Pregame Thoughts:
- The Blazers need a win tonight. Granted, Tuesday’s win over the lowly Kings snapped our mini-slump, but a victory over a Western conference rival and playoff contender would be huge for our confidence
- The newest addition to the ever-rotating Phoenix Suns fantasy squad is Jason Richardson. In two games with J-Rich, the Suns are 2-0 and look to be back to their high-scoring ways of the past. I’m looking at you, Batum, lock him down.
- Gameplan: Bash Terry Porter over the head and spread some hallucinogenic salve onto his wound like Locke does to Boone in “Lost.” Then leave him in the locker room with a Blazers’ jersey and a pair of short shorts. A Roy-Porter backcourt? Yes, please.
- The announcers make a point to mention again and again that the Suns have won the last 11 in a row against Portland. Last win, March 2006? Ouch. Let’s reverse the trend.
Without further ado, let’s rumble!
First Quarter:
11:40 – Aldridge hits a jumper to open the game. Does he start strong or what?
10:30 – Interesting big man series from the tip. First, Greg swats Amar’e HARD as he tries to go to the basket. Unfortunately, Shaq gets the board and takes it strong to Oden, dunking on his head and the foul. Is this trouble? No, as next time down the floor Blake penetrates nicely and dishes to Oden for the big two-handed slam.
The Suns throw it right back into Shaq, but Greg provides nice pressure and forces the travel. On the other end, the Blazers run the SAME EXACT PLAY, forcing Shaq to switch and leaving Oden all alone for the easy flush.
9:52 – Following a Richardson three, Oden gets deep position and flips in a baby hook over the Diesel. Glimpses of the future, folks.
The best part of this exchange was after Greg scored: He turned around and pumped his fist and flashed a smile. I can’t get enough.
7:33 – Great ball movement by Phoenix leads to an open Shaq under the basket. We’re doing a passable job at closing out on shooters thus far, but if they can spread the floor like that Shaquille will go off. This concerns me.
Also, Oden has picked up two quick fouls, as he seems to do against Shaq. Man, I hope he doesn’t get another, we won’t have a center…oh wait, I see a gigantic Vanilla Gorilla on the bench. Does he get to play?
6:25 – Roy drains a dirty 20-footer to cut it to 16-13, Suns.
Sidenote: WOW, the crowd is loud tonight. A couple questionable fouls early has the fans completely engaged. Punish those refs.
5:55 – Aldridge gets his hands up again and forces a turnover. I love this new side to his game. That’s two consecutive games with a steal, he’s going for the record!
4:18 – Brandon and Przybilla run the pick and roll beautifully, confuse the defenders, and Roy throws a sweet chest pass to Pryz under the basket for a slam.
Sidenote: Kevin Nealon is hosting “The Funniest Commercials of the Year” next week. Two things:
1) Why do they keep making these? They are God-awful. Who thinks to themselves: “Oh boy, let’s watch a show of commercials with commercial breaks mixed in!” I guess you could just record it and then fast-forward through the whole thing…
2) Is Kevin Nealon really so desperate? Does he know that prostitution is an option? It would probably be less demeaning.
3:08 – Aldridge comes flying in like a madman from the three point line to slam one down off the miss by Outlaw. LaMarcus is becoming a serious energy/hustle player to go with his sweet stroke. We need that tenacity and toughness.
2:35 – Amar’e does his best…Amar’e impression with a nasty throwdown over Joel. No one is stopping that.
0:47 – LMA drops in a hook and then nails a 15-foot jumper. He has 10 first quarter points to Amar’e’s 2.
0:09 – Roy isolates at the top of the key, switches to the left hand and hits the lay up, with the foul!! Then he hits the free throw. Then he delivers food to hungry children. Then he nurses a baby bird back to health. Then he throws the One Ring into the fires of Mt. Doom. Yes, he’s that good.
Second Quarter:
- At the end of the first, the Blazers lead 31-28. Both teams are shooting well and not playing much defense, but I guess that is to be expected.
