UNREAL Comeback vs. Detroit

I have to admit, the Blazers deserved to lose the game tonight vs. Detroit. And it was all because of Nate McMuffin'. McMuffin' did everything possible in the 4th to TRY to lose that game. I'm not joking...

A VERY stellar Jerryd Bayless tonight and to not see him in the final 8 minutes or so in the game was unexplainable. Did Nate not see the FIRE and PASSION J-Bay displayed out there? Did Nate not see us turn a 14 point deficit into a lead with J-Bay or is he blind or that moronic?

The fact that McMuffin' tried to sub in an uninspiring Greg Oden during the final minutes of the game with a 2 point lead that eventually turned into a 3 point deficit before resubbing Joel Przybilla back in (probably because somebody in the front row yelled that to him because Nate doesn't normally like to resub Joel for some idiotic reason)...

AND, let's just ignore Travis Outlaw's game winning bucket... If Travis wasn't playing in the 4th quarter at all, the Blazers run away with this one. Just look at the dozen (or more) points he surrendered to Tayshaun Prince and the numerous rebounds he failed to box-out or got out-hustled on... McMuffin', didn't Nicolas Batum's performance vs. Lakers earn him those 4th quarter minutes you gave to Outlaw?? Not to mention Batum is probably the best forward poistion defender on the team that would have a great chance at stopping Prince...

BUT because the Blazers won, the media will praise McMuffin' on the comeback win when all he did was make the game more exciting to (ignorant) fans along with giving me an ulcer and gray hairs, and this will also cover up Outlaw's horrific flaws on anything but his act of taking insanely difficult shots...

Nate's Greatest Offensive Scheme: 6 on 5!!

You may be laughing now about that call/play/outcome at the end of the first half, but if you look at it, it played a vital role for the entire game.

Now, you all know that its suppose to be 5 on 5. Once the refs realized (after Kevin Garnett pointed that out) that the Blazers had 6 players on the court after an Outlaw dunk, the refs huddled together and decided to give the Blazers a technical foul BUT they also counted the bucket. Shouldn't they have waived off the bucket and then gave Boston the technical free throw??

That's a 3-point swing and with 22 seconds left in the game, Paul Pierce connected on a driving runner and was fouled and hit the FT to make the score 87-86 Portland. Subtract two from Portland and Boston has the one point lead and who knows what happens at the end (probably Nate would have found some way to lose)...

All in all, I really can't complain. The Blazers won and Nate really did one hell of a job tonight. I especially like the twin tower lineup of Oden and Przybilla together (although I would of liked to see more of that in the 4th)...

Brandon Roy and "Four Horsemen" Blazing a Trail Late in New York

The Blazers stepped into "The Mecca" of NBA stadiums aka Madison Square Garden last night and things didn't look stellar early. The open shots weren't falling, Greg Oden put of a stinker and missed a couple of easy dunks, the Knicks were getting to the FT line w/ease, Chris Duhon was once again a super beast with 23 points and 13 dimes, and the Blazers would somehow only find themselves only down by as much as 9.

Brandon Roy would be a catalyst getting to the rim on numerous occasions to get easy layups versus New York's second worst rated defense. Roy finished with 23-6-5 (and 3 steals).

Roy had help in the second half by what I call the "Four Horseman" aka The Four White Guy (Team) consisting of Steve Blake, RUUUUUUUUUDDDYYY Fernanadez, "Spanish Chocolate" SUUUUURGIO Rodriguez, and "The Vanilla Gorilla" "Przyilla" Joel Przybilla. That's right!! This is a rare thing as I can only recall 2 other teams in my era (1983 to the present). Now you can compare us to the Jazz of the 1990s (John Stockton, Jeff Hornacek, Mark Eaton, and Tom Chambers) and the late 90s to the Kings of the early 2000s (Bibby, Peja, Brad Miller, and "Floppy D" Vlade Divac)!!

Rudy got the 4th quarter started with a few threes including a sick stepback three against the shot clock. Sergio was finding the open man and finished with 4 assists (hence the bad FG%), and hit a huge three in the 4th. Rudy and Sergio had the best "Plus/Minus" ratio of +14!!

Blake hit some timely shots when the Blazers trailed that never ballooned NY's lead to double diggits...

AND then there's Joel!! Joel got the crunch time minutes over an ineffective Oden. Joel was doing everything from rebounding and getting a number of tip in points. And on defense, when we needed a stop against a high powered D'Antoni offense, he was the man!! A great article from ESPN's Henry Abbott about Mr. Przybilla's performance on the right corner of the page. Joel finished with eight points, 14 rebounds and two HUGE blocks.

Next stop, D.C!

As of Right Now, Joel > Oden

An interesting piece that could be found here from ESPN. about the effectiveness of both that includes the "+/- Ratio". Looks like I wasn't the only one to have noticed this in last night's game vs. the Kings as I was screaming for McMuffin' to put Joel back in...

The season is young, but right now, Joel is the man as it's not just last night's game that Joel has been "The Savior" at the center position...