People accuse me all the time of speaking negatively, raining on their parade, so to speak — particularly after a Trail Blazer win. To a degree, I think, they are correct.

But let me tell you a little story here. Way, way back — like decades ago — I bought my first new car. It was a Honda Accord, and a very nice machine. I took meticulous care of it for a long while, at least until I had it paid off. However, after that, I kind of just forgot about regular maintenance. You know, the car was running so smoothly, I had other things to do and well, stuff happens.

As you might imagine, if you go a long time without things like simple oil changes, you pay the price. And I did. The motor blew up and I had a very high tab to pay to get the thing running again. I learned a big lesson.

You see, even if everything seems to be running smoothly, you need to look under the hood once in a while. You need periodic checkups. In sports, the occasional loss is your little warning light on the dashboard. The defeats remind you to check the oil or the battery. But if you somehow evade losses, pile up a nice stretch of wins, you can forget those regular checkups. You can get carried away with your good fortune.

Before you know it, you’ve got real problems and it’s too late to deal with them. So I like to be the guy — the idiot light on your dash, if you wish — reminding you of some of the things that need attention. Sometimes you have to point out that while the car arrived safely at its destination, it may have been sputtering and kind of veering a little off the road. And yes, I admit — I also like to be the one who is telling a little different story than the obvious “aren’t-things-great?” deal you always get when a team is winning.

Pro sports are a real big-picture thing. You can’t get carried away with one game, one week or even one month. You have to keep in mind what really matters is the playoffs — getting into them first, then playing well when you arrive there. And there’s a standard of play in the postseason that’s high test.

Don’t get me wrong — winning games is great and much better than the alternative. But as the stakes get higher, you have to look beyond the wins. You have to be doing things the right way. You have to be tuned up and running smooth.

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