Tony Parker 39, Jerryd Bayless 0

The Spurs beat the Blazers tonight (99-84) without Duncan or Ginobili (both were injured). I couldn't watch tonight's game because up here in Seattle, KGW games are impossible to watch (blacked out on league pass and not broadcast in the metro area). However, I did catch some of the game on the radio and followed the scoring log on GameCast. My conclusion: put in Bayless and Channing. Something I yelled at my radio throughout the first quarter until I decided it was hopeless.

Tonight, the Spurs had one main weapon: Tony Parker. He scored 39 on his own and created another 20+ points in assists. Let's just give him around 65 points of impact tonight on the offensive end. Steve Blake went 0-9 with 1 assist. So Let's give him around a -10 for a combined 75 point difference at our point guard position. Those are some numbers you just aren't going to overcome.

So, how could the Blazers have done better? Play our best perimeter defender on Parker. His name is Jerryd Bayless. He got ZERO minutes of playing time tonight. Had he played tonight, I predict that he would have slowed down Parker and forced other players to try to create shots for themselves. Something I don't think would have worked very well.

On the offensive end, we don't need Blake to beat this team. We need to not be taking the ball out of the basket every possession, push the ball, stretch the floor, and score at the rim. Here is where Channing Frye helps you out. Since we don't need Przybilla's D inside, we can use Frye to stretch the D on O. Forcing the Spurs to choose between sagging in and helping on Roy and Aldridge versus staying out and covering Frye's perimeter jumper. For those keeping track, Frye went 7-15 and scored 15 points in 24 minutes.

I think the most glaring numbers in this game are that Roy and Blake combined for 5 for 27 and 14 points in a combined 62 minutes. I think in games like this, you have to change the lineup and put in the team best built to win the game you are playing.

I'm putting this one on Nate.

I'm a huge Nate McMillan fan. However, I think occasionally he makes a series of bad decisions in road games that the Blazers might otherwise win.

Tonight, the Blazers lost a road game at the Houston Rockets 98-94. This was a huge game because the Rockets were only a half game behind Portland in the playoff hunt. The Blazers also had the opportunity to win the second of the three games they play against Houston this year potentially giving them a tiebreaker if the teams ended the season with the same record. The Blazers lost the first two quarters and won the second two - but still came up short.

Watching the game and looking at the box score after the game, there is one stat that jumps out in my mind. No, it's not that the blazers missed a bunch of open shots tonight that they normally make (in the end they shot 0.1% better than the rockets from the field). It's the +/-. I know the +/- can be a deceiving statistic. But tonight, I think it was very telling. Batum was a +22 and Aldridge a +16. You have to ask yourself, how did they lost a game where two of their better defenders and starters were +22 and +16? Does this help: Battier was a -5 and Yao was -3. In fact the only Rocket starter who was a plus tonight was Artest at a whopping +1.

Here's what happened. Soon after Aldridge picked up his second foul, Nate took him and Batum out of the game for Channing and Outlaw. At this point they had been playing well and held a 7 point lead in the first quarter. Then everything went down hill for the rest of the half. To try to dig themselves out of the hole they started to create, Nate played Rudy with Travis for some extended minutes. In 15 minutes of play, Rudy was a -19. Seriously, that's terrible. You would think he would have to have been shooting at the wrong basket to pull that off.

What did Nate do wrong? I contend that when the Blazers are on the road Nate far too often let's the team dig holes in the first half without calling a timeout and changing the lineup and strategy to disrupt the other team's game. I was yelling at my TV (so loud that my throat now hurts) to put Batum back in the game. He was the key to disrupting their offensive flow. Why does this matter? When Batum disrupts their flow, they shoot jump shots that the blazers rebound and run out ahead of Yao and their D to get easy looks. Scoring easily then lets the Blazers get back and set their D again. Batum played such effective team D that tonight he was a +22 in 27 minutes in a loss. That's a serious head scratcher. I think when the coaches go back and look at the tape from this game, they'll realize that one of their keys from here on out is going to be knowing when to use Batum for D and when they can go with Outlaw for offense. My personal opinion is they should look to play outlaw more with Batum and for Batum to start upping his average minutes per game.

