10 In A Row!

[tlongII]

You can't stop us! You can only hope to contain us!

[tlongII]

There is something special happening here. You can feel it!

[Fillmoe]

xmas day yall gonna lose to the sonics

[E20]

Travis Outlaw has really developed for the Blazers.

Roy is doing pretty well for my fantasy team. Although in this outing he played below his average of 24 points and 7 assists (Only 18 and 5), he chipped in a lot of made FT's.

[sa_kid20]

I don't think anybody saw a ten game winning streak and still counting for the Blazers coming at any point during the seanson . Gotta admit this is pretty impressive.

[mikejones99]

at this rate they could get a seed out west. party in the PDX

[SpursDynasty]

I admit I am impressed. Now we have at least a reason to watch the Portland/Seattle Christmas Day game: Portland's 10-game streak on the line.

[tlongII]

http://mikebarrettsblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/surreal-scene-as-10-falls.html


Surreal Scene as #10 Falls posted: 12/21/2007 at 11:30 PM
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I've been with the Trail Blazers since 1999. I covered them before that for KXL, and have only missed a handful of home games since 1992. And, I've been to every single game, home and road, the last 6 years. Perhaps it's just the emotion of the moment, but the memory of Friday night's 99-96 win over Denver has got to rank in the top five of all time for me. I don't care what happens the rest of the way, I'm just soaking up what I've just experienced. It's not always about the destination, it's about the journey.


If there was ever such a thing as a playoff atmosphere in December in the NBA, this was it. There wasn't a ticket to be had. The Rose Garden, sold out, holds 19,980. On Friday night, 20,644 jammed the building. That means 664 people didn't have seats. There was an electricity I simply haven't felt in many years.


This incredibly-unlikely winning streak has reached 10. The last seven wins in the streak have come against playoff teams from a year ago. The Blazers have played the 2nd-toughest schedule in the NBA so far. Before this streak Portland had lost 9 of 10, and in the last 5 of that cold spell had averaged just 81 points per game.


This is now the second-longest winning streak in NBA history by a team that had 50 or more losses in the previous season. This is the longest winning streak in NBA history by a team following drafting the #1 overall pick. He hasn't even played yet.


The Blazers are 12-3 at home, 10 and 1 in December, and 4-1 against the Northwest Division. They are a half-game out of first place in the NW, and three games over .500. And, as I've told you, this is the third-youngest team in NBA history. The top two on that list combined to win 31 games in those seasons. The Blazers are at 15, with 55 games left.


The fourth quarter continues to be magic for this team. The youngest team in the league is not supposed to show this kind of poise, confidence, and control in the final quarters of games (have I used that before?) It's a result of chemistry, the defining of roles, and an incredible belief in the system.


In the last two fourth quarters, the Blazers have outscored their opponents 55-33. On Wednesday, they trailed Toronto by 7 going into the 4th. On Friday, they trailed Denver by 7 going into the 4th. They outscored the Raptors 25-13 in the fourth, and outscored the Nuggets 30 to 20 in the 4th.


Nothing was easy in this ballgame against Denver, and you knew it would be that way. With no Marcus Camby or Kenyon Martin, the Nuggets went small, and that's caused Portland problems this season. In no way did I think the loss of those two players would put the Nuggets at a big disadvantage. It would simply give Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony more shots. On this night they combined for 68 points.


With one minute to play, Denver had the ball with the game tied 94-94. Iverson went to the middle, but his shot was off the mark. With :36 seconds left, James Jones, who had only missed one free throw all season, missed the first and made the second. Denver then went to Anthony, who backed Brandon Roy into deep post position. As he elevated, Roy rose and blocked the shot. Travis Outlaw then hit two free throws to give Portland a 3-point lead. Following an Iverson lay in, the Nuggets fouled Jarrett Jack, who hit a pair at the line. With no timeouts left, Denver went the length of the floor and Linus Kleiza had his feet set a let a three pointer go which would have sent the game to overtime. Outlaw elevated and blocked the shot, ending the game.


We continue to see new things during this streak. It's taken hard-driving lay ins, rebounds, free throws, three-pointers, last-second shots, and now, two blocked shots to get the win.


Christmas Day the Trail Blazers will try and make it 11-straight wins when they host Seattle. The game is already sold out. It will be nationally televised on ESPN, and we'll also have it on KGW, in HD.


The Blazers had planned on wearing their alternate-red jerseys in this game. They also had red shoes specially made from the various companies for the players to wear (that was going to be a little surprise). But, I know Nate McMillan. He never does anything to jinx a streak. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see those red shoes and jerseys stay on the shelf, because the white home jerseys have been working. If it aint' broke, don't fix it. We'll have to wait and see what they decide.


December has been an absolute blur, as it seems like we've either had a game, or been on a plane, or had a radio show every single night. I'm way, way behind on Christmas shopping. Now I have the weekend for that. I was in Denver last Sunday on my wife's birthday, but get to be home, with a day off, on our anniversary on Saturday.


I know one thing, my Christmas gift from this team is this 10-game winning streak. The only thing that would make it better would be number 11 on Christmas Day.


Merry Christmas.


MB

[BacktoBasics]

This is going to really fuck with their draft spot.

[tlongII]

What the Nuggets had to say...


George Karl :

(About the Trail Blazers) “They are very confident. They’ve grown together very quickly. They have very good composure for close games and close situations. They also have the ability to explode on you with the three ball. They are always dangerous and can hit three or four threes on you in any situation. They have a combination…there guards are heady guys like Blake and Jack. They have a lot of pieces. They have there cohesiveness faster than a young team usually does.”


Carmelo Anthony :

“They are a tough team…they’ve won 10 in a row. It’s hard to say they are creeping up on teams. They are a hot team and they are playing well right now. Everything they throw up is going in and they are playing together right now. They are playing extremely well. Before the game George came up to me and AI and told us to get that third person involved, but it was kind of hard out there tonight. I tried and AI tried. We came out here and played hard. In the fourth quarter Outlaw got hot. He got it started and everybody started hitting shots. When you’ve got five guys on the court who are making shots it’s kind of hard to do anything. They are the hottest team in the NBA right now.”

:smokin

[lefty]

If Oden comes back super healthy next season, they are gonna be scary good....

[Kriz-Maxima]

:toast to the Trailblazers

[mikejones99]

next loss should be the 31st at Mormons after 13 wins in A ROW