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.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Manu Ginobili, NBA playoffs, Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs, Tim Duncan

Honestly, I thought Portland defended decently Tuesday night. Oh, there were some uncontested jump shots, but for the most part it was a better-than-average defensive game for the Trail Blazers.

Problem was, the Blazer offense kept getting its defense into trouble. Portland’s rush to shoot long-distance jumpers got the Rockets out into transition and led to some easy baskets. A stretch toward the end of the first quarter and most of the second quarter was not pretty and left the Blazers shaking their heads.

Then, of course, came the obligatory second-half rally. In the NBA, you take no solace from such things — the trailing team makes up ground almost every time. If you don’t come all the way back and win, it means nothing — so let’s forget about it.

I also don’t buy into any of that, “Oh, if Yao Ming didn’t get into foul trouble, we’d have been fine” stuff. Come on, folks — Von Wafer, multiplied by 10, isn’t as good as Yao. If the guys off the Houston bench torched your team, then your team wasn’t playing very well.

Portland needs to stay focused on offense. This was another night when it appeared that the game plan was fine and when the team came out and executed it, the Rockets were kept under control. But the team loses focus, the ball quits going inside and then bad things happen.

There’s one other thing that keeps bugging me about this season. We keep hearing how young the team is and I understand that. But the fact is, if there are 100 reasons why being a young team is a disadvantage, there really should be three or four reasons why it’s not. And one of those is energy and enthusiasm for the game.

At this point of the season, Portland’s youth should be translating into better energy than some of the veteran teams they play. For the most part, the Blazers should be buzzing around these teams like new puppies chasing a toy. They should keep coming, no matter the score or the situation. They should be bouncing around, even late in games, at the defensive end. Where is that energy and enthusiasm????

We’re not seeing it. And we should be seeing it.

Tonight, both Portland and San Antonio will be playing the second half of a back-to-back. The Spurs are old and Portland is young. It’s possible San Antonio will be playing without Tim Duncan and certainly without Manu Ginobili.

The Blazers NEVER win at San Antonio but this, because of the circumstances, should be a great time to pull one out. However, if we don’t see, at the very least, Portland looking quicker, more active and energetic than the Spurs, I think we all have a right to be very disappointed.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Houston Rockets, Manu Ginobili, Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs, Tin Duncan, Von Wafer, Yao Ming