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Welcome back to the real world my fellow Blazer fans.  All the hype and excitement, and this highly anticipated season opens with a dismal 96-76 loss to the hated Lakers.  Portland looked completely outmatched all game long.  This is partly due to a very impressive defensive effort from the Lakers, and partly due to a lackluster offensive effort from the Blazers.  There is no question that LA is the vastly superior team, and Portland still has a long ways to go before it can considered among the NBA elite.

Five things I Liked:

1. Rudy Fernandez- 

While big-name starters like Roy, Aldridge, and Oden struggled badly, Rudy looked solid on the floor and finished with a fine stat line of 16 points, 4 assists, 2 steals, and no turnovers.  Rudy looked comfortable both making his own shot happen and getting his shots in the flow of the game.  I still don't expect him to start because Roy isn't big enough to guard a lot of other team's small forwards, but Rudy should see around 30 minutes a game in a backup role.

2. Travis Outlaw on offense-

Outlaw was the only other Blazer that looked consistently competent on offense.  He hit some tough jumpers and helped spark the lone run the Blazers went on spanning the end of the second and start of the third quarter.  Outlaw still better serves this team in the second unit when Roy and Aldridge are hitting their shots, but that really wasn't the case in this game.  His defense, as usual, wasn't impressive but at least he didn't look like too much of a liability.

3. Joel Przybilla on defense-

Joel is still the rebounding force he was last year, grabbing 11 boards in only 25 minutes and generally looking like the best center for either team.  Still can't shoot though.

4. Uh...Odom's pass to the bench?

It provided a little comic relief in a modern day tragedy.  Give me a break, not a lot went well.

5. Nobody died-

That's about the only other thing that went right.  Which transitions nicely in to:

Five thing I didn't Like-

1. Greg Oden hurt...again-

I refuse to throw in the towel one game into the season, but if this foot sprain turns into something more serious I will have one foot off the Greg Oden bandwagon. He is a great physical talent when healthy, but that has been for all of two months since his senior year of high school.  Even when he wasn't hurt in the game he looked slow and lost a lot of the time, though he had a nice block of an Andrew Bynum hook shot.  Still, even if he didn't get hurt the best stat line we could have expected would have been something along the lines of 6 points and 11 rebounds, maybe 2 blocks.   Like the rest of the team, not a whole lot of ways his debut could have gone much worse.

2. Transition defense-

While the half court defense performed okay, there must have been six or seven threes Portland gave up simply by not manning up in transition.  They weren't even outmanned on the break, they just didn't find their guys and it led to several open threes and countless more easy layups.  I've never seen a Blazer team look so outmatched in transition, and that includes their 20 win season three years ago.

3.  Every freaking thing on offense-

You know it's not your day when your All-Star starts 0-9 shooting, your prominant center shoots 0-4 from the field and 0-2 from the line, and your rising star at PF finishes with 8 points.  Portland shot under 35% from the field, and sadly most of the shots weren't just missed open jumpers.  Too much standing around, it looked like they weren't running ANY offensive sets.  The Lakers played great defense, but no way it was THAT good.  Coach McMillan has a lot of kinks to work out.

4. The battle of talented centers-

The Bynum and Oden ticket is supposed to a big draw for years to come, but it got off to a terribly inauspicious start.  Even when Oden was playing, he was useless on offense (as I mentioned), though he played ok defense and rebounded ok.  Still, calling his debut a disappointment would be a major understatement.  As for Bynum, he wasn't exactly overwhelming himself with 8 points, 3 rebounds, and five fouls despite not matching up against Oden for most of the game.  They are still both young, but I don't foresee any Wilt-and-Russell comparisons for a while.

5. Coach McMillan benching Batum before he even got off the bench-

Yesterday Nicolas Batum was named the starter at SF, and the decision was highly supported throughout the levels of the organization, the players, and the general fan base.  I've already expressed my approval of starting Batum over either Outlaw or Rudy and still do despite their performances.  Then, about four hours before tipoff Nate second guessed himself and went with Outlaw instead.  I don't think the move made the difference in the game, but Batum looked very good defensively in the time he did get and showed some very good hustle for rebounds.  By announcing him as the starter and then changing his mind, Nate surely damaged this young player's ego and also damaged the rotation.  The Blazer's vaunted bench only was on the floor together for about 5 minutes because Outlaw started and had to rest when the other bench players came on.

Also of note:

Is it just me, or does Greg Oden have chicken legs?  His upper body rivals Dwight Howards, but from the waist down he seems a lot more like Reggie Miller.  I never noticed that at Ohio State, so I wonder if it has anything to do with his long layoff following microfracture surgery.  Whatever the reason may be, I'm sure it isn't healthy for a 280 pound seven footer to be running on legs thinner than his arms.  He needs to focus on bulking up his legs or he is bound for a career of foot, knee, and ankle injuries.  As I said before, I'm not giving up on him yet, but if this foot injury holds him out for anything more than a game or two I will have to officially slap the "glass" label on him, and not due to his rebounding ability.

Token non-Blazer thought:

 Are we ever going to have a competitive World Series again?  The Phils are more or less controlling the Rays and it looks like they will close them out whenever weather permits it.  By my own estimation, there hasn't been a truly thrilling World Series since Angels vs. Giants in 2002, and the last one that was even competitive and/or entertaining was a year later when the Marlins upset the Yankees in six games.  Since then the Fall Classic has only been worth watching if you have a vested interest in one of the two teams involved.

I don't have many ideas for making the World Series more competitive because it isn't like one league dominates the other.  Since 2001 the NL has won 3 times and the AL 4 times. All I know is I frankly don't care about the World Series anymore and I don't believe that is a good thing.

The Week Ahead:

Things don't get any easier for the Blazers in the coming week.  The Spurs come to town on Friday, and then Portland travels to Phoenix and then Utah.  That's three teams that won 50+ games last year.  Whether or not Oden is able to play, Portland faces a very tough early stretch, which leads me to my...

Parting Thought:

No team in the NBA faces a more brutal opening schedule than Portland.  Of their first 23 games, 15 are on the road (Portland was a measely 13-28 on the road last year) and 14 are against playoff teams from last year.  This team will either have to grow up quickly or fall into an early hole.  Don't be surprised, or discouraged, if the blazers go 8-15 in this tough opening stretch.  Remember, this team started 5-12 last year before closing the year at a respectable 36-29.  This team, with four major rookie additions to the rotation, is bound to start slowly.  As with all young teams, there will be growing pains and watching them will require patience.  Remember, they are the future, not the present.