I'm watching the Nike Hoop Summit, and one player that is sticking out at me is Biyombo, out of the Congo. He's a physical specimen, very athletic, and looks to have some decent footwork being that he's apparently only been playing basketball for a few years. A quick look at his Draft Express profile shows that he leads the Spanish ACB league in blocks and averages 6 pts, 5 rebs, and 2.3 blocks in 17 mpg. They currently have him listed as #18 in their mock draft. Obviously, I've only seen him play for about one half of one game, but he looks pretty good, and has a lot of room to grow.

Other raodom notes from the Hoops Summit:

Broadcast showed Rudy, Nic, Andre and Gerald all on camera.

Kentucky is going to have a whole new group of really good players.

Anthony Davis, has one of the worst uni-brows I've EVER seen.

Rebecca Haarlow didnt know that Kyrie Irving is going into the draft, Austin Rivers did.

And Finally, U. of Washington bound Tony Wroten, despite only running track for like a month, has the fastest 100m time in the state of Washington this year. Also, he's from Garfield High (also home of Brandon Roy) and is Nate Robinson's cousin.

While watching the Jazz and L*kers games, I was pleasantly impressed by how many fouls Crash Wallace drew.  He shot 10 free throws in the L*ker game (5 fouls), but also drew a smattering of non-shooting fouls.  Of these, the drawn charge on Bynum was the most momentous, since it fouled Bynum out.  (As a side note, Wallace's drawing of that charge is especially brave because it was a collision with Bynum that had once collapsed his lung.  So Wallace already knows that Bynum can cause serious pain, and, dare I say it, throw a cheap shot).

In general, I was impressed by Wallace's ability to get in front of moving players to where they would run him over (Bynum), throw an elbow (Artest and Odom), and generally feel frustrated (L*kers).

I wonder if there is a statistic on the overall number of fouls a player draws?  I hypothesize that Wallace is high on the list.  It brings great value to the game by getting opponents into individual and team foul trouble, and also by causing frustration for the opponent. 

Anyway, I just wanted to highlight that aspect of Wallace's game.  It takes hustle and smarts to draw fouls, and Wallace has both in spades.

the blazers could win a match up with the los angelas lakers if it came down to it. the lakers recent struggles are proving that this team is not the same team as last year. they are very very beat able. if the two teams play portland does have a little confidence over the lakers. they have outplayed the lakers in 3 meetings this year. the blazers have a very long team just like the lakers, and they have a team that on any night can have a different player step up and lead them in scoring and making plays. this is very hard to key on because you dont know who to key on late or if you key on lamarcus or gerald someone else can step up to make huge shots. and dont forget they do have brandon roy on their team and he can step up any given night he is a three time all star. now for the blazers they have a couple guys that are long that they can send at kobe, gerald nic, and wesley and they can all cause problems and if they can find a way to slow the star down and build a lead kobe likes to try and bring his team back him self. this is good because you know who to double late. they also look very slow on ddefense lately, they dont seem to wanna play defense any more looking uninterested and when anything bad happens they wanna look for someone to blame other than themselves. with the size that portland posseses and if rudy fernandez steps up then i think the blazers can step up in the series and come out with a win.

1. Beating the Lakers when they are at full strength and we weren't.

2. Lob Passes to LMA

3.Lob passes to Batum.

4. Dre passing the lob.

5. Wallace passing the lob.

6. G-Dub not backing down from Artest.

7. G-Dub giving Gasol the look after Gasol threw the shoulder.

8. The way G-Dub kept his cool when Artest fouled him hard.

9. The way my Blazers played as a team last night.

10. The way the Rose Garden chanted Ger-ald Wal-lace, watching it at home and hearing that gave me the goose bumps.

Feel free to add more. Go Blazers!!!

Blazer's Edge,

Here's good luck this coming playoffs from your friends in Houston, at The Dream Shake (or at least some of us).

As a team that has also had to deal with lots of injuries and kept going, we appreicate all you guys have been through, and are still kicking butt.

Picking up Wallace was a great piece to your team, and my fellow Longhorn, Aldridge, is playing very well this season.

Here is hoping Roy gets his confidence and stroke back and you make it at last to the Western Finals.

