Fan Fest Media Row Report: Blazers White 67, Blazers Black 47

The Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Portland Trail Blazers, 67-47, during their annual Fan Fest intra-squad scrimmage at the Rose Garden on Friday night. Forward Gerald Wallace, who finished with 14 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals, was named game MVP. This is an abbreviated post tonight because it's been a long few weeks.

Be sure to check out Timmay's thoughts below.

Notes

• Blazers rookie guard Nolan Smith got some run with both teams.
• Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge did not play because he is still recovering from a heart procedure last week. Aldridge will go through portions of practice on Saturday and expects to play in Portland's second preseason game on Dec. 21. He says he will "of course" be ready for the season opener on Dec. 26.
• Blazers center Marcus Camby did not play because of a sore back.
• The newest Blazers, guard Jamal Crawford and forward Craig Smith, did not play.
• Former Blazers guard Brandon Roy did not attend but the crowd let out multiple extended cheers for him prior to the game. Blazers play-by-play man Mike Barrett acknowledged Roy during his opening remarks as did Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge. Multiple fans held up seven fingers when Aldridge was speaking about Roy.
• Blazers forward Kurt Thomas has taken over Roy's corner locker. Respect these years.
• Crawford's locker is adjacent to Aldridge's.
• If you missed it earlier on Twitter, Craig Smith will become the first NBA player to wear No. 83 and Crawford will wear No. 11 with forward Luke Babbitt switching to No. 8.
• Here's a shot of Crawford from this morning's introductory press conference.
• Blazers center Greg Oden attended the game but, obviously, did not play. Mike Acker of Rip City Project took these shots of Oden: Here, here and here.
• The Blazers sported shirts that read: "I am a fan of Trail Blazers fans."

Box score

Black Team

• Luke Babbitt 3-10 shooting, 1-7 threes, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 7 points
• Armon Johnson 3-7 shooting, 1-1 threes, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 9 points
• Chris Johnson 1-2 shooting, 14 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 blocks, 2 points
• Elliot Williams 8-15 shooting, 1-4 threes, 3 rebounds, 19 points
• Nolan Smith 2-11 shooting, 0-3 threes, 2 assists, 2 steals 6 points

Team: 19-52 shooting, 3-17 threes, 32 rebounds, 10 assists, 5 steals, 17 turnovers, 6 blocks, 47 points

White Team

• Nicolas Batum 6-16 shooting, 0-7 threes, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 12 points
• Gerald Wallace 5-10 shooting, 0-2 threes, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 14 points
• Kurt Thomas 1-4 shooting, 6 rebounds, 2 points
• Wesley Matthews 6-16 shooting, 0-4 threes, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 18 points
• Raymond Felton 2-7 shooting, 1-3 threes, 1 rebound, 7 assists, 4 steals, 1 block, 5 points
• Earl Barron 5-8 shooting, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 10 points
• Nolan Smith 2-3 shooting, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 4 points

Team: 28-67 shooting, 1-17 threes, 33 rebounds, 17 assists, 12 steals, 6 turnovers, 1 block, 67 points

Coach Nate McMillan's Post-Game Comments

Opening remarks

We wanted to get in and get a good sweat. Get out and get a good run in. I thought the guys did that. As I told them, when you're committed to trying to play a certain style of basketball, which is you want to defend but you also want to get out and run, it requires a commitment. You've got to be in some great shape to play that type of basketball. We certainly, conditioning, we've got to continue to work on that. That will get better.

Conclusions to draw from game?

I wanted to just take a look at both units. I pretty much put the white unit with the starters with the white unit and the guys who would be coming off the unit with the black unit. I did want to rotate Nolan and look at him with that first group when we found out Camby wasn't going to go. I put Kurt in with that white group which is the rotation we will have during the season.

Camby sore back. Will he practice tomorrow?

We'll see.

Why use a 20-second shot clock instead of a 24-second clock?

Just push the game. Get up the tempo and get these guys conditioned to get up and down the floor. Offensively let's get the ball up. Let's see if we can attack. Let's speed up the tempo.

Chris Johnson

Very active. Very active. He's blocking some shots. He's running. But he's got some live legs. Active player, we saw that last year when he got a few minutes in the playoffs.

Elliot Williams

Very athletic. Very athletic. He has a good training camp. We were talking about that on the sidelines. Amazing to see a guy who has had surgery on both knees look like nothing has happened. He's had a real good training camp.

How do you like team with new guys?

Anxious to get the guys in tomorrow and see Crawford and Craig with the team, LaMarcus will be with the team tomorrow. He won't be able to play anything live but I'm anxious to get these guys together so that they can play as much basketball together as possible before the start of the season. It's going to take some time for them to get a rhythm, to get adjusted to each other, it's going to have to happen during the season. But looking forward to working with these guys and the challenge of fitting these guys in. Creating that style of play that we want, that we feel is going to give us an opportunity to win some games.

Sloppiness

You're not going to see a lot of sharp basketball early. Mainly because guys are not in shape. They only have two preseason games to play before the regular season. Even in a normal season players play themselves in shape in the month of November. You see shooting percentages down in the month of November. We start to see that come up in December. Normally teams, players are playing better basketball in January in a normal NBA season. So you're going to expect that shooting percentages, execution early, may not be there. With us adding veterans we are hoping that it's not too long before we see good execution and solid basketball.

4-34 as a team shooting threes

Well, shoot the ball. If you're open, shoot it. I thought I saw some guys tonight -- hey, shoot it. It's a scrimmage, have some fun.

Gerald Wallace went hard

Pretty much with the veterans we wanted them to sub themselves. So these guys are trying to get themselves into shape. You're going hard and you're pushing to try to condition yourself. Substitution was on them. We had two subs per team. Those guys are trying to push themselves because they know they need to get into better shape for the start of the season.

Playing in front of a crowd

It was good. Any time you walk out in front of a crowd, you get the butterflies. You get antsy. You're ready to go. These guys performed. That's what they do. Even though they've had a long day, most of those guys have been here since 9 o'clock this morning and didn't have a chance to go home. Once the lights are turned on you can see that energy just come out of their bodies. Guys are ready to go.

Raymond Felton

I thought he did a nice job. He's trying to play himself into shape. Learn the sets that go with the players. He's going to be fine.

Kurt Thomas set a record for taking charges in a Fan Fest?

He had three charges. I think he had three. But that's good to see. [Wide Smile] Weakside help.

Earl Barron vs. Chris Johnson for last spot: Will tonight impact that decision?

We've got the rest of training camp and we have two preseason games to look at those guys and they will be here the entire time.

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