Streak Continues Despite Struggles
posted: 12/25/2007 at 9:36 PM
When you've been seven games below .500, there's no such thing as a "routine victory." During this winning streak, which now stands at an incredible 11, the Trail Blazers have won in many different ways. We've spent a lot of time in the last 22 days talking about that. But, they hadn't struggled shooting the ball this badly, and still pulled out a win. That's what happened on Christmas Day at the Rose Garden.
In front of yet another standing-room-only crowd of 20,527, the Blazers put together a workman-like effort, and got huge contrbutions off the bench, and beat Seattle 89-79. They shot just 39 percent from the field, as a team, but still got it done. Their big offensive guns, Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Martell Webster, and Travis Outlaw, were just a combined 13 for 42. But, enough other positive things happened for the team to escape with a win, and run its record in December to 11-1. The Blazers are now 16-12 on the season, and are just a half-game behind Denver for the lead in the Northwest Division.
The Blazers collected a season-high 53 rebounds in the game, and had 27 assists and only 6 turnovers (a season low), and that offset the shooting woes. Because of the huge advantage on the backboards, the Blazers attempted 93 shots in the game, to Seattle's 76, and when you do that you can survive shooting below 40 percent. It marked just the fourth time this season the Blazers have shot below 44 percent and have lived to tell about it.
Leading the charge on the backboards was Joel Przybilla, who pulled down a season-high 16 rebounds. Channing Frye, who gave the team 23 solid minutes off the bench, had 8 rebounds, and James Jones had 6. In Frye's case, 6 of his 8 total rebounds came at the offensive end, and he also tipped several balls off misses out to the perimeter, and you don't get credit for rebounds on those. Frye also had 12 points, on 5 of 6 shooting, and that was huge on a night when Aldridge went 1 for 10.
Jarrett Jack matched Roy for high point on this night, scoring 17 points, on 7 for 11 shooting. Steve Blake also knocked down some huge buckets for the Blazers, and had 12 points on 5 for 11 shooting, and was 2 for 4 from behind the three-point line.
To hear Nate McMillan's post-game comments, heard on the Blazers Radio Network,
click here.
Brian Wheeler had a great observation about this team during McMillan's segment. He said that rather than this team getting bogged down feeling too much pressure during this winning streak, they actually seem to be building their confidence and toughness with victories like this. That's something you wouldn't expect from the league's youngest team. Of course, no one expected the league's youngest team to rip off an 11-game winning streak either.
This run by the Blazers has turned into the story of the NBA season so far. Even Boston, with its gawdy 22-3 record, hasn't put together a streak this long. And, even though they've had a nice winning streak, they didn't do it against competition like Portland has faced. For example, the Blazers have played the 4th-toughest schedule of any NBA team so far. Boston's schedule is ranked 30th of the 30 teams. The Celtics are 3 and 2 against the top-10 ranked NBA teams. The Blazers are 7-5 versus the top 10. I'm not comparing the two teams head to head, because that's not fair yet, but schedule strength can certainly be measured at this point.
McMillan also talked about his team's ability to step up in a game like this, where they were expected, and favored, to win. They haven't really faced that kind of pressure yet. But, they faced it on Christmas Day, and faced it in front of a national TV audience. And now, this schedule is going to start to turn a little easier. That doesn't mean the wins will be even easier to come by, but it does mean they're going to have to deal with this new pressure a little more often in the next couple of weeks.
It starts on Friday, when the Blazers host the 4-22 Minnesota Timberwolves at the Rose Garden. It continues on Sunday, when 11-16 Philadelphia will be the opponent. After that, the team plays in Salt Lake City, once again, against the Utah Jazz. That'll be a three-game road trip, at Utah, at Minnesota, and at Chicago.
So, while this game didn't have the drama that a lot of the games on this winning streak have had, it was all about winning a game a new way, once again. Mostly, it was just about winning, again. How nice is it to be semi-disappointed with a performance, and still win? That's the mark of a good team. In the locker room after the game, there was no celebrating for the Blazer players. It was a business-like atmosphere again, full of young players who expected to win.
They go for number 12 on Friday.