Yours truly,

John ...and many of us in Rockets Nation

So, unlike Tuesday night when the Blazers played like they were on downers, last night was a treatfest. For the first four minutes the Blazers settled for mid range jumpers, sinking one, and were down 10-4. They looked afraid of the Laker bigs, afraid to go inside.  After a timeout - thank you Nate - they slashed and burned to the rim, a melody (sorry, mixed metaphor) they played the rest of the night.  I mean, they were committed (see my previous post 'committment...and'. Wallace, Batum and Matthews feasted at the rim, the Blazers got all the loose balls, hands on tons of passes, and lo and behold, the Laker defense looked like a sieve.  The hustle board read: fast break points, Portland 16, Lakers, 0...no typo there. This was perhaps Miller's best quarterbacking game of the season. Some of his alley-oop passes were merely spectacular, some of his dishes more than amazing. On one defensive rebound, it was 5 Blazers surrounding Gasol, so fearsome were the Lakes that Portland would run out on them they were all back on defense...yes, these are our Blazers I'm talking about. Come to find out, L-train is so big, fast and athletic that Miller can merely launch the rock in the direction of the rim and LaMarcus will beat everyone to it - Ka-boom! Who knew that the Laker defense was slow..that the Laker team is, actually, slow.  You can outrun and outpressure them.  Remember this was LaMarcus against Bynum, Odom and Gasol.  Our other 'bigs' were Nic and Gerald.  Really, this game belongs to Wallace, because it is his intensity at everything everywhere all the time that marked the character of this game and pushed the Blazers to, well, push.  Nice job, team.

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2011/04/canzano_lakers_wont_admit_it_b.html

The evidence was all over the visiting locker room at the Rose Garden on Friday night. Medical tape strewn on the floor. A bucket filled with ice water at the foot of Kobe Bryant's locker. A doctor, latex gloves on, applying ointment to Lamar Odom's floor burns.

The Lakers looked beat.

Pau Gasol dressed, then explained, "We have work to do." Coach Phil Jackson said, "I can't explain why we were lazy or didn't get back on defense." One of the veteran Lakers, still in the showers, dropped an expletive that rattled through the room. And a few feet away, Ron Artest slipped on a pair of brown shoes and called to the team trainer, "I need a bag of ice for the plane."

1º.- The Blazers were coming off a back-to-back. That ain´t gonna happen in playoffs.

2º.- The Blazers were playing without Camby.  Addition by sustraction? That ain´t gonna happen in 

playoffs either.

3º.- The Lakers left Rudy wide open to find out if Rudy is pretending to be in a slump, as in "if he 

miss that then he is faking it". Secret weapon has been unmasked.

4º.- The Blazers couldn´t win just by having more asissts, more steals, more blocks and less 

turnovers. They also had to outscore the Lakers to win this game.  

5º.- The Blazers centers´ boxscore in this game: 0 points, 0 steals, 0 blocks, 2 fouls, 1 rebound. 

6º.- Wallace was taking off and landing during 40 minutes. With no landing gear. I´m starting 

to make myself questions about that airline safety. 

7º.- Brandon played 30 minutes.  All of them on his knees.

8º.- Rudy played. 

9º.-Wallace blamed LaMarcus for the outcome. Already pointing fingers.

10º.- We can´t complain about the refs as much as we like to. 

11º.- We might have to play Oklahoma in the playoffs.  

12º.- We want former Blazers to play well, and that was just not the case with Blake.

13º.- The Blazers could have blown out the Lakers in the fourth quarter, allowing Nate to play his 

starters against the Lakers scrubs for three or four minutes.  Missed opportunity. 

14º.- There´s no record of an alley-ooping team winning a championship. As far as I know, there´s not record of

another alley-ooping team in basketball history either. (Globetroters doesn´t count).   

16º.- The Lakers not only did lose this game, but also a litle bit of their hatefulness. 

Go ahead (Don´t worry, these are not going to be a series).

Just a little pet peeve of mind this season.  Barret, Rice, even Wheel and Antonio...and the commentary about team or individual players fatigue.  Let me take a swig of my RedBull and continue...

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Though the heart of Crash Wallace pumps rapid, the pulse is steady and methodical.  Though playing with abandon, reckless, he is not.  Reckless does not dependably see and make the narrow assist.  Reckless does not follow a horizontal defensive maneuver with a dialed three goggle dagger.  The T-Blazers emerging vital organ is now evolved.  

"Crash and Burn" is the appropriate descriptive phrase that captures the style, but the wrong order.  Gerald Wallace's tenacious desire burns white hot and leads to tumbles and impacts, but make no mistake which is cause and which is effect.  From the candle, ..... heat.  And, at both ends. 

Burn Victims:

• Ron Artest: 14pnts, 4of 14 shooting.  Crash  Burn Wallace: 19pnts, 13rbnds, 7assist.
Artest: BURNED, BOTH ENDS!
• Kevin Durant: 5 of 18 shooting, 3 Reb, 1 Ast. Crash  Burn Wallace: 40pnts on 28 shots, 7rbnds.
Durant: BURNED, BOTH ENDS!

 "Crash" was a fine nickname while in Charlotte, however Burnald has super-ceded the connotation with his evolved, exemplary  play.