Man, guard somebody. And at the other end, make some attempt at getting the ball inside. Does this sound like a broken record with the Portland Trail Blazers?

The aggressive team gets the calls and the Nuggets got more than their share all day long. And they ganged up on Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge, making it extremely tough for them to operate. At the upper level of the NBA, this is how it works. It’s a playoff preview, too — because that’s the way any good team, given time to prepare, is going to play the Blazers.

And the Blazers don’t have enough ball movement and player movement to take advantage of it. That’s where the total frustration comes in. This is not a new problem.

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Tags: Brandon Roy, Denver Nuggets, LaMarcus Aldridge, Portland Trail Blazers

I wanted to get this written before Sunday night’s game against the Nuggets in Denver. I expect the Trail Blazers to at least give Denver a solid battle tonight, if not win the game.

Yeah, I know — given the records of the teams that sounds a little crazy.

But here’s the deal: Portland won 54 games last season and didn’t have as good a team as it has right now, this minute. Injuries have contributed to the Trail Blazers’ record so far this season, that and the result of those injuries – playing completely without a center for a couple of months.

But now that Marcus Camby is here, I think you can take a look at Portland’s lineup and say it’s better than the one that won 54 games last season. Seriously, Andre Miller is a big upgrade at the point, Camby is a marginally better player than Joel Przybilla, this year’s Nic Batum is much improved and well, Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge are better players this season than last — at least they ought to be.

Oh, you’re going to say this group needs time to get used to each other. Well, maybe — but I think veteran players like Miller and Camby and players with the basketball IQ of Batum don’t need that much time. Look at the Dallas Mavericks, who were overnight a better team with the trade-deadline addition of Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson to their lineup.

The Mavs didn’t need a lot of time to settle in — they haven’t, in fact, lost since the acquisition of those players.

I think you’re going to see the Trail Blazers, now that everyone is healthy, begin to play better immediately. And that starts tonight in Denver.

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Tags: Andre Miller, Brandon Roy, Dallas Mavericks, Dwight Jaynes, LaMarcus Aldridge, Marcus Camby, Nic Batum

You just can’t kill them, no matter what you do.

A great effort by the Portland Trail Blazers last night. When you consider that the Phoenix Suns had four days off prior to that game and that they were on a five-game win streak. And oh yes, the Blazers had lost nine straight in Phoenix.

A nice job of sharing the ball and bringing energy — which is hard to do on the second of back-to-back games. But for some strange reason, back-to-backs have been a real bonus for Portland, with 10 wins in 13 tries. No question, it’s a resilient bunch.

That said, man what a difference between the Suns and Oklahoma City Thunder in terms of defensive intensity. Huge difference. The Suns are all about selling regular-season tickets with their style of play. But the way they play is going to make it just about impossible to win a playoff series. You just have to have more understanding of team defense than what they bring. I’ve said it before but Terry Porter was on the right track in Phoenix.

The Suns didn’t like it one bit, but what Porter was selling — a commitment to physical team defense — was exactly what that franchise still needs. But the front office gave in and what the Suns are left with is an entertaining style that pleases fans, doesn’t tax players much but really — it just isn’t conducive to long-term winning.

Dismissing the Suns doesn’t mean the Trail Blazers didn’t bring a great effort to this game. Steve Blake was terrific and LaMarcus Aldridge had a tremendous first half to get his team going. It was a wonderful response to that awful home loss Tuesday night at home to the Thunder.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, LaMarcus Aldridge, Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns, 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

They’ve done a marvelous job of compensating for all the injuries. But at a certain point, it’s almost impossible to consistently win games against teams that have better players than you do.

The Clippers put a lineup on the floor last night in Los Angeles that was more talented than Portland’s, quite frankly. With LaMarcus Aldridge out of action, the Trail Blazers are too small to battle teams with a big front line — such as tonight’s opponent, Memphis.

Even if Aldridge plays tonight, it’s going to be hard to win. The Blazers, on the second night of a back-to-back, are going to have to defend much better than they did last night against the Clippers. And you worry that with all the minutes the key players worked last night, a defensive improvement may be difficult. Fatigue is the enemy of good defense.