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Mike;
I can say it was a scary win and that is exciting.
I kept expecting one of the teams to get the hot and pull completely away. I guess that was Portland, although it really didn't seem like it at first. Anyway any win is a good win.
great blog as usual
hg
Not the best game to showcase the team to the nation, but then again, broadcasting a terrible shooting game might help the Baby Blazers sneak up on a couple people down the road -- if the powers think this team is a fluke, so be it. Tee hee.
Lots of perimeter clanks, but passing and rebounding was pivotal, not to mention the lack of turnovers. Of course, it helped that Seattle started a 6'9" forward at center -- that's not gonna happen much in the NBA. A good team to have a bad night against, it would seem.
In any event, a win is a win -- and this one was never in doubt, bad shooting notwithstanding.
timbo
Corvallis
Gotta agree with the previous posts. Seems the Blazers has an off night for the most part - yet still pulled out the V. Glad the streak continues and hope they can up their game come Friday.
Can they match 12 of a few year ago? It's going to be exciting to watch!
Go Blazers.
And... great blog as usual.
Hello from a die hard Blazer fan here in the Philippines. I have been a big fan of the Blazers during my High School days, and that was during the time of Jim Paxson and the Bill Walton Era. I've been following the team from their disappointments to successes during the 90's (Arvidas Sabonis era) to disappointments (that was years agon) to, hopefully this year, successes (with Brandon Roy at the forefront).
One thing I love the Blazers is the organization. The team's earlier successes were built around teammanship. It was reminiscent of the Drexler and company years. Hardheads, like Isiah Rider, had been given their walking papers even before he could command something that he wanted to the detriment of the organization. The organization is built around teammanship, no more no less.
With the current crop of players, playing under that tested system, the team is playing play-off like games this early of the season. Brandon Roy, despite his sophomore year, has shown leadership quality, not the boastful type, yet humble. He has carried the team, and got some winning shots in the process. Jarret Jack, CHaning Frye, Martel Webster, La Marcus Aldridge, Joel Pryzbilla, Steve Blake, Sergio Rodriguez, everyone would contribute one way or another to the campaign of the Blazers.
I love to see the team again in the playoffs, and see what happens.
It was an interesting, if ugly, game. There was that flash of brilliance when the Blazers jumped out to a 16 point lead, and there was also the scary patch where they gave 10 points back. I was especially impressed with Joel's toughness and Channing's accuracy. Travis and Brandon and Steve brought it all again. Sergio made some intelligent plays, Jarrett provided some great strength when we needed it, and Martell was a strong defender. LaMarcus, I'd bet you it was the pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes that stole your normally great accuracy. Happy New Year, everyone!
This streak has been fun to watch. A win is a win. I am shocked at how much run the Blazers are getting around the country. Media never used to like to talk about Portland unless they were dogging on them. Unfortunately, Roy didnt put on that good of a show for national media. He tried, but I think he may have been a bit nervous.
Mike, where has LA's inside game gone? all he does is shoot long jumpers or fade aways. he never attacks the rim.
I usually dont like J. Jacks game, but I love the aggressiveness he is bringing.
Also, Michael Holton was much improved yesterday. He focused more on the actual game rather than cutesy phrases.
wow. if playoffs started today Blazers would be #7 seed. and things are only getting better.
This game made a very strong case for the re-signing of Jarrett Jack, Channing Frye, and Sergio Rodriguez.
I've argued against Jack-critics for a few weeks now that he is most important when our offense is stalling. That's when he provides penetration, foul shots, easy buckets. It happened in SLC and it happened again on Xmas.
In other words: WE NEED J-JACK!
The pieces are all coming together; I hope that KP doesn't mess with his magic too much.
Go Blazers!! Let's make a dozen!!
Wow! What a long strange streak it's been. If I was a betting man, I would be pretty slim in the walleto by now.
If there is an area of concern, it's that the team is pretty much limited to jump shooting. So far so good, but not a very balanced attack. Roy and Jack are the only ones that have the get-to-the-hoop attitude. If somebody would ever set a pick for Travis, he could be in the mix too.
