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Dec 22

Great Win. Now What?

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By caseyholdahl

First the great new. The Trail Blazers beat the Mavericks 85-81 in Dallas for their first victory in Big D in the last 11 tries. Simply a fantastic win, and it assures the team comes home from this difficult road trip no worse than 2-2. You could argue we've had more impressive road victories a third of the way through this season than we had all of last year. That's a sure-fire sign of a team growing up.

Now the terrible news. As you've certainly heard, Joel Przybilla went down in the first quarter Tuesday's game with a gruesome knee injury that was later revealed to be a ruptured right patella tendon and a patella dislocation. He is listed as out indefinitely, and I think it's fairly safe to assume he's done for the season. That's obvously terrible news for the Trail Blazers, but even worse news for Przybilla. No one works harder and gives more to the team than he does. It's a damn shame.

But as we saw tonight, all is certainly not lost. This team, led by Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge, can beat any team on any night. The game against Houston when Greg Oden went down was exhibit A. Tuesday's win, which qualifies as more impressive, is exhibit B. As Nate McMillan often says, there is no quit in this team.

But now is the real test. The post-game glow of beating the Mavericks is sweet, but that will fade away before the plane touches down tonight in San Antonio. The "win it for Joel" mentality might have carried the Blazers through Tueday night's game, but it's not going to be all that helpful come Wednesday, or Christmas Day against the Nuggets, or any game after that. They'll have to learn how to win not only without Joel, but also without the emotional lift that, strangely enough, comes with seeing a player go down.

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11 Comments

What now? I know i can count on this team to give effort they always do. But what do we do now. Joel and Greg what the heck is going on. Bad luck this season is all i can think of. We need to make a trade come trade season. I thought that befor joel went down but now more so than ever. Send toliver back to the D league The guy doesn't deserve min over Jeff or Dante. Bring a center up. Man i miss Fry right now. I know he is not as much of a beast but he could get the job done. How do we beat LA with out a center. Joel deserves better the guy has been a rock. But i knew something had to happen sooner or later. We count on him ever yearto be the lone center. Tough on his body. To bad we cant get lopez or mark gusol that would be awsome.

Blazer pride keep your heads up
avgjoe

by Avgjoe28 on 12/22/2009 10:17 PM
By the way alot teams would love to have miller. I think we could send him in a package in a trade. Every one thought a new point gaurd is what we needed this year. But come on Brandon is really our point gaurd He avg more assists a game than any of our points. Keep blake and bayless Brandon will run the floor any way. Trade miller and Toliver and maybe Mills Im not sure who would be good in the third spot thus why i said mills. And start playing Jeff we are going to need him more than ever now. He needs the time to get better and there is no time like the now.

Avgjoe

by Avgjoe28 on 12/22/2009 10:22 PM
Paul Allen needs to make a decision. He needs to give somebody the thumbs up to look at a center to replace at least 2 guys and maybe look at a third at this rate. If he doesn't do something the Blazers will have a lot more to replace with everyone working harder to take up the slack. Either that or let all the youngsters play and call it a season now.

by sjsljs2 on 12/22/2009 10:24 PM
I think this is really going to help Aldridge's offensive game, not many centers in this league can check him. He can stretch the floor playing the five which should open up the paint. On defense, they just need to work that much harder to help out in the post and scramble to recover. We should also be able to kill people with Aldridge running the floor and get easy buckets.
I think the worst thing to do in this situation is make a trade to save the season. That could hurt us long term. We have a great group together right now and let's face it, theres not much of a chance for us this year anymore, so let's not ruin the future, I say we just roll with what we got.
Pendergraph needs to step up and I'm sure he will.
It's gonna be an interesting season, that's for sure.

by Jared on 12/22/2009 11:24 PM
Wow!! Scared to ask What is next. Greg going down was terrible. We still had Joel so all would be OK!!!!

now it is bad.

hg

by Hg on 12/23/2009 4:45 AM
What's going on? I have to doubt the Blazers training coaches now. Aren't them doing their job properly? It's at least odd that the team has so many injuries....

by Dan on 12/23/2009 8:41 AM
The whole season now rides on Roy. He is the ONE player we can't afford to go down for any period of time. I really hope that shoulder is ok.
And to Joel: Heal up buddy! We'll need you for next season!

by DHawes22 on 12/23/2009 11:09 AM
I have to agree with Dan. One, two, maybe three injuries can be accepted with 'it's just a part of the game' mentality. But it's now fair to call into question the medical treatment, conditioning, physical treatment this team receives from the staff. Oden and Joel out with a similar patella injury (yet a bit different), Webster (last year), Mills, Outlaw out with the same broken bone in their foot; only Batum (shoulder) and Rudy (back) can be considered game like injuries. But the injuries to Oden, Joel, Webster, Mills and Outlaw are all 'freak' injuries. None of these guys were injured by another player. All were alone making a move, a jump off a pivot stop, etc. and each fell down with a pop. We need to ask 'why?' It's fair. No doubt the training staff are bar none some of the best in the league but these injuries are just to bizarre to be coincidental. My opinion only.

by heals66 on 12/23/2009 11:50 AM
I have to agree with Dan. One, two, maybe three injuries can be accepted with 'it's just a part of the game' mentality. But it's now fair to call into question the medical treatment, conditioning, physical treatment this team receives from the staff. Oden and Joel out with a similar patella injury (yet a bit different), Webster (last year), Mills, Outlaw out with the same broken bone in their foot; only Batum (shoulder) and Rudy (back) can be considered game like injuries. But the injuries to Oden, Joel, Webster, Mills and Outlaw are all 'freak' injuries. None of these guys were injured by another player. All were alone making a move, a jump off a pivot stop, etc. and each fell down with a pop. We need to ask 'why?' It's fair. No doubt the training staff are bar none some of the best in the league but these injuries are just to bizarre to be coincidental. My opinion only.

by heals66 on 12/23/2009 12:19 PM
I have to agree with Dan. One, two, maybe three injuries can be accepted with 'it's just a part of the game' mentality. But it's now fair to call into question the medical treatment, conditioning, physical treatment this team receives from the staff. Oden and Joel out with a similar patella injury (yet a bit different), Webster (last year), Mills, Outlaw out with the same broken bone in their foot; only Batum (shoulder) and Rudy (back) can be considered game like injuries. But the injuries to Oden, Joel, Webster, Mills and Outlaw are all 'freak' injuries. None of these guys were injured by another player. All were alone making a move, a jump off a pivot stop, etc. and each fell down with a pop. We need to ask 'why?' It's fair. No doubt the training staff are bar none some of the best in the league but these injuries are just to bizarre to be coincidental. My opinion only.

by heals66 on 12/23/2009 12:45 PM
This is a good example of the reasons why Portland isn't winning as much as they used to. All the injuries. Like you said, Greg Oden was exhibit A. We need a little more stronger players but good stronger players that can rebound and pass the ball.

GO BLAZERS!!!!!

by supereagle20 on 3/14/2011 4:36 PM