Before tonight's game it was reported that Greg Oden would be reinserted into the starting lineup.  Was this the right time to make this move?  Pryzbilla has been playing great of late in the starting lineup, while Oden has been playing well off the bench.  I had my reservations as to how this move would pan out and if it was the right time to do it.  I mean we all know Oden is the more gifted player and that eventually we want Oden in the starting lineup, it just didn't seem like now was the right time.  So far....McMillian was right.  Pryzbilla continued to play well off the bench today recording another double double.  Oden played just 20 minutes and scored only 3 points.  That doesnt sound too good, but what he did do was grab 6 rebounds in those 20 minutes.  They both played about the same as they did in the reverse roles.  The Blazers as a team played sloppy but they pulled out the win, and that is what matters. 

Here is a couple of notes from the game.  Steve Blake finally cooled off from beyond the arc going 0-4 in the game, after making 10 3-pointers in his previous 2 games.  Fernandez went 1-3 from beyond the arc today going a combined 2-11 in his last two games, his shooting seems to be cooling down.  Aldridge pulled down 10 boards, this marked the 3rd time this season he has done so and first time in 8 games.  Oden grabbed 6 rebounds in less than 20 minutes, and continues to look like a double digit rebounder in 30+ minutes.  Brandon Roy can take over games when the team needs it.  Why he didn't even touch the ball on the Blazers' last offensive possession, boggles my mind.  I like Travis Outlaw as much as the next guy, but Brandon Roy is our guy, let's get him the ball when it counts.

Webster possibly returning soon
I heard on he radio today that Martell Webster will be rejoining the team pretty soon.  Where does Webster fit in with this team now?  What do the Blazers do?  Well, they already have a 10-man rotation going right now.  Here is my idea:  You've got to work Webster back slowly, do not throw him into things too early, with this roster we can afford to bring him along slowly.  Eventually i think he may need to be reinsterted into the starting lineup, as I feel like his outside shooting will need to be paired up with Greg Oden.  Webster improved his defense last year and if he can continue to improve this year, dropping Batum from the starting lineup shouldnt hurt too much.  Eventually I think the Blazers have to trade Travis Outlaw.  Batum has shown that he is going to be an Outlaw-like player, so Outlaw is the natural player to deal here.  I say, at the deadline if the Dallas Mavericks are still on the outside of the playoffs looking in, the Blazers offer up Raef LaFrentz and Travis Outlaw for Jason Kidd.  My absolute dream though would be for the Blazers to sit still with this team, find a way to get everybody the minutes to keep them happy (cut Frye's minutes and let Outlaw play the PF spot), but odds are that doesn't happen.  Either way, I trust Pritchard, we'll just have to sit back and watch a master at work.

This will be a quick entry since im waiting for the game to start in a few minutes.  We are currently 2-0 on our road trip and this would make an awesome start to the road trip if we could pull this one out.  I will make a few "keys" to the game and a few predictons here and will try and have a follow up after the game.

Keys to the game:
-They need to control David West.  Paul is going to get his, but we've got to try and contain West.  If we can keep him under 20 points i think it will keep us in it.
-Pick up our perimeter defense.  Try and keep Peja, Posey, Peterson from dominating the scoring.
-Cause turnovers and score in transition.  With Chandler in the middle it might not be as safe a bet to get to the rim.  Get out and run.

Predictions:

Hornets:
Paul: 24 pts, 11 ast, 3 rebs, 3 stl
West:  17 pts, 8 rebs
Chandler:  8 pts, 12 rebs, 4 blks

Blazers:
Roy: 22 pts, 4 rebs, 6 ast, 1 stl
Rudy:  18 pts, 2 rebs, 3 ast, 2stl
Aldridge: 17 pts, 9 rebs, 2 blk
Outlaw:  12 pts, 3 rebs, 3 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk
Oden:  8 pts, 4 rebs, 2 blk

Final score - 102-108 Blazers on top

So far on the season we are 4-3, and basically playing without 2 of our starters for the whole season.  Today we are going to be playing the second game of our 5 game road streak.  We won the first game against Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic.  After watching the first half of the game on TV, It appeared to me that we were likely to lose the game.  However, the team pulled it together down the stretch and came away with the win.  A review of this game is not what im writing this entry about, there are some major issues surrounding my Blazers right now that I want to cover.

First of all I'll cover the issues surrounding tonight's game.  Brandon Roy left the game in Orlando with less than minute after landing on what he described as his heal and feeling pain in his back.  He reportedly couldn't stand up straight after the game.  Doesn't sound like he'll play in the next game right?  Well, according to ESPN Roy is supposed to start the game today.  How effective will he be?  Who knows, but having Roy is better than not having him.  People say he doesn't play with much emotion because of his lack of facial expressions, but you can't look at this situation and tell me that this guy doesn't have passion for the game.  Two days ago he couldn't stand up striaight, he has done nothing but rest his back and he is going to play.  That is sick.

