Posts Tagged ‘Blazers’

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Rosen’s Report: Clippers at Blazers

February 16, 2012  ·  11:46AM

The Clippers’ championship aspirations took a significant hit when Chauncey Billups was lost for the season. In the five games since he went down, L.A. has been mediocre. Even so, a victory in the Rose Garden would help prove the viability of their reorganized backcourt rotation and get the Clippers back on track in the race for the gold rings.

Even as the Trail Blazers are desperately battling to qualify for the playoffs, an injury to a key player has likewise forced them to make adjustments. The difference is that while Billups is down for the count, LaMarcus Aldridge’s sprained ankle should only be a temporary setback.  Beating the Clippers would give Portland’s confidence a huge boost.

HOW THE CLIPPERS CAN WIN: Chris Paul has to use his speed and quickness to avoid being bullied by Raymond Felton, to take full advantage of the defensive ineptitude of Mo Williams, and to navigate his way around and/or through the inevitable double teams he will face.  Look for CP3 to have a big game. (more…)

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Posted in Rosen's Report / Comments (8) /

Felton For Miller: An Even Swap?

June 28, 2011  ·  2:47PM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Veteran point guard for a little bit older veteran point guard.

It sounds like a reasonable take away for the Portland Trail Blazers and Denver Nuggets in their draft night dealings that saw Raymond Felton go from the Nuggets to Trail Blazers and Andre Miller from the Trail Blazers back to the Nuggets, where he played earlier in his career and resides in the offseason. While it wasn’t actually a straight up swap — it was a three-team deal that included the Blazers also trading swingman Rudy Fernandez to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for the draft rights to Jordan Hamilton, the 26th overall pick who was in turn included in the deal with Denver — for the Nuggets and Blazers it comes down to a swap of these veteran point guards.

A NBA scouting friend suggested to me earlier today that it was basically an even swap.

“Miller is older at 35 but these guys do pretty much the same things,” he said. “They know how to run teams, are effective on both ends and they both have plenty of playoff experience, so you know they understand the dynamics of the job they have to do in a winning situation.”

But I’m not so sure.

Miller is a seemingly ageless wonder, much like his point guard elder statesmen brethren Jason Kidd and Steve Nash. But Felton is just 27. And he has always struck me as guy capable of so much more than he’s shown. He was on the road to showing off exactly what I’m talking about in New York last season, when he played All-Star caliber basketball, only to be traded to the Nuggets.

You put him at the controls of a Blazers team that boasts LaMarcus Aldridge down low and Brandon Roy and Wes Matthews on the wing with his old buddy Gerald Wallace (they played together in Charlotte) tossed in for good measure, and I’m seeing big things for Felton in his new role.

Rather than arguing back and forth with my scout friend I thought we’d let you help end this debate:

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Posted in Uncategorized / Comments (22) /

Nowitzki: ‘West Is Wide Open’

April 27, 2011  ·  12:17PM

DALLAS – For a team with the Mavericks’ recent playoff history, planning anything but the very next game is a dangerous proposition.

Dirk Nowitzki knows better than to assume anything, having lived through first-round playoff exits in three of the last four years.

But the landscape for Nowitzki and the Mavericks became clear late Tuesday night when the start date for the next round of the playoffs was announced.

The winner of this Mavericks-Trail Blazers first-round series will begin the conference semifinal series Monday against the winner of the Lakers-Hornets series.

The Mavericks and Lakers both own 3-2 leads and both have chances to close out their respective series on the road Thursday night in Game 6. The Mavericks will have to break the cycle of home teams winning in their playoff and regular season series’ with the  Blazers, the home team has won all nine meetings this year, if they don’t want to host a Game 7 back here Saturday night.

Nowitzki said the fear factor for all of the teams on the verge moving on to the next round is non-existent, and has been for a while now.

“Yeah, I mean I think coming into the playoffs the way it already shaped up down the stretch, the West is wide open,” Nowitzki said. “I think that’s what you see now in the playoffs. Teams can be beaten. No team really looks unbeatable right now. So we’ve just got to keep on plugging and keep on fighting and hopefully get a big win on Thursday and go from there.”