Brandon Roy played 40 minutes last night to score just six points. I can’t recall a team in the NBA so blatantly selling out to stop one man on another team — but it worked very well for the Clippers. Roy didn’t have a lot of room, got frustrated with the officials, himself and probably life in general. Rough night.

For Portland to keep those sorts of defenses from becoming commonplace, the Blazers are going to need to get their players moving a lot better. But it seems sometimes they’re so accustomed to just standing around watching Roy play that they don’t know how to go about helping him when he’s trapped.

Somebody has to come to the ball, other players must knife to the basket. Double-teams create offensive opportunities but you have to move if you want to take advantage.

As for tonight, it’s going to be an uphill battle. Zach Randolph loves to come in here and torture his former team and Marc Gasol was a tough matchup for Portland even when the team was healthy.

Until reinforcements begin to return to the lineup, things could get a little grim.

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Tags: Brandon Roy, Dwight Jaynes, LaMarcus Aldridge, Memphis Grizzles, Mike Dunleavy, Portland Trail Blazers

Now that injuries have robbed the Trail Blazers of talented depth, shouldn’t Coach Nate McMillan waive that two-fouls-and-you-sit-down rule for a while?

LaMarcus Aldridge draws a couple of early fouls and then sits out the ENTIRE second quarter? And then you wonder why he can’t get going in the second half?

Aldridge isn’t going to foul out. He doesn’t play with enough intensity to foul out. Man, you don’t have a great option behind him, either. I think at some point you have to trust your key players to play with foul trouble, don’t you?

I have trouble with coaches who deal with rigid constraints like this. It’s like substituting ALWAYS on a time schedule, rather than how players are playing.

Stability and consistency are fine, but so is flexibility.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, LaMarcus Aldridge, Nate McMillan, Portland Trail Blazers

In pro football, they always say the most popular player in town is the backup quarterback. In Portland, it’s tended to be the backup point guard. Jerryd Bayless is no different. The fans love him. At least for one night, Tuesday, he paid them back.

Bayless was very reliable down the stretch of the win over the Sacramento Kings, finishing with 14 points after a big 8-for-10 night at the foul line. Can he do that against teams that don’t allow opponents to average 47 percent from the floor? Certainly, it appears we’ll get a chance to find out. Bayless’ minutes will be increasing, for sure.

It was a strange night for the Trail Blazers, who couldn’t sustain much of anything for long stretches. Portland opened the game with perhaps its best ball movement and player movement on offense this season. The Blazers didn’t always hit the open shots they got, but they were very unselfish and active — which seemed to coincide with Andre Miller’s debut as the singular point guard in the Portland lineup.

But Miller — who got a several “hockey assists” in the game as he made the pass that set up another guy for an easy assist — left the court and Portland’s offensive game deteriorated quickly. It was back to the old “stand around and watch somebody else play” offense and the Blazers trailed by 11 at the half.

The same thing happened in the third quarter when Portland came out with the obvious intention of getting LaMarcus Aldridge going down low. Aldridge, after a miserable first half, responded and went on a splurge that resulted in the Blazers getting back in the game.

Again, though, it didn’t sustain. Portland fell back heading into the fourth quarter, leaving it to Bayless and Roy to close the game out.

Steve Blake and Bayless were on the floor together down the stretch of the game and I assume Coach Nate McMillan will just go with whomever is clicking down the stretch of future games. Nothing guaranteed — which is fine.

This was a decent win. The Kings are an impressive team on the rise with Tyreke Evans looking more and more like the best player in last June’s draft.

Good thing for Portland that it won, too. The next five games are going to be tests.

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Tags: Brandon Roy, Dwight Jaynes, Jerryd Bayless, LaMarcus Aldridge, Nate McMillan, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, Steve Blake, Tyreke Evans

The Trail Blazers simply had to get a win Wednesday night in Indiana against a team that had lost nine of 10 and five straight. They got the win, but it wasn’t all that easy.