What I would like to see is more plays like the great pass from Sergio to Jones as he cut baseline. More movement down low, more passing to cutters. You got to get easier shots, as the jumpers will come and go.
Also with closer in shots, your offensive rebounding and ability to prevent the fast break goes up too.
Hello! My name is Leonardo and I'm hearing the news about Trail Blazers amazing 11 victories streak! It is making me really happy because i can't watch the most part of the trail blazers games and the comments about Blazers here in Brasil were that Blazers would not win much games this season, and here they are, winning game after game, showing that the only thing which dies the day before is the turkey on thanks giving!
I'd like to say thanks to the Portland Trail Blazers Players, coach and all other people who is envolved on this demonstrantion of what is needed to win a basketball game!
I'm a Portland Fan and i don't know why, and the news of the 11 streak, and going, of blazers, "against all odds", is really making me happy! Thank You Blazers!
From a Brazilian fan who really loves Basketball and specially the Trail Blazers! Thank you for this gift!
I liked the fact that the Blazers found a way to win other than just shooting the ball from the perimeters. We defended and got on the offensive boards. We worked for good shots and getting inside to draw fouls. The best teams win even on bad shooting nights by finding where they can impact the game.
A win-sa-win-sa-win-sa-win! I'll take it any way we can get it. As I was watching the game I was frustrated because I wanted to watch a blowout tonight and I sort of expected it, but in the end I couldn't help but be thankful for the win.
I was also thankful that I can now watch the Blazers without freaking out anytime someone starts making a run on us. We were clearly in the driver seat the entire game and there was no confusion as to which team was better and more confident.
One of the highlights of the game in my mind was when Earl Watson earned a T for throwing the ball at Pryz after Joel denied him. Joel was ready for whatever at that point and I saw James Jones step forward too. I love watching teams get frustrated with us and I love watching us play with fire!
I can't wait for the next game!
Go Blazers, beat the T-Wolves!
I would point out that the "white team" outscored the starters. I would like to know which teams have the most off the bench scoring. It also seems apparent to me that there is a team wide willingness for each player to change their role if the best part of their "game" is not working that night. I also enjoyed the passes to the baseline cutters but I think that this is a work-in-progress for the offense. I think fans should remember that these guys WANT to grow and improve and that takes time and experience(in an extremely competitive and unforgiving environment). I agree with the positive comments about J Jack and Channing Frye and remind some of you not to forget James Jones' various contributions. Lastly, can MB provide info about D Miles' readiness and Josh Mc's health and playing time possibilities(what is he showing in practice?)?
Hi
Well, we are so happy for the Blazers...
My husband and I have been Blazer fans from the beginning of their organization and thru their ups and downs..
Living in Newport it is sometimes difficult to get a broadcast of the games but I manage to find some form of it whether it is via the internet,radio or TV...haha
We are fortunate to have purchased tickets for the game this Sunday the 30th and are looking forward to the excitement of it all..
The team is a work "in progress" and they are progressing quite amazingly...
Thank you to all involved and much success in the new year of 2008..
GO BLAZERS........
Shar
This year is unexpectedly exhilarating . . . there are no words to describe the potential for next year, when Rudy Fernandez and Greg Oden are playing.
Go to youtube and watch the chemistry that Sergio and Rudy have on the Spanish national team: alley-oop unlimited. It's mind-blowing!
Mike,
Thanks for the great blog as usual, I always love reading your analysis. However, I keep hearing different numbers sited regarding the ranking of the Blazer's schedule difficulty. Recently on the radio show and on the tv broadcast it was said that they have had the second most difficult schedule to start the season, but at other times it has been said to also be the fifth and now the fourth. Is there an official number we can look to as a final evaluation, or is this like the NBA power-rankings and just opinion based depending on which site you look at?
Also, I am looking forward to the Boston matchup. I think that will be a real test of the Blazer's reslove to win and ability to face down challenges.
I was just watching 1st and 10 on espn. I must say , I was a little irratated at Jalen Rose talking about how the Portland Trailblazers are not going to make it to the playoffs. Well guess what Jalen Rose, they are going to make the playoffs. You should come to the first playoff game at the ROSE garden in the ROSE city and when they win, I will give you a dozen ROSE's. How about that???