Tomorrow night the Blazers play in the second of a back-to-back against San Antonio who played on the road and won tonight at Dallas. Duncan and Ginobili were both inactive tonight; but, Parker played great to get them the win. We probably won't know until near game time if Duncan will be playing. The one good thing going for the Blazers is that they are better than the average NBA team in playing back-to-back games. Hopefully, that can carry them to a win over the current number two seed in the west. Go Blazers!

Brandon Roy Bobble Head Photo

Brandon Roy Goes for 52 to get his first win over the Suns!

Fresh Legs

While the Blazers are the slowest team in the NBA, they still need fresh legs to execute their game plan. During the first 24 games of the season the Blazers played a game once every 1.8 days and 40% of their whole road schedule. They finished the stretch with an impressive 4-1 road trip with the only loss coming against the World Champ Celts. However, when they got back home they lost two home games to Orlando and the Clippers through mental mistakes with the lead at the end of the game. Some might chalk it up to how young this team is (Average Age: 24.1); but, the guys missing free throws were Brandon Roy and Steve Blake in the Orlando and Clippers games, respectively. I think it had more to do with tired legs and relaxing a little with the lead at home.

Tonight, the Blazers finally got to play a game with three days rest and against a team coming off of a back-to-back and four games in five nights. They won easily, sweeping the season series against the Kings. With a plethora of homes games and rest coming up, look for the Blazers to start getting some more wins by big margins and pushing their Hollinger Rating back up into the top five in the league.

One other note: Brandon Roy should be an all star again. Tonight he came up one point short from having four 30-point games in a row (because Nate took him out with the 30 point lead). It would have been the first time a Blazer had acomplished the feat since Clyde Drexler did it in 1992.

As Terry Porter said at the end of his jersey retirement ceremony tonight, Rip City!

Red Hot Fall

After a slow start in their first four games of the season, the Blazers have been red hot. Not to jinx them, but they are still undefeated at home and against the Eastern Conference. While some of the young talent on this team might hit a bit of a wall come late January, right now they look ready to win the next seven NBA championships.

Okay; that might be putting it a little strongly. However, I think this team is the real deal. If you have been to ESPN.com's NBA page recently, you'll notice this team from the Northwest is finally getting some national press:

Blazers are #4 in Marc Stein's Power rankings & in the Hollinger Power Rankings
Hollinger's Playoff Odds have them at 100% to make the playoffs and 25% to make the Finals

Among all NBA rookies, Rudy Fernandez Ranks #4 and Greg Oden is #5. Nicolas Batum is playing great as a starter and unfairly ranked in the 20's.

Why have the Blazers played so well through their tough early schedule? My answer: Brandon Roy is an unselfish-much-improved-ridiculously-good closer, THE BENCH, ball handling, and the three-pointer. When you take a look at the numbers and compare this team to other teams around the league, what you will see is that when the Blazers aren't playing well, the three-pointer keeps them in games and then Brandon Roy (Western Conference Player of the Week) puts the team on his back and goes nuts in the second half. When the team is playing well, the bench dominates the other team and the Blazer starters play under 30 minutes, leaving them plenty rested (which is very important when your schedule is this tough).

Why are the Blazers playing better than last year? Didn't they have a deep bench and Brandon Roy all year? Yes. But there has been a huge upgrade at 3-point and ball handling. Travis Outlaw and Steve Blake have improved their three point shooting (and Blake is playing more aggressively). They also added more 3-point fire power with Rudy Fernandez and Nicolas Batum. Another benefit of their improved 3-point play is that making 3s early also spreads the floor for Roy to take it to the bucket. Roy is becoming one of the best in traffic. Blake and Roy are taking care of the ball better than ever too. Not turning the ball over is decreasing the easy buckets for other teams and keeping the Blazers from getting in holes, allowing them to play from the lead more often.

If I told all of this to Nate McMillan, he would say: No. It's defense, stupid. Well he wouldn't say stupid because he is too classy. But he would insist that their D is the reason for their success. And he would be right :-) That's why he's the coach and I'm an idiot sitting on a couch yelling at my TV. Their full court press and their trap has really allowed them to control the pace of the game, create turnovers, and get other teams into bad shot clock situations. But, I like offense!