Again, the Blazers and that raucous Rose Garden crowd expected for Game 6 will have something to say about if and when the Mavericks move on. The Blazers face elimination in Game 6 for the third straight season, having lost to Houston in a Game 6 in 2009 and to Phoenix last season in a Game 6.

“I don’t think this team has packed it in – no,” Blazers coach Nate McMillan said. “It’s not over. We’ve got a game to win Thursday.”

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Posted in 2011 Playoffs / Comments (49) /

Stan Van Defends Dwight, Clowns Media

April 27, 2011  ·  9:05AM

DALLAS – As intriguing and intense as this Western Conference first round playoff series between the Mavericks and Trail Blazers is, I must admit it is missing one key ingredient.

And that missing ingredient is a character like Stan Van Gundy.

Hear me out before you assume I’m comparing the abilities of these coaches, because I think all three are accomplished in their own right.

Both Rick Carlisle and Nate McMillan are laser-locked on trying to get their teams through Game 6 on Thursday night at the Rose Garden in Portland. And neither one of them is the natural comedian that Van Gundy is with a microphone in his face and a captive audience.

In answering a simple question after the Magic’s Game 5 blowout win over the Hawks last night he defended Dwight Howard‘s honor (yet again), while also taking shots at those of us forced to listen to him on a regular basis.

You need to see this one for yourself:

Just so we’re clear, he was not criticizing the officials.

He was criticizing the media for not seeing Howard’s side of things in this season-long debate about whether or not the three-time Defensive Player of the Year is subject to more physical abuse from the opposition than should be allowed.

That part is understandable. Maybe some of us aren’t as sympathetic to Howard’s cause as we should be. But that’s beside the point. Van Gundy has more important things to worry about than insulting us.

If the Magic can’t find a way to beat the Hawks Thursday night in Game 6, that will be the end of the line for the Stan Van Show this season.

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Posted in 2011 Playoffs / Comments (74) /

Cardinal’s Hard Pick Stirs Controversy

April 26, 2011  ·  3:39PM

DALLAS – Mavericks forward Brian Cardinal says he was just playing good, smart basketball.

Trail Blazers guard Patty Mills and his teammates beg to differ.

Cardinal’s hard pick on the diminutive Mills (above) in the final seconds of the Mavericks’ Game 5 win Monday night has caused a stir in Portland and beyond. Mills took to Twitter to send a message of his own:

Pick on the little bro and deal with the rest of the family #balas #bigbros #uncle #morethanteammates #FANmily

Cardinal addressed the issue after the Mavericks’ film session/practice today and seemed genuinely puzzled that sticking to the fundamentals had caused such a controversy.

“I’m surprised they are so mad about it,” Cardinal said. “They pick up J.J. [Barea] full court and they’re gonna double team him. they’re playing hard. They’re playing aggressive, just like I am. They said there is no time on the clock, the game is over and yet they’re going to play hard, full court and press. I’m just doing the same, playing hard just like they are.”

Cardinal said he wouldn’t have done anything other than watch the final seconds click off the clock if Mills hadn’t picked Barea up full court and been so aggressive with the game already decided.

(more…)

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Posted in 2011 Playoffs / Comments (7) /

Mavs Rebound Behind Chandler

April 26, 2011  ·  2:44AM

DALLAS – Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki hears “MVP” chants from the American Airlines Center crowd nearly every time he steps to the free throw line late in a tight game. A decade worth of superstar performances has a way of winning over the home crowd that way.

Tyson Chandler has only had 10 months to prove to Mavericks fans that he’s worthy of a chant of his own. Put together another performance like he did in the Mavericks’ crucial 93-82 Game 5 win over the Trail Blazers Monday night,  though, and the fans might have to save some of those MVP chants for Chandler.

The 7-foot-1 rebounding machine and defensive menace was certainly the Mavericks’ MVP on this night. He outworked the Trail Blazers’ entire frontline, collecting a playoff career-high 20 rebounds (13 offensive) while also recording his first career playoff double-double (14 points) as the Mavericks surged ahead to 3-2 in this series.

“If he’s out there, that’s what he’s got to do in order for them to win,” Blazers point guard Andre Miller said. “He brought some toughness for that team tonight inside and everybody fed off his energy.”