Without Danny Granger, the Pacers are one step above a D-League team. I know you don’t want to hear it, Blazer fans, but Portland won not because it played very well, but because the Pacers just weren’t good enough to take advantage of the opportunities they were given.

I’m still very concerned about just about every phase of Portland’s game. A lot of jump shots. A lot of standing around watching one guy run isolations. A sudden uptick in turnovers. Not blocking off on the defensive boards. Not a lot of help defensively.

These are things that are going to get you beat. And the sad thing is, when you play lousy teams like the Pacers and win playing that way, it only serves to reinforce bad habits. The only way things will change is if the losses pile up and a sense of urgency is there to push that change.

Perhaps playing a better team will help. Cleveland certainly provides a firm challenge Friday night, but that’s an interesting team, too. Funny, the Cavs added a big center in the off-season (you know who) and is having a heck of a time integrating him into their offense. Sound familiar?

I am beginning to think that large, low-post players are becoming such an oddity in these days of 7-foot three-point shooters that we’re finding more and more players (and perhaps even coaches?) who don’t understand the advantages of establishing an inside game and don’t know how to go about implementing such a game plan.

If that’s the case, I suggest they watch the Lakers a little. Talk about pounding on people inside. But we’ll save that for another post.

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Tags: Brandon Roy, Dwight Jaynes, Indiana Pacers, LaMarcus Aldridge, Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers

Yes, I have to admit that Greg Oden was probably my biggest source of joy in watching the Trail Blazers this season. To see him improve on the floor right before our eyes was a delight. So with him out, what are we to watch?

Here are just a few things of interest:

– LaMarcus Aldridge. Will he now step up into that all-star class that he’s always talked about? The time is ripe. The team needs more from him now. He’s a key cog — he’s got to play like that consistently.

– Brandon Roy. Obviously, an all-star already. I’d like to see him take that next step and do more to get his teammates involved. Make sure that Martell Webster and Steve Blake not only get shots but get those shots from the spots where they can make them.

– Jerryd Bayless. OK, all the fans are on your side — as they always are for the young kid on the bench. You’re going to get time on the floor now. Make your shots. Show you can get the ball to other people. And quit being such a foul machine. Actually guard someone without hand-checking.

– Steve Blake. Make a few shots, OK?

– Andre Miller. Keep doing your thing. I know you’re not used to coming off the bench but try not to stink it up in the first five minutes you’re out there. Take the shots you can make. Only.

– Kevin Pritchard. I know you don’t want to make a deal now. And I’m not advocating you deal from weakness just to make a short-term  impact. But if this thing doesn’t get better soon, you’re going to have to do SOMETHING.

– Nate McMillan. If your front office can’t turn one of those guards into a big player, you might have to use all those guards at one time and play some small ball. That means fast breaks, spreading the floor, getting to the basket. Repeat — fast breaks. Play fast. If you need some help with this, pull out that Golden State tape from a few weeks ago.

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Tags: Brandon Roy, Dwight Jaynes, Jerryd Bayless, Kevin Pritchard, LaMarcus Aldridge, Martell Webster, Nate McMillan, Steve Blake

After Greg Oden went down Saturday night, I was still pretty sure that Portland would be able to play well enough to make the playoffs. I mean, they still have Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and a nice group of role players who can help.

But then I watched Monday night’s debacle in Madison Square Garden and saw a Knicks team with not half as much talent dismantle the Trail Blazers. Ugh. I’ve seen guys defended better in H-O-R-S-E games than what I saw last night.

Man, when teams make 50 percent of their three-point field goals, it’s almost always for one reason — because they’re getting wide-open shots. Bingo. That’s what I saw. And a lot of dunks and easy baskets. And a lot of New York second chances.

What’s wrong here? Seriously. There is something going on with this team over and above the injuries. There’s either something missing or something there that’s causing players not to care as much.

I can usually get a pretty good read on what’s up with teams. But this one is a real mystery. A conundrum. But something’s happening and the real story of this season isn’t injuries — it’s what’s gotten into the Portland Trail Blazers to cause such a massive change in the team’s character.

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Tags: Brandon Roy, Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, LaMarcus Aldridge, New York Knicks, Portland Trail Blazers