The AP reports: The Denver Nuggets didn’t need Carmelo Anthony’s offense to beat Portland. Their defense wouldn’t let Brandon Roy have another career night. Nene scored 19 points and had 11 rebounds, Chauncey Billups added 19 points and 10 assists, and the Nuggets’ defense shut down Roy to beat the Trail Blazers 97-89 on Monday night. Roy scored a career-high 52 points against Phoenix on Thursday, but Denver’s defense held the Portland guard to just eight points… With Roy struggling, LaMarcus Aldridge pitched in with 20 points and Travis Outlaw had 15. Greg Oden, who also was in foul trouble most of the game, fouled out with 10 points… “That’s the way it has to be,” said Kenyon Martin, who led the Nuggets with 12 rebounds. “There are some guys who have to step up and play well, which they did tonight.”
Category: Portland Trail Blazers Blog
Trail Blazers blog – Portland Trail Blazers basketball blog
Props to Steve Blake
The Portland Trail Blazers recently beat the Phoenix Suns, and while Brandon Roy was incredible in the win, props go to Portland point guard Steve Blake. The Oregonian (Jason Quick) reports (via blog):
Nate McMillan raved about Blake’s game management (10 assists, zero turnovers), hot shooting (22 points, 8-of-15, including 4-of-7 from behind the arc) and his defense of Suns star Steve Nash (Nash went 5-of-14 with 11 assists, six turnovers while Blake had four steals). It was plain and simple: Blake had outplayed Nash. “And that,” McMillan said. “Has never happened before.” Another important Blake statistic: He went 2-for-2 from the free throw line, both makes coming at a crucial time: 2:07 left in the game and the Blazers trailing by two. They were the first attempts for Blake since he missed four of five attempts in the final 20.6 seconds against the Clippers.
For the season, Blake in 29.6 minutes per game averages 11.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.0 steals on acceptable 44.3% shooting and impressive 41.7% three-pointers.
Blake is #6 in the league in assists per turnover (3.46), #10 in three-pointers made (53), and #15 in threes per 48 minutes.
He’s solid, very unspectacular, but seems to be doing the job for the Blazers.
Dec 18: Blazers 124, Suns 119
The AP reports: Brandon Roy kept scoring until the Portland Trail Blazers had finally finished off the Phoenix Suns. Roy scored a career-high 52 points, including a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 1:01 left, in Portland’s 124-119 comeback victory over Thursday night… Roy was 14-of-27 from the field and 19-of-21 at the line. He topped his career high of 38 set last Friday night in a double-overtime loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, and ended up two points short of the franchise record of 54 set by Damon Stoudamire against New Orleans on Jan. 14, 2005… Blazers guard Steve Blake matched his season high with 22 points and added 10 assists, and LaMarcus Aldridge scored 10 of his 16 points in the first quarter to help Portland improve to 17-10. With the victory, Portland ended an 11-game losing streak to Phoenix dating to March 12, 2006. Amare Stoudemire led the Suns with 23 points, Matt Barnes added 22, Shaquille O’Neal had 19, and Steve Nash finished with 15 points and 11 assists.
Dec 16: Blazers 109, Kings 77
The AP reports: Brandon Roy scored 29 points before sitting out the fourth quarter, and the Portland Trail Blazers snapped a three-game losing streak Tuesday night with a 109-77 victory over the struggling Sacramento Kings. Playing with a splint on his injured right pinkie finger, Roy fell just short of scoring 30 points for the fourth straight game… LaMarcus Aldridge had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Blazers, who stopped their longest skid of the season. John Salmons had 16 of his 21 points in the first quarter for the Kings and he didn’t score in the second half. Sacramento fell to 1-1 under interim coach Kenny Natt, who took over for the fired Reggie Theus on Monday. Francisco Garcia was the only other Sacramento player in double figures with 12 points on 2-of-8 shooting.