I was just watching 1st and 10 on espn. I must say , I was a little irratated at Jalen Rose talking about how the Portland Trailblazers are not going to make it to the playoffs. Well guess what Jalen Rose, they are going to make the playoffs. You should come to the first playoff game at the ROSE garden in the ROSE city and when they win, I will give you a dozen ROSE's. How about that???
After a game like that most other teams must look at us and think we are completely beatable and probably lucky to win 11 in a row. That is a good thing in my opinion because we want teams coming in thinking they can beat us and walking away scratching their heads thinking "what happened."
Go Blazers! ... but on this offnight for our team... Im rooting for the Bucks to take down the Nuggets.
It was great to see the Blazers pull off the win on Christmas even though I had my worries in the first half. B-Roy's post-game interview summed it up well. 11 in a row is something a city like Portland can really be proud of and I cannot wait 'till Friday.
Go Blaze, baby!
MB - No update on the TV situation with Comcast? We're 1/4 way through the season and our NBA League Pass remains blacked out on Blazer games. I love what the team is doing but I think the management is sitting around counting their money and wishing 600K of their fans would just shut up and go away (or buy tickets to the games, oh, but that doesn't help us on away games...).
Jeff, a team's strength of schedule takes into account each opponent its played and the record of the opponent at the time the strength of schedule is calculated. The Blazers had the toughest strength of schedule when they were playing the SW division teams a lot. It's a bit weaker since then by playing teams with weaker records, like Philly, Charlotte, Miami, and Seattle.
The more games that are played, the less difference there is in strength of schedule from one team to the next. That's why you don't hear much about it after the All-Star break.
Regardless of whether the Blazers have the 1st, 4th, or 6th-toughest schedule, the important and impressive thing is that they have put some tough opponents behind them already and they have a winning record. All they have to do from here on out is play .500 ball to make the playoffs -- assuming 44 or 45 wins is enough to grab the eighth seed.
I don't care what Jalen Rose or Tony Mejia say. Given how the Blazers have been playing, I'm expecting a better playoff seed than eighth -- maybe as high as fourth.
Everything seems to be rosy in the Rose City again and people are starting to reminisce about the Drexler, Porter, Buck era filled with thrills heart breaks and climbing on the blazing band wagon again. Well most of the blogs already done all the toasting and praising this amazing 11 win streak so I need to throw something different to complement the mix.
Sport talks are already talking about trades for a more proven point guard to "win now". Some are salivating the possibilities of adding CP3(Chris Paul) a couple of years down the line, and most of us wonder what if Jack and Martell could play more like Roy, or Blake and Sergio could score more, or Frye and LaMarcus could be tougher down low.
WHAT IF, what if, and what if Paul Allen spends the millions to get the all star studded line up like Scottie Pippen, Shawn Kemp, Dale Davis, Steve Smith, Derek Anderson to complement Wallace, Bonzi, Zach, Sabbas and Damon? Oh wait a minute wasn’t that already done? We all know what happened or don’t we?
The key word here that seems to escape most everybody is “complement”. The 3 major glaring weaknesses in the early 2000 era “money” all star studded line-up is lack of a selfless point guard whose penetrates and creates not worrying about how many points he scores like a Steve Blake or a Sergio, a penetrating foul drawing slashing shooting guard or small forward like a Jarret Jack or an Outlaw, and last but not least the common tendency of all of these “chocolate”, tough at first soft later players which melts when the going gets heated to settle for the threes. You have Wallace starting to fall in love with the threes and whose aggressiveness is usually nonexistence in the fourth, Bonzi who is always aggressive at the early going but who also settled for the threes in the fourth, and Damon who was an inconsistent penetrator at best also loved launching threes. Pippen was at the end of his years so for him to take the easy way out with the threes is understandable. All of this when we already brought Steve Smith here and other role players for their three point specialties? This was not a complementary line up, but more like supplementary line-up, like taking lots of vitamin Cs supplements when you lack iron, and get a bad case of diarrhea.
