Finally getting over the hump in a big road game
Wednesday night’s triumph was a monster for the Trail Blazers. Hey, it was nothing like beating the Spurs with a healthy Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan, but it was a win at San Antonio on national TV with much at stake.
Great play off the bench again from just about everybody. And this was one time when being a young team was a great attribute. San Antonio shot its wad in the first quarter and didn’t have much left after that. Portland got better as the game went on.
It was sad to see Duncan dragging his sore knees up and down the court. Man, he’s in some serious pain. And the Spurs don’t have a lot left when he leaves the court. Just a week ago, I still figured a first-round matchup with the Spurs was something you wouldn’t want to mess with. But that was before Ginobili was ruled out and the true extent of Duncan’s knees was known.
Right now, San Antonio looks like a beautifully wrapped gift into the second round of the playoffs for anybody who finds the Spurs as their opening-round matchup. And that well could be the Blazers — just let the Rockets slip into third, finish fourth and hope the Spurs drop into the fifth spot.
That’s as good as it could get for the Trail Blazers.
NBA, Trail Blazers | Dwight Jaynes | April 8, 2009
Dwight Jaynes, Manu Ginobili, NBA playoffs, Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs, Tim Duncan
The fact that Pops felt it was important enough to drag out Duncan when he was in that condition for that speaks volumes about the importance they placed on getting this game.
two4larue said:
April 5, 2009 at 6:39 pm
“Still want a first-round matchup versus Houston, Dwight? The Rockets don’t look like they’re gonna choke again, this April
Best case scenario for Portland is to go into San Antonio and beat the Spurs, and hopefully climb over both Texas teams and finish 3rd in the WC”
Mission accomplished. At this point I’ll settle for 4th, as long as SA finishes 5th. But, why not be greedy? The 3rd seed plays 6th, and if they win they won’t have to face #1 until the WC finals
The fact that this team reached 50 wins- a feat not accomplished since the Dunleavy days when we had a stacked, all-star roster speaks to how special this team really is. The only difference is that those teams from the past tanked at the finish, and these guys are only getting hotter and hotter. Knowing that, I can finally shed some of the cynicism and doubt that I have built up all these years to protect me from reliving another 2000 WCF heartbreak. The passion has returned!
the spurs are done and would be a gift as a first round matchup.
Now do people see why I’d MUCH rather play SA or NO than Hou?
50 wins with 4 rookies on the squad. It has NEVER been done.
I wanna say there has been alot of negative talk concerning our coach on this blog and it is complete bunk. Nate has done a masterful job guiding these young players. He has got them to believe in themselves and each other. He also has them playing their best at the right time. We are dam lucky to have him, and he is coach of the year in my opinion
KP you have done so well in assembling these players and staff. It has been quite a year and you have us all thirsting for more…
Concerning the game, everyone contributed, and our bench has just been crushing our opponents
RED HOT AND ROLLIN and BEAT LA!
see ya friday
With home court, the Blazers should be able to survive the first round against anybody except the L.A. Kobes. The Spurs looked tonight like the easiest team in the group, though.
I had a similar thought, Dwight, about Tim Duncan. I was really saddened to see such a great player sitting helpless on the bench in a big game. I mean, Duncan is a warrior and a winner and I’ve admired him for a long time, but time’s arrow is one way and he looked aged in this game–sad, but this is the way of the world.
The young Blazers are likely to make a bunch of other players look old and a bunch of other fans sad in the next few years. What fun it has been so far as a long time Blazer fan. Long live youth!
Watching Oden, I am worried that after his monster dunks, his hand will slip of the rim and he will end up on his back and break something. What’s the deal with the leg flails? He almost fell over last night after a dunk.
What a game.. I was so pissed off in the first half because of how bad the blazers were getting thumped. It was so disappointing to me because it was such a big game and the blazers were dropping a duece right in the middle of the court!! Eventhough they have come back from double digits so many time this year, I didn’t believe that they could pull that off in San Antonio. Especially on the second night of a back-to-back. That was the the mother of all of their comebacks for this season. Going from down 19 to winning by 12 against one of the best teams in the past decade is remarkable. On their floor!! I know Duncan wasn’t 100% and Ginobli didn’t play, but they kicked Portland’s ass with that same scenario at San Antonio in Feb. To outscore them by 31pts after being down 19pts shows how dominating the blazers can be. There have been so many dominating performances over the top teams in the west this year by Portland yet the “experts” still think Utah will be the team that “nobody wants to play”. Utah is so overrated IMO. Screw the “experts”. Rip City is back!!
Hey Duncan has his hardware, and his bank, age catches all of us. No tears here…let’s make the whole league look older than Oden!!!! GO BLAZERS….
Dwight, you are right in mentioning that we will most probably end up having the Spurs as our first round matchup. Currently, Houston, San Antonio and Portland are tied at 50-28 and I envision each of them to go 3-1 to end the season. Since Houston holds the tie-breaker over Portland and Portland holds the tie-breaker over San Antonio, we’ll be the 4th seed and play the Spurs in the first round with home court advantage.
Also, Panama mentioned that having a rookie laden roster finish the season with over 50 wins has never been done before, and though I don’t have data to back that up, I do agree that it is pretty impressive. However, please note that the top 5 win producers on this team are Roy, Przybilla, Blake, Fernandez & Oden, out of which only one (Oden) is truly a rookie. Fernandez has played at a high level outside the NBA and though the long NBA season is new to him, his production in the game is not.
I’d like to close by saying that at the beginning of the season, statistics would have predicted Portland’s win total to be between 45 & 50, and this team has definitely exceeded that expectation. Hats off to them. Go Blazers!!!
You know you have arrived when you EXPECT to win in San Antonio.
Last night was a changing of the guard, right there in full HD on ESPN. When they took the lead for good, I had no doubt the guys fully expected to close them out. They had that look of a team that knew it was way better than the other team and was just toying with them.
Hats off to the Spurs for a great run but it’s over now. Injuries are just excuses.
Nobody felt sorry for the Blazers and their ridiculous string of Microfractures year after year after year or Webster’s foot (or Lafrenz’ early retirement…Lol). Nobody felt sorry for those lean rebuilding years. Nobody felt sorry for our disfunction. They have 4 rings. Now it’s our turn.
That’s the NBA.