Blazers Start Off Their Last East Coast Road Trip Of The Season Right

The Blazers met with the New Jersey Nets in frigid New Jersey at the IZOD Center tonight. The Nets, the worst team in the league, were looking for their 6th win of the season and the Blazers were looking to bounce back after a rough loss at home against the Jazz.

Starters:

LaMarcus Aldridge
Marcus Camby
Brandon Roy
Andre Miller
Nicolas Batum

Nico moved back into the starting rotation tonight in place of Martell Webster and didn't do a whole lot offensively but had his very own Batum Block Party with 3 blocks. Nicolas has been huge for us on defense and continued to have an impact defensively for us tonight. Brandon Roy played as close to 100% as we've seen since his return to the court and tallied 28 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. That hamstring looked great out there tonight allowing B Roy to get back to his usual fade away, drive to the hoop self. LaMarcus Aldridge also had an amazing night with 27 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. LMA has scored 15+ points in the last 18+ games! Aldridge has been playing with a new sense of urgency. Though having B Roy and GO go down was rough, I think it's done huge things for LaMarcus' confidence and aggression. Consistently we've seen LMA go to the center of the key, draw contact and knock down the and 1. Keep it up LaMarcus!

Here's a look at the rest of the Box Score:

The Blazers led most of the game by big numbers but just like Sunday, their lead started to dwindle and Portland allowed New Jersey back in allowing them within 7 at one point. Luckily, the Blazers got their act together and closed in on defense and picked the lead back up to win 102- 93. Big news of the night for Portland though was Marcus Camby and no the news was not very good. After 5 minutes of play, Camby got his ankle stepped on by Brook Lopez and Marcus immediately went down. CENTERS OF THE TRAIL BLAZERS BEWARE!! Fortunately, Camby's X-Ray was negative so as of now he is listed as day to day. Hopefully it's a simple sprain and he'll be back in action against the Bulls or Timberwolves. What a tough injury though, I bet the guys really think that position is cursed.

Photo Of the Night:

It's good to have you and your hammy back B Roy.

The Blazers play the second game in a back to back tomorrow night in Toronto against the Raptors. This will be another early game for us west coasters, tip off is at 4 PM PST on CSNW.

•   Toronto is the last of all 29 NBA opponents to face Portland this season. The teams have not met in more than a calendar year, since Dec. 27, 2008. 
•   The Trail Blazers and Raptors had split the last five season series before Portland nabbed its first series win last year since 2002-03 and its fifth two-game sweep overall. Toronto only has one sweep over Portland in 13 series contested (1996-97). 
•  Portland outrebounded Toronto, 88-67, including a 30-16 margin on the offensive glass last season. The Trail Blazers gained a 35-23 edge in second-chance points. 
•   Brandon Roy notched team highs of 23.5 points (57.1% FG) and 8.0 assists in two contests vs. Toronto last year. His 10 assists in Portland’s double overtime loss on Jan. 13, 2008, in Toronto are the most recorded by a Trail Blazer in the 13-year history of the series. 
•   Chris Bosh led Toronto with 24.0 points (15-15 FT) and 7.0 rebounds in two games vs. Portland a season ago. Bosh’s 38 points in Toronto’s Jan. 13, 2008, double overtime win are the most ever scored by a Raptor against the Trail Blazers. 
•   The Raptors did not miss a free throw against the Trail Blazers last season, shooting 25-for-25 from the line. Portland went 29-for-36 (80.6%) in two meetings. 

Bringin' it Back:

1. Contain Chris Bosh - Bosh has consistently led the Raptors against Portland in their past match-ups averaging 19.2 points in nine games against the Blazers. If we can contain Bosh to under 20, it'll be a good game.
2. Ciao Bargnani - Andrea has also been a big part of Toronto's wins averaging 17.5 points per game and leads the team in made three-pointers (81), three-pointers attempted (221) and blocks (80). It'll be interesting to see who Nate matches up with Andrea, LaMarcus, Juwan, Dante or Jeff. Toronto has a lot of shooters including Bargnani so they'll look to spread the floor and we can't let wide open shots fall for them.
3. Gotta Make Your Free Throws - It's been painful in the past couple games to see guys go to the line. Tonight against NJ, we did well shooting 82% but that needs to continue. Free throws make or break a game y'all and Toronto with the help of former Blazer, Jarett Jack will do everything they can to get to the line, so we need to beat them there.
4. *UPDATE* Chris Bosh will be out tonight, as will Marcus Camby - Chris Bosh is a centerpiece of this Raptors team so we need to take advantage of that fact and attack the paint! Having Camby out just means that between Juwan, Dante, Jeff and LaMarcus, fouls need to be kept at a minimum and they need to work that much harder once again on defense since there's no true center to back them up.

(Pictures: Yahoo Sports)