Thursday, March 11, 2010

Blazers Best The Kings at the Rose Garden

Tuesday night the Blazers welcomed the Sacramento Kings to the Rose Garden. For the Blazers this game was a must win. With the western conference as tight as it is, it is necessary to beat below .500 teams. Sacramento, who will not be making the playoffs this year, is simply holding on, winning what they can when they can until the regular season is finished.

Starting Cinco:

LaMarcus Aldridge
Nicolas Batum
Marcus Camby
Andre Miller
Brandon Roy

B Roy took back the leading scorer position with 19 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Roy had a much smoother game against the Kings but still had some rough spots. It's a shame that we can't count on made free throws from Roy right now but he did have a much better game and seemed to have a little more confidence in his shots. He shot 50% from the field and 3 - 7 from the line. Nico Batum and Andre Miller tied for second with 14 points a piece. Batum also tallied 2 rebounds and 2 assists while shooting 6 - 7 from the field while Dre added 2 rebounds and 5 assists while shooting 4 - 9 from the field and a perfect 6 - 6 from the line. LaMarcus Aldridge came in a close third with 13 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. If we want to stay alive in the playoffs at all we need to see more production from LMA and B Roy, I'm just puttin' that out there.

Here's A Look At The Rest Of The Box Score:










It was anything but perfect but it was a win. We had a big lead and saw it start to dwindle once again but luckily we were able to hold the kings off and get a win. One of the big plusses from this game is that we  held a team that averages over 100 points a game down to 81. Good job team! We were also able to contain Tyreke Evans under 20 points when he averages a solid 20.3 points per game. Portland kept the Kings at 43% field goald shooting and scraped out the W 88 - 81. One discomforting factor that we saw tonight was that Marcus Camby really can't inbound the ball. The 6'11 power forward, we recently acquired from Los Angeles, had 4 turnovers in this game alone. Careful with that ball Marcus, it's precious! I'm not saying "oh no! we shouldn't have traded for him!" nor am I suggesting you say that but let's just keep Camby down low blocking shots and getting rebounds rather than handling the ball shall we? ;-) All in all it was a much needed win and the Blazers did what they had to do to get it.

Photo of the night:
Like a work of art.

The Blazers next travel to the dreaded Oracle Arena in Oakland, California to play the Golden State Warriors on Thursday.







•  The Warriors have won nine straight games in Oakland and 13 of the last 18 meetings in the series overall. Portland last won the series, a 4-0 sweep, in 2002-03. 
•  Portland and Golden State have the split the first two games of the 2009-10 series, with each team winning at home. The Trail Blazers have earned an 88-73 rebounding edge, including a 30-22 margin on the offensive glass, in the two meetings. 
•  In two series contests, Brandon Roy leads Portland with 27.0 points per game (18-33 FG, 16-18 FT). Andre Miller has added 18.5 points per contest in two games. 
•  Golden State won last season’s series, 2-1, with the home team winning all three contests. The home team has won nine straight games in the series, including four in a row by the Trail Blazers in Portland. 
•  Both teams averaged better than 105 points per game (Portland, 105.7; Golden State, 105.3) in three meetings last year. The winning team has scored more than 100 points in each of the last 12 games in the series. 
•  The Trail Blazers gained a 125-112 rebounding advantage, including a 46-34 edge on the offensive glass, in three series games in 2008-09. Portland outscored Golden State in the paint, 144-110. 
•  The Warriors gained 30 points on the Trail Blazers in three games by shooting 90-for-100 (90.0%) from the free throw line last year. Portland went 60-for-77 (77.9%). 
•  Brandon Roy led the Trail Blazers with 26.0 points (58.0% FG, 6-9 3-PT), 5.3 assists and 2.67 steals (tied) in three games against the Warriors last season. 
•  Warriors Head Coach Don Nelson has coached more games vs. the Trail Blazers than any other active NBA head coach (52-53). 
•  Golden State television broadcaster Jim Barnett played in Portland’s inaugural season in 1970-71, averaging a team second-best 18.5 points per game. 

(Pictures: Yahoo! Sports)

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