Tough One In Phoenix

Give credit to the Phoenix scouts—they did their job.

After Friday’s game, I mentioned that the Wizards made their fourth quarter comeback once Flips Saunders went to the zone. And judging by what happened Sunday, Saunders appears to have found a hole. McMillan even said Friday that Saunders “hid” the zone from them until the fourth quarter.

On Sunday, Phoenix did much the same thing.

The Suns went strictly to the zone down the stretch in the fourth quarter and a four point Blazer lead quickly turned into an eight point deficit. In the final period, Portland put up just 19 points against one of the weaker defenses of the NBA. Possession after possession, the Blazers were unable to find daylight for good shots—many were forced just to beat the clock. On a night where Andre Miller takes—and misses—a whopping six three point attempts it’s safe to say the wheels fell off.

Portland hit just two of 17 three point attempts, which allowed the Suns to confidently sag even further into their zone.

The horrid shooting performances of Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge were also eerily similar to the Wizards game. In Phoenix Roy made just eight of a mind-boggling 25 attempts while Aldridge netted six of fifteen. In the last two games the two Blazer stars are have made a combined 24 of 75 attempts (32%).

On the defensive end, Aldridge had an equally fitful time defending Amare Stoudamire. And although Stoudamire was held to just 18—four below his average—on shooting that rivaled Aldridge’s, the Blazer forward was forced into fouls time after time—they just happened to be on the floor. Jerryd Bayless’ held defense was equally ineffective.

The lone bright spot in Blazer colors was Marcus Camby. The veteran piled up game-highs with 16 rebounds and five blocks.

Through three quarters, Andre Miller was in the savior category as well. As Roy and Aldridge couldn’t hit the backside of a barn, Miller kept things close with constant pressure. That was until the fourth quarter when he missed all six attempts to finish with 22 points on seven of 20 (in all fairness, Miller was forced into a number of these shots by way of flaming bag passes). Roy led all scorers with 23.

As a team, the Blazers shot just 36.4% from the field. They kept it close for as long as they did for two reasons: 1.) they had only four turnovers—a season low, all of which came in the third quarter; and 2.) as a team Phoenix shot 38.8%—not much better. It was the first time in 13 games that the Blazers scored less than 100 on the road.

Despite all the horrible shooting statistics, it’s gets worse. The Blazers could’ve stayed in this game had they made their free throws. In the final six minutes the Blazers missed four free freebies (Camby clanked one, Batum one, and Aldridge two). As a team Portland missed eight (21 of 29).

More than ending a five game winning-streak for Portland, this loss is notable because of the razor thing margins separating the five through eight spots in the western conference playoff race. Coming into tonight’s game both San Antonio and Oklahoma City lost. Phoenix and OKC were only a game and a half ahead of Portland. Sunday’s lost kept the Blazers in eighth. With a win they would’ve jumped the Spurs.

Overall, an odd game. A tough barometer, as the scoring Phoenix usually foments was so out of character. Rest assured, with Dallas and OKC on the horizon, we’re going to know soon.

Suns Preview

Very quickly, everything you need to know about Sunday’s game in Phoenix: It’s a huge test and a perfect barometer. The Blazers are riding a five-game winning streak, and have won eight of their last nine games. The catch? All but one of those wins came against teams with below .500 records and most of them are WELL below.

In the western conference playoff race, The Blazers are just 1 1/2 games behind the fifth place Suns. The variances between spots five and eight—also including Oklahoma City & San Antonio—are mere percentage points.

Sunday’s is a critical game if the Blazers want to start moving up out of that eight spot. But are they ready for a Suns team who just two days ago slapped Utah around? Add to that the Suns are solid in their own building. On the other hand, Portland have one the previous two meetings this season. A win Sunday would clinch the sweep.

Sounds like it could be a good one, huh?

TV: ESPN & KGW Channel 8 Tip off: 7:30PM Vegas Line: Suns -5.5 Now that our preview is done we can finally get on to some sweet videos from Steve Nash. (I recently wrote that “Gilbert found commonality in the human experience—thoughts we all have, but few of us, especially professional athletes, are gutsy enough to share.” Steve Nash is one of this rare ilk.)

As the Franchise Turns

“The Blogfather” himself, Henry Abbott has a great article on the Tom Penn situation. Abott does a fantastic job of capturing both the enthusiasm and scrutiny of the Portland fan base while hinting at  a Blazer fan’s greatest fears. “What if Pritchard gets fired and the magic goes away?” “What if the clock strikes midnight and we’re nowhere near the ball because the carriage’s patella tendon snapped?” In the midst of a great snapshot-in-time of the Portland fan base, Abott has this quote by Pritchard’s agent, Warren LeGarie:

“I think their fears are justified,” says Warren LeGarie who represents both Pritchard and Penn, when asked if he could say anything to settle down Blazer fans. He offered no tonics. “We’ve been given no indication that this team sees Kevin as somebody who will be there on a long-term basis. All we’ve seen is them taking away people that Kevin feels are important to his ability to do his job successfully. … I’ve been a Blazer fan from early on. I’ve been involved in some way with the team for many many years. I want them to be successful. They gave Kevin an unbelievably wonderful opportunity. But in order to make that opportunity work, he still needs to have people who believe in him around him, and people that he’d like to have, and that’s certainly not the case anymore.” 

Scary stuff right? Stoking the fires of discontent, riling up the fan base in support of a popular general manager, maybe even forcing the organization to demonstrate its long term commitment with a fat new contract? Unthinkable? Think again.

Some of the most interesting stuff in Abbot’s article comes from Blazer president Larry Miller, who denies just about every possible reason for Penn’s firing. Rather than quoting half of Henry’s piece, just get over to Truehoop and read it.

Dwight Jaynes also weighs in. Jaynes has been around the Blazers for a long (looooong) time. In that time, you tend to develop a big-picture view of people. If you’re around someone for long enough, chances are, you will see who they really are. Dwight draws on his ancient wisdom, back to the year my now 20 year old brother was born, and produces this pearl:

Early in November of 1990, the Blazers were off to a 6-0 start and all was well. It was obvious they would have one of the best teams in the league. Petrovic, still early in his career, wasn’t going to play much behind Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Danny Ainge and Danny Young, but the Blazers loved him and knew he’d someday be a very good player. But Petro, one of my all-time favorite Blazers, was going to have to be patient and wait his turn.

But LeGarie was his agent and just couldn’t wait. He wanted minutes for his client and he wanted them immediately. So he had Drazen tell the press that if he didn’t play more he wanted a trade or he’d go back to Europe. The team knew it wasn’t coming from Petrovic — it was his agent, stirring up stuff on a winning team.

“The one thing I resented more than anything was that his agent, Warren LeGarie, told Drazen to make that statement, thinking he could force us to trade him or play him,” Adelman said in the book. “He was saying things about our team and about me, saying I was lying. He said I didn’t like Drazen and it was totally untrue. And this was a guy, this agent, whom I hadn’t talked to in two years about Drazen.

It appears that Warren LeGarie is no stranger to strong-arm tactics. However LeGarie is not the bad guy; he’s just doing his job, pulling out every trick in the book to try to put his client in the most favorable position possible in order to get the most favorable payday possible. In fact, if LeGarie weren’t pulling all these stunts, Pritchard would be right to fire him. Being an agent, like being an attorney, requires you to zealously represent your client, doing all you can to give them any advantage. Right now, in my opinion, LeGarie is leveraging the rabid Portland fan base against Paul Allen and Vulcan to force them to give Pritchard a bigger contract. The fans are angry! The only tonic to soothe their rage is a long term contract showing the organization’s commitment to Pritchard for the long haul!

I think it’s plain for all to see that Kevin Pritchard is talent. Paul Allen knows he is talent, Vulcan knows he is talent. Without Kevin Pritchard, the Trail Blazers would likely be farther away from profitability than they are now and fielding a less successful team. So what is more likely, that Allen and Vulcan have decided that Pritchard is expendable, in spite of all he has done for the organization, or is it more likely that an agent is preying on the paranoia of a fan base confused about the Tom Penn firing in order to serve his client’s interests?