(more…)

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Posted in 2011 Playoffs / Comments (13) /

Another Mavs Playoff Meltdown

April 23, 2011  ·  11:27PM

PORTLAND – The Dallas Mavericks have set foot on this scorched playoff earth before. So you’d think they would know how to avoid making the mistake again … and again .. and again.

Yet all the chatter coming from their locker room after their stunning meltdown and Game 4 loss to Brandon Roy and the Portland Trail Blazers was about how they “let their guard down” and “eased up” with a 23-point cushion late in the third quarter. The Blazers won 84-82 behind 18 fourth-quarter points from Roy.

Even Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle agreed that his team let off the gas with that big lead. “I think we let up a little bit,” Carlisle said. “I don’t think there’s any question.”

But that’s a convenient explanation for a team with as checkered a playoff history as the Mavericks have in recent years. They’ve been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round in three of the last four years.  You take nothing for granted with a resume like that.

They were 13 minutes and 19 seconds away from a commanding 3-1 series lead and a chance to close it out in Game 5 Monday night at home when it all fell apart.

They even managed to wake up the ghosts from their ultimate collapse in the 2006 NBA Finals, when they took a 2-0 series lead and city officials started planning parade routes only to see the Miami Heat stun them by winning four straight games and the Larry O’Brien trophy.

After doing basically whatever they wanted against the Blazers in the third quarter the Mavericks froze up in the fourth. While Roy was shredding them on the defensive end, they couldn’t find the basket on the other. They went eight straight possessions without so much as a free throw.

“It’s tough to find a word,” Dirk Nowitzki said, doing his best to make sense of yet another playoff meltdown. “It’s definitely a tough one to sit on. Now we have to fly home four hours on that one. Frustration is definitely at a high level.”

(more…)

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Posted in 2011 Playoffs / Comments (70) /

Camby’s Big Block: Video

April 22, 2011  ·  3:03PM

PORTLAND – When Marcus Camby sent a Shawn Marion shot into orbit in the first quarter of Thursday night’s Blazers-Mavericks game, his reaction after the block drew an even better response from the Rose Garden crowd than the block itself.

Camby battled the ball into the crowd behind the bench and then stuck his hand on his forehead searching for the flight of the ball like a golfer would a tee shot.

Camby got a good laugh out of it at practice Friday morning when reporters asked him what the deal was with his antics. “I don’t know what I was doing,” he said and then laughed. “I guess I was just feeling it.”

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Posted in 2011 Playoffs / Comment (1) /

Roy Let Play Do Talking This Time

April 22, 2011  ·  6:33AM

PORTLAND – Maybe Brandon Roy was right. He did need a little more time on the floor. He certainly needed more than eight minutes to help the Trail Blazers scratch in their playoff series with the Dallas Mavericks.

He got his eight minutes, and then some, in Game 3 Thursday night at the Rose Garden. And what the Blazers got was vintage Roy, including clutch jumpers, sick bounce off the dribble and an All-Star level performance from a three-time All-Star.

And it only took Roy roughly 24 minutes to get it all done. He finished with 16 points and four assists, two of those during a critical fourth-quarter stretch where the Blazers put the game away, off the bench.

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle warned everyone Sunday about overlooking Roy. “You can never underestimate greatness,” he said of Roy.  His words seemed prophetic late Thursday night.

(more…)

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Posted in 2011 Playoffs / Comments (23) /

Time To Take Care Of Home For Blazers

April 21, 2011  ·  5:57PM

PORTLAND – The mandate is simple for the Portland Trail Blazers tonight.

Take care of home!

The Rose Garden should be rocking with the hometown fans eager to get their first live taste of the 2011 playoffs in Game 3 of this playoff series between the Blazers and Dallas Mavericks.

And the home team was one of the NBA’s best this season on their own floor, their 30-11 record tied for the second best in the league during the regular season with the Heat, Lakers, Thunder and Grizzlies. Only the Bulls and Spurs (both 36-5) recorded better home marks during the regular season.

Two of the Blazers’ home wins this season came at the expense of the Mavericks, who used the juice of their home crowd to fuel their wins in Games 1 and 2 at American Airlines Center.

(more…)

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Posted in 2011 Playoffs / Comments (5) /

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