Greg Oden practiced on Tuesday and was reportedly very healthy looking, and reported no ill effects of the practice on his foot.  Since there is apparantly no swelling or soreness resulting from the practice the Blazers have said that Oden will play in tonight's game, he will come off the bench.  I just got done watching Around the Horn where they said Oden needs to come out and play harder.  I don't think they watched his debut at all.  From where I was sitting, Oden played too hard, and tried too hard to do everything.  Oden needs to play a bit slower to start off here.  I don't want him to play slow and too tentitively, I want him to try hard, but he needs to let the game come to him right now.  Play a few games on his foot and make sure he is ok.  Don't go after every block, that is the key.  Because even if he is going to play limited minutes, we don't want him to not play because of fouls.  My Prediction for Oden tonight: 17 minutes, 8 pts, 5 rebs, 2 blks, 3 turnovers

One rumor circulating around the NBA is Sergio Rodriguez demanding a trade.  This is a big misunderstanding.  Sergio said he wants to play more.  Who doesn't want to play more?  Sergio is going to see his minutes rise in my opinion as things go along in the season as I feel that Sergio's ability to distribute will win over some minutes from Steve Blake.  Either way, Sergio will not get traded.  Reason being that there is nothing the Blazers could get via trade that would make it worth it.  The only thing the blazers really need right now is a veteran distributing PG, and there is nobody like that available for a guy like Rodriguez.

Now I'm going to make a prediction for tonight's game against the Heat.
Heat:
Wade: 31 pts, 6 ast, 5 rebs, 2 stl
Beasley: 17 pts, 8 rebs, 1 blk
Marion (if he plays): 14 pts, 8 rebs, 4 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk

Blazers:
Roy: 16 pts, 7 ast, 3 rebs, 1 stl
Oden:  8 pts, 5 rebs, 2 blks
Aldridge: 21 pts, 6 rebs, 2 blk
Outlaw:  12 pts, 5 rebs, 2 ast, 1 stl
Rudy:  17 pts, 5 rebs, 2 ast

Final Score:  92-98 Portland on top.

Well I decided agaist making up all the games that I have not written about because I'm simply too excited about tonight's game against the Houston Rockets.  I'll start with this...we won the game, but it wasn't as pretty as I would've liked.  In yesterday's game against the Utah, the Blazers had the same problems they've had so far this year.  Roy struggles from the field and Aldridge's soft play inside leaves much to be desired.  We had a lead going into the 4th quarter and our lack of having a quality point guard came back to haunt us in the end.

In today's game we caught a glimpse of why people picked the Blazers as a potential playoff team this year out west.  Although Brandon Roy struggled from the field again today he showed up when it really mattered, the 4th quarter and OT.  Aldridge played a bit more physical today, especially on the glass pulling down 9 boards and blocking 3 shots.  Travis Outlaw and Rudy Fernandez are easily the most exciting and impressive tandem off the bench across the league.  These guys both end up playing near starter minutes and both are capable of filling up the box score and do so fairly consistantly.  Outlaw finishes with 14 points, 13 boards a steal and a pair of blocks.  Rudy spread the floor sinking 3 three pointers on his way to 15 points.  For those of you that missed it, ill give you a recap of the last 10 seconds of the game.   Roy brought the ball up the court in a hurry after grabbing a rebound.  He runs the to the right elbow of the arc, tries to make a move to get the basket baseline and gets stopped, turns around and throws up a fade away jumper and nails it.  They are now up 2.  Rockets call a time out with 1.9 seconds left, after the ball is advanced to midcourt they inbound the ball to Yao who turns and fires his own fade away jumper getting fouled by Roy trying to strip him, the ball goes in and Yao is headed to the line for one.  He sinks that shot nd with 0.8 seconds left the Blazers call a time out to advance the ball, down by 1.  Brandon Roy catches the ball and shoots a 30-foot jump shot.......SWISH!!!!!!!!!  Blazers win and B.Roy sinks it when it counts.

Enough recap.  There is something on my mind that I want to get out there.  The Blazers have a major problem: They need a good veteran point guard, that can penetrate and get to the basket.  Here is what we have, Steve Blake, Sergio Rodriguez and Brandon Roy.  Blake is a very fine role playing PG.  He spreads the floor with his range, plays quality defense and takes care of the ball.  Sergio runs an exciting up tempo brand of basketbal and finds a way to thread the needle at times in a slow down offense.  Roy takes over the point guard role in the 4th quarter (even if Blake is on the court).  He has shown he is a great ball handler in this situation, but as he showed today he is not the answer for us.  He has the ability to get to the rim, however he has a score first mentality.  This caused problems for the Blazers down the stretch.  At times he is out of control, doesn't seem to have full control of his body at times while he is trying to do his thing and make plays.  Obviously down the stretch you want the ball in the hands of your best player, however we need a guy who can get to the rack and dish the ball. What happens late in the game is that the entire team on the court sits back and watches Brandon do his thing, they might set a pick, but offensively they pretty much stand there and get out of his way.  I would rather see the ball in the hands of a distributor at times and work Roy off some screens and get him some easier shots, while also getting guys like Aldridge and Outlaw in the game.  How about a penetratin and kick out to Rudy for a 3?  The Blazers truely are limited right now in clutch situations.  They have other options, but no means to get them involved.  The team has plenty of talent, and expiring contracts.  I know they want to keep the cap space cleared for the 2010 free agent super class, but i think at the deadline they have got to consider going out and trying to use Reaf LaFrentz's contract t bring in this type of PG.

