Blazers Struggle to Find Rhythm In Front of a Star Studded Crowd at MSG

Portland  started a four game road trip last night in New York playing the New York Knicks in front of a star studded crowd including the likes of Rihanna, Celine Dion, Spike Lee and Chris Rock. After a night of emotional events, including the injury to Greg Oden that will take him out for the rest of the season, and a huge win against the Rockets in the books, the Blazers were once again facing adversity in the big apple. Head coach Nate McMillan underwent successful surgery on his achilles heel, but this meant he would be a no show on the road trip. Also, beloved Spaniard, Rudy Fernandez satyed home to rest a hurt back. Needless to say, the Blazers had a lot working against them and were looking to start the trip with a win against a New York team they had beaten 5 consecutive times.

 Starting Five:

Brandon Roy

LaMarcus Aldridge

Martell Webster

Steve Blake

Joel Pryzbilla

High scorer of the night for Portland was, once again, Brandon Roy. B Roy knows his role and has been fighting harder than ever to keep the team within striking distance but the problem is that we need more than Roy, Aldridge and Miller to step up. A big problem we saw in the game last night was players standing around and waiting for someone else to step up. Roy tallied 27 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists. He shot 9 - 19 from the field and 9 - 10 from the line. Aldridge had a great night as well producing a double-double with 19 points, 16 rebounds and 2 assists. When our two All-Stars play like this we should be winning. Also notable is Jerryd Bayless. J Bay has been given more and more minutes over the past couple of games, something I am a strong supporter of especially when Jerryd puts up numbers like these. Bayless tallied 14 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists. Bayless was one of few to go on a hot sreak but as per usual was benched. I think the coaches need to trust Bayless more and let him stick it out on the court. It's a shame that a player like J Bay who is aggressive and hustles isn't being rewarded.

It was a battle to the end but the Knicks prevailed wining the contest 93 - 84. Despite a 14 - 0 run late in the 4th quarter, the Blazers just couldn't keep up. You could definitely tell that morale and energy was low for this team. Too many times we saw a lack of communication and players simply standing on the sides watching the game rather than participating.

Times are tough but something's gotta give. This Blazers team has seen adversity before so I still refuse to count them out. It's not what we want, but I think we might have to settle with a late season surge at this point. Jeff Pendergraph, rookie forward (injured), has been quoted as saying that he could be back in action as early as Christmas so maybe he could make some changes for this team. Also, Patty Mills, rookie point guard (injured), is supposed to be ahead of schedule on his recovery as well. The more bodies we have the better right now, especially when we can only play 9 guys giving us a healthy bench of 4. Not quite an ideal situation.

The Blazers next play the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday December 9th at 4 PM PST. Remember, we're on the east coast so games are playing earlier.

Keys Keys Keysssss:

1. Fast play - We've got to continue working the fast break plays. Indiana likes to play fast so we need to keep up with that intensity and play fast right back at them.
2. Miller & Webster Step It Up - Andre Miller had 4 points against NY. We need Miller to stay consistent in the high numbers. Webster also needs to step his game up. He's the replacement for Outlaw who would come off the bench and give us baskets, so he needs to start making those baskets. If we can get Miller, Roy, Aldridge and Webster with a good scoring night we can't be beat.
3. STOP TURNOVERS - In last night's game we had 15 turnovers in the first half alone. Those turnovers led to 31 NY points. We need to clean up our passes and play and keep turnovers to a minimum.

(Pictures: Yahoo! Sports)