Full Court Press

"That's the main reason I retired, because you are taking things to relieve the pain. You are taking medication and painkillers to relieve your pain and I didn't want to do that anymore. It was just too painful to train and your days off, you couldn't do anything. I started taking a lot of things to relieve the pain and a lot of players do."

The Rockets survive night after night with solid defense and a disciplined offense that moves the ball and moves bodies. There's nothing magical about it - it's just the concept of players accepting the responsibility of looking for each other and of doing the things that allow themselves and others to get open.

It's better, long term, than that old "live by the three, die by the three" stuff that the Blazers have been using for the last few seasons. And until Portland figures out a way to scrounge a few more points in the paint - either by offensive rebounds, fast breaks or post play - it's going to be an up-and-down season.

Roy was magnificent in the fourth -- and, really, all night -- as he scored 11 points during the final 4:28. The highlight basket came with 28.7 seconds left when he gathered a pass from Andre Miller at the top of the key, hesitated, and swished a high-arcing three-pointer in Wade's face as the shot clock approached zero. The play drew gasps from the Blazers and frustration from the Heat (13-12). 

"I know for a fact that the last three he hit, D. Wade was in his face," Heat forward Michael Beasley said. "I'm talking about being centimeters away from the ball. And it just dropped. There is not much you can do about those."     

Nate McMillan, the Trail Blazers' head coach, consulted with Czeisler last year, before wiping out all shoot-arounds and morning practices. At Czeisler's recommendation, McMillan took the effort further. He gave his players permission to stay out until 2 a.m. on the road, to keep their body clocks on Portland time.

I'm more interested in seeing what Aldridge does as a follow up to the follow up of a crappy game than I am in praising him for scoring 23 points on 23 shots. So sue me.

If you can get 15 points on 3-of-6 shooting from downtown out of Webster for every night the rest of the season, that's a success. Throw in his five boards and in the future a few more defensive stats and you have yourself a starting small forward. I am starting to wonder whether McMillan just lacks trust in Webster's defense, or if Roy is asking for the tougher defensive assignments.

Steve Blake is just not right for this team anymore. He's sort of like the guy who doesn't know when to leave or the friend who's worn out his/her welcome. It's not even his fault, it's really Nate McMillan's fault. But the fact is, it's time for this team to graduate into the new NBA. Teams are drafting dynamic, game changing point guards. Guards who can create and draw fouls are excelling in this league.

Right now, it is so ridiculously obvious to me that Andre Miller should start, and Jerryd Bayless should come off the bench. There are no minutes for Blake in my world.

Everything that was missing came back in this game. LaMarcus Aldridge was aggressive, and got the team off to a fast start. He finished with 23 points and 8 rebounds. Martell Webster hit three three-pointers, and ended with 15 points. And, Andre Miller, who was the hot Blazer during the big third-quarter run, finished with 17 points.    

Assist of the Decade

April 25, 2003
BY: Mo Cheeks, Coach, Portland

I was covering the Mavericks-Blazers first-round series when 13-year-old Miss Gilbert, in a beautiful black and white dress, came out to sing the national anthem. Unfortunately, about 20 seconds in, it became excruiciatingly clear that she had either lost her place, or forgotten the words. (It's a tough song.) She started looking around, and all of us at the Rose Garden thought the same thing: poor kid. Which is when Cheeks walked over from the Portland bench, put his arm around her and started singing, a little off-key, but got her back on track. By the end, we were all singing, a little teary-eyed.

I have a hard time ignoring problems just because they have been nudged down the timeline a little. If anything that makes it worse. The problems just hang there, some dark mass of energy in the background, waiting for the right time. We came so close to actually having to sort things out. We nearly got to see if this roster will work as is or if hard decisions should be made. The team may have been losing, but in the grand scheme of things it still felt like the franchise was moving forward. Now? Not so much. That is why Oden going down really, really sucked.

At least I can bring myself to watch the games again.