I know I know, it's been a long while Blazer Nation, miss me? No don't answer that... Anyway, a lot of crazy mayhem has gone down. First off let's take a moment to pay homage to the injured Blazers since my sabbatical:
No, I did not include Brandon Roy but that's because *knock on wood* Roy's injury should only be putting him on the bench for a couple weeks total and he should, hopefully, be back on the court after this next road trip.
Huge congrats are in order though for Coach McMillan, Rudy Fernandez and Nicolas Batum who have all made healthy recoveries from their injuries and are back on the court!!
And what a difference their return has made. Rudy took a game or two to get back in the swing of things but my oh my, Nicolas Batum was HUNGRY to get back on the court and immediately was back to his old Batuuuuum-Shaka-Laka self! In his game debut, Batum posted 6 points, 1 assist and 1 rebound while shooting 3 - 5 from the field. In Wednesday's game against Utah, Batum was a HUGE factor. In our almost scoreless first quarter Nico posted 7 of our 9 points. He went on to score 16 points, shooting 7 - 9 from the field and a perfect 2 - 2 from beyond the arch. Rudy has been playing extremely well (we'll not talk about the incident at Boston where Rudy threw a bad three up that could have tied the game even though he had 3.5 seconds to get set....). Though we all love a good RUDY POR TRES, I think we are all even more excited about the new inside game El Machetero has been playing. He drops floaters in the paint like a pro and boy are they pretty.
Unfortunately I have to report our first two home game losing streak of the season. The Blazers lost against New Orleans at home after a close game that the Blazers just couldn't close in the end. The Blazers led for most of the game, albeit not by much but towards the end everything fell apart. A lapse in defense and a Hornets run ending with a wide open jump shot for Chris Paul allowed the Hornets to come away with a one point win. On wednesday, the Blazers faced the Jazz at home and the beginning of that game was one Blazer fans and players probably want to erase from memory completely. The Jazz were able to take an early 10 - 0 lead and it didn't get much better. I haven't heard a Blazer crowd boo that loud since the Jail Blazers era. The referees seemed a little protective over Utah in the first half, if a Blazer breathed on a ?Utahonian? a foul was called. You know I never blame games on the refs but man were they brutal in that game. The Blazers were able to slightly redeem themselves towards the end with a big run that brought them within 5 but nothing could be done, our 4th quarter finisher was still resting his hamstring on the bench and there was no more energy left to take a win. The Blazers ended up losing 106 - 95. Dre and Blakey combined for their worst games of the season (I bet) shooting 2 - 17 from the field. LaMarcus Aldridge did his best to carry the team tallying 25 points and 9 rebounds and even attempting three 3 pointers at the end. Nicolas Batum (as stated earlier) was a huge part of keeping the Blazers in the game with his 16 points and Martell Webster has a big game himself. Prior to the game, Marty announced that he would be donating $1000 for every point he scored to Haitian relief. Martell ended the game with 14 points, 2 of which were big threes when Portland needed them most. Marty ended up donating $14,000 to Haitian relief, way to go Marty!! The #MartyParty never ends!
Tonight the Blazers take on the Houston Rockets in Houston as they start their Texan Back-2-Back. We really need these wins on the road to make up for our recent misfortune at home if we want to to still be contenders in the playoff hunt. You can catch the game on Comcast Sportsnet and 95.5 FM the Game on the radio if you're in the Portland area.
AND I'M BACK! Now that finals are over and I have a little more free time, I'm hoping to be making more frequent posts when news arises and after every game! And though I addressed it in the title, I will not say anything more on the subject of Greg Oden's nude pictures. You can't make me.
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