Injury & Celtics Confound Blazers
Andrew R Tonry | Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 12:27AM “Roy doesn’t look right,” said one.
“I know,” barked the other. “He was limping!”
Indeed it doesn’t take an expert to see that Brandon Roy is hurt—the preceding conversation took place somewhat drunkenly in the men’s bathroom. But that conversation was replicated everywhere Friday. From chat rooms to press row, everyone was asking: Roy doesn’t look right, so why is he playing?
The sentiment even popped up in the Celtics locker room. Unprompted, Kevin Garnett added “Brandon looks hurt—I’m just being honest,” (:23) to a question about Marcus Camby.
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Despite the prevailing sense that something is wrong enough with the Blazers star that he should be sitting out, the experts—team doctors, coaching staff, GM Kevin Pritchard and Roy himself—seeming to think it’s just fine that Roy sees extended minutes (34) like he did Friday.
After Roy’s somewhat emotional response Tuesday the Blazers company line has apparently been cleaned up—no longer is anything “in jeopardy.” Now it will “take time for Brandon took get his rhythm back,” or so they all said. Roy used the same words as coach McMillan did in his post-game press conference, which was almost eery.
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So Roy pushed the message and added some gloss: despite the nagging hamstring injury, which leaves him without some explosive, athletic moves, he believes he can be just as good as he was before. Here’s that conversation:
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I mean to cast no dispersion on Roy—I admire his will and desire to plow through the pain in hopes of helping his teammates. But this is a player who is still somewhat young, and as far as his playing career is concerned, even including college, this is the longest an injury has ever kept him out. These are uncharted waters.
As it appears now, if Roy is able to play even close to his pre-injury potential the Blazers move from an eight seed to a five or six. Either way, the Blazers are staring down the barrel of another first round playoff exit. If that’s all the upside, why risk it just for nine points and one assist?
Even if the Blazers had themselves a healthy Roy on Friday, they still would’ve had a really rough time against the Celtics. The veteran laden team looked every bit like the title contender they claim to be, dismantling the Blazers 97-76 in a game that was no closer than the score suggests.
Defensively, the Celtics were top notch. They held the Blazers to a pitiful 33.8% shooting from the field, and kept the clamps tight on every individual Portland player. The Blazers found themselves down 32-25 to begin the second quarter. And then things got really bad.
LaMarcus Aldridge was the only Blazer player to score a field goal in a brutal second quarter—it didn’t come until 5:17 remained in the half. During that stretch the Blazers turned the ball over four times, of which Marcus Camby was responsible for three, mostly bad outlet passes in the back court.
Overall, Boston dished out 27 assists to the Blazers seven. Thirty of Portland’s points came from the line (out of 40 attempts). They made just 22 field goals.
The Blazers’ futility continued from behind the arc, where they made just two of 12 attempts. And while credit must given the Celtics defense, Portland had a number of open looks. Martell Webster was one of the culprits. In another disappearing act, he made just one of four attempts from three point land (in junk time). He finished with four points, one rebound and two assists.
A game after scoring 15 against the Clippers, Rudy Fernandez seemed to fall back into a slump that’s dogged him for weeks. He had just five points and missed all four of his three point attempts. In one stretch he was called for back-to-back offensive fouls that would’ve otherwise resulted in and-one’s while firing up the crowd. But the calls were clear, and Rudy was in the wrong.
Andre Miller led the Blazers with 16 points, half of which came from the line, but handed out only two assists. LaMarcus Aldridge was again relatively steady. He finished with fifteen points and nine rebounds.
Marcus Camby’s first game in a Blazer uniform looked like it. He had just two points, seven rebounds and five turnovers. Coach McMillan replaced Camby with Juwan Howard to start the second half so that he could run more plays. Certainly, Camby has a lot left to learn.
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And for that matter, so do the rest of us. Either we—the great unwashed, graduates of Hollywood Upstairs Medical College—need to learn that letting Roy play while he’s injured is not a risk; that he’ll be greatly effective, and that the potential payoff is worthwhile. Or the experts—Blazer coaches, doctors, brass and Roy himself—will finally ask themselves what exactly they hope to gain from pushing their luck in the midst of a season that has been unrelentingly devastating with regard to injuries.
Reader Comments (3)
My head started spinning after I saw this: "Rudy was in the wrong"?
You have upset the natural order of the universe. There will be consequences.
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