10:26 – It appears Channing Frye has shrunk 3 inches and gained 40 pounds since Tuesday…wait, no, that’s Ike Diogu! Mike Fratello says that Nate told him before the game that Diogu was going to get minutes over Frye. I give this decision 4.5 Fryes with Frye sauce.
Anyway, Ike makes an instant impact by pretending like he’s capable of dunking from the free throw line. Nice play though, drawing the foul.
9:55 – A lazy Rudy pass gets picked off by Barbosa and he easily finishes in transition. To Rudy: Calm down, have a Marlboro Red, get in your groove.
9:00 – After Rudy dives to save a ball, Diogu misses a lay up under the basket. The Ike-man giveth, the Ike-man taketh away.
Sidenote: TNT has Aldridge “Mic’ed Up” for the first quarter. One of the clips shows LMA closing out on a Nash three pointer and yelling “AAARGH!!” as Nash shoots the ball. Do NBA players really do this? I mean, I do, but I need every advantage I can get.
7:20 – Rudy sneaks around for a nice steal, but can’t connect with Roy on the alley-oop attempt. I like it, just because it would have been so incredibly cool if it had worked.
6:25 – Matt Barnes comes in and hits back-to-back threes with Ike Diogu running full speed at him. He should try yelling “AAARGH!!” The Suns are suddenly up 10 and lighting up from behind the arc. Our second unit needs to step up and match the Suns’ intensity or else this lead is going to swell even more before halftime.
5:33 – Brandon cans a jumper from 19 feet. He’s quietly got 15 first half points. In the last week, he’s truly been asserting himself as the scorer we know he can be. I don’t know if it’s his confidence or struggling bench play or a pair of magic shoes he was given by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but I like it.
4:39 – Angry Greg with a gigantic block on Barbosa, but then a dumb foul on Barnes when he drives to the hoop. You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry…
3:08 – Blake hits a three, capping off his run of 10 straight Blazer points. He is so dangerous when he’s feeling it.
1:05 – Great ball movement around leads to a wide open Rudy three pointer. He’s been quiet, but if you’re like me you think that every time he shoots a three it’s going in.
0:06 – Brandon isolates and gets to the line again. He can seriously do this at will. He hits both and now has 21 for the quarter! Holy crap, why are the announcers not noticing this? It’s all about the Shaqtus, I suppose.
0:02 – Speaking of the Shaqtus, the Blazers play terrible transition D on the inbounds play and Shaq gets an easy lay up and the foul. Why even pressure the ball in this situation? Argh.
Halftime: 66-59 Suns lead.
- Charles Barkley refuses to acknowledge the Christmas music and theme of the show, saying only “Christmas is next week.” He’s got my vote for governor of Alabama, right there.
- The Blazers are getting beat in almost every statistical category, including field goal percentage, rebounds, assists, fast break points, three pointers, number of tattoos, and number of aging superstars. Category we aren’t losing in? Number of extinct creatures, beasts, and extraterrestrials. Frankly, we’re pretty lucky to be down only 7.
Third Quarter:
11:25 – There’s a battle brewing between LaMarcus and Amar’e. Stoudemire nails a long two and Aldridge answers with a back-to-the-basket baby hook. Score update: random capitalizations: 1, random apostrophes: 1.
9:55 – There’s those active hands of LMA again, which leads to a sweet hook deep in the post.
8:10 – Blake hits another three, he’s got 17 for the game! He’s out-Nashing Nash right now, and I love it.
6:50 – Jason Richardson hits another three pointer, putting the Suns up by 9. We are right in this, but with the game at this speed it takes only a few bad breaks to blow this game open. We’re treading water right now.
Sidenote: I’m usually not one to pick on officials, but this game has been very poorly officiated thus far. Oden just got called for a supposed “push” on Shaq. This must be similar to the “boost” that Sarah Palin gave the McCain campaign. Boos rain down on the court: Blazer fans rock.
