Dwight Jaynes

I felt that that Portland home loss to the Lakers Saturday night — after nine straight wins here over the defending champs — seemed to really send some Trail Blazer fans over the edge. Now I realize for a lot of Blazer fans a Laker loss is traumatic, but be reasonable.

That streak had to end, whether Kobe Bryant played or not. The problem right now is that Los Angeles is the one team in the league that is just flat-out too big for the Blazers right now. With those centers on the injured list, Portland doesn’t have enough inside. And with Bryant out of the lineup, you had to know that the Lakers would come out with the express purpose of pounding the ball inside.

Which they did. Constantly.

And there’s too much length in there for Portland to handle. Way too much. As long as the Blazers shot the ball around 60 percent, they could stay in the game but the minute their shooting fell off, so did they. And when you get virtually no offensive rebounds, few fastbreak points, get pounded in the paint — you can’t possibly win.

One thing happened near the end of that game, when the Lakers’ Lamar Odom tried to dunk in the waning seconds. Blazer General Manager Kevin Pritchard, according to Kerry Eggers, got into a bit of a tiff with Odom about it, apparently thinking he was showing the Blazers up.

I had no problem with it. I never worry about the other team — just worry about your own team. I mean, you might try guarding him. For me, the worst thing in the waning moments of Trail Blazers losses lately has been Jerryd Bayless’s relentless pursuit of his own points.

You’ve seen it. Both teams are just playing the game out and that’s when he lowers his head, quits looking for teammates and just tries to steamroll to the basket to get his own points. No thought of looking for a teammate — just a seemingly selfish dash to grab cheap points.

It comes off a little cheesy.

AND ANOTHER THING I JUST THOUGHT OF:

There is one other thing the Trail Blazers do home game after home game that is not classy. Look, it’s fine to allow fans to bring and display signs in your arena that make fun of the visiting team. But to show them on the big screen is, in a way, sanctioning them. The one they showed Saturday on the screen comparing Pau Gasol to the Geico caveman was in poor taste for a franchise, if you ask me. And this sort of thing happens time after time.

It’s cheap and kind of embarrassing that a franchise would sanction signs that feature personal attacks on visiting players. It’s really not “making anything better.”

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Kevin Pritchard, Lamar Odom, Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers

Loved the Trail Blazer defense most of the game. They did a nice job stopping what the Spurs do best, ganged up nicely on Tim Duncan (who, by the way, isn’t moving a lot like Tim Duncan used to move) and after a slow start, held their own on the boards.

Loved the big play that resulted in Martell Webster’s open three-pointer that (should have) sealed the game. Andre Miller got great penetration, found Nic Batum in the corner, who didn’t hesitate in getting the ball to Webster, who had plenty of time to get his feet under him and settle into his three-pointer.

It was a smart play by smart players.

I didn’t like the misses at the foul line late. I expected more from Miller and LaMarcus Aldridge than that.

All in all, though, big game for the team to win against a Western Conference rival. A couple of other thoughts:

– The Spurs look so old and broken down. Their stars have so many miles on them.

– I think Batum is much more effective playing with Miller. His game is moving without the ball and Miller looks for him. I think, too, he’d fit better in a motion offense, rather than the standing-around stuff the Blazers do while watching pick-and-roll isolations.

– Huge game from Juwan Howard that was mostly overlooked by the media. He hasn’t made shots like that in a while.

– Brandon Roy needs to get back soon. I’m not sure how much longer the team is going to be able to hang on without him. Points are getting hard to come by.

– That may have been the Spurs’ A game last night. Not sure they have a whole lot left. They defend well at times, really well. But they can’t seem to do it consistently for the entire game. The energy just may not be there any more. Those guys have a lot of mileage on them from all those deep playoff runs.

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Tags: Andre Miller, Dwight Jaynes, LaMarcus Aldridge, Martell Webster, Nic Batum, Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs, Tim Duncan

It’s not as easy to explain as the Trail Blazers would like to make it seem — you know, just sort of dismissing these games by saying that Utah is the better team and that there’s really nothing they can do to stop the Jazz.

Yes, shooting 60 percent against you from the field three times in the same season is a rather amazing statistic. But just surrendering to the premise that the Jazz are better makes it a little too easy to duck the reasons for this happening. Look, the Trail Blazers have beaten some other teams that are better than they are this season — and have done so with regularity.

