A quick look in the standings shows Portland three games ahead of New Orleans, 31/2 ahead of Memphis and four ahead of Houston. But that’s deceptive. And with Portland having just 20 games left, that seems like a huge lead.

But the Blazers have played a lot more games than those other teams and have a lot of losses. In fact, a loss tonight to the Grizzlies and Portland is just one game in the loss column ahead of those three teams.

That means if just one of those teams — New Orleans, Memphis or Houston — gets hot, then the Blazers still have a fight on their hands.

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Tags: Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers

Chris Paul wide open at the end of a game for the eventual game-winner? The ball in Jerryd Bayless’s hands in the waning seconds for a jump shot? That’s what we saw last night. And in the end, the Trail Blazers gave back one of those hard-fought road wins they got last week.

Ugh.

Paul got open in a bit of a freaky play, falling down — and apparently out of sight — before getting up and finding himself open for what amounted to a free throw to win the game. It was like one of those football plays where the tight end goes to the ground as if to block and then gets up and into a pass pattern.

Then the Trail Blazers inbound to Bayless — way out almost near the halfcourt line. Now Brandon Roy might be able to get you a makeable shot in that situation — since just about any shot is makeable for Roy — but Bayless? Well, if he isn’t going to attempt to get the ball to the basket, I’m not sure I like his chances with a jump shot.

But that game was lost in the minutes before those last two possessions. The Trail Blazers, no doubt fatigued from their trip, didn’t seem to have enough energy to finish. Andre Miller, especially, seemed to have nothing left in the tank.

Next time around, I’d love to see Martell Webster or Rudy Fernandez get that final shot, by the way. It was another excruciating loss, quite obviously. And with the upcoming schedule, there may be more to come.

The All-Star break can’t get here soon enough for this team. It needs a few days off.

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Tags: Chris Paul, Dwight Jaynes, Jerryd Bayless, Martell Webster, New Orleans Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers, Rudy Fernandez

You bet I would.

I know, I know — the Blazers got their asses handed to them Sunday night in Houston.They trailed wire to wire. But I’m going to say the same thing I’ve been saying for a month now: Portland has, 1 through 12, better players than the Rockets.

Sure, Yao Ming is better than anything Portland has at center, although not by as big a margin as it should be because Yao seems to not be totally comfortable in the spotlight. He could shoot about twice as often as he does and it wouldn’t be too much.

But you could make a case that at just about every other spot, the Blazers are better. You think Scola is better than Aldridge? You think Battier is better than Roy? You think, well, OK — yes, Artest is better than the Batum/Outlaw combination. But Artest is nowhere near the player he used to be. You could also match Roy against Artest and Battier vs. Batum/Outlaw and say the Blazers are better at both spots. I’ll give Brooks a draw with Blake at the point, but I’m comfortable Blake’s capable of more than holding his own against Brooks, at this early point of Brooks’ career.

Off the bench, it’s no contest. The Rockets have a nice group of reserves but there’s nowhere near the firepower of the Blazers.

In a seven-game series, I’ll take the most talented team every time. In playoff series, adjustments are made and all the surprises are gone. The Blazers have a little trouble defending Yao, but a game or two into a series, I believe they’d have it all figured out. Rotations become crisper. Responsibilities are well delineated.

And then it all comes down to talent. And call me a homer — nobody ever has — but I just think the Blazers, position by position, have the better roster.

And then we come to homecourt advantage. Yes, you’d love to have it. Especially if you’re playing the Lakers, Cavaliers or Celtics. But the Blazers are plenty good enough to win on somebody else’s court. Oh yeah — I know, they haven’t done it in the regular season. But again, so what? The playoffs are always different. Teams always break through on the other guy’s court. Happens every year in almost every series and it will happen in the Blazers series, no matter who this team plays. It’s just a matter of which team will blow that home game first.

The pressure is almost always on the higher-seeded team in the postseason. The visiting team has less pressure and also becomes accustomed to the other team’s arena because within two weeks, it gets two or three or even four games there. I’ve always thought home games get tougher and road games get easier in the playoffs.

My point is this: in the playoffs, talent wins out. The travel equalizes, the preparation time equalizes. It comes down, nine out of 10 times, to who has the best players. That’s one of the reasons the league shifted away from short series (it used to play best-of-three “mini-series” and then best-of-five in the first round) to seven-game series — to decrease the chance of fluky outcomes.

Against Houston, Dallas, Utah and New Orleans — the Blazers have the talent edge. And a seven-game series usually ensures talent comes out on top.

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Tags: Dallas Mavericks, Dwight Jaynes, Houston Rockets, New Orleans Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers, Utah Jazz

Coming from 20 points behind to beat New Orleans on the road. Wow. Chris Paul getting hurt had nothing to do with it. At all. I’m sure. Positive.

