tlongII
01-11-2012, 10:04 AM
http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index.ssf/2012/01/blazers_26.html
The search for that start-to-finish masterpiece of a game is still on for the Trail Blazers, but they played well enough to beat the Clippers 105-97 at the Rose Garden.
“We’re still looking to put together a 48-minute game,” Blazers coach Nate McMillan said. “I thought we played 36, maybe 40 minutes, and we got a little careless down the stretch.”
It was the kind of game where the Blazers seemed ready to pull away to a big win, but the Clippers kept coming back. That’s what good teams do, and the Clippers at times look like a strong, Western Conference playoff team.
Even as this Portland team's bandwagon is starting to fill up, the season remains a mystery. The Blazers have solid wins over the 76ers, Thunder, Lakers and Clippers, and some are even calling them the best team in the Western Conference. There are certainly indications that this could become a special season for Portland, but things still have to play out and those final 8-12 minutes have to be ironed out.
The Blazers (7-2) improved to 6-0 at home. The way the shortened season is, getting as many wins at home as possible is vital.
“That’s something we talked about in training camp, solidifying our home court,” center Marcus Camby said. “And it’s especially important now.”
The Blazers get one more chance to fatten up at home tonight, although the task is hardly easy against the Orlando Magic and Dwight Howard, the NBA’s best center. Certainly, there’s something even more daunting past Orlando in an upcoming road trip in which the Blazers will play six games in nine days and will certainly tell us a lot about where this season will end up.
But we’ll get to that. As coaches constantly harp, let’s take this one game at a time, starting with Orlando.
Other tidbits, notes and links from Tuesday's game:
• The Blazers played strong defense on Clippers stars Blake Griffin and Chris Paul to avenge a bad loss in Los Angeles, The Oregonian's Joe Freeman reports.
• The officiating was, well, touchy, with several postgame comments about it. The coaches, who risk being fined for being overly critical of the officials, danced around it, especially in commenting on the foul trouble of Clippers point guard Chris Paul, who picked up three fouls in the first half and went scoreless before half time.
"He got in some early foul trouble, some questionable calls against him," Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said.
"Officials could probably give Paul the benefit of the doubt with them being in foul trouble," McMillan said.
Paul, on he other hand, was more direct: "There was some bogus stuff going on out there but it's part of the game. I know those guys and they flop on you. But it goes like that sometimes."
Of course, there was a bad phantom foul called against the Blazers in a late play involving Blake Griffin..
• The Oregonian's Jason Quick has a column on the late-game slip-ups of point guard Raymond Felton, who otherwise outplayed the more heralded Paul. Felton and his longtime teammate Gerald Wallace offer up some strong quotes to quick.
• One notable stat line came from center Marcus Camby, who had 12 points and 11 rebounds and shot 6 for 9 from the field. What's notable is the scoring, which Camby has not been doing much of lately.
The 12 points, in fact, were Camby's high game since very early last season when on Dec. 10, 2010, he scored 16 points at Phoenix. The last time Camby scored in double figures before Tuesday was Jan. 5, 2011, when he scored 10 points at Houston.
Camby remains a strong passer, rebounder and shot blocker, but had not been much of a scoring threat before last night.
• The Clippers entered the game after playing the NBA's lightest early schedule, having played just six games. Today they are back in Los Angeles to play Miami in a high-profile matchup that gives the Clippers their first back-to-back of the season. In comparison, the Blazers will complete their third tonight.
The Clippers had just one traveling newspaper writer in town to cover the game. In comparison, the Lakers had a veritable army when they were here last week -- proving that talk of a takeover of Los Angeles by the Clippers is probably premature.
Anyway, the L.A. Times' Broderick Turner asked Del Negro before the game if there was any concern that his team could be thinking past Tuesday's game to the visit by the mighty Heat. Del Negro was having none of it, saying the Blazers would be a big challenge for his team.
"Portland is playing as well and is as deep and as good as any team in the league," Del Negro said. "We’d better have our high beams on, we’d better be focused in on what we need to do here tonight and worry about tomorrow, tomorrow."
• We have updates on the contract situations on the Blazers' two small forwards. Quick reports that Wallace will not seek an extension with the Blazers during the season, but considers it a business decision and says he would like to remain with the Blazers.
Meanwhile, Freeman reports that Nicolas Batum's agent will meet with team officials when the team is in San Antonio on Friday to discuss an extension for his client.
• In his game story, Turner writes that the Clippers play well, but couldn't get over the hump and lost.
• As the Blazers and Clippers battled, Orlando already had worked out at the Blazers' practice facility in Tualatin. The Magic haven't played since winning at Sacramento on Sunday. The Orlando Sentinel's Josh Robbins reports that the Magic consider Portland a good test for them.
