A Win for the Blazers is Overshadowed Amidst Oden's Devastating Injury

Last night the Blazers met with the Houston Rockets at the Rose Garden. The Blazers, who were on a three game losing streak were looking for a win to gain confidence going into a four game road trip. Hosuton however was looking for a perfect road trip having already won three of three. The match-up which has brought intensity out of both sides in their recent meetings was looking to be a good one.

Starters:

Brandon Roy
LaMarcus Aldridge
Martell Webster
Greg Oden
Steve Blake



Rumors were abound prior to the game that Rudy Fernandez and Andre Miller would start, but Rudy sat out of this game due to back spasms. Maybe, in the future when Rudy is healthy and McMillan is back from surgery(more on that later) we will see that line-up on the court.

Brandon Roy took top honors but with a different effect last night. We have seen Brandon as the top scorer in recent games but it was a different Roy, it wasn't necessarily the all-star we have come to know. Last night's game showed Brandon Roy the All-Star. He pushed the tempo, created plays and was aggressive. Roy tallied 28 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists and was 9 - 15 from the field and an AMAZING 9 - 9 from the line. It was great to see B Roy back on his game and hopefully it's something we continue to see.
Andre Miller also had a spectacular night racking up 24 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. He shot 9 - 14 from the field and 5 - 7 from the line. Like Roy, Miller was determined and aggressive tonight driving to the basket and creating plays for the team. It was great to see play like this out of these guys, especially with Oden's injury on the minds of everyone watching.

Box Score:

The Blazers fought hard and were rewarded with the win 90 - 89. The game came down to the wire but Brandon Roy, our All-Star, stayed confident and got the basket leaving Houston with 3 seconds to answer and luckily they failed. Despite the good coming out of last night, the game will be plagued with the injury of Greg Oden.

In the 1st quarter with 7:45 left on the clock, Aaron Brooks went up for a lay in and Greg Oden followed. Only one of them came down safely. Greg fell to the floor immediately grabbing his knee, Brandon Roy came to his side and alerted the referees to stop game play while Houston's medical staff ran to Greg's aid(this all went down in front of the Houston bench). A silence went across the Rose Garden as medical staff rushed onto the court and the Blazers coaching staff followed. I, myself was not in the Rose Garden for the game, I was observing from the media truck outside and saw every camera angle of the incident. It appears that Aaron and Greg didn't touch but that the injury occured as Greg left the ground.

This injury was painful in more ways than one. It looked painful, his knee was indented but at the same time there was pain in knowing that all expectations for this team came crashing down in that moment. I will never forget seeing the shot of Greg Oden, with a pained look on his face that said 'sorry', look up at Brandon Roy who kneeled at his side and held his hand throughout this ordeal. The team all rushed onto the court to help Greg onto the gourney and everyone hugged him on his way out. This moment showed how close the Blazers are and how much Greg means to this team. Brandon Roy, who was by Greg's side as medical staff were helping him, was asked Did You Talk to Him and said, "I just told him, 'man, keep your head up.' On the court he looked at me like 'sorry' and put his head down. I was like, 'nah, no way, man, no way.' You can't predict these things. You've got to do your best to stay positive. We're going to do our best to fill in for you. I just kept trying to tell him, man look, we love you. Get better."

It was determined that Oden had a fractured patella(knee cap) on his left knee. Greg underwent knee surgery last night and had two screws placed on his knee cap and it was noted that no ligaments were damaged. Which is a damn good thing because it means that full recovery is not only possible but likely. The 7 foot center will be out for about four months. I think Kevin Pritchard (GM of the Blazers) said it best with, "The challenging part for me is sometimes life's not fair. You know. I've seen this kid work his tail off here. He has put in the work. He has done absolutely everything we've asked him to do. And more. And he's going to go through that again."

This is devastating for the Blazers, but I believe if any team can beat adversity, it's this team. True, we don't have a back up center now but just look at the Houston Rockets, they have no center at all! I think this injury gives the Blazers the chance to work on fast play and pushing the ball. I will keep faith in the Blazers. I believe they can make it out of this but, hey Nicolas Batum.....can we speed up the healing process? Please?

Also something to note, as mentioned earlier, Nate McMillan will not be joining the Blazers on this road trip. He is also injured and will be under going surgery on his foot. The Portland Head Coach sported a walking boot cast on his right foot at the game last night. Assistant Coach Dean Domopolus will be filling in the role of head coach and Monty Williams will take on the Assistant Coach role for the road trip. Rudy Fernandez will also be staying home for the trip resting his back.

Portland next plays the New York Knicks at the Madison Square Garden on Monday, December 7th.

Keys, Keys, Keys:

1. Keep it clean Joel - With Greg Oden out, there is no back up center for Joel. I'm assuming we'll see LaMarcus or Juwan play a kind of forward center position at some point to give Pryz a break but with that said, Joel needs to keep fouling to a minimum. Luckily the team was able to get in a practice today where they undoubtedly went over the changes with GO out.
2. Keep it under 100 - As I said in the last post, the Blazers thrive when their opponent scores low and the Knicks thrive when they're able to score high so we need to keep this a low scoring game for NY
3. Fast Break It - With GO out we have more chances then ever to play a fast paced game. We need our guys to run the floor and take advatage of all fast breaks. Which leads to:
4. Points in the Paint - We have constantly been outscored in the paint so far this season. That needs to change! We need more guys to get aggressive and not just settle for the outside shot.
5. Free Throws - As always, getting to the line is extremely important. If we can beat NY to the line, we can beat them in this game.

(Pictures: Yahoo! Sports)