Blazers Get a Lucky Win Against Washington

Friday night, the Blazers welcomed the Washington Wizards to the Rose Garden. This was Portland's first game after a long four day rest, so it was important for the Blazers to come out strong and get back into game time rhythm.

Starting Five:

LaMarcus Aldridge
Marcus Camby
Nicolas Batum
Andre Miller
Brandon Roy

This game was ugly soooo let's just take a quick look at our top scorers. LaMarcus Aldridge tallied another double-double with 19 points, 12 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 blocked shot. LMA shot 6 - 17 from the field and 7 - 10 from the line, two of those made free throws came at the end of the game when the Blazers were down two. Not really much to say about the performance from LMA (or anyone else for that matter). It was mediocre, which is interesting to say when the guy got a double double, but it really was. The Wizards defense completely threw LMA and others off their game and even though shots were contested, they weren't contested enough to result in LMA and B Roy shooting a combined 10 - 35 from the field. Which brings us to Brandon, Roy tallied 14 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist. True, two of those points came off a buzzer beating, game winner but I'm going to agree with Roy when he said, "If we play like this against Phoenix on Sunday, they'll destroy us." Too true B Roy, too true. For his 34th birthday, Andre Miller also tallied 14 points in his 600th conescutive game in the NBA. He also added 2 rebounds and 3 assists. The referees also celebrated Dre's b-day by giving him the wonderful present of a technical foul!

Here's a look at the rest of the box score:

I won't bore/make you sick with long details from this game. We all know the Blazers don't do well with long breaks and that was evident Friday night. The players would never own up to it, but let's face it these guys were out of rhythm, out of sync, out of everything. The team shot a dismal 32% from the field, 16.7% from 3-pt range and tallied a total of 10 assists for the entire game. We were extremely lucky that the Wizards played the same caliber of basketball.

Photo of the night:

BRoy: "PHEW, we got lucky."

The Blazers next travel to Phoenix, AZ to take on former Blazer, Channing Frye and his Phoenix Suns on Sunday, tip-off t 7:30 PM PST on KGW channel 8.

•  Portland has won four straight games in the series for the first time since a four-game win streak March 25-Dec. 5, 1999.
•  The winning team has scored 100-plus points in 20 of the last 21 games in the series.
•  The Trail Blazers lead this season’s series, 2-0, clinching a series win with Sunday’s contest being the last meeting between the teams this year. Portland will win the season series for the first time since 1999-2000, while a win Sunday would give the Trail Blazers their first sweep of the Suns since 1998-99 (three games).
•  In two 2009-10 series games between the teams, Portland is shooting 51.6% from the field and 44.8% from three-point range, while Phoenix has shot 47.5% and 41.9%, respectively.
•  The Trail Blazers won in Phoenix, 108-101, on Feb. 10 for the first time since Feb. 4, 2004, snapping a nine-game road losing streak in the series.
•  Portland and Phoenix split last season’s series, with the home team winning all four games. Portland scored 110.3 points per game while allowing 109.3 points, both highs for the Trail Blazers in a Western Conference series last season.
•  In 2008-09, Portland earned its first home sweep of Phoenix since 1998-99.

For Old Time's Sake:

1. Crash The Boards: As of late we've struggled with allowing the other team second chances by giving them the offensive board. Between Lopez and Stoudemire, PHX has tough guys who will scrap down low for the boards so we need our Marcuses tonight: LMA & Camby, crashing those boards.
2. Contain the perimeter: Phoenix has hot shooters. Remember that guy who used to sit on our bench, Channing Frye? That kid can shoot and so can Steve Nash, Richardson and others. Basically, if we give too many open looks for their shooters we'll be looking at a tough comeback and/or a big fat L.
3. Contain the paint: We tend to give too many points in the paint and that could be a serious problem tonight. Amar'e Stoudemire is coming off a season high game with 44 points. The guy is strong and can muscle his way to the hoop if you give him position down low. Not to mention, Dante Cunningham was last to posterize him so I'm sure he'll be looking for some pay back if Dante sees any minutes.

 (Pictures: Yahoo! Sports)