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Week in Review:

1-1 (1-2 overall)

It appears the showing against the Lakers was more fluke than fact.  Either that or the Lakers really ARE that good, which is a scary prospect.  Either way, even sans Oden Portland is better than that "team" that showed up against LA.  First was a highly competitive and exciting 100-99 victory over San Antonio in the home opener which I was in attendance for.  Tim Duncan and Tony Parker both went off, but superstars will do that and the rest of the teams was held very much in check.  In another competitive effort that came up short against Phoenix the following night, 107-96, Amare Stoudamire went off, which again happens.  The difference was that the rest of the Suns also contributed.  The Suns were at home, the Blazers were on the second end of a back-to-back, and simply Phoenix is still a better team.  Given the opponents, it certainly could have been worse.

Five Things I Liked:

1. Nicolas Batum:

This is the kid that was supposed to start and then was benched about an hour before tipoff against the Lakers.  It apparently didn't bother him too much.  Though his stat line doesn't pop out (6.3 ppg, 1.7 spg, 1.7 rpg, 14.3 mpg), his production goes beyond the stat line.  He was the only guy who could remotely slow down Tony Parker, and he made countless hustle plays against both the Suns and the Spurs.  In fact, for large stretches of time he was the best player agaist San Antonio and finished with 14 points, not to mention impressive blocks of both Duncan (on a dunk) and Parker (on an apparently open layup).  Now it appears he will be starting this coming week, a move I strongly support.  I would even go as far as saying that benching him is the biggest mistake coach McMillan has made thus far in Portland.

2. Aldridge's agressiveness:

While again his stat line doesn't pop out (15.7 ppg, 5 rpg), he has finally been getting down low and had a major game against Tim Duncan (23 points including the eventual game winner) and held his own against Amare Stoudamire.  Think about the guys he's been defending and have been defending him: Pau Gasol, Tim Duncan, and Amare Stoudamire.  That's a tough trio of guys to open the season.  But Aldridge has finally stopped settling for perimeter shots and has been getting down low for easier baskets.  Once the competition becomes less murderous, he should see a significant increase in stats.

3. Brandon Roy:

I could probably put him on this list every week for the rest of the season.  After a dismal first half against the Lakers he's been shooting 52%, and he posted 26 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals against San Antonio and Bruce Bowen, then went for 20 and 5 the following night against the Suns.  For this reason he earns my illustrious initial MVP of the Week for the Portland Trail Blazers, and I would expect many more to come his way.  Bottom line- he's the leader of this team and he showed it this past week.

4. Ball control/Hustle:

Largely keyed by the efforts of the bench, especially Batum, the Blazers forced 14 turnovers against the Spurs and another 11 against the Suns with an overall +9 turnover differential.  In both games they dove for loose balls, got their long arms (Portland has a very big team) in passing lanes, and fought hard for open rebounds.  They also avoided the dumb passes that were characteristic of the team a year ago (thank you Jarret Jack).  It certainly was the difference between winning and losing against San Antonio, and kept the Phoenix game from being a blowout.  It also makes for a fun game to watch.

5. The Bench:

Rudy Fernandez went off for 20 against Phoenix (the team that sold him to Portland), Batum had his strong game against San Antonio, and overall Portland's reserves outscored their opponents 66-43, including a 28-8 run against Phoenix.  This unit will only become better at scoring when Batum joins the starting lineup and Outlaw takes to the bench, and then a few games later when Oden returns and Pyrzbilla (9 rpg) returns to the second unit. I will in fact be bold enough to say that the Blazers' greatest strength right now is their bench play.

Five Things I Didn't Like:

1. Rotation on defense:

By my own count, the Spurs trio of Ime Udoka, Roger Mason, and Michael Finley had a combined nine wide open three attempts, of which they hit six.  Many of these were right after Portland hit a big bucket, and ALL of them came after a Parker penetration or a Duncan post-up.  Again in what I saw of the Phoenix game (more on that later), the duo of Raja Bell and Matt Barnes had three wide open threes (I saw about 20 minutes of game time) and hit two of them.  These were after Nash penetrations or Shaq/Stoudamire post-ups.  When doubles came, both teams made two passes- one to the top of the key and the second to the elbow or corner- and the shooter was open.  This has to be fixed: the Spurs and Suns shot a combined 15-33 from behind the arch.

2.  The Rose Garden fans:

Yes, it was loud and encouraging, but do they really have to chant "Rudy" every time the guy does anything?  The part that truly upset me and my buddy Derrin the most was when Fernandez was at the line shooting two very important free throws with the Blazers up one and about 2:30 left.  Normally...no, always the home team shuts up and lets the home player shoot in silence. Not this time- rabid and stupid chants of "Rudy" never let up during the first free throw, even after he released it, and it hit off the front rim (Rudy shot over 90% from the line in international play).  San Antonio then hit a three on the next possession and took its first and only second half lead.  It's okay to support your players, Blazer fans, but SHUT UP WHEN THEY ARE ON THE LINE IN A CLOSE GAME!!!!!!!

3.  Last possessions:

This may sound dumb right now because it's working, but of the four times Portland had the ball in the last 20 seconds of a quarter, they went high iso and spread the floor, then held the ball for 15 seconds.  It sound dumb right now because Roy hit 3 of 3 shots in the waning seconds for a total of 8 points, but the most important one against the Spurs came in the fourth quarter and when Outlaw's akward layup missed the Spurs almost won on the other end.  It bothers me when teams don't run play at the end of quarters, even when a talented swingman has the ball.  Run your offense!  There's no way Roy can keep hitting long buzzer beaters...I think.