The search for that start-to-finish masterpiece of a game is still on for the Trail Blazers, but they played well enough to beat the Clippers 105-97 at the Rose Garden.
“We’re still looking to put together a 48-minute game,” Blazers coach Nate McMillan said. “I thought we played 36, maybe 40 minutes, and we got a little careless down the stretch.”
It was the kind of game where the Blazers seemed ready to pull away to a big win, but the Clippers kept coming back. That’s what good teams do, and the Clippers at times look like a strong, Western Conference playoff team.
Even as this Portland team's bandwagon is starting to fill up, the season remains a mystery. The Blazers have solid wins over the 76ers, Thunder, Lakers and Clippers, and some are even calling them the best team in the Western Conference. There are certainly indications that this could become a special season for Portland, but things still have to play out and those final 8-12 minutes have to be ironed out.
The Blazers (7-2) improved to 6-0 at home. The way the shortened season is, getting as many wins at home as possible is vital.
“That’s something we talked about in training camp, solidifying our home court,” center Marcus Camby said. “And it’s especially important now.”
The Blazers get one more chance to fatten up at home tonight, although the task is hardly easy against the Orlando Magic and Dwight Howard, the NBA’s best center. Certainly, there’s something even more daunting past Orlando in an upcoming road trip in which the Blazers will play six games in nine days and will certainly tell us a lot about where this season will end up.
But we’ll get to that. As coaches constantly harp, let’s take this one game at a time, starting with Orlando.
Other tidbits, notes and links from Tuesday's game:
• The Blazers played strong defense on Clippers stars Blake Griffin and Chris Paul to avenge a bad loss in Los Angeles, The Oregonian's Joe Freeman reports.
• The officiating was, well, touchy, with several postgame comments about it. The coaches, who risk being fined for being overly critical of the officials, danced around it, especially in commenting on the foul trouble of Clippers point guard Chris Paul, who picked up three fouls in the first half and went scoreless before half time.
"He got in some early foul trouble, some questionable calls against him," Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said.
"Officials could probably give Paul the benefit of the doubt with them being in foul trouble," McMillan said.
Paul, on he other hand, was more direct: "There was some bogus stuff going on out there but it's part of the game. I know those guys and they flop on you. But it goes like that sometimes."
Of course, there was a bad phantom foul called against the Blazers in a late play involving Blake Griffin..
• The Oregonian's Jason Quick has a column on the late-game slip-ups of point guard Raymond Felton, who otherwise outplayed the more heralded Paul. Felton and his longtime teammate Gerald Wallace offer up some strong quotes to quick.
• One notable stat line came from center Marcus Camby, who had 12 points and 11 rebounds and shot 6 for 9 from the field. What's notable is the scoring, which Camby has not been doing much of lately.
The 12 points, in fact, were Camby's high game since very early last season when on Dec. 10, 2010, he scored 16 points at Phoenix. The last time Camby scored in double figures before Tuesday was Jan. 5, 2011, when he scored 10 points at Houston.
Camby remains a strong passer, rebounder and shot blocker, but had not been much of a scoring threat before last night.
• The Clippers entered the game after playing the NBA's lightest early schedule, having played just six games. Today they are back in Los Angeles to play Miami in a high-profile matchup that gives the Clippers their first back-to-back of the season. In comparison, the Blazers will complete their third tonight.
The Clippers had just one traveling newspaper writer in town to cover the game. In comparison, the Lakers had a veritable army when they were here last week -- proving that talk of a takeover of Los Angeles by the Clippers is probably premature.
Anyway, the L.A. Times' Broderick Turner asked Del Negro before the game if there was any concern that his team could be thinking past Tuesday's game to the visit by the mighty Heat. Del Negro was having none of it, saying the Blazers would be a big challenge for his team.
"Portland is playing as well and is as deep and as good as any team in the league," Del Negro said. "We’d better have our high beams on, we’d better be focused in on what we need to do here tonight and worry about tomorrow, tomorrow."
• We have updates on the contract situations on the Blazers' two small forwards. Quick reports that Wallace will not seek an extension with the Blazers during the season, but considers it a business decision and says he would like to remain with the Blazers.
Meanwhile, Freeman reports that Nicolas Batum's agent will meet with team officials when the team is in San Antonio on Friday to discuss an extension for his client.
• In his game story, Turner writes that the Clippers play well, but couldn't get over the hump and lost.
• As the Blazers and Clippers battled, Orlando already had worked out at the Blazers' practice facility in Tualatin. The Magic haven't played since winning at Sacramento on Sunday. The Orlando Sentinel's Josh Robbins reports that the Magic consider Portland a good test for them.