Trail Blazers notes
HEAD COACH NATE MCMILLAN: Nate McMillan is in his fourth
year as the Trail Blazers’ head coach, coming off a season in which he
posted 41 wins, a nine-game improvement from the season prior and
Portland’s first season of .500 or better since 2003-04 … McMillan has
bettered the Trail Blazers by 20 wins since his first year in Portland,
averaging a 10-game improvement each season … Among the 23
head coaches to reach the 300-win plateau during the last 20 seasons
(1988-2008), only Jeff Van Gundy (42 years, 320 days on 12/04/04)
and Mike Fratello (42 years, 312 days on 1/02/90) hit the milestone at
a younger age than Nate McMillan (43 years, 225 days on 3/15/08).
ROY POW-ER: Brandon Roy was named Western Conference
Player of the Week on Dec. 1 for his performance during Portland’s
four-game winning streak from Nov. 24-30 … The NBA All-Star averaged
20.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.0 assists while shooting 50.8%
(30-for-59) from the field … Roy has received the honor three times
now, all in December, after being named in consecutive weeks last
season (Dec. 9 and Dec. 16) … Clyde Drexler is the only other Trail
Blazer in franchise history to win the award more than twice.
HEAD START: Portland is 15-10 after 25 games, the best record for
a Trail Blazers team 25 games into the season since starting 17-8 in
2000-2001 … Sixteen of Portland’s first 24 games this season were
contested away from the Rose City … The 1988 Lakers were the last
team to face more road contests (17) in the first 24 games … Fifteen
games have matched Portland with playoff teams from 2007-08 …
Eleven of those 15 games were played on the road … Twenty-four of
the Trail Blazers’ first 35 opponents made the playoffs last year.
30-30-30: Brandon Roy netted a career-high 38 points and added
a game-high nine assists in a double-overtime loss to the Clippers
on Dec. 12 … He has posted 30-plus points in three consecutive
games, the only three games of 30 or more points by a Trail Blazer
this season … Roy is the first Trail Blazer to reach the 30-point mark
in three straight games since Zach Randolph, who accomplished
the feat from Nov. 6-10, 2006 … Roy has scored 20-plus points
in more than two-thirds of Portland’s games this year (17) … The
third-year player has notched at least a share of the scoring lead
for Portland in 17 contests and the assists high in 11 games.
20-20-20-20: LaMarcus Aldridge has netted 20-plus points in four
straight contests for the first time in 2008-09 … The third-year forward
out of Texas now has eight games of 20 points or more on the year.
ODEN-ODEN: Greg Oden notched his team-leading eighth doubledouble
of the season Dec. 12 vs. the Clippers with 15 points and 15
rebounds … His 15 boards is a career high … He has led Portland
in rebounding a team-best 11 times … Every game Oden has
grabbed 10 rebounds or more, he has added at least 10 points …
Oden has only reached double fi gures in scoring only once without
notching 10-plus rebounds.
CLOSE AT HOME: Six of Portland’s nine home games have been
decided by four points or less, or overtime (Portland is 4-2).
WORKING OVERTIME: Four Trail Blazers saw a career-high in
minutes in Portland’s double-overtime loss to the L.A. Clippers on
Dec. 12 (Aldridge, 54; Roy, 53; Oden, 42; Fernandez, 38) … The
Trail Blazers are now 1-1 in extra time this season after fi nishing
last year with a 5-2 mark.
THIRD ONE DOWN: Portland’s 120-112 double-overtime loss to
the L.A. Clippers marks the team’s first three-game losing streak
of the season.
SLEEPLESS INSIGNIFICANCE: The Trail Blazers are 4-3 in the
second games of back-to-backs this season … Portland fi nished
the 2007-08 season with a 12-7 record in such contests.
BLAZING TRAILS: Despite falling to Utah, 97-88, in Salt Lake
City, Portland has won eight of its last 13 road contests and four
of the past six … The Trail Blazers didn’t reach eight road wins in
2007-08 until Jan. 21 … The last time Portland had a .500 record
or better in its first 16 road games was 2002-03 (9-7).
CLOSE CALLS: Orlando’s one-point win on Dec. 9 marked Portland’s
first defeat of three points of less this season … The Trail
Blazers had won all four games decided by three or fewer points
this year after going 10-2 in such close contests in 2007-08 …
Portland also snapped its streak of winning eight such games in
a row, dating back to last year … The Trail Blazers are 25-10 in
games decided by three points or less since the beginning of the
2006-07 season.
