Apr
27
Game Six Promises Energy And Passion
By sarahhecht
Prepare yourself Rip City. The Trail Blazers mean business.
I made the rounds through practice today listening intently to understand the mindset of each player. I wanted to know what they think the most important theme is when heading into Game 6 and facing elimination.
Four words were used consistently to describe the mindset of the Trail Blazers; energy, team, focus and home.
- Energy was the first word out of almost every mouth. From the opening tip to the final buzzer Portland needs to play with life.
“Coach talked about coming out the right way and with energy,” Marcus Camby said. “I think we were a little lethargic in that game (Game 5,) especially in the second half. We we’re unable to execute our offense. We were unable to contain the dribble. Giving them the rebounding. For us it was pretty much the ball game.”
“We gotta be strong minded,” Gerald Wallace said. “This is the time now. It’s win or go home and that’s seriously the meaning right now so we gotta come out and be more focused and our main thing is be more intense. We gotta come out with energy and be intense.”
- Stemming from energetic play comes the concept of playing as a team.
”So the biggest thing is to go all out,” Roy said. “But at the same time we have to make sure we try to stay within the team concept and not try to take it upon ourselves to try to win the game for us.”
- Focus on all aspects of the game. End to end and top to bottom.
LaMarcus Aldridge said, “I think everybody’s focused and ready to go. I’d rather win than go home.”
- Protect home court. Success in the Rose Garden pushes the series to Game 7.
“In our building we seem to work a little harder than they do so it’s gonna be key tomorrow to come out and work hard and try to pick up our tempo a little bit,” said Brandon Roy.
“It’s not over. We don’t think by any means it’s over,” said Wesley Matthews. “We’re down 3-2. We have a game tomorrow at home. Every team so far in this series has protected their home and for the season. So we just gotta take care of business tomorrow.”
Camby summed the up the mentality going into tomorrow in one sentence.
“We’re just one win away from bringing this team back to Dallas and a game seven.”
Uprise.