Posted 04/25/2011 4:39 PM

If you’re in Portland I truly envy you, heck if you’re in the state of Oregon I envy you and the mystic atmosphere you are experiencing.  As it was for me, and I’m sure every Blazer fan with a pulse, I experienced something spectacular beyond any word I’ve ever encountered (and I’ve read the New Oxford American dictionary).  OK so I might be stretching that last part there, but none-the-less I am still in awe.  The way the Blazers fought back in the fourth quarter was inspiring by itself, then you mention Brandon Roy’s name as the fuel, spark, and fire that staged this epic comeback, and you get a completely different story altogether.  Look at Brandon Roy’s numbers before game three, we all remember know them so I won’t repeat them.   Then, following game two Roy’s frustration bubbled over, but he promptly apologized even though everyone in Rip City understood where the frustration came from, but that didn’t matter because by the end of game three all was forgotten by the fans when Roy produced when called upon.  It gets better……  Well, I got comfortable with the effort that Roy showed in game three, as some of you might have as well, and I started to picture Roy’s role as a quiet 12, 3, and 3 type of player with the occasional double-double, but I never thought I’d see Brandon Roy of old again.  So, game four rolls around and much of Blazer nation is confident of a win at the RG against Dallas to tie the series, but the rim wasn’t hearing it and the Mavericks had other plans.  So, by the time the five minute mark in the third quarter rolled around I was sunken in my chair in disbelief, nothing was going right for the Trail Blazers and I had already counted this game far gone with what I was witnessing.  Then comes Brandon Roy, the three pointer he willed in in the closing seconds of the third was a silent chord out of which his fourth quarter orchestra sprang forth.  No…., no hope yet, just painfully slow possessions being played out by the already dominant Mavericks and a shot made here and there by the Blazers.  Little did any of us know, Brandon Roy refused to accept another defeat, he instead took the Blazers deficit as salt on his already open wounds of frustration and made the Mavericks his outlet.  I finally realized the significance of the situation when Brandon Roy hit that three pointer with an exclamation point tacked on for a four-point play.  Now that I look back on it, nothing was going to stop a win in Rip City... Nothing.  The conditions were perfect for Roy to escape his mental slump and show Dallas that Portland will not go quietly into game five and likely experience elimination.  I’ll never forget what I witnessed, the emotions I felt, or the connection I saw among every person in the Rose Garden that night, what a truly inspiring performance by Broy. 

    So,  now that I’ve shared that, with Brandon Roy on the floor in game five, I expect to see more production from other Blazer players as he collapses the Dallas defense and distributes the ball.  Look at L.A. to pick up some intensity back in his hometown, and for the Blazers three ball to be more of a factor as the fringes collapse on Roy’s interior game. 

    I’ll be watching tonight with added pride in what our Blazers overcame in game four.  Here’s to a solid performance by the Blazers in game five.  I hope that I can be home in the near future to watch my Blazers play in the RG with the rest of my Rip City brethren.

I’m honored to be a fan,

    -Michael Stensrud