Grizzlies sign Darius Miles
The Memphis Grizzlies announced today that they have signed free agent forward Darius Miles. Terms of the deal were not disclosed per team policy.
“Darius has been an active, productive player in the past,” said Grizzlies General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations Chris Wallace. “He did a good job with the Celtics in preseason and we look forward to working with him.”
The third overall pick in the 2000 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers, Miles played six NBA seasons (2000-06) with Clippers, Cleveland Cavaliers and Portland Trail Blazers. The 6-9, 235-pound forward averaged 10.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.15 blocks in 27.7 minutes in 412 career games (190 starts).
Miles, 27, missed all of 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons while recovering from microfracture surgery on his right knee, but recently attempted a comeback with the Boston Celtics. After signing a free-agent contract with Boston on Aug. 22, 2008, he appeared in six preseason contests, averaging 1.8 points and 1.3 rebounds in 10.4 minutes. He was waived by the Celtics on Oct. 20.
The Bellville, Illinois native became the first player in league history drafted straight out of high school (East St. Louis High School) to earn All-Rookie honors when he averaged 9.4 points and 1.54 blocks per game for the Clippers in 2000-01. In his last NBA season in 2005-06, Miles posted career highs in points (14.0) and minutes played (32.2) per game with the Trail Blazers.
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Dec 12: Clippers 120, Blazers 112 2OT
The AP reports: Zach Randolph doesn’t harbor any bad feelings toward his former team. He just doesn’t want to lose to the Trail Blazers. Randolph scored a season-high 38 points to lead the Los Angeles Clippers to a 120-112 double-overtime victory over the Blazers on Friday night. Randolph, who was booed at times by the Portland crowd, also had 11 rebounds… The Clippers (5-17), with the second-worst record in the Western Conference, sure did. Baron Davis contributed 27 points and made a 3-pointer that sent the game into overtime. Brandon Roy scored a career-high 38 points, but the Blazers (15-10) dropped their third straight game. Rookie Greg Oden had 15 points and 15 rebounds.
Greg Oden watches Gossip Girl
The AP reports: Turns out, Blazers center Greg Oden is a fan of the television series “Gossip Girl.” Who knew? The big man referenced the popular teen drama on the CW network in a blog post from the road on the Blazers’ recent eastern swing. In New York, he and Steve Blake went out to dinner, he wrote, adding: “and i got to see some of the places that were on this weeks episode of Gossip Girl.”
Dec 11: Jazz 97, Blazers 88
The AP reports: It didn’t matter much where Mehmet Okur was lining up for his shots in the first half. From 3-point range or under the basket, everything was falling for Okur in Utah’s 97-88 victory over Portland on Thursday night. Okur scored 21 of his 27 points in the first half and pulled down 10 rebounds. He was 9-for-14 from the floor and made two of the Jazz’s three 3-pointers… Paul Millsap had his 10th straight double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Deron Williams added 14 points and 11 assists to help the Jazz improve to 2-0 against Portland this season… Brandon Roy had 33 points, and LaMarcus Aldridge added 22 for Portland, tied with Utah for second place in the Northwest Division. Rudy Fernandez was the only other Blazer to score in double figures, finishing with 10 points…The Jazz also had 23 assists to Portland’s 13.
Dec 9: Magic 109, Blazers 108
The AP reports: Hedo Turkoglu banked in a 3-pointer from 25 feet with less than one second remaining, and the Orlando Magic rallied from a late eight-point deficit to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 109-108 on Tuesday night… Rashard Lewis hit six 3-pointers and led Orlando with 27 points and nine rebounds, while Turkoglu scored 24 points. Jameer Nelson hit four 3-pointers and added 21 points for the Magic. Portland, which fell to 15-8 and into a first-place tie with Denver in the Northwest Division, was led by Brandon Roy, who scored a season-high 30 points. Roy hit 10 of 20 shots and scored 20 points during the second half… Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge had 25 points and 13 rebounds. The second pick of the 2006 draft, Aldridge hit 12 of 17 shots, and went 5-of-5 during the fourth quarter. Reserve Joel Przybilla added 11 points and 11 rebounds.