Blazers Extend Their Winning Streak to Six In Charlotte, Travis Outlaw Celebrates From the Emergency Room

The Blazers continued their five game road trip in Charlotte last night to play the Bobcats. This was their fourth game in five nights so all eyes, inluding Michael Jordan's at courtside, were on the Blazers to see if their winning streak (longest in the NBA so far by the way) would continue.

Last night's starting five:

Bradon Roy
LaMarcus Aldridge
Andre Miller
Steve Blake
Greg Oden

Let's just jump right on in with the night's high scorer: Brandon Roy. Yes, he is once again at the top. Roy scored 25 points in 40 minutes of play with 7 rebounds and 5 assists. As per usual, Roy continued to show his maturity and growth with the game making smart plays and getting the job done for the Blazers. B Roy was 9 - 16 from the field and 6 - 7 from the free throw line. He was absolutely key to the win last night. After a slow start, missing 4 of 5 from the field, Roy kicked it into gear and showed us why he's an All Star. After the game McMillan said, "The All-Star Brandon Roy came out again down the stretch making some big shots to keep the game five to six points." Andre Miller took the second place slot last night with 15 points, 6 rebounds and 1 assist. He shot 5 - 12 from the field and was 5 - 5 from the free throw line.

Next up is LaMarcus Aldridge. LMA scored 11 points and 7 rebounds. Probably the second most memorable moment (I'll give the top spot to TLaw stay strong buddy...explanation later) in the game came towards the end of the 4th quarter when Raja Bell threw an elbow in Aldridge's face. LMA decided to make his feelings known when Gerald Wallace got into the mix and pushed him out of the way. Greg Oden and Brandon Roy came over to protect LMA and got into the scuffle as well. I have never really seen Aldridge get that heated up that quickly. I mean yes, we all remember when Kevin Garnett decided to throw an elbow at LMA's face (see a trend?) and LMA smacked him upside the head but that wasn't as heated as this argument was. Personally, I think the guys were running on fumes and when Wallace decided to take things up a notch, LMA wasn't about to have that.

 Judge for yourself (The Brawl starts at about 1:43) :



Five technical fouls were handed out for that little altercation.
CHA 4th Qtr 0:55 Raja Bell
POR 4th Qtr 0:55 LaMarcus Aldridge
CHA 4th Qtr 0:55 Gerald Wallace
POR 4th Qtr 0:55 Brandon Roy
CHA 4th Qtr 0:55 Tyson Chandler

Moving along. As I mentioned earlier, that altercation was in fact not the #1 memorable moment of last night's game, that honor goes to Travis Outlaw. As you may or may not have heard, Travis Outlaw suffered a stress fracture in his foot last night. To be exact, he has a stress fracture to his fifth metatarsal of his foot. Oh and did I metion this is the exact same injury that took Martell Webster out of the entire season last year? Whether you're a fan of Travis or not, this is a devastating injury for him and the team. Outlaw is in his contract year, meaning he will either be signing for more years with Portland, be traded or become a free agent, so basically, to be injured during that time is not good. As for the team, TLaw is our 6th man. He's done extremely well for us coming off the bench, so well in fact that he's our top off the bench scorer and to not have him will definitely hinder us. Do I think the Blazers' winning streak will come to a complete and utter halt now? No, but we will definitely see exactly how influential TLaw is to this team in the upcoming games. No doubt, Rudy and Dante Cunningham might be seeing an upside to this situation as they will undoubtedly see more minutes. Also, not quite as big news, Jerryd Bayless was unable to play last night due to a rolled ankle. He acquired the injury during pre-game shoot around when walking off the court and stepping on his ankle wrong. At this point the injury seems to be minor might keep him out of a couple games but nothing too serious.

Despite the brawl and injuries, the Trail Blazers were able to come away with a win 80 - 74. Once again, we saw a slow start from our team, it was almost painful to watch at some points but in the second half they were really able to run with the lead, due in large part to Roy's hot streak. This win extends the Blazers' winning streak to 6! Something that will hopefully be extended to 7 in Atlanta on Monday.

That's right, the Blazers next play the Atlanta Hawks in ATL on Monday. The game will air on Comcast Sportsnet at 4 PM PST. Tip off is due at 7 PM EST. The Hawks are one of the best offensive teams right now and they are coming fresh off of a win over the Boston Celtics so I would say we're in for a good ball game.

(Pictures Associated Press <-- please tell me there was a foul called for that one.. and hollywoodandvine Photoshop job by Rachel)