Hedont Hears The Music At The Rose Garden In A 109 - 98 Portland Win

Tonight the Blazers met with the Toronto Raptors at the Rose Garden. This was Toronto's first and only trip to Portland this season and boy was Portland eager to hate welcome Hedo Turkoglu, who, if you recall, spurned the Blazers this past summer leading us all to believe he would be a Blazer this season only to back out last minute and go to the Raptors. Both teams are battling to keep their playoff positions in their respective conferences. Toronto, like Portland, is in the 8th seed and is looking for any win to keep their head above water.

Starting Five:

LaMarcus Aldridge

Marcus Camby

Nicolas Batum

Andre Miller

Brandon Roy

MVP of the night goes to my main man, LaMarcus Aldridge! Aldridge had a fantastic double-double kinda night with 22 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 blocked shot and 1 very nasty dunk. Aldridge came out of the gate with aggression and a sense of urgency. He was all over the place scrappin' for the ball, getting to the hoop, crashing the boards and throwing it down with authority. LMA has been pretty quiet in the first halves of recent games but tonight he made sure he getting things done for this team from tip off. It's really nice to see LaMarcus getting the swing of things down low and making teams pay, especially in light a great article in the Columbian today, done by Brian Smith, where LaMarcus talked about his role on this team and his need to be aggressive down low. You can read that article HERE. Nicolas Batum had a big game as well also scoring 22 points to go with 2 rebounds, 1 steal and 2 blocked shots. Batum is getting more and more skilled every day and boy is it exciting to watch! Honorable mention goes out to Rudy Fernandez who had a great night with 12 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists while shooting 3 - 5 from beyond the arch.

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

This was a great game for the Blazers. They played aggressive, scrappy and with loads of intensity and got themselves a nice win. Going into this game we were all curious as to how Hedo Turkoglu would be accepted by the Portland crowd and they definitely let him know he is not welcome by booing during not only his introduction but every time he touched the ball. To the crowd's delight, the Blazer did an excellent job containing Turkoglu holding him to 14 points and getting him in foul trouble. The Blazers controlled this game from start to finish by keeping up with Toronto taking the lead and never looking back. The Rapotors were able to get within 2 during the fourth but the Blazers locked it down, got stops and came out with a 109 - 98 win. The Blazers are still in the 8th spot for the playoffs but they are now half a game out of the 7th spot and only 2 games out of the 5th spot! Hopefully this team really takes advantage of this 5 day break and gets work done so we can move on up in the standings!

Photo of the night:

L TRAIN COMING THROUGH.

The Blazers get to enjoy a nice 5 day break before taking on the Washing Wizards at the Rose Garden on Friday.

•  The Wizards bested the Trail Blazers, 97-92, on Jan. 18 in the first game of this season’s series behind 28 points (10-16 FG) from former Wizard Antawn Jamison. LaMarcus Aldridge notched 22 points (9-17 FG) a game-best 15 rebounds (nine off.). 

•  Portland has won six of the past eight contests in the series, including four straight wins at the Rose Garden. Washington last won in Portland, 114-106, on March 28, 2005. 

•  Portland swept the two-game series between the teams in 2008-09, but the Wizards outshot the Trail Blazers 49.3% to 45.9% from the field and 48.4% to 41.9% from three-point distance. 

•  Brandon Roy led all Trail Blazers with 22.0 points to go with 6.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 5.00 steals in two games against Washington a season ago. Roy’s 10 steals on Jan. 24, 2009, in the last meeting between the teams at the Rose Garden, tied the franchise record for steals in a game. 

•  The Trail Blazers have never scored fewer than 80 points in 94 contests between the two teams. 

(Pictures: OregonLive)

Blazers Go 2 - 0 With a Win Across The Border

Tonight the Blazers went across the border to Toronto to take on the Raptors. Newly acquired center, Marcus Camby was out for Portland with an injured ankle but Toronto had an ankle injury of their own with Chris Bosh, who also sat out. After a too close for comfort game last night against New Jersey, Portