Batum's Dunk

In case you missed it, or want to revel in how much you hate Kyle Korver:

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

• The All-Star reserve list has leaked, and looks like Brandon Roy is going to Dallas. No word yet if he will literally go to Dallas due to his hamstring injury, but he was selected to his third All-Star game.

• Kevin Pelton says  “(T)he way the Jazz controlled the game and revealed that the Blazers, so resilient in the face of injuries throughout this season, are starting to be unable to paper over their weaknesses.”

• Here it is: The Nicolas Batum dunk that brought a crowd to its feet, BOOING. In fact, I don’t think “booing” quite captures what happened. Dave from BlazersEdge called it a "Boomoeba."

“The already grumpy crowd (see also: scoreboard) went bonkers at the end of the first period when Nicolas Batum appeared to be fouled with a foul so foul-acious  that it dwarfed many of the fouls that had been called in Utah's favor in the quarter.  Batum converted the layup but no whistle blew.  In short order Jerryd Bayless had earned a technical foul for protesting, which lit the fuse in the stands.  In one of those "Only in Portland" moments a torrential flow of boos flooded the arena floor, reverberating so loudly that it hit the back walls of the building with force and redoubled.  But these boos didn't stop after 10 seconds, or 30, or a minute.  They sustained and grew through the long, long quarter break.  It was like a weird, amoeba-like organism had formed out of 20,000 people which was now intent on sucking up the refs with a sticky, poisonous tongue of booing.  About halfway through the break the arena staff put on film of Kiki Vandeweghe and Mychal Thompson talking about their Blazer experiences, this being 80's Remembrance Night and all.  For a second the organism paused as if considering whether to take the bait and subside, lulled into submission by these fan-favorite players of yore.  But the Boomoeba was angry and after that half-hesitating moment it doubled and tripled its efforts.  Poor Mychal and Kiki couldn't be heard at all...and this is after the staff cranked the speaker volume way up.  Anyone who's been anywhere near the Rose Garden knows those that sound system is LOUD.  It was no more than a buzzing subtext rumbling impotently behind the Boomoeba's hunting call.  It wanted blood and it would not be dissuaded from its target.  The second quarter horn sounded and the booing was still as strong as ever.  I have never heard anything like it.  The refs did ease the calls from that point on.  Perhaps it was the natural tendency to protect the losing team in a blowout, particularly at home.  Perhaps it was the cover-your-butt thing they sometimes do to make the whistles even out.  But I think the Boomoeba may have made their neck hairs stand a little.  The Boomoeba is scary.”

• While we’re there, BlazersEdge answers some mail.

• Britt Robson of Sports Illustrated talks about the resilience of the Trail Blazers and how they've coped with a veritable injury carousel.

• Oh, nerdgasm! Check out these articles from the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports. I cannot wait to dig through these! Major props to Basketball Geek Ryan J. Parker and his awesome twitter feed.

• Speaking of people to follow on twitter, InvisiNinjaPDX straight nailed it to the wall with his predictions for last night’s game. Here is his comment from the BlazersEdge preview thread:

“Stats don’t like this game at all for the Blazers

Over the last 9 games when Jazz have gone 8-1 They are spot up/ interior Cut centric with transition thrown in.

Spot up they are at 1.04 PPP and 40.7 FG%

Cut they are 1.35PPP and shooting 69.4%

Transition 1.29 and 64.1%

From 3 they are 42.2% over that period

Over the last 9 games all 3 of those play types make up over 13% of their O

Conversely the Blazers 3 worst defensive play types over the last 5 games without Roy?
Cut, Transition, Spot up,

Now the Jazz Defensively are strong against the ISO and P&R which has been the Blazers strength with Roy in the lineup.

both at .84PPP and between 37-39% FG% against. Where they are susceptible is the Cut and Spot Up.
Over that 5 games The Blazers are only shooting 34.7% spot up total and scoring .91PPP
The Blazers do not use Cutters as a large enough piece of their offense to make a difference, roughly 6 possessions a game.

Blazers only chance of winning…
3 pt shooting and getting out in transition, Jazz defend transition poorly
and don’t seem to close out on 3pt shot, instead they focus on interior spot ups and hold spot ups from inside the 3 under 32%

Now the real problem… over the last 5 games the Blazers are only shooting 28.2% from distance…” 

• The Hoopdata advanced stats boxscore for last night’s game is up if you happen to be a masochist.

• Now I’m not trying to be a downer or anything, but so far the Blazers have been throwing wins together with bailing twine and duct tape. Rudy and Batum coming back is great, but neither one of them are a defensive force in the middle. Unfortunately, LaMarcus Aldridge hasn’t stepped up to be that defensive anchor either. With the rise of Memphis and Oklahoma City, I just don’t see how Portland will make the playoffs in a stacked Western Conference once teams start getting serious about making a push. If Portland doesn’t trade for a big man to hold down the paint (and I’m not saying they should) and Aldridge doesn’t step up in a big way, I just don’t see how the Blazers can stay ahead of these healthy teams nipping at their heels. Portland is just two losses away from being tied for 11th place in the West.

• If Portland makes the playoffs it will be because of an unbelievable show of luck, grit and determination. If they don’t make it, who do you like in the 2010 NBA draft lottery? Let us know what you think, should Portland trade up, down, or out?

State of the Blazer Union: EEK!

Nicolas Batum's incredible quarter-capping dunk was almost as amazing as "boo's" that followed it. The shove by Kyle Korver was patently obvious but the whistles remained silent. The jeers at the no-call, however, blared like jet engines--as loud or louder than anything heard at the Rose Garden all season long. They continued through the entire commercial break, drowning out the Blazer legends celebrating team of the 80's on the big screen. But it could also be said that Blazers fans, who saw their team decimated by the Jazz in the 37-16 in the first, had some serious steam to blow off.

After the sorry display finally concluded, Coach McMillan took a bit longer than usual with the team behind closed doors before emerging to address the media. Surely when one's team falls behind 21-2 in the opening minutes they are in dire need of a lashing. I asked McMillan how frustrated he was after losing the Blazers second straight home game and the continued poor opening effort but he mostly dodged the question. When that happens, you can bet he's pretty upset:

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And he should be. The Blazers were atrocious and the Jazz picked them apart. Wednesday's 106-95 loss was the first time Utah won at the Rose Garden in their last nine tries. Even playing well, or if Brandon Roy were available, Portland would still have a difficult time controlling this Utah team, whose disciplined offense, balanced defense, stout front line and physical inside play seem to be rounding into their best shape in years.

A few players and members of the coaching staff pointed to parallels between this game and Monday's loss to New Orleans, but those comparisons are false. Sure, the Blazers fell behind early, and yes, they never gave up. But New Orleans are a team Portland should beat—the Jazz, unfortunately, are not.

The Blazers seemed to make a game of it, whittling the lead to five with 5:28 to play, but Portland only began mounting their comeback when Carlos Boozer went out with a right calf sprain with 7:20 in the third. And though in his post-game comments Jerry Sloan refused to equate the comeback with Boozer's absence, it seemed to me more of a team-first political move than wrought honesty.

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As I keep stressing, there are no more moral victories for this team. Throw any talk about heart in tonight's comeback away. This was an incredibly important game, but the Blazers came out as if it were pick up ball at the local YMCA. With a difficult back-to-back looming in Texas the Blazers are staring at what could likely become a four-game losing streak. And it doesn't get much easier from here.

Also take into account that the Blazers will have to win in Utah--a place they've always had trouble--to maintain even the hope of splitting the season series should the two teams stay close into the playoff race. That, however, is looking less and less likely. Afterwards, Deron Williams talked about finally getting a win at the Rose Garden:

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Of all the night's horrid performances, none were uglier than what Portland got from their point guards. Williams and co. were able to match Andre Miller's bulk inside, and Steve Blake couldn't hit the side of a barn. Together they made just two of 17 attempts (both makes were Miller's).

Really there were just two positives at the Rose Garden Wednesday. The first was Martell Webster, who pledged to donate $1,000 for every point he scored. He shook off an early slump to finish with 14, yet said he feels as if he should be giving more. This may not be the last time Webster graciously opens his pocket book to the relief effort in Haiti. He talked about giving, and if he felt the pressure of his pledge while shooting during the game:

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The second and final bit of rare good news was Nicolas Batum's stunning first half explosion. We knew he was good, but this was phenomenal. Maybe even Durant-eque. In a two-minute nine second stretch, Batum scored nine of the Blazers' first 11 points. He finished with 11 in the quarter, and 16 in the half (he would not score again). But perhaps the most memorable play was his taking a charge while running faster backwards than Wesley Matthews could forwards to get position and take the hit. It was freakish.

After Batum's poor performance in the playoffs last year, disappearing almost totally against the Rockets, it seemed that the tangible effect of his return from injury would be visited mostly on defense. He was the stopper Portland missed. But good God, something's happened between then, his time with the French national team and now. Batum is suddenly a silky, yet devastatingly sharp threat offense. It's stunning. His post-game comments:

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Notes:

- Jerryd Bayless twisted his ankle during fourth quarter junk time. On the big screen, at one point, he appeared to be in tears. Afterwards he said it was “fine,” and that with ice, he should be able to practice tomorrow.
- Halfway through the second quarter the Jazz had 32 points in the paint and the Blazers had 29 total points.
- Final field goal percentages: Utah %60.3, Portland 35.9%
- Although their home countries share a border, Rudy Fernandez and Nic Batum speak English to one another. Rudy says he doesn't speak French, while Nic says he knows only a tiny bit of Spanish.

Pick and Scroll

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

• Every team in the league uses the zone defense occasionally; the Trail Blazers are no exception. In fact Portland uses zones, man-to-man zones, zones disguised as man-to-man, and man-to-man disguised as a zone, sometimes switching it up mid-play. Here is a great primer on how to attack a zone with video demonstrations by Sebastian Pruiti of NBA Playbook.

• Joe Freeman on Joel Przybilla’s long road to recovery:

“I want to play,” Przybilla said. “I’ve been injured in the past, but nothing this severe, where I know I’m going to miss ... the rest of the season. It’s new to me. Am I struggling with it? Yeah, a little bit. But I’ve got my family supporting me and I know I’ll be back stronger than ever.”

• An interesting article about context and statistics from RealGM: Daniel Leroux thinks that Monta Ellis is not as bad as Hillonger thinks he is.

• There will be no Blazers in the Sophomore/Rookie Challenge. I guess injuries cost Rudy his spot. Injuries didn't seem to hurt Danilo Gallinari, though.

• Kevin Arnovits apologizes to former Blazer Zach Randolph. I’m really happy for Zach as a person, but if he’d have gotten his act together sooner, maybe Portland could have traded him for David Lee instead of Channing Frye…

• Marc Stein reports that Arenas meets with Stern today to discover his fate. Why is this in the Blazer links? Well, what happens to Arenas will have a large impact on trades this year. According to John Hollinger, Washington is the first major trade deadline domino and what they do will impact the whole trade season.

• Michael Lee from The Washington Post says that according to a person with knowledge of the meeting between Arenas & Stern, Arenas will be suspended for the remainder of the season. Apparently, Arenas also told Stern that he would tell the players' union not to fight the suspension.

• Ball Don’t Lie has the Blazers in the NBA twitter top 10.

Blazers vs. Jazz - Preview

These kids are part of the Avatar director's cut.

I don't have good feeling about this. Sure, a few months ago when the Blazers had big men not on the injured reserve list, or on TMZ, a home game against Utah seemed like a sure thing. But now? All signs point to trouble.

While the Jazz have a losing record away from the Snuggie comfort of EnergySolutions Arena, this team is r-o-l-l-i-n-g. Utah has picked up wins in seven of their last eight games, and that one loss came on the road against—the second best homecourt team in the NBA—the Denver Nuggets. In the first of two meetings this week, the Blazers and the Jazz are tussling for the second place spot in the Northwest Division, a situation that might not repeat itself when they meet in Utah on February 3rd.

Nicolas Batum will see extended minutes, which is great news following his energetic offering Monday against New Orleans. The Blazers are also shuffling their starting lineup once again, placing Jerryd Bayless back into Brandon Roy's shoes, and Juwan Howard at the center position. Jeff [Insert Reptile Nickname Here] Pendergraph and Steve Blake will hang their heads and slink off to the second unit.

The secret to Utah's success: Carlos Boozer. No longer playing like tradebait—or Prince's angry landlord—Boozer is back to his old All-Star self, contributing double-doubles nightly, and averaging 25 and 14 over his past three games. Speaking of double-doubles, you can pencil one in for Deron Williams in advance. Oh, let's just say he'll score 19 points and toss 10 assists (that's his season average) against the Blazers. Throw in an assortment of committed role players from around the globe (Andrei Kirilenko, Mehmet Okur), D-League Cavs killah Sundiata Gaines, a head coach with four less career wins (1162) than the entire Clippers franchise has since 1971 (1166), and you have a team that could scare the pants off... oh never mind.

Greg Oden Nude Pictures and So Much More

By now you have probably seen what so many of us didn't need to see. Whether or not that was Greg Oden in those nude photos—I'm very skeptical—is pretty much irrelevant at this point. Even if they are debunked, those images be part of his personal internet lore until the end of time; much like those doctored photos of Sarah Palin holding a gun while wearing an American flag bikini (not real), or some Photoshop job of President Obama worshiping the Koran as a super secret Muslim who hates Americans (definitely not real).

Perhaps the sticking power of these images over, say nude photos of Brian Cardinal or some other random NBA player, is that Oden has already left a digital breadcrumb trail of potentially embarrassing images behind him. The Hawaii hot tub, the party photos, and this week's shots of him wearing a stupid, if not vaguely sexist, T-shirts. He didn't deserve this, but you get the feeling that a lot of this could have been avoided.

Then again, who am I to question the private life (and probably fake) photos of a 22-year-old? I should thank the technological Gods that I never had access to a cell phone or digital camera when I was Oden's age. I can only cringe at the unflattering archive of ill-advised photos, "sexts" (Finally, we get to use this word in the blog. I feel so young!), and other questionable transmissions I would have sent during that time in my life. I know it's TMZ-ish to even speak of this, but the genie is out the bottle. These photos exist—even if they aren't real—but it might be time to go back to focusing on another part of Oden's body—his knee. As long as that man's knees are working, that's all that should matter to any of us.

Pick and Scroll

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

Mike Barrett says that it wasn’t the missed Bayless jumper that killed Portland, it was a lack of endgame execution.

"We can dwell on the final two minutes of the game, but it was the (sic) from 3:26 to 2:02 that was the most concerning. It was in that span that the Hornets erased Portland's 8-point lead and tied the game at 96-96. It was Chris Paul being Chris Paul, and the Blazers coming up empty on several huge possessions."

Wendell Maxey blames it all on "slippage". Also, which one of you was heckling Nate to put Bayless in?

The Rip City Project laments a loss on BlazersEdge night. By the way, Dave and Ben sent over 400 kids to the game last night on donations from Trail Blazers fans from around the world. Give yourselves a pat on the back Blazer Nation, between $65,000 for Haiti and acts of kindness like donating supplies to a burned down school, or raising money to help the family of a young man who was struck by a car, Blazer fans have shown great generosity in spite of tough economic times.

Jason Quick with this vote of confidence  in Bayless by Rudy Fernandez: "…But I think Bayless had a good shot tonight, and although he didn't make it tonight, but he wins the game probably next time."

Apparently, the Mavs are interested in Petteri Koponen, one of Portland’s First Rounders stashed over in Europe. With Blake, Miller, Bayless, and Mills manning the point in Portland, will there even be room to bring Koponen over? You never know when a trade might thin a position, but between Koponen, Claver, and Freeland, Portland has a combo guard, a swingman, and a big tucked safely away for a rainy day.

According to HoopData, last night the Blazers were TERRIBLE in the mid-range, but great at the rim and from three.

And finally, Joe Freeman covers the return of Nicolas Batum:

"Nicolas Batum returned. And despite missing three months and 45 games recovering from surgery on his right shoulder, the second-year forward flashed glimpses of being a second-half difference-maker during his 10 minutes, 23 seconds of play."

Blazers Host Hornets, Beat Selves

It'd be tempting to say that the Hornets staged an impressive comeback at the Rose Garden Monday night. Portland were up nine points with just over three minutes to play. But the idea that the Blazers were beaten by anyone other than themselves would be nothing but a cheap lie. They lost, 98-97.

"We just couldn't make shots," Martell Webster said afterward. "We got great looks--great looks--at the basket. It was just one of those things."

One of those things indeed--because until the closing minutes, shots were rolling in. The Hornets defense did not step up or adjust in any meaningful way. Portland made fine decisions, and for the most part, executed properly. The shots just started rolling out.

Andre Miller missed a free throw, and a well-played isolation where he backed Chris Paul down only to overshoot. Juwan Howard clanked a pair of jumpers after hitting his previous two. It's just the way the cookie crumbles. And in this case, it becomes a little easier to stomach, because in the opening quarter, the Blazers looked like they were going to get whipped.

They emerged like a team dead tired from an emotional eastern road trip, not to mention one having loaded a ton of minutes on the backs of their few healthy players. Coach McMillan was happy with the team's effort, as they shook off the early haze to take a half-time lead.

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Still, as we've said before, there are no more mental victories. This team has proven time and time again they can beat anyone, anytime, no matter who is--or isn't--playing. And afterward, LaMarcus Aldridge, who finished with 16 points and six rebounds, had little to say.

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The lead Portland would build, then surrender, was the work of their bench, who outscored their Hornet counterparts 48 to 20. Juwan Howard (16), Jerryd Bayless (12) and Rudy Fernandez (12) all finished with double figures. It was Bayless' first game back after missing a game and half with an akle sprain.

At times the Blazer reserves looked better than the starters. Despite handing out 10 assists, Andre Miller had a dismal shooting night (one-for-eight). Miller, Along with starters Steve Blake and Jeff Pendergraph combined for just 19 points.

Picking up some of that slack was Nic Batum, who saw his first minutes of the season, entering to a wild ovation. The first time Batum touched the ball he scored on a knifing drive to the hoop, a play he would re-visit a number of times. In just 10 minutes he scored six points, and said he could've played longer, and that his shoulder feels fine.

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Even as the Blazers couldn't get the lid off the basket in the final few minutes, they were still maddeningly close to a win. Up one with 16.9 seconds to play, Chris Paul drove through the lane, slipped, but dished to David West. The Blazers collapsed, leaving Paul open. West hit him and with 3 seconds remaining, Paul swished an open jumper from just beyond the foul line. If there was one player the Blazers shouldn't have lost sight of in the final seconds, no matter the circumstance, it was Paul. There is no excuse. He talked about the go-ahead play.

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Strangely enough, Paul is not a shoe-in for this year's all star game, though he certainly played like one Monday. In typical fashion he was everywhere—knocking down threes, jetting through the lane, and generally creating havoc. He finished with 24 points, 12 assists, seven rebounds and five steals—all star numbers to be sure.

On the final possession with 3.8 seconds remaining, Jerryd Bayless caught the inbound above the three point line, as the play was designed, and tried to get to the basket. He wasn't able to turn the corner, picked up his dribble, and missed a fade away jumper.

After the game many in the media (myself included) questioned the game's final play, and Bayless getting the final shot. But in the end, it was just one of those things.