4. Interior defense:

As much a a disappointment as Oden has been thus far, I expect him to remedy this problem.  Against the Spurs Pyrzbilla got in early foul trouble and then Duncan had his way with Frye, though Aldridge did okay on him.  In the next game the duo of Shaq and Stoudamire simply punished the Blazer bigs and that was more of a deciding factor than anything else.  Problem is, doubling leads to the first thing I don't like (open threes).  Again, I expect Oden to be a major help in this department, but until then it's going to be rough inside and Aldridge and Frye are going to need to wear their big boy pants.

5. Roger Mason-

Where the Hell did this guy come from?  I'd never even heard of him and he almost beat the Blazers.  I expect Duncan to post 27 and 10, I'm not surprised when Parker goes off fro 22 and 12.  Nothing shocks me when Shaq hits 16 and 8 and Stoudamire does 23 and 13.  But Mason hitting 6-7 from the field an 2-2 from three for 14 points with four assists?  And every shot killed a Portland run and set us all back down in our seats.  He very, very nearly won it for the Spurs at the end.  I can handle losing because of stars, but losing because of the fourth guy off the bench kills me.

Also of Note:

As previously mentioned, the Blazers played the Suns the day after the Spurs.  I found myself in the Rose Garden that evening for the Metallica concert (amazing show, by the way).  I sat in the 200 level luxery seating, and under each seat was a built in set of binoculars.  Being the people-watcher I am, I began scanning the crowd when my eyes fell on a TV in a luxery box about 250 feet away.  On it was the Blazers-Suns game.  And this is how diehard Portland fans are- within about two minutes my entire section figured out what I was looking at and were watching the game through their binoculars too.  We caught all of the second quarter and about half of the third before the show started, watching every play on a 50" plasma through binoculars from 75 yards away. It must have been disturbing for whoever was in that luxery box, having roughly 50 people staring at them through binoculars.  If by chance you were one of them, we were just watching the game, not spying on you.

Token non-Blazer Political Thought:

As I'm sure you all know, this was a monumental evening.  We have finally elected a black man to lead our country.  I firmly believe that either candidate would have been a good choice, though I did vote for Obama.  It's important to note that Obama will have some serious difficulty in his first couple years while he attempts to clean up the mess Bush leaves behind.  No president in our history could fix this in any small amount of time- not Lincoln, not FDR, not Kennedy.  I urge the American People to be patient with this term of presidency.  There will be things that happen that you won't agree with, and there will still be plenty of problems with our economy, our overseas relations, and our environment no matter what Obama does.  I would say the same thing if Senator McCain was elected: be patient.  Change is coming and the country will be better, but it won't be an immediate thing.  And that is my extent of imput on politics for the year.  I leave it to the "pros" now.

Token non-Blazer non-Political Thought:

Remember when the "yeah, but he still wins" excuse worked for Vince Young last year and the year before?  I mean, his numbers were mediocre at best, atrocious at worst and still the Titans went 8-5 in 2006 with him at the helm and made the playoffs last year.  So it seemes Young was one of those "just win baby" type of guys.  Now it seems that isn't the case.  With Kerry "I Once was a Super Bowl QB" Collins leading the way, the Titans are a surprising 8-0 with many wins over quality opponents.

My theory now is that while they were winning under Young, they still could have done better without him.  All those interceptions and fumbles and inaccurate passes actually DID add up to something, and now with essentially the same team as last year they've nearly reached last year's win total already.  The biggest difference?  Young is riding the pine.  It seems that even though they won with him at QB, parhaps they are actually a really good team and he was holding them back.

The Week Ahead:

After a very tough opening three games, things ease up a tiny bit for Portland.  The first game comes tomorrow in Utah, though the Jazz are probably without Deron Williams.  After than comes two home games on Thursday and Saturday against the Rockets (probably their biggest challenge of the week) and the Timberwolves, respectively.  Finally on Monday the Blazers travel to Orlando for the much vaunted matchup between Dwight Howard and...Joel Pyrzbilla?  I expect Portland to beat the Wolves and the Jazz if Williams doesn't play, but the Rockets and Orlando will give them major fits inside and I don't see them winning either of those games.  Oden is due back in about two weeks now, so it's all about survival until then. 

Parting Thought:

I'm seeing a bit of a pattern in Portland's games, largely due to the strength of their bench.  In each of the last two games they have come out slow, built momentum and grabbed a lead in the second quarter, and then blew it later in the game.  They held on to win one game, and couldn't in the other.  This makes sense because, for all of Portland's talents, their starters don't match up well with the starters of the better teams in the West.  Take the Phoenix game: Portland's best starters are Roy, Aldridge, and presumptively Oden (say he gives 13 and 9 when healthy, conservatively).  Roy isn't as good as Nash, Aldridge isn't as good as Stoudamire, and Oden isn't as good as Shaq.

However, Portland's bench runs deeper and is more talented than just about any in the league.  This is why you will see Portland lose a lot of first and fourth quarters (outscored by a margin of 107-90 in the past two games) and win a lot of second and third quarters (beat opponents 106-99 despite Amare's 3rd quarter eruption on Saturday).  What this means is when Portland plays the better teams in the NBA they will A)play a lot of close games and B)blow a lot of leads.  This makes for entertaining basketball for the average fan and highly frustrating basketball for me.