Posted 02/07/2010 1:39 PM

Post-Game Thoughts
The season from hell continued last night. With everything that has gone wrong to date, as fans, we still could hang our hat on the fact we could still Beat L.A. at the Garden and extend our streak over them, sort of a shining light in a dark, dim season. Well, not only did we lose, we got walloped, humiliated, and embarrassed. Probably the most frustrating aspect of the game was seeing the Laker players wanting that game more than we did, essentially grabbing every single loose ball. My guess is the team heard Kobe was taking the game off and mentally let down, but who knows? The team isn't the only one to blame though. The reason the Rose Garden has been a thorn in the Lakers side has been the raucous crowd, chanting "BEAT L.A." at every waking moment, yet the crowd struggled to muster up one decent "BEAT L.A." chant all night long. With a sore throat and cold, I shouldn't be the loudest person in my section.

After a scorching 1st quarter, running up 29 points and a six point lead, the shooting eye deserted the Blazers as they only scored 53 points the entire way. There could have been more, but I counted at least two threes, one from Webster and the other from Blake, that literally rimmed in and out. Webster's was incredibly painful as it could have pushed the lead up to 12 and really got the crowd into it, so in a sense, you could say, "It's just not your night." Personally, that attitude is a cop out. If your jumper isn't falling, get to the basket, as there are other ways to get yourself back into the game. Once again, Portland got dominated in the paint, this time 48-22. It wasn't until garbage time that we actually took the ball to the cup. Bayless finally got aggressive, maybe his thigh bruise and bum ankle were still bothering him, late in the 4th and dissected the Laker D.

How the team doesn't get up for the biggest game of the year is beyond me, but no stat tells the story better than rebounding. L.A. murdered us on the glass, 47-30, including a 12-2 advantage on the offensive glass, which resulted in well over 20 second chance points for the Lakers. Without our main offensive weapon in Roy, we have been prided ourselves on second-chance points to this point, but when you are only able to get two points off of offensive rebounds, it is going to be a long offensive night because our offense isn't based off of movement, rather isolation. Lamar Odom himself had 22 rebounds. It is a shame when one player nearly out-rebounds your entire team. LaMarcus was on such a rebounding tear lately, averaging 11 in the month of February, only was able to bring in 5 rebounds, Juwan 7, and Martell 2. Your starting front court must be more active than that.

Quite possibly the most frustrating aspect about this game is there were no silver linings. No one played well or even remotely came close to performing up to their capabilities. There wasn't even a highlight reel play to go back and watch in awe and appreciation. To make matters worse, Brandon Roy has been ruled out through the All-Star break with no real return date in site. The team and fans simply can not feel sorry for themselves, because no one in the NBA is going to feel sorry for them when its game time. Opposing teams are like sharks, and without Brandon Roy, they can smell the blood in the water. This is an extremely important time in the season for the blazers. They must rally and get resilient and string together some wins. With OKC and Phoenix being the last two games before the All-Star break, we must get one win and not head into the long weekend on a three-game losing streak. So I challenge not only the players to wake up for Tuesday's game but the fan base to. They feed off of our energy and we need to get off our own pity party and cheer like its the last Blazer game we'll ever be able to attend.

Official Game Photos

Box Score