I can recall making the predictions that the Blazers would lose every time whenever the Pippen led Blazers team which was usually ahead or tied entering final eight minutes of the fourth quarter started to go away from the post where they had the most advantages with Wallace, Bonzi, and Steve Smith and throwing up threes instead. I was right most of the time. My most eerie prediction was during the 7th game Western Conference Final against the hated Lakers when the Blazers were ahead by about 15 points with about 8-9 minutes left, and I told a room full of family and friends that we and say good bye to the win if Wallace start to shoot threes even if he could hit some of them. This when Wallace, Smith and Pippen were so successful down low with punishing the then weaker Kobe, and Robert Horry playing the power forward position. We all know what painfully transpired right?
Back to our current Blazers roster, we have players who naturally complement each other extremely well. We don’t want to bring in Chris Paul since that will take away what Brandon can do. We shouldn’t trade Jack away for a selfish scorer or someone who demands the ball in their hands take away the skill set from Steve and Sergio and ruin the fluidity of the offense. We should try to get a post up player and give LA and Frye more time to add more to their post game, since Brandon and Outlaw penetrating and drawing fouls kind of compensate for this glaring weakness for now. Frye is shooting extremely well and rebounding a bit better so it kind of masked our post up problem. The key that I see here is that the current roster doesn’t have a common tendency of falling in love with the threes at the same time, they take them as the play naturally develops, and that they each have a very unique way of the playing the game which eliminate contention or someone feeling left out when they are all on the court together. They each know that when they take the floor that their teammates are relying on them for their unique skills which makes them feel important and connected even if they are not scoring.
This blog is getting too long, but I feel that the 11 game winning streak happened not for a reason but for the many reasons that I have mentioned. My bold prediction is that when the streak ends and the Blazers is able to play .500 basketball for the 10 games after the streak, they will beat out Denver for the Northwest Division Championship getting the 3rd or 4th seed entering the playoffs and go as far as the 2nd round. If they play below .500 basketball they would barely make the 8th seed and would not get pass the 1st round of the playoffs. Bottom line is they will make the playoffs if Joel stays healthy “knock on wood” and we don’t lose any of our black unit players to injuries again “knock on wood”. If bad luck and heart breaks come around again we can very much get rid of the Rip City label and be just Drama City.
A few nicknames for TO, Travis the Take Over Outlaw because of the way he has been taking over games in the fourth, and Travis the Take you Out Outlaw or just simply the Sheriff for the way he is handing out tickets after tickets to those breaking the rules by fouling him. The Sheriff then enforce the lane and traffic with those thunderous dunks in his “helicopter”.
--Minh Tran
SE Portland
p.s. this is my first sport blog ever so please be kind ;)
Wow, Minh.
That was quite the post.
Most probably won't take the time to read it, but you made some good points.
We have great chemistry but as Dave Deckard at Blazer's Edge has pointed out, we can't possibly keep everyone we have now, nurture everyone to their full potential, and keep them all happy and paid at market value:
http://www.blazersedge.com/story/2007/12/27/23515/218#commenttop
A lot of our pieces will have to or want to go, unfortunately.
All I know is that KP is really, really uber-smart at being a GM and will probably make the perfect decisions for this roster, whether we like it or not.
For my money, though, I think you're on to something. We should stick to what works until it breaks, even if it means passing on some big-name Free Agents that may well destroy the chemistry this group has so pain-stakingly developed.
Mike one last comment
this is to Minh Tran.
You said a lot and very true. except when LA overtook us in that game the Refs took pimpin and Sobones out of the game. I did feel like we could have still drove it in rather than settleling for out side 3 pters. But if the refs never called the fouls and LA wouldn't let us get a shot off what repreve did we have?
I have always thought that game was taken away from us though politics and the money market.
If we keep the complementry team we have now your predictions will be close and I agree about not trading anybody off this year. Don't forget if we don't become the Drama Blazers again we have Odom and Rudy coming next year and we also have to figure what to do with Miles.
We have many things to look at and since we have already exceeded expectations of the team. we might just have to play out the hand and find out what we have.
I think you would have to look hard to replace the top players right now. and we have new players that doesn't get any playing time that I believe will be fantastic players if needed.
anyway good blob
HG
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