But when somebody absolutely annihilates you with their offense three straight times, perhaps it ought to prompt some deeper self analysis than simply dismissing it with an idea along the lines of “there’s nothing we can do.”

Given the Trail Blazers’ injuries, of course the Jazz are better. But that’s no excuse, in a league as competitive as the NBA, for Portland not giving a better showing than what we’ve seen in those three games.

My goodness, learn from what’s happening from game to game! If you absolutely can’t hustle enough to close out on three-point shooters any better than that, if you can’t defend the pick and roll any better than that, if you can’t understand their back-cuts any better than that, get into some other sort of defense sooner.

Changing zone defenses is one possibility. The zone worked a bit last night, although it’s obviously vulnerable over a long period. Why not offer up different sorts of zones, or a matchup? Obviously, defending the Jazz man-to-man is no option you want to stick with through an entire game.

You might also try to get back on defense a little better, too. Or simply commit your man-to-man defense into sinking into the paint — challenging the Jazz to knock down outside shots at the expense of getting inside. My goodness — 62 points in the paint in one game? Allow anything but that. I’d make them prove it from distance all night long rather than give up 62 points in the paint.

There are teams in the league who don’t shoot 60 percent from the field in a single game all season. To allow the same team to do it to you three times in the same season is almost bordering on insanity. There’s one more game left against Utah this season and it will be interesting to see what happens.

I cannot imagine another 60 percent shooting night. It can’t happen. Can it?

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Portland Trail Blazers, Utah Jazz

No.

I’m taking some heat from a few long-time friends that I’m not in the middle of the fight to keep PGE Park as a combination baseball/football/soccer venue. But really, it’s not worth fighting for.

It’s never been a ballpark. It’s been a stadium. And I’m just not going to settle for a stadium any longer. If we have to lose baseball yet another time, in order to get a real ballpark built, I’m all for it.

The University of Oregon, for $21 million, has built PK Park, a gem of a ballpark — a facility that may be the best ballpark anywhere between Seattle and San Francisco. And Portland, in like 100 years, can’t build a new ballpark? Ridiculous.

And I sit back and watch politicians criticize Randy Leonard and Sam Adams for what they’re doing with PGE Park, well — at least it’s SOMETHING. I mean, if you’re against the current plan for PGE Park, what exactly is your plan for professional sports in Portland? That’s what I thought — you really don’t care. You have no plan.

Am I big soccer fan? Obviously not. But for me, it is serving a purpose. It’s forcing this city to face up to its sports future. Will we ever build that ballpark, that gem, here? Maybe not. Probably not. At least not in my lifetime.

But at least we’re no longer fooling ourselves into thinking PGE Park is a real ballpark. It’s a stadium. And if you don’t know the difference, well, that’s maybe why we’re in the fix we’re in.

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Tags: PGE Park, PK Park, Portland Beavers, University of Oregon

It’s starting to drive me nuts. Heck, the guy was a starter last season as a rookie and opened training camp as the starting small forward. What’s up with not starting him now?

In fact, with Brandon Roy out of the lineup, it would seem imperative to get him out there as soon as possible for as many minutes as possible, right? If you want to keep Martell Webster’s minutes consistent, you can move Webster to the off-guard right now and play the two together — as was done for a while last night.

It’s crazy to wait on this thing. Batum has the most potential of ANY of the young Trail Blazers. The kid is downright Pippen-esqe — highly skilled and magnetic to watch at both ends of the floor. You can’t take your eyes off him.

In the last three games he has defended Aaron Brooks, Dirk Nowitzki and Stephen Jackson. And done it well. On offense he’s on fire, making outside shots and finishing around the basket as well as a Trail Blazer has done in years.

I’m bewildered why he was the third guy off the bench last night, much as I’m mystified why Coach Nate McMillan continues so often to use two point guards at the same time. Man, forget about how good the “second unit” is and worry about the starters — the guys who play the most minutes. Are we worried about hurting someone’s feelings or something?

Nic Batum needs to play as many minutes as his body can handle. For the growth of the franchise, he needs to grow because this kid has the potential to be the sidekick for Brandon Roy that LaMarcus Aldridge seems reluctant to become.

And get him on the floor with Andre Miller as often as possible, too. Miller looks for the kid, who is in constant motion, and finds him at just the right time. Batum has figured out that if he gets himself free, Miller will reward him and it can be a thing of beauty. He’s going to get lobs for dunks and open three-point shots from Miller — one more reason to get Batum into that starting lineup.

