tlongII
04-28-2014, 08:26 AM
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2014/04/canzano_trail_blazers_up_3-1_t.html#incart_big-photo
http://imgick.oregonlive.com/home/olive-media/pgmain/img/oregonian/photo/2014/04/-df78a471b868d7e8.jpg
Portland Trail Blazers guard Wesley Matthews (2) after the win.
There are some nearly 14-year-old children all over this state who share a small piece of suffering. The Trail Blazers have not won a playoff series in their lifetime.
Well, Portland beat Houston on Sunday 123-120. Goes without saying, the game went overtime. It was another peptic ulcer. And what we now have is a Blazers team that stands on the cusp of breaking all that franchise futility, up three games to one against the Rockets.
"One more," LaMarcus Aldridge cried out after. "One more."
The big guy spoke for the state.
Aldridge scored 29 points and had 10 rebounds. Great night. But not better than the fans who stood through most of the fourth quarter and an overtime, legs shaking, arms folded, dining on their fingernails.
I looked up at the 300-level at the beginning of the overtime and saw the silhouette of a man just standing, arms raised over his head for a solid, hopeful, minute. Down on the 200 level, a woman covered her eyes while Aldridge shot free throws later in the period, missing both. Below that, in section 119, a bald woman named Julie and her husband, Bill, held each other close, watching the final seconds melt from the clock.
"Fallopian cancer," she said to me.
"How are you doing?" I asked.
"Not well," she said. "So this is a nice night out."
The Blazers played for coach Terry Stotts on Sunday. They played for each other. They played for themselves. But all around, it was unmistakable — they played for Blazers fans, too. Fans like Julie and Bill, and that man raising his arms on the upper level. Fans like Matthew Vachter, the 15-year-old with cerebral palsy who wheels his chair to the tunnel near the locker room each time he's at the game so he can high-five the players.
Vachter just screamed as the Blazers ran past him. He's there most nights, and the team is now 42-7 with him around, but he has never looked more excited than he did sniffing a playoff victory.
I met a man named Noah Wolfe on the concourse before the game. He had his son with him, but was distraught. Wolfe, a landscaper, told me he wanted to bring his 14-year-old to his first Blazers game, and had scalped a pair of lower-level tickets outside the arena for $400.
"Fakes," he said. "I got to the door and they were fakes."
Wolfe bought two more, these in the 300-level, for $150.
"It was all I could afford," he said. "We'll make the best of it."
I'll say.
Aldridge piled through the tunnel with his teammates after the game. He turned right down the corridor, then left into the mouth of the Blazers locker room. Often, owner Paul Allen goes to his private room after games, but this time he just stood there, high-fiving the players, as they passed. He understands how close they are.
"I've got to make those free throws," Aldridge said as he passed the man who also owns a Lombardi Trophy.
Make no mistake: The Rockets feel broken. Their hearts were ripped out on Sunday, and even if they muster enough energy to win Game 5 at home, they don't feel like the kind of team that can reel off three straight victories and steal this series. Regardless, what I loved most about the Blazers' victory was that the players looked hungry and focused after.
Only two players have been here for any extended stretch of futility, Aldridge and Nicolas Batum. But the rest seem to understand the stakes. Portland knows it's very close to breaking through and ending that 14-year playoff victory drought. You can feel it all around. As an organization, since losing in the Western Conference Finals in 2000, they've had some near misses, and some hopeful flirtations with a playoff series victory.
Since making the conference finals in 2000, where they should have won an NBA title, Portland has missed the playoffs seven seasons, and exited with a first-round playoff loss in the other six seasons.
The franchise changed general managers and head coaches like you change socks. "Knee surgery," became a curse phrase. The Blazers won playoff games, but never a series in that span, and it's the kind of tough run that makes a sports columnist declare there's zero-percent chance they'll ever win a series again.
I said that. I believed that. I wrote that, many times. And I want nothing more after seeing all those hopeful faces in the arena, and a line of shrieks with every turn of fortune on Sunday, than to be wrong by the time the teenagers of this state skip to bed on Wednesday night.
The Blazers — winners.
Try that on while we wait for Game 5, or 6 or 7, if necessary.
But not before we all understand that it's going to take one more gutsy, ulcer-lined victory, probably in overtime, likely with the Rockets chucking up shots, and the officials blowing their whistles along the way.
There was a moment on Sunday, maybe when Portland roared ahead only to be caught by Houston in the closing minutes, or maybe early in the overtime, when I believed this game, and this series might never end.
It's been a blast, yeah?
James Harden and Dwight Howard have played the roles of villain brilliantly. Three games have gone to overtime, a first in playoff history for the Blazers. And while a 3-1 lead is commanding on paper, what we have here is a series that could easily be tipped the opposite direction with Portland mired in futility.
Give the Blazers credit. They wiggled out of Games 1, 2 and 4. They scrambled. They fought (SEE: Mo Williams) for every loose ball, and valued every possession. When things didn't go right (SEE: Robin Lopez), they didn't quit. They continued to battle.
