Funny how that happens. Allen Iverson misses a shot he’ll make a lot of the time, the Trail Blazers dance off the court with an 84-83 win and everyone is smiling. Great game, they say. But one little basket, one missed shot — or the one made shot by Travis Outlaw — and a whole town changes from happy as clams to totally bummed out. Imagine — if Iverson had made that shot or Outlaw had missed his, we’d have to go through a couple more days of “What’s wrong with the Blazers?”

OK, I know you’re going to say, “There goes Dwight, yelling at the kids to get off his lawn again. The grumpy old fool.” And sure, the Blazers won without Brandon Roy. That’s great. But the Pistons were without Rasheed and Rip — and there were several bad signs in this game that should not be swept under the carpet just because it was a one-point win.

Let me mention a few things, some good and some bad:

• Man, the Blazers were playing some especially horrid defense through most of the game. Whether it be man-to-man or zone, it was pretty bad. Even in the second half, when Detroit quit making shots, the defense was not great. This will get you beat so fast in the playoffs you won’t know what hit you.
• Honestly, I do not understand why they’re switching on all those pick-and-rolls. But the sight of Joel Przybilla out there at the top of the key trying to defend Tayshaun Prince or Greg Oden squaring off against Allen Iverson at the same spot is downright ridiculous. You can’t expect to get away with such things. And yet we keep seeing them over and over and over. The pick-and-roll is like Rubik’s Cube to these guys.
• The Pistons opened the game with Kwame Brown checking Greg Oden. And Oden barely sniffed the ball for several minutes. Before his obligatory two first-quarter fouls, he got the ball twice — and dunked both times. You really do have to look for more inside points.
• Outlaw made the big shot. But man, in more than twice as many minutes he ought to get more rebounds than Sergio Rodriguez.
• Jerryd Bayless finally got a little something going. Calling it a “coming-out party” might be a little strong, but it was a start.
• LaMarcus Aldridge played 44 minutes and I say Hooray! for that. He was big on offense with his 26 points but you really would like more than six rebounds in 44 minutes.
• Portland got outrebounded 40-28. How does that happen against Detroit without Wallace? The zone defense makes it hard to get defensive rebounds.
• I would have been a lot more frightened for the Blazers if Prince had taken that last shot rather than Iverson.
• Eight fast break points for Portland, seven for Detroit. Typical.

Hey, a win is a win is a win. The schedule gets easier now and it’s about time. Brandon Roy appears to be ready to play Saturday and so perhaps all will be right with the world. I’d worry, though, that Roy is talented enough that the team will win a lot of games, but the real underlying problems just won’t get solved because his presence makes the Blazers just successful enough to hide them. And that would mean continued losses to the league’s best teams. Honestly, with or without Roy, the defense really does need to improve A LOT as this season heads into the second half.

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Tags: Allen Iverson, Brandon Roy, Detroit Pistons, Dwight Jaynes, Jerryd Bayless, Joel Przybilla, Portland Trail Blazers, Sergio Rodriguez, Tayshaun Prince, Travis Outlaw