5:03 – Roy drains a three to keep us alive, 85-77. Still, the announcers fail to take note of the fact that he has 28 points. Through two and a half quarters. Keep ‘em coming.
3:29 – Roy scores on a driving lay up, and the foul on Nash. The man just scored 15 straight Blazer points. He now has 36 points. Hey Nash, TELL ME HOW MY ASS TASTES!
2:23 – Travis drives to the hoop and flips it in beautifully with the right hand. I get a big smile on my face every time he takes it to the hoop. Travis: You are freakishly athletic. Your body was meant to drive to the cup. DO IT MORE.
Sidenote: The Hyundai commercial voice-over says “Ah, if only the holidays could last a little longer.” Yeah, then we could listen to holiday music longer, have to deal with holiday commercials longer, and waste that much more time and money on gifts that we don’t know if people want! Great!
0:00 – Great energy from Trout off the bench. He hit three jumpers and he just tipped in a score off a (rare) Brandon miss at the buzzer.
Fourth Quarter:
Disclaimer: I was trying and struggling to take notes in the second half, but by the fourth quarter I mostly ended up either jumping around like an idiot in celebration or punching my couch in frustration so hard I got rug burn on my hand. My apologies in advance.
11:30 – The Rose Garden crowd just registered for its zebra hunting license. Rudy just intentionally fouled Amar’e in the key, after which he took two steps and laid the ball in. The refs called continuation, giving Stoudemire the bucket and the foul. Ridiculous.
10:05 – Blake gets a steal and kicks it up court to Roy, who gets fouled going to the hole. Two free throws later he’s got 40 points, a new career-high, and MVP chants raining down from the stands.
7:30 – Barnes hits a three to tie it at 106. We are witnessing an incredibly competitive game, folks.
5:18 – Oh. My. God. Brandon rocks Barnes to sleep at the top of the arc and buries a three in his eye. Matt Barnes shakes hands with Roy, takes off his jersey, unlaces his shoes, and walks into the locker room.
OK, not really, but he might as well have. 43 points for Brandon.
4:42 – Roy misses, but BIG GREG IS THERE! The offensive rebound is swung out, comes to Travis who takes it to the hole for the chance for a three point play. We are simply out-hustling the Suns right now.
3:32 – 45 points. Gadzooks!
3:12 – 47 points.
2:57 – Barnes hits a huge three to put the Suns back on top by 1. I have an idea: let’s not leave him wide open in the corner. Got a job for me, KP?
1:00 – 50 points.
0:09 – FIFTY. TWO. POINTS.
0:05 – Reggie Miller tells us “If you can get a turnover, you can get the ball back.” I don’t know about that, but he used to play so I will trust him.
0:00 – FIFTY. TWO. POINTS.
Post-Game Observations:
- Brandon Roy was simply unstoppable tonight. The Suns tried Barnes, Richardson, Barbosa, it didn’t matter. I’ve been watching the Blazers for pretty much my entire life. I have never seen an individual performance like the one we witnessed in this game. I am in awe. I always knew Brandon was going to be a great player in this league, but I didn’t realize until tonight what he is truly capable of. Woweee, wow, wow, wow.
- Brandon’s game aside, a few key Trail Blazers had huge games which made all the difference for us tonight: Greg Oden (in limited minutes) had two game-changing offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter. Travis Outlaw also had some key rebounds, but more importantly had 14 points, 12 of them in a 5 minutes span. Aldridge played gutsy defense and made some big buckets, none more important than an 18-foot bank shot with the shot clock running out late in the 4th. Steve Blake had 22 points and 10 assists on 8-15 shooting. You guys rock.
- FIFTY. TWO. POINTS.
- Small issue: We need to work on our inbounds plays late in games. This is the second time recently when, late in the game, we failed to get the ball inbounds and had to call a timeout. It worked out this time, but against the Magic, not so much.
- FIFTY. TWO. POINTS.
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