Blazers' Winning Streak Against Cities Beginning With An 'M' Takes A Hit

The Blazers met up with the Memphis Grizzlies at the Rose Garden tonight. In a game predicted as a win for the Blazers all fans were looking for that big win going into a road trip to Utah and alas, those hopes were destroyed with an ugly performance early on for the Blazers.

Starting 5:
Brandon Roy
LaMarcus Aldridge
Martell Webster
Greg Oden
Steve Blake

Martell Webster is continuing to earn that spot on the starting roster. Though he was not the high scorer of the night, he started the game off hot and was the only player for the Blazers to have a positive +/- with +3. Webster walked away with 24 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist and 3 nasty blocks. He shot 9 - 14 from the field and 6 - 11 from 3-point range.  He made huge baskets when it really mattered down the stretch and I think we'll definitely be seeing much more of Martell to come if his game continues to improve from this already high level.
Brandon Roy was the high scorer of the night with 26 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists. A near triple-double for the All-Star tonight, but the stats look better on paper than in the actual game. He shot an ugly 9 -22 from the field and 2 - 6 from the arc. Roy's fellow captain, LaMarcus Aldridge didn't play much better with 16 points, 9 rebounds and 1 assist. He shot 7 - 16 from the field but at least he was 100% from 3 - point range! LA made a big 3 when Portland needed it most but unfortunately it still wasn't enough. Roy and LA played the entire 4th quarter despite putting in heavy minutes earlier in the game. Roy totaled 42 minutes and LA played 44 minutes.

Sloppy moves and turnovers really hurt the Blazers and allowed Memphis to dominate the first half with a 32 - 1 run. Memphis came out on the court with an intensity and will to win whereas the Blazers seemed to have eaten too much turkey, looking slow and confused. Our 2nd unit didn't help too much either with only two of them scoring, Rudy Fernandez tallied 4 points and Andre Miller tallied 13 points. Miller was huge down the stretch though with fast paced plays and penetration at a time when Memphis was outscoring Portland in the paint badly. Head Coach Nate McMillan attributed the poor play to lack of energy saying, "There was none. I mean, energy? There was no energy out there in the first half. That team comes in here and jumps on us like that. No energy. I thought for most of the game there was no energy and really no excuse for no energy." McMillan also called out talked about the need for Roy and LA to step up and lead their team, "I think Brandon and LaMarcus are our captains and our leaders. We need to feed off of that. That emotion. Not allowing us to play this way. Not that we're calling them [out] -- they are the guys we feed off of, they are the guys that can do a lot, encouraging support. We need that. We need that. We're going to play off of them. Greg has done some good things. We brought Miller in here. Our guys, that we feed off of, are those two. And when they have a nice rhythm going those guys on that floor gain confidence.....Those are our go-to guys. Those are guys that have made it happen. That we're playing off of. We need them. We need them." I liked Ben Golliver over at BlazersEdge's remark on Nate playing Roy and LA for all of the fourth quarter saying, "Although he couched his post-game commentary with "not calling them out" I thought McMillan's lack of fourth quarter substitutions for his captains told the whole story: this embarrasing deficit is your bed, captains, you'll dig us out of it or sleep in it."

Memphis came away with the win in the end: 106 - 96. The Blazers were able to cut the lead down to 10 by the end but the damage had already been done. At a time when Portland needed to make stops and get on a run, they simply traded baskets with Memphis allowing the Grizzlies to maintain and keep their lead. Martell Wesbter commented on this late comeback (that he was a huge part of) after the game, "We all pushed to try to make that comeback. It's not a one man show. But we just couldn't quite put 48 minutes together. We just gotta learn from our mistakes." Too true Marty. With this loss the Blazers winning streak against cities that start with 'M' ends at 27 games.

The Blazers next face the Utah Jazz in Utah tomorrow night. The Trail Blazers and Jazz split last season’s series, 2-2, for the fourth time in the last six seasons. The home team has won seven straight games and 12 of the past 13 in the series. Portland has taken six straight meetings over
the Jazz at the Rose Garden, while Utah has taken the last three in Salt Lake City. All in all we're looking at an interesting match-up and a good opportunity for the Blazers to come back once again. The game is set to air on KGW at 6 PM PST and the call will be on radio station 95.5 the game with Brian Wheeler and Antonio Harvey. If you're not in the area or won't be near a TV but will be near your computer this is one of the games you can purchase to view on-line, more deets can be found at trailblazers.com. Also you can check out the LIVE game chat moderated by Casey Holdahl and Max Mandel while you're there too.



On an off topic note, I apologize for the lack of posts! I have missed two games, one of them being the beautiful Bulls v. Blazers game in which Greg Oden and LaMarcus played some of their best basketball this season! I was really excited to post about that one but life has hit me hard and unfortunately my first post back is for a game I was not excited to write about but whatcha gonna do?

I hope each and every member of Blazer Nation had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a safe Black Friday! I am thankful for YOU, that's right you! Thank you for reading and supporting this little blog! I appreciate your support more than you know!

(Pictures: Yahoo Sports)