All in all this was an amazing game and one that shows the Blazers are for real.  They have probably the hardest schedule in the NBA so far this seasn and have been able to pull a few upsets over two NBA championship contenders in the Spurs and Rockets.  However they also lost to other contenders in the Suns and Jazz.  This is still going to be an up and down season, but they are showing that they are a team that should not be taken lightly.

This will be the first of many blog entries concerning my home town Portland Trail Blazers.  In this entry I wil discuss the beginning of this current NBA season, along with some predictions for the future.  I am a very realistic person, I am optomistic about my Blazers, but I tell it like it is.

Game 1: @ Los Angeles Lakes:
What did you all expect?  I know many people around these parts expected the Blazers to come out and suprise the world with an opening day win over the Western Conference Champs.  Not me.  I expected them to compete, show that we deserved some of the preseason hype, and compete with the West's best team from a year ago.  My thoughts were that since the preseason was such an injury riddled one for the Blazers, that they would not be ready to click on all cylinders and knock off such a highly reguarded team.  Oden, Aldridge, Roy, Blake and Webster all missed time in the preseason, that is our entire starting lineup.  As we knew before this game Webster was not going to play, but rookie Nicolas Batum had a terrific preseason showing and looked as though the pairing of him and Travis Outlaw would at least come close to what Webster and Outlaw would have provided.  We also caught a glimpse of Batum's defensive abilities and got excited. 

What did we get?  A poor showing from our "big three".  Roy and Aldridge struggled from the field all game, and Oden got hurt early and didnt play much.  Aldridge confirmed some of the concerns skeptical fans had, he showed that he was a "soft" big man, settling for jump shots and basically avoiding contact on the offensive side of the ball.  Brandon appeared not to care about the situation, however if you have watched him in the past you know that his laid back facial expression is the same no matter what happens in the game.  Simply put, he was going against the best SG in the game offensively and arguably defensively and didn't have a good game.  You might look at Oden's numbers and say that the reason they looked so poor was because of his injury, however watching the game I noticed he looked well over matched.  He didn't look like he was in game shape and looked as if he was trying to do everything himself.  There were a few bright spots that dd come out of this game though, starting with Rudy Fernandez.  His game is clearly ready for the NBA proving that the Olypic games were not a fluke.  This guy was well on his way to showing that he is deserving of 30 minutes a game.  In what appeared to be a slightly before game time decision Coach Nate McMillan decided to start Travis Outlaw over Batum.  It was a suprising move that ended up working out as Outlaw led the blazers in scoring with 18 and seemed to be one of just two bright spots on offense.  Batum ended up getting 3+ minutes of mop up time in going from what appeared to be a starter to a player burried on the bench.  We ended up losing the game by a wide margin but learned a few things about ourselves, we are not the best team in the world and Oden wasn't going to make that happen just yet.

Game 2: vs San Antonio Spurs
Right about now we are looking at the NBA schedule makers and cursing them for putting us up against the best big men across the league in so many consecutive games.  Well, hey, can you blame them?  Didn't we all want to see what Greg Oden could do up against Bynum, Duncan, Shaq, etc?  Problem is, Oden went down in game one, leaving us with a big hole and a bad schedule.  This game had a great outcome as the Blazers outlasted the Spurs with a one point victory.  This game not only provided the first win of the season, it gave us hope.  We defeated a team who many professionals believe to have a dynasty over the last decade in the NBA.  We also got to see the All-Star Brandon Roy.  The guy who fills the box score, and shows he has the ability to be mentioned among the league's best players.  In this game he scored 26, grabbed 5 rebounds, dished out 7 assists and snatched 3 steals.  That is clearly what we wanted to see.  LaMarcus Aldridge poured in 23, in an outing that saw him take the ball to the hole with authority more frequently.  The truly exciting thing we got out of this game was the arrival of Batum.  He was all over the court causing havoc.  Although he only finished with 1 rebound and 1assist, he also scored 12 points including knocking down one 3 pointer, and totalled one steal and two blocks.  Pryzbilla was in foul trouble most of the game and Channing Frye is softer than a marshmellow.  Batum's legnth allowed McMillan to use him in a smaller lineup as a power forward, and he flourished.  Showing NBA fans that #1 Kevin Pritchard pulled off another great trade accumulating Batum, and #2 McMillan was not crazy for considering Batum for the starting spot even at age 19.  All in all the youth of the Blazers still reared it's ugly head down the stretch as the Spurs had a great look at a jump shot from Michael Finley to win the game, lucky for us the ball bounced off the rim and we got the victory.  This was a jump shot that Finley likely makes at least 7 or 10 times, so we come away from his one with our heads held high as we pull off the win, but we are not cocky cause this one could have bounced the other direction.

Comments about the Suns game will be posted later today.