2 of 9 from the floor. Blake failed to record a single point in the Blazers' 97-94 home loss to the Denver Nuggets on Thursday, going 0 for 5 and missing several open looks.    

 Joe Freeman also tackles the point guard struggles...

Miller and Blake insist that it's way too early to make too much of their struggles. There are 79 more games in the season and, they say, the best is yet to come. 

"I'm used to playing with these guys and to this style of play," Blake said. "I just have to get myself back on track. It will come. 

Added Miller: "You don't have to worry about me and Steve. We're doing fine. We'll be all right."

El Blog Ilusorio de Rudy on NBA players as real men...

Within my knowings, every male professional basketball player is un hombre de verdad: A real man. That is, if testosterone were alcohol, we'd all be over the legal limit. Even "nice fellows" like the Trail Blazers are, to a hombre, proud, competitive, and dripping in masculinity.

And of this group, Joel Pryzbilla is our king.     

Sheed of Bustabucket writes...

With LaMarcus sidelined following the injury and Brandon Roy struggling to get his game going early, it was the little things by the rest of the starters which kept Portland in it. Greg Oden was very good throughout, he stayed on the boards, battled Etan Thomas and never got into serious foul trouble. Obviously Steve Blake was stellar tonight but Martell Webster also came alive in the 3rd quarter. Besides hitting two key threes, blocking shots and cramming one down the lane, Webster proves that we can really use his athleticism in the line-up. To have a guy who is running on emotion, is willing to cut and slash, and basically compliment the stars, is critical for this Blazer team.

Kellex of Blaze of Love has some questions for LaMarcus Aldridge...

It was late in the 1st quarter when a limping Aldridge came out of the game after banging knees with an OKC player.  His knee was wrapped, given the "OK" to test it, and we never saw him again.  Just 24 hours prior, we saw the exact same incident happen with Steve Blake.  The difference?  Blake returned in the 4th quarter to finish what he and his teammates started. 

For a guy who seems to get visibly angry when the words "lack of toughness" are tossed into a sentence with his name, he continues to fail to prove anything different.  And to make it all worse, he plays alongside one of the toughest guys in the league in Brandon Roy.     

Jeff Pickett of Beyond Bowie foresees a 27-55 season...

So what to do about defending small forwards? The first thing that comes to mind is that we'll have to double-team more. When I watch the Blazers face the likes of LeBron James and Kevin Durant this season, my fingernails are going to suffer far worse than when Batum was tasked with locking those guys down.

We have to try something more to adjust for the defensive ability we've lost. Because if the pace we're on continues, we're going to lose 55 games this year due to Batum's absence.    

The Celtics just extended Rajon Rondo for 5 years and $55 million. Those numbers make you look twice at LaMarcus Aldridge's deal.

Sports Media Watch: Bill Walton retires from broadcasting. Thanks to JE Skeets for the link.

Oregon Media Central has circulation numbers for the local papers...

For weekday subscribers...

The Oregonian: drops from 268,512 to 249,163 (-7.2%)
The Columbian: drops from 39,755 to 36,347 (-8.6%)

Power Rankings

• Marc Stein: 9th (down from 7th) 
• John Schuhmann 12th (down from 6th)

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