Blazers Feel the Heat in the Valley of the Sun

Sunday night, the Blazers traveled to Phoenix, Arizona to meet with the Phoenix Suns. The western conference playoff race is tighter than ever and a win tonight was necessary for both sides to secure positions going into the off season. The Blazers were coming into this game on a 5-game winning streak.

Starting Five:

LaMarcus Aldridge
Marcus Camby
Nicolas Batum
Andre Miller
Brandon Roy

Top honors go to Andre Miller for this game. He was one point off top scorer territory but still tallied a near double double with 22 points, 9 assists and 3 rebounds. Dre quite literally carried this team throughout this game. When things seemed dismal, Miller put his head down, penetrated the paint and got to the line. He looked like he was on the brink of another 50 point game for most of the game. It's amazing watching Andre push through games, when they call him Iron Man they literally mean it. The guy gets battered and bruised, rolls at least one ankle twenty times a game and still walked out to the court and gets things done for this team. To everyone, including myself, who doubted this guy I hope you are all smacking yourselves upside the head as I am doing now. Brandon Roy was the high scorer of the night with 23 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists. It was a Roy Bot kinda night where Brandon did what he could to keep the Blazers within reach of a win. He still didn't seem 100% though continuing some of the sloppy play that plagued the team against Washington.

Here's a Look at the Rest of the Box Score:

This game wasn't horrible by any means but it wasn't great. The Blazers came out of the gate slow and just couldn't overtake the Suns in the first half. Luckily we were able to keep pace with Phoenix only allowing them 47 points and tying them to end the half. The second half we started to finally see some energy from Portland and they were able to take a marginal lead but Phoenix rallied back with a vengeance and we just couldn't fully contain them. The Suns introduced a  zone defense and completely shut our key players down. We couldn't get to the paint so it became 'Settle for Crappy Js Time!' Free Throws and confusion lost this game. We shot 72.9% (21-29) from the line and many of those misses came at crucial times in the game. The Suns' defense completely threw our guys off their game, sloppiness ensued and players started to frantically throw jumpers up. Their were chances to win this game but the Blazers just didn't capitalize on them. They ended up losing the game 93 - 87.

Photo of the Night:

Andre blocking an Amar'e dunk. Wait...Whaaaaat?

The Blazers next fly back home to welcome the Dallas Mavericks at the Rose Garden on Thursday. This game will be aired on CSN and TNT, tip off at 7:30 PM PST.

•  Portland leads the series, 2-0, with both games contested in Dallas. The Trail Blazers have won twice in Dallas for the first season since 1998-99. One more win over the Mavericks would also give Portland its first series win over Dallas since 1998-99 (3-0). 

•  Andre Miller scored a career-high 52 points (22-31 FG), tied for the second-highest total in Trail Blazers history, in leading Portland to a 114-112 overtime win in Dallas in the last meeting on Jan. 30. Portland shot 53.5% (46-86) from the floor. 

•  Dallas had won 11 straight home contests over the Trail Blazers (Portland’s longest active road losing streak at the time), before Portland earned an 85-81 win in Dallas on Dec. 22 in the first series meeting between the teams. The Mavericks led in the fourth quarter by as many as seven points, but Portland used a 27-16 edge in the final period to claim the victory. 

•  In the two meetings between the teams this season, the Trail Blazers are shooting 47.3% from the field while limiting the Mavericks to 43.2% field goal shooting. Dallas has passed out 44 assists to Portland’s 30 assists in two contests. The Trail Blazers have posted a 16-8 margin in steals. 

•  In 2008-09, Dallas swept the season series (three games) for the fourth time in the last five seasons, accounting for the only four sweeps by the Mavericks in series history. 

•  The Mavericks outscored the Trail Blazers, 99.7.0-94.0, and outrebounded Portland, 40.0-35.3, in last year’s series. Dallas won all three games by single digits. 

•  Dallas Head Coach Rick Carlisle was an assistant coach of the Trail Blazers for three seasons under P.J. Carlesimo from 1994-97. Carlisle is 10-7 (.588) in his head coaching career against Portland. 

•  Dallas’ Matt Carroll played 13 games for Portland in 2003-04, averaging 1.0 points in 3.7 minutes. 

•  Martell Webster and Mavericks guard Jason Terry are cousins.

(Pictures: Yahoo! Sports)