In that, the Blazers are a lot like their fans the last 14 years.
http://imgick.oregonlive.com/home/olive-media/pgmain/img/oregonian/photo/2014/04/-df78a471b868d7e8.jpg
Portland Trail Blazers guard Wesley Matthews (2) after the win.
There are some nearly 14-year-old children all over this state who share a small piece of suffering. The Trail Blazers have not won a playoff series in their lifetime.
Well, Portland beat Houston on Sunday 123-120. Goes without saying, the game went overtime. It was another peptic ulcer. And what we now have is a Blazers team that stands on the cusp of breaking all that franchise futility, up three games to one against the Rockets.
"One more," LaMarcus Aldridge cried out after. "One more."
The big guy spoke for the state.
Aldridge scored 29 points and had 10 rebounds. Great night. But not better than the fans who stood through most of the fourth quarter and an overtime, legs shaking, arms folded, dining on their fingernails.
I looked up at the 300-level at the beginning of the overtime and saw the silhouette of a man just standing, arms raised over his head for a solid, hopeful, minute. Down on the 200 level, a woman covered her eyes while Aldridge shot free throws later in the period, missing both. Below that, in section 119, a bald woman named Julie and her husband, Bill, held each other close, watching the final seconds melt from the clock.
"Fallopian cancer," she said to me.
"How are you doing?" I asked.
"Not well," she said. "So this is a nice night out."
The Blazers played for coach Terry Stotts on Sunday. They played for each other. They played for themselves. But all around, it was unmistakable — they played for Blazers fans, too. Fans like Julie and Bill, and that man raising his arms on the upper level. Fans like Matthew Vachter, the 15-year-old with cerebral palsy who wheels his chair to the tunnel near the locker room each time he's at the game so he can high-five the players.
Vachter just screamed as the Blazers ran past him. He's there most nights, and the team is now 42-7 with him around, but he has never looked more excited than he did sniffing a playoff victory.
I met a man named Noah Wolfe on the concourse before the game. He had his son with him, but was distraught. Wolfe, a landscaper, told me he wanted to bring his 14-year-old to his first Blazers game, and had scalped a pair of lower-level tickets outside the arena for $400.
"Fakes," he said. "I got to the door and they were fakes."
Wolfe bought two more, these in the 300-level, for $150.
"It was all I could afford," he said. "We'll make the best of it."
I'll say.
Aldridge piled through the tunnel with his teammates after the game. He turned right down the corridor, then left into the mouth of the Blazers locker room. Often, owner Paul Allen goes to his private room after games, but this time he just stood there, high-fiving the players, as they passed. He understands how close they are.
"I've got to make those free throws," Aldridge said as he passed the man who also owns a Lombardi Trophy.
Make no mistake: The Rockets feel broken. Their hearts were ripped out on Sunday, and even if they muster enough energy to win Game 5 at home, they don't feel like the kind of team that can reel off three straight victories and steal this series. Regardless, what I loved most about the Blazers' victory was that the players looked hungry and focused after.
Only two players have been here for any extended stretch of futility, Aldridge and Nicolas Batum. But the rest seem to understand the stakes. Portland knows it's very close to breaking through and ending that 14-year playoff victory drought. You can feel it all around. As an organization, since losing in the Western Conference Finals in 2000, they've had some near misses, and some hopeful flirtations with a playoff series victory.
Since making the conference finals in 2000, where they should have won an NBA title, Portland has missed the playoffs seven seasons, and exited with a first-round playoff loss in the other six seasons.
The franchise changed general managers and head coaches like you change socks. "Knee surgery," became a curse phrase. The Blazers won playoff games, but never a series in that span, and it's the kind of tough run that makes a sports columnist declare there's zero-percent chance they'll ever win a series again.
I said that. I believed that. I wrote that, many times. And I want nothing more after seeing all those hopeful faces in the arena, and a line of shrieks with every turn of fortune on Sunday, than to be wrong by the time the teenagers of this state skip to bed on Wednesday night.
The Blazers — winners.
Try that on while we wait for Game 5, or 6 or 7, if necessary.
But not before we all understand that it's going to take one more gutsy, ulcer-lined victory, probably in overtime, likely with the Rockets chucking up shots, and the officials blowing their whistles along the way.
There was a moment on Sunday, maybe when Portland roared ahead only to be caught by Houston in the closing minutes, or maybe early in the overtime, when I believed this game, and this series might never end.
It's been a blast, yeah?
James Harden and Dwight Howard have played the roles of villain brilliantly. Three games have gone to overtime, a first in playoff history for the Blazers. And while a 3-1 lead is commanding on paper, what we have here is a series that could easily be tipped the opposite direction with Portland mired in futility.
Give the Blazers credit. They wiggled out of Games 1, 2 and 4. They scrambled. They fought (SEE: Mo Williams) for every loose ball, and valued every possession. When things didn't go right (SEE: Robin Lopez), they didn't quit. They continued to battle.
In that, the Blazers are a lot like their fans the last 14 years.