It could be one of those seasons, folks. If I were Dirk Novitsky, I’d be real careful Wednesday.

UPDATE: Did the Blazers win that game or did the Hornets lose it? Here’s the headline on the front page of espn.com:

 Paul hurt as Hornets let Blazers rally for win

Ouch.

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Tags: Chris Paul, Dirk Novitsky, Dwight Jaynes, New Orleans Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers

The Trail Blazers finally see their schedule turn more difficult tonight with a game at New Orleans. But it’s not as tough as usual, with the Hornets reporting Tyson Chandler and Mo Peterson probably out of the lineup. That helps.

The Hornets will be coming into the game carrying a two-game losing streak, after losses to Golden State and San Antonio. I’m never sure if that’s a good or bad thing. The automatic reaction is, “well, a team that good isn’t going to lose three straight.” But sometimes, the real thought should be, “they aren’t playing well right now and it’s a great time to catch them.”

Chris Paul has been putting up some big scoring numbers, which is what superstars do when other starters are out of action. They try to shoulder more of the load. However, the Hornets still have some very good scorers available and Paul needs to make sure he continues to find them shots.

New Orleans is about a year ahead of Portland on the growth chart, it seems to me. Tonight would be an opportunity for the Trail Blazers to prove they’re catching up. With Chandler out of the lineup, Portland should have a much easier path to the basket.

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Tags: Chris Paul, Dwight Jaynes, New Orleans Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers

Hey, look — the real truth about these things is that without Brandon Roy, you can’t expect a whole string of miracles. The Boston game was great, but the Hornets are the same kind of good young team as the Blazers and even with Roy, worthy competition. Without him, Portland is playing uphill all night long. A few observations:

• With or without Brandon in the lineup, the Blazers are going to have to work out that kink in their pick-and-roll defense that finishes with all the mismatches of “bigs” on guards. Oden gets half his fouls trying to defend some point guard on baseline drives. Aldridge usually simply lets them drive past him. The big men need to “show” on the screen and occupy the ball until the Portland guard can fight through the pick and get back to his man. Either that or just “blitz” the guy with the ball — double-team him — every time and rotate to the guy who is rolling off the pick. It drives me nuts to see this happen several times a game — even in situations where the defenders who have switched have time to get back to their own men and don’t.
• I don’t care how many points Travis Outlaw scored, he had another night of making some very poor decisions.
• OK, isn’t it time the Jerryd Bayless experiment came to an end? That first-half stretch when the coach tried to use two small guards at the same time was painful. To their credit, the Hornets just went directly at Bayless with postups time and again — punishing him on the block. This kid just isn’t ready to play real minutes yet — and it almost seemed to me the coach was trying to show somebody that in the harshest terms.
• Portland seemed to think LaMarcus Aldridge had a big matchup advantage over David West because the Blazers started the game by constantly posting Aldridge and clearing out. Problem was, Aldridge wasn’t getting ANYTHING out of it. His willingness to settle for long fallaway jump shots can be maddening at times. Doesn’t it drive you crazy to see 6-foot-11 guys, people born with a size advantage others can only dream about, not capitalize on it?
• Rudy Fernandez surely hasn’t stepped up much in Roy’s absence. I would like to see the Blazers run more plays for him but in that system, a guy who can move without the ball seems not as valuable as someone who simply wants the ball in his hands to play one-on-one. Without Sergio around to look for him, Rudy’s sort of forgotten.
• Over the long haul, the Blazers absolutely must figure a way to get points in the paint — either off fast breaks or halfcourt offense. You live by that jump shot and too many nights it’s just not going to be there.

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Tags: Brandon Roy, David West, Jerryd Bayless, LaMarcus Aldridge, Nate McMillan, New Orleans Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers, Rudy Fernandez

Just a few thoughts after Portland throws another impressive home win on the pile:

• Nic Batum is good. Have I said that before? Martell Webster better be ready if he wants to reclaim that job. Batum has set the bar high.
• Why do NBA teams double-team Greg Oden? Maybe some day. Maybe some games. But he didn’t score in the first half last night but created a ton of opportunities for teammates because of all the double-teams. Oden was patient and impressive with his passing.
• Brandon Roy is good. Have I said that before? Real good.
• Joel Przybilla is the best backup center in the league. By far, I’d say.
• Chris Paul does have a bit of an attitude, doesn’t he? Not sure if he’s totally in tune with what Byron Scott wants to do. He travels quite a bit with that little skip in the lane, too. Also carries the ball a lot – but so does Roy.
• Nice to see LaMarcus Aldridge come to the party.

The Blazers are turning into a VERY fun team to watch.

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Tags: Brandon Roy, Byron Scott, Chris Paul, Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, Joel Przybilla, LaMarcus Aldridge, New Orleans Hornets, Nic Batum, Portland Trail Blazers