Man, it’s a no-brainer. Play him and play him a lot.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Nic Batum, Portland Trail Blazers

The best show yet, and with the likes of Paul Allen, Nate McMillan, Brandon Roy, Chip Kelly, Mike Riley, the state’s next governor Chris Dudley and Ndamukong Suh all in the house it was certainly the place to be Sunday night.

If you missed it, set an appointment to watch the show on Tuesday night at 8 o’clock on Comcast Sportsnet. The folks of who put this show together, Sports One, Nike and the Portland Tribune, are to be congratulated.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Nike, Oregon Sports Awards

Honestly, it was a rare opportunity. A last look at a place where I enjoyed many an enjoyable game throughout my life, from my time as a student at the University of Oregon (wow — the Ducks hold the ball on Lew Alcindor and almost beat the Bruins)… to Dick Harter’s Ronnie Lee teams… to covering the old Class AA state basketball tournament and players like Melvin “The Elevator” Lentz. So many fun times.

Rob Closs was kind enough to share one of his season tickets with me and also do all the driving. I couldn’t lose. Along the way we stopped for a tour of almost-finished PK Park (I mean, double wow — the city of Portland can’t get that done but the Ducks do, and in the Autzen parking lot. It’s going to be an incredible ballpark, folks.) And we cruised past the under-construction new arena, Pre’s Rock and a few other Eugene sights before watching the Ducks pull out an overtime win over UCLA.

Thanks to Rob, the night couldn’t have gone any better. A few observations from a memorable evening:

– I settled into my Mac Court seat and watched the arena filling up as players got ready. I couldn’t help but think, “Why?” Why do they have to leave this place? It’s been around long enough now it’s past the point of complaining about and become a piece of memorabilia. You know what I mean. An old baseball uniform can be pretty disgusting unless it happened to once be worn by Babe Ruth. This joint they call The Pit — man, it’s seen some great players, great games and memorable moments.

And beyond that, it’s just flat-out a great place to watch a game. All those balconies hanging over the court give you a feeling like an old opera house. Fans are right on top of the action. I cannot believe someone isn’t still building arenas like this. It’s unique. The only thing worse than leaving it is tearing it down. What a loss it will be — one of the great college sports venues ANYWHERE.

If you’ve never been there, or if it’s been a while, you really owe it to yourself to get down there before the season ends. Most of the games are NOT sold out, so really — don’t miss this chance to sample the atmosphere one final time.

– That said, I understand why this is happening. Times change and so does everything else if it wants to survive and prosper. And this campus is alive with new construction. For someone who hasn’t been there in a while, it was a real eye-opener. Man, the place where I spent two years goofing off in classes has really changed.

– I love the fact the Ducks are honoring players and coaches from opposing teams as well as the ones from their own school. Bill Walton was there Thursday night and was his usual hilarious self in a reception prior to the game. He’s a real beauty, a natural comedian with great timing and some wisdom, too. When I told him I was now doing radio in the mornings and had been around long enough my young cohorts were now calling me “The Godfather,” he looked at me with horror and invoked the names of two newspapermen who covered his career with the Trail Blazers.

“You’re not the Godfather. That would be Kenny Wheeler… or Bob Robinson!” he thundered. I love the guy. May God bless you with perfect health the rest of your life, Bill.

– The Ducks actually looked pretty good in this game. But on the other hand, the Bruins were pretty bad. I haven’t been around as long as Mac Court, but I can tell you that’s perhaps the worst UCLA team I’ve ever seen and certainly the one with the least amount of talent on it. And fewest athletes. What’s going on down there?

On the other hand, what’s going on in the entire conference? Ugh. Are we looking for that conference to get just one NCAA bid? And not even deserving that one?

– I met a ton of very nice people, saw some people I hadn’t chatted with in years and it all made for a wonderful evening. Thanks again, Rob! And I have to say it one last time, I’m really going to miss that old barn.

–

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Tags: Bill Walton, Dwght Jaynes, Mac Court, Oregon Ducks, Rob Closs, The Pit, UCLA Bruins

If you don’t get enough of me already, between the MSP from 6-9 a.m., Monday through Friday, on 95.5 The Game and Talkin’ Ball on Comcast Sportsnet, you can also catch me on a podcast this week right here.

