Woah! What a refreshing way to start a long road trip for the young Blazer team. I have to admit that I didn't think we had a chance against a hot Orlando Magic team who have won four straight coming into tonight.
As the last two road games vs. the Suns and Jazz, the Blazers were able to build a nice lead early but then fade somewhere in the middle to the end. As eerie as this game was as the momentum shifted to the Magic as they headed into the final quarter with the lead, the Blazers wouldn't let the fourth quarter happen tonight.
Shutting down Dwight Howard to 6 points and 7 rebounds in the second half after
his first half one-man wrecking crew performance of domination of drawing fouls on Joel Pryzbilla in a total of nine minutes (although 3 were chicken poo calls) and scoring 23 points and hauling in 12 rebounds. Good-grief!! That's a phenomenal full game line, let alone a 1st half!!
I hate to admit this, but I liked what Coach McMillan (yes, he deserve his name to be called right after tonight) did. For once, he stuck with the bench team that helped pull away in the fourth quarter adhering from the normality of taking them out after the first couple minutes even if things were working. I also liked that Nate tried a lineup that included Roy, Rudy, Sergio at the same time, even if it was only for a minute. I don't like the fact that Nate likes to slow things down when you're the second youngest team in the NBA and you could easily have an advantage of running the elder teams around to death. A team can only stay young for so long as injuries, trades, etc happen so I think it is best that he experiment with it while he can.
Next up, Miami! If we can beat Orlando, which I didn't think could happen, I am definitely more optimistic about the Heat game. Keep Blazin'!!
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