Posted 03/21/2010 12:54 AM

 Post-Game Thoughts

"After (the game-winner), I was just laughing, 'Hey, I made a shot.' And it was one that won an important game for us."

Laugh. What more can you do after one of the sloppiest, most lousy performances ever staged on the Rose Garden floor? A game that saw a combined 150 points tallied, only three more than the snail-paced Spurs dropped on the Warriors the same night, on 35.4% shooting (55-155), including a dysmal 5-20 from long range, and a pedestrian 35-49 from the charity stripe (71.4%); a poor shooting display on all facets of the game. A game so poorly played and executed, the players should be ashamed for making the Basketball Gods roll over in their graves after watching it.

Portland looked as if they would run away with it after obtaining a 42-26 lead early on in the 2nd quarter. As usual, the Blazers failed to keep their foot on the gas pedal and let the Wizards of all teams sneak back into the game. Lazy rotations lead to Washington, sharp shooter Mike Miller heating up a bit, canning 5-11 shots for a team-high 16 points and a failure to fight through screens saw Rnady Foye heat up and nearly win the game single handily. He scored 7 of his 11 points all within the last three minutes of the game, including a three-pointer to give the Wizards their first lead of the 2nd half, 70-69. Time after time, each jumper was drilled off of the high pick and roll, so obvious even Brian Wheeler, Trail Blazers radio play-by-play analysis, knew the play was coming. It makes one wonder what is being watched at the practice facility, Spongebob Squarepants or game film?

Ever since being dealt for one another on Draft Day 2006, the two have been permanently linked to one another and for once it looked as if Randy Foye would enact some revenge and upstage Brandon Roy, seeing how Roy is known for his clutch game winners, team success, and personal accolades. Roy started out on fire, going 3-3 from the field, looking as if he was on his way to a monster night when the shooting eye deserted him. This was no normal mini-slump; Roy missed 14 straight shots after the torrid start. With the game knotted up at 74 and 20 seconds remaining, who else do you want to have the ball in their hands? "That's the guy you're going to live with," McMillan said. "He is very capable of making that shot. He plays in that situation a lot." Like the supertar he is, Roy confidently stpepped up and hit the game winning jumper, saving Portland from a terrible defeat in the ever-so-tight Western Conference race.

"We wanted to get Brandon in the pick-and-roll if they were playing him straight up," McMillan said. "Spread the floor and put the shooters out there and let him go. And he hit an unbelievable shot."

"I wanted to step back and shoot it, but he jumped so high, I had to step in. I could have tried to draw the foul, but he did a good job of jumping away from me. When it left, it felt good, but they all felt good. I was just happy it went in."

I'm not quite sure what to make of this current groups of Trail Blazers. Every time I expect them to figure it out and destroy a team they should, they play poorly and revert back to their old, terrible habits of being lazy on rotations and settling for outside, contested jump shots. On the other hand, whenever I seem to think they are overmatched, with not a prayer to win, they'll pull off a miracle. For whatever reason, we do not play crsip or sharp after more than two days of rest, so I'll chalk up this lackluster performance due to the long layoff, but only this one.What fans need to realzie, myself included, is the NBA schedule is a six month grind on the body, both physically and mentally, and over the course of an 82 game season, lapses are bound to happen. It's impossible to be 100% focused, 100% of the time. What separates the good from the great teams are the frequencies in which these lapses occur. Quite frankly, the Trail Blazers aren't a great team, yet, but with what has happened this year, I'll take a 42-28 record with a smile on my face.

Official Game Photos

Box Score