March 2009 Archives

With a 125-104 blowout of conference rival Utah, the Blazers have put together three straight wins of more than 20 points.  With 8 games left, we can only hope that their dominating play can be sustained.

The Jazz are an especially bad road team, and the Blazers are an especially good home team, but the manner in which Portland handled Utah totally surprised me.  The Jazz are rarely an easy win for us, but Blazers had control of this one from the beginning, led by another outrageous offensive display.  Three games ago, we set a season record against Phoenix in FG% with 60.2%, only to top it tonight with 61.8%.  The best thing about that is that we haven't been dependent on jumpshots - a weakness of concern as we prepare for the postseason.  The Blazers spent the night attacking the rim, and when Utah double-teamed to stop it, we swung the ball perfectly to find wide-open shots.  Our floor-spacing has been absolutely stellar recently, and our opponents can't seem to do anything about it.

It was easy to make a case for tonight being the most important game of the season.  The Blazers were sitting just one single game ahead of Dallas for the last remaining Playoff spot, and there was only one team in the Western Conference that had a chance of catching either of us: tonight's opponent.  With only 10 games remaining in the regular season, the Blazers had an opportunity to take a HUGE step toward solidifying their spot in the Playoffs. 

Then again, it will also be very easy to argue that almost every upcoming game will be the most important game of the season.  Even though the Blazers are 1.5 games ahead of 8^th in the West, they're now tied with New Orleans for 5^th, and only trail San Antonio by 2.5 games for 2^nd!  Every game could mean the difference between home-court advantage against the 7^th place team and a First Round meeting with the Lakers.  Oh, and four of our 10 remaining games are against teams in that hunt with us.  Still, tonight was a unique opportunity to take a huge step in guaranteeing the Trailblazers an appearance in the Playoffs, and they took full and merciless advantage of it.

Player of the Game:

LaMarcus Aldridge

L.A. set the tone on offense, scoring seemingly at will.  He led the team with a career-high tying 29 points on an extremely efficient 11-16 shooting, and he also collected a team-high 12 rebounds.  The thing that made his performance so particularly impressive, though, was the attention that he commanded from the Phoenix Suns.  When they double-teamed him, he swung the ball, which almost always led to an open Blazer eventually getting a shot.  When they didn't double, he scored - plain and simple.  Here are some experimental highlights from the first half (I highly recommend clicking the HQ button at the lower right):
 


Honorable Mention:

Nicolas Batum

Batum didn't have the game that LA, Roy, or Rudy had, but I think he deserves some credit for what he did.  Nicolas spent a pretty good chunk of his minutes crashing the offensive boards BIG TIME.  He finished with 4 offensive rebounds in only 16+ minutes, and you could tell that this was a role that he is developing for himself on the team.  And why wouldn't he?  He has the combination of length and agility at the small-forward position that gives him an advantage over almost any of his opponents, and who would we rather have be out of position during transition defense?  I seem to recall a multitude of times the rookie has caught up to the play and blocked it from behind.

I don't know if he has been instructed to emphasize his offensive rebounding or if this is something that is developing more naturally, but I'm a big fan.  The game of basketball is won by exploiting mismatches, and Nicolas Batum is a walking mismatch.  It's a lot of fun to watch him learn how to exploit it...

Again, some experimental highlights from the first half: