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.”

Tweet This Post

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

It has that feel to me. And I’m not one who usually attaches a lot of significance to mid-season games. But I think this one is different.

Suddenly, the Blazers are in the midst of turmoil with all the Andre Miller stuff. A win tonight could put that turmoil on the back burner — diminish it to a degree. If you win, you can say, “See, this stuff isn’t that big a deal.”

And as overmatched as Portland seems to be, the Blazers are 21-6, lifetime, against the Lakers in the Rose Garden. The Lakers aren’t playing particularly well right now, either. So Portland has a chance.

But if the Blazers get blown out, with a date Sunday night against the Cavaliers looming, negative energy is going to be difficult to avoid. It will only intensify the internal problems.

It could get ugly.

Tweet This Post

Tags: Andre Miller, Dwight Jaynes, Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers

Roland Lazenby is a smart guy who can give you a real good picture of the inner workings of the Lakers. And he wrote this fascinating piece on Hoops Hype about the power struggle going on inside the Buss family for control of the Lakers. The story details how, in the end, a family feud may cause Jackson to leave the Lakers.

It’s a fun read.

Tweet This Post

Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Jeannie Buss, Jerry Buss, Jim Buss, Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson, Roland Lazenby

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.

Tweet This Post

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

Someone asked me this question on the radio recently . . . who would I take, Andrew Bynum or Greg Oden? As best I can recall — and sometimes the shows really blur when they’re finished — I said, for right now, I’d take Bynum.

People around here, Laker-haters for the most part, don’t like to give anyone in a purple and gold jersey any credit. They hate everyone from Kobe on down. But Bynum has already shown loads of potential even though he’s had a bumpy journey so far in the NBA, much the same as Oden.

Bynum got an early start in professional basketball and will still be just 22 this season in spite of already logging four seasons in the league. He showed flashes of being a very good player for the last two seasons. He became more patient on offense, better on the boards and a little more assertive on defense.

But there are a great many similarities to Oden. He can still look clumsy and he gets hurt frequently. At times, he can look confused or lost on the court. In his brief NBA career he’s played in only 213 out of a possible 328 games. Granted, some of those no-play games came in his rookie season when he wasn’t good enough to be out there as an 18-year-old. But injuries have limited him to a total of just 85 games over the last two seasons.

And Laker people have told me that the injuries have always seemed to come just as he was reaching a stage in his development where the team could rely on him to produce. They’ve been an obvious impediment to his growth.

I believe he’s going to be a pretty good offensive player — better than Oden, for sure. But I also believe that Oden will be the better defender. They ought to both be powerful rebounders.

The point of all this is that I believe, long term, Oden vs. Bynum will someday be a huge part of any Portland Trail Blazers vs. Los Angeles Lakers rivalry. And Oden must hold his own in that matchup. It’s going to be very important.

And I believe that in the end, Blazer fans won’t have to worry themselves with comparing Oden to the great NBA centers of the past. What they need to worry about is how he stacks up against Bynum. Remember, these are still two very young players who play a position that normally is expected to develop slowly.

If one of these guys becames a dynamic force at either end of the court and the other does not, it’s going to make a huge difference in which team comes out on top. And at this early point in their development, I would not close the door on one of them — or both of them — becoming that force.

Bynum is ahead now. But it’s all up to Oden how long it stays that way. Continued improvement is a must. And that’s just one more great storyline for this upcoming season.

Tweet This Post

Tags: Andrew Bynum, Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers

My buddy Ben over at Blazers Edge has a post today telling us that people even now (including Clyde Drexler) are saying they are. He adds some positive comments from John Hollinger, too.

I think it’s at least 50-50 that it will happen as early as this season. But I’m thinking that after this season, it’s surely going to happen. It seems to me that San Antonio has made the most positive moves this summer in the West — but that given the age and injury history of the Spurs’ key player, Tim Duncan, and the injury problems of Manu Ginobili, you can’t project them very far out. I will, though, give Gregg Popovich this season and say he’s going to have the Spurs nipping at the Lakers’ sneakers.

Dallas made some decent moves this summer, too, but its window is beginning to close and I’m not sure this bunch is ever going to overcome the memory of blowing that NBA title that Miami stole from them.

Denver? Well, perhaps George Karl can hold that circus together for one more season but I sense implosion will eventually occur. I am just not fond of the mix of players in Denver and I think there are selfish players there. Chauncey Billups is going to have his hands full trying to keep everyone happy about getting the ball enough.

Houston? A long shot to even make the playoffs now, without Yao and with Tracy McGrady questionable. It’s a shame a team can go from that good to that bad in such a short time. Phoenix is kind of the same story — the best player is aging, the rest of team full of question marks. Maybe, MAYBE, one more playoff run if Amare Stoudemire is healthy. But the long term future of the Suns is pretty cloudy.

One team that is on the rise, though, is Utah. If Trail Blazer fans are sitting around waiting for their young team to get better, I think Jazz fans are doing the same. If Utah can find a way to move Carlos Boozer and get value in return, you know Jerry Sloan is likely to milk a pretty good season out of the Jazz.

I also look for the Clippers to be much better this season and a probable playoff team. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy and they’re certainly not going to be a threat to the Lakers, but if you’ve seen anything of Blake Griffin, you know that he’s going to be an impact player.

Oklahoma City (it still pains me to write that name down as an NBA franchise holder) is going to be a factor very soon, too. I expect them to make a big leap in wins this upcoming season.

Overall, though, I think the West is slowly starting to regress back toward the East, which is getting better each year, thanks to a lot of high draft picks and the presence of superstars like D-Wade, Dwight Howard, LeBron and The Big Three in Boston. It always runs in cycles and I think we can see, out there on the horizon, the West’s cycle coming to an end.

I can see in a couple of seasons, the balance of power shifting eastward and by then, it’s going to be the Lakers and Trail Blazers kind of alone at the top in the West. Not sure, though, if the thinning of the conference talent helps Portland or not. That remains to be seen. Certainly it will lead to more gaudy won-loss records — which is a bigger deal than people think because of all those playoff homecourt advantages gained based on season record – even though it’s a league where nobody plays the same schedule.

I’ve not been sure all summer that the Trail Blazers would be able to improve much on those 54 wins of last season, just because they were so fortunate last year to win so many close games. Stat guys will tell you that over time, that’s not much due to skill as it is good fortune and that eventually, it evens out, even for the good teams. What the good teams do is win a lot of games by big margins — which the Trail Blazers will begin doing.

And now that I see the conference rapidly aging and the younger teams still not quite ready to step up another level, I think Portland actually does have a real chance to get up close to that 60-win level, assuming no major injuries, which, as we know is a major assumption.

Of course, it’s still early. Between now and late October there’s still time for Martell Webster to reinjure that foot, Greg Oden to step on someone’s ankle, the Clippers to lose two or three players to injury or for Ron Artest to do something stupid.

Tweet This Post

Tags: Dallas Mavericks, Dwight Jaynes, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA Western Conference, Oklahoma City Thunder, Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs

Odom’s out there right now, seemingly spurned by the Lakers. I don’t think anybody thinks the two sides won’t eventually get together, though. LO wants to play in Los Angeles and he’s going to finally figure out he’s going to have to take a pay cut to do it. It’s the old hometown discount thing.

I’ve heard a lot of Trail Blazer fans reject the notion of Odom coming here. You know, all that stuff about him trash-talking LaMarcus Aldridge, bumping Brandon Roy around a little bit. He’s a big Laker villain in Portland.

Folks, that’s no reason not to sign him. Grow up. The moment he’d put on a Blazer uniform and started doing all that stuff to the other team, you’d love him. And you’d love him even more if he puts up some big numbers. In hockey it’s almost a cliche that when you go out and trade for the hated goon on the other team he immediately becomes your most popular player. And I go all the way back to the old Portland Buckaroos and Connie Madigan for that anology.

But the real reason not to sign Lamar Odom is that at times he’s a moody, sulky dog who doesn’t bring it every night. Even for the Lakers (let alone what he was like with the Clippers). The guy grew up in New York, has spent his pro career mostly in LA, other than a season in Miami. This town isn’t big enough for him, either.

I think he’d show plenty of fake interest in coming here and Portland could dream about stealing a piece from the Lakers. But in the end, the Blazers would just be being used to shake a better offer out of his previous team.

Ultimately, you have to love his skill set. But he’s thrived his entire career on that mostly untapped potential. His results have never matched his terrific talents.  Sorry, but I’d take a pass on Odom.

Tweet This Post

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

A lot of people are pointing at Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson and saying yes, Phil can handle Ron Artest. After all, Phil made it work in Chicago with Dennis Rodman. Artest joining the Lakers can do nothing but make the Lakers better.

I would not be so quick to jump to that conclusion.

Rodman, while probably crazier even than Artest, was not the problem on the court that Artest will be. Rodman did not want to shoot. In fact, when you passed him the ball he reacted as if you’d just pulled the pin on a hand grenade and lobbed it to him. What Dennis wanted to do is rebound and he did that just about as well as anyone ever has.

Artest not only wants to shoot, he’s the most toxic kind of shooter — the type who thinks he’s good at it and isn’t. I think it’s going to make for some long nights for Kobe Bryant, trying to somehow get it through Artest’s noggin that those long jump shots he favors aren’t going to be what’s best for the Lakers.

And that team does play in Los Angeles, you know. Ron Artest anywhere near Hollywood just seems like such a potential trainwreck. I’m not sure if Artest looks for trouble or if trouble just has a way of finding him but it’s going to be fun to watch this play out.

Tweet This Post

Tags: Dennis Rodman, Dwight Jaynes, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson, Ron Artest

Several things to say about this NBA Finals before moving on to other things:

– Phil Jackson will be appearing this week on the Home Shopping Network, wearing a championship ring on each finger, hawking yellow hats with the roman numeral “X” on them. And for $49.95 he will autograph them, with an “X” of course.

– OK, just kidding the guy a little bit. Love him or hate him, and I figure most people choose one or the other, the guy is in a class by himself. Nobody else coaches the way he does and I feel sometimes that nobody gets the results he does. His mere presence — which allows him to give his players more freedom on the floor than probably any other good team around — is incredible.

– And I give Phil a lot of credit for this championship. When I look at those Lakers, I definitely don’t see one of the better NBA championship teams in history. Man, not even close. He did a great job of melding a group together that wasn’t supremely talented. Just one Hall of Fame player in this group. Often, title teams have had at least two.

– Size still matters. For all the talk about Orlando’s outside shooting, the Magic weren’t long enough — at either end of the court. The Laker defense in particular was just too big for the Magic in the basket area.

– So many regrets on the Magic side. I’m telling you, the impact in Game 2 if Courtney Lee could have converted that lob pass inside the final second — I’m still not convinced the Lakers would have recovered from it. It changed everything about the series. As did Dwight Howard’s free-throw misses in Game 4. Way too many missed opportunities for Orlando.

– Stan Van Gundy — America’s newest coaching hero.

– Kobe Bryant handled himself very well in the wake of winning another championship. Said all the right things. Good for him. Now let’s put away the Grrrrr Face for a while, OK?

– Dr. Jerry Buss didn’t show so his two boys were on the floor accepting the championship trophy. Huge mistake. Horrible acceptance speech. There is a serious joke here about the kid being nervous about his father at home dating his girlfriend while he’s out accepting the hardware but I am not going to make it because not everyone knows that the good doctor tends to date very young women.

– All in all, such a flat ending of a Finals. I really expected the Magic to bring a little more to Game 5 than that. I guess their hearts, and spirit finally broke.

– OOPS … forgot to add this. — The Lakers had the most trouble in these playoffs with Houston and Denver. Really, it’s not at all hard to make the case that the second-best team in the playoffs was the Rockets because they gave the champs the toughest fight. The power is still in the Western Conference, folks.

Tweet This Post

Tags: Dr. Jerry Buss, Dwight Jaynes, Los Angeles Lakers, Orlando Magic, Phil Jackson, Stan Van Gundy, X

All those championships. All that work becoming the Zen Master. All that time building that mysterious image.

All of it — years in the making – undone in just a few seconds by putting on that yellow baseball cap with an “X” on the front.

Man. What did you just do to yourself?

Tweet This Post

Tags: Championships, Dwight Jaynes, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA Finals, Phil Jackson, X