I’m with Casey Holdahl, who creates all the great contact on the Trail Blazer website, and the legendary Dave from Blazersedge.com. We had a lot of fun and I think you will enjoy it.

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Man, the first quarter last night was a thing of beauty for the Utah Jazz — and basketball purists. The Jazz sliced and diced the Portland Trail Blazers, spread them out, isolated them and cut them up, laying them bare at both ends of the court in front of about 20,000 people.

Seriously, the new buzz words for the past several seasons in the NBA are cliches by now… all I’ve heard lately from teams is how they need to find players who can “create their own shot.” Yeah, well… I’m old-school. I admit that. But I remember when basketball was a beautiful team game –when it was systems that created shots. And that’s what I saw from the Jazz last night.

Jerry Sloan has never been coach of the year? What a joke. He’s one of the last holdouts who plays the game the right way, who has a system at both ends of the court and sticks to it — and makes sure his players do, too.

Did you see the Jazz just handing the ball to a player last night, asking him to go one-on-one to get a shot? And it’s not as if they couldn’t do that, either. Deron Williams could do it any time. But he works within a proven system that provides great shots for everyone — and Williams has no trouble getting his within that system.

Rick Adelman does this. So do Phil Jackson and Larry Brown. They understand that moving the ball, moving bodies and demanding that players be disciplined within a team framework is critical to winning basketball. For all you young people who think basketball is nothing but isolations and clear outs, who think you win by just handing the ball to your best guy and staying out of his way — well, get your hands on a video of last night’s game.

A lot of fans think that just because John Stockton and Karl Malone were in Utah so long running pick-and-rolls, that what Utah does is pretty predictable. But no way. Even in those days, the Jazz would come at that play in so many different ways, from so many different angles. You’d have to stop all sorts of back cuts, off-the-ball screens and player movement before they got to that play.

And you wonder why Malone and Stockton stuck around for almost two decades, playing in nearly every single game that whole time? Well, they were never asked to carry the same load that a Brandon Roy carries on a nightly basis — the task of taking the ball in the middle of the floor and constantly trying to beat multiple defenders on the way to the basket.

I get so frustrated with people who think that’s how you play winning basketball.

Look, last season the Houston Rockets ate the Blazers alive in the playoffs — and Portland came away saying it needed one more player, in addition to Brandon Roy, who could get his own shot. Meanwhile, the Blazers had been carved up by a team with NO players who could get their own shot but instead played a team game, stayed within a structured group of sets, ran plays, worked to get each other open.

Is nobody paying attention to this? Your system is supposed to get you shots, too — but it doesn’t happen here very much.

And at the other end of the court, well, it’s the same thing. For most of the first half, the Trail Blazers couldn’t get an open look. They had trouble getting to the basket and getting open threes. The Jazz got out to Portland’s guards while still being able to seal off the inside as well as anyone the Blazers have played.

Rudy Fernandez, Andre Miller, Martell Webster and Steve Blake combined to go 8 for 39 from the field. Jerryd Bayless was 5 for 12, but made that many only because he was relentless in his pursuit of cheap buckets late in the game when the issue was decided.

In the second half, things became a little more equal because Carlos Boozer left in the middle of the third quarter with a calf strain, right about the time Williams went to the bench with his fourth foul and Utah was pretty bad at the foul line. Besides, the trailing team, especially at home, always gets that run in the second half.

(By the way, it was a typical LaMarcus Aldridge game — great statistics at the end of the night but if you were watching the game, you wouldn’t like what you saw. For most of the night, Boozer just annihilated him. If he hadn’t gotten hurt, he’d have thrown Aldridge off the Broadway Bridge by the fourth quarter.)

But don’t let that obscure what happened in this game. The Jazz gave the Trail Blazers a very big lesson on how the game is supposed to be played. And it’s real important that everyone understand that.

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Tags: Brandon Roy, Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, Dwight Jaynes, Houston Rockets, Jerry Sloan, Larry Brown, NBA, Phil Jackson, Portland Trail Blazers, Rick Adelman, Utah Jazz

Kid took a tough situation and made the best he could of it. Loved his honesty and willingness to admit his mistake. So many people told me they listened to him talk about it and liked him more afterward than they did before.

His poise was extremely impressive.

Keep your jokes out of the comments please, but if you’d like to talk about how you feel about Greg Oden now, compared to when you first heard about this, feel free.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, Portland Trail Blazers