Ah yes, the Tom Penn firing, why did it happen? Well, if the people at One Center Court do their job, we will never know. Let me repeat that, if the Trail Blazers front office acts in compliance with Penn’s contract and the likely confidentiality clauses therein, and in a manner to ensure compliance with relevant employment laws, we will never find out why Penn was fired. Penn is an attorney, and apparently a good one. If word were to leak out about why Penn was fired, the lawsuit would likely come fast and furious. As Blazer fans, we feel like we have an interest, or even a right to know what is going on behind the scenes of a team we have invested so much time, money, and emotion into.  However, at the end of the day the Trail Blazers are a business and business decisions involve contracts and back rooms and confidentiality agreements and the like. Blazer fans have no right to know why Penn was fired and should hope that the Blazer front office is competent enough that we never find out. 

Roy Saves Blazers

In the huddle before the Blazers final possession, Brandon Roy was confident. He and coach McMillan shared no words—only a look and it was decided: Roy would get the final shot. Normally this wouldn’t be anything new, but Roy doesn’t normally miss 14 straight shots. His last field goal came in the first quarter.

There were 18.9 seconds to play. The score was tied, 74-all.

Roy caught the ball up top, let the clock run down then pump-faked Alonzo Gee into the air, stepped through and drained a 21-footer with .5 seconds left on the clock to give the Blazers a two point lead. In their final possession, Washington didn’t get a shot off and the Blazers squeaked by, 76-74.

Roy talked about the final play, how, more than simply winning, he was just happy to finally make a shot.

Friday at the Rose Garden felt a little bit like last year—a tight game in the final few minutes, the crowd standing, biting their collective nails and screaming their hearts out before Brandon Roy won it at the buzzer.

But for every bit of reminiscence there was an equal amount of strange—an absolute bore for 45-odd minutes, and a thriller for the final three—one that should have never been.

This Wizards team is shambolic and deplorable. They came in to Portland losers of nine straight. The season, for all practical purposes, has been over for months—ever since Gilbert Arenas was suspend, and maybe even before that.

The Blazers, a playoff team, were supposed to decimate the lopsided match up. At Thursday’s practice Nate McMillan refused to even contemplate a letdown. Vegas agreed—the Blazers were favored by a whopping 12 1/2 points.

Through three quarters, the script was mostly followed. Portland sat on a comfy lead (albeit never moving into potential blowout territory), and limited the Wizards to just 30 points at half time. Nate McMillan said afterwards that the atrocious offensive performance wasn’t the result of a four-day layoff. Over and over again he stressed it: The Blazers just couldn’t make a shot. It got uglier as the game went on.

Portland’s 32.1% shooting from the field was their worst of the season. It set a new franchise record for low shooting percentage in a win. Seventy-six points were also a season low. Wizards coach Flip Saunders said that switching to zone helped his team close the gap in the game’s final six minutes.

McMillan said Saunders “hid” the zone from them until the end in hopes of frustrating the Blazers. Portland still got good shots, he said—they just missed.

Friday’s win was salvaged by a few critical late-game rebounds by Portland, and some steely nerves on the free throw line from LaMarcus Aldridge and Nicolas Batum. Before Roy’s game-sealing bucket, the Blazers had gone 4:43 without a field goal.

And while Roy’s streak of 14 misses was the most futile, no other Blazer player was particularly hot in his place. LaMarcus Aldridge, who finished with with a game-high 19 points and 12 rebounds, hit just six of 17 attempts. Miller, who had 14, made just six of 14. In clanking four of 18 attempts, Roy was worst of all, but when the biggest one came, he made it count. Roy finished with 14.

Marcus Camby pulled down a game-high 19 rebounds, his best thus far as a Trail Blazer (Camby’s season high is 25).

Randy Foye had 10 for the Wizards, and hit three big shots late in the fourth that made the game competitive. Nate McMillan said that Foye broke their pick and roll defense.

The Blazers have won five straight and eight of their last nine games. But in that span, only one win (at Memphis) came against a team with an above .500 record.

As the Blazers look forward to Phoenix on Sunday—and a number of more stately opponents to come—this game should act as a wake-up call. Finally coming up against a worthy foe after all this time swatting flies in the cellar could come as a shock.

NOTES:
- Andre Miller celebrated his 34th birthday today by playing in his 600th straight game, the NBA’s longest active streak.
- Rudy Fernandez left the game with a strained quad. He is day to day.
- Tonight’s win moved coach Nate McMillan into a tied with Mike Dunleavy for third place all time on Portland’s head coaching win list (190).

Pick and Scroll

 Your daily (Mon-Fri) roundup of links from around the blogosphere, typically Trail Blazers related.

•  Kevin Pritchard’s job is not in jeopardy. That is all.
• If you will remember, a wile back I talked about the 2011 CBA negotiations like two cars revving their engines before they play chicken. Both sides can make a lot of noise with little to no consequences hoping to intimidate the other. Well, the Player’s Association has stopped revving its metaphorical engine and is taking a different tactic. The Player’s Association is going to take a “wait and see” approach, and time is likely on the Player’s side. Right now the economy sucks, a lot of the numbers are based off of last year (which was even worse), no one knows where LeBron will end up, and the owners can make all kinds of claims about how bad revenue is doing and how they are not profitable. By waiting, the Player’s Association is betting that this year, revenue will be better, the economy will recover, and people will get energized and buy season tickets in the post 2010 free agency bonanza. However, if I had to guess, I would bet that in the new CBA, the cap gets harder, but is not fully hard. I think that the Basketball Related Income split will settle in around 53/47 depending on how BRI is defined. I think that contracts will get less guaranteed and the raises will be smaller. I cannot imagine the Player’s Association conceding slashing existing contracts rather than grandfathering them in. Existing contracts are a “bird in the hand,” and I can’t imagine what the NBA could offer that would induce the players to give back money they have already “earned.”
• Kurt Helin from Pro Basketball Talk gives his analysis of the same article and is somewhat less than encouraged by Fisher’s apocalyptic terminology.
• Did you know Inside the NBA is free online? You can listen the Charles, Kenny and Ernie at work! I love watching those guys even if Charles Barkley is the black Mike Rice and Kenney “The Jet” Smith advocated Brandon Jennings for ROY over Tyreke Evans.
• Dwight Jaynes is “movin’ on up.” Though I think “The GrouchFather” would be a more appropriate nomenclature… I kid, I kid. 
• So there is a game tonight, man, it’s been a while hasn’t it?
• For the D.C. perspective, check out TrueHoop Network sister site Truth About It.
• Andre Miller, old, boring, effective. I guess throwing lobs is boring?
• Speaking of Miller, Casey Holdalh reports via Blazer’s Twitter:

Assuming he plays tonight, Andre Miller will have played in 600 consecutive games! Hasn’t missed a game since Dec. 1, 2002.

Staying healthy is a skill. Not only is Miller producing for 82 games, by staying on the court he prevents the “you get killed by the backup-to-your-backup” quandary. I think we can all agree that a Miller/Bayless rotation is more effective than a Bayless/Patty Mills rotation. In other words, not only is Andre Miller a “plus,” his continued presence prevents a “minus.”

Wizards Preview: Pining for Gilbert

As far as real characters go in the NBA, he was one of the few. One of those rare players who seemed to understand there was more to life than sports and money. One who had interesting, hilarious, even morbid thoughts. Even stranger, he loved to share them.

I miss Gilbert Arenas.

I miss his awesome nicknames and yelling Hibachi! after every shot. I miss his blog, where he once even talked about driving home and passing by a bridge, and his thought that, for no real reason at all, he could just drive off and end it all. Another great one: “Everyone is having sex until they fall in love. When you fall in love, then it’s making love.”

Gilbert found commonality in the human experience—thoughts we all have, but few of us, especially professional athletes, are gutsy enough to share.

I miss the rivalry Gilbert’s Wizards had with the Cleveland Cavaliers a few years back. The two played a spectacular playoff series. One game in particular, I believe it was a double overtime affair, featured Gilbert and LeBron James going at each-other like the possessed. They traded basket after basket after buzzer beating basket.

I miss Gilbert because, in a post-practice three-point shooting contest with DeShawn Stevenson he won shooting with just one hand:

I miss Gilbert because he provided a reason to be excited when the Wizards came to town.

First came the endless string of knee injuries, then the idiocy with the gun (Gilbert recently talked to GQ and sketched out the incident out in detail, sharing also what he learned).

Now I suppose, the question is, do the 21-45 Wizards miss Gilbert?

Surely they don’t miss his insanely bloated contract. On the other hand, they must miss his 22 points and seven assists (stats from this year). The bigger question is will Gilbert ever play in a Wizards uniform again? It’s hard to think anything else, as said contract such an albatross (and it doesn’t look like it will be voided). Hopefully Gilbert will find his way in the NBA again—he should be forgiven. Perhaps all this extra time off will give that stubborn knee time to finally heal properly. And when that day comes, Gilbert, please bet back to blogging.

—-

At practice Thursday a reporter asked Nate McMillan is he was worried about overlooking the Wizards, that they could be setting up for a letdown. McMillan was appalled. There’s no way we’re going down to the Wizards, we don’t think like that, he said in so many words.

And that’s where it is. For the eighth time in nine games the Blazers take on a sub .500 opponent. The Wizards are perhaps the worst in that entire stretch, save for maybe the Timberwolves. Washington have lost nine straight.

(A side note—Andray Blatche is a beast. I was surprised during the Blazers pre-trade-deadline hustle that his name didn’t come up along with Brendon Haywood’s. No matter though, Camby was a hell of a pickup.)

(Aside #2—doesn’t all this supposed drama about the frailty of Kevin Pritchard’s standing in the organization ring hollow? Team president Larry Miller said today it is “absolutely dreamed up.” My guess—and it is just that, as nobody in the know has said a peep—is that the issue with Tom Penn’s firing was purely personal. Somebody didn’t like him, or he did something objectionably wrong. Maybe, as it’s been reported, the Blazers were simply pissed about his leveraging the T-Wolves interest into a disproportionally fat paycheck. Or maybe it was something closer, like offending Paul Allen personally. But for now we don’t know, and we may never. What we do know—Kevin Pritchard aint going anywhere.)

OK, so back to Friday’s game. It should be an easy one. Ring it up.

Tip-off: 7:00PM
TV: Comcast
Vegas Line: Blazers are a whopping -12 1/2

Pick and Scroll

Your daily (Mon-Fri) roundup of links from around the blogosphere, typically Trail Blazers related.

• Wendell Maxey covers the “soap operas” at One Center Court and say that the Blazers will just keep on truckin’.
• Dwight Jaynes has some sympathy for Kevin Pritchard and for General Managers everywhere.
• To me, this RealGM article on Joel Freeland seems a bit bi-polar. It seems that the author is alternating between saying “Oh, he’s great!” and “Well… he’s actually not that good right now.” However, that may indeed be an accurate take on an “upside” player like Freeland, though I doubt he’ll ever see minutes at small forward for Portland.
• Casey Holdahl  has a fantastic article on Marcus Camby and how his acquisition has impacted the Trail Blazers on offense, on defense, and in the locker room.
• Dave Deckard from BlazersEdge answers some more mail.
• “The Blogfather” Henry Abbott, talks about the nature of a good assist  and links to this fantastic article on the value of an assist by the frequently linked Tom Haberstroh over at TrueHoop Network sister blog Hardwood Paroxysm.
• After the Tom Penn fiasco and because of the lull between games, we’re a bit short on “news.” So let me take a moment to introduce you to some “must read” links that aren’t necessarily Blazer centric, but great for general basketball knowledge.
• Draftexpress is a great resource for info on all draft prospects, foreign and domestic.
• Chad Ford’s draft blog and almost anything by John Hollinger really make the ESPN INsider subscription worth while.
• When seeking out potential trade targets, I always like to take a look at NBA.com’s Hotspots. For instance, when I look for a small forward for a trade target, I look at their field goal percentage from the corner three, because that’s a look that the small forward gets pretty often in Nate McMillan’s offense. Likewise, I look for power forwards with range at least to the foul line.
• Along those lines, I find that  Hoopdata’s shot location charts are both insightful and interesting.

Thursday Practice Notes

Even with Tuesday’s firing of Tom Penn, Thursday’s practice passed by much like any other. No one, either coaches or players, had anything substantial to say regarding Penn, and the mystery continues.

It’s sort of odd to have a four day layoff in today’s NBA. The Blazers took yesterday off, so Nate McMillan pushed them hard today in hopes of keeping them game-ready. Here’s what he had to say:

Practice went much longer, due to the extra days off, and the team scrimmaged hard most of practice. It was fast and loud. Otherwise, Brandon Roy has a cold but says he’s almost over it. He did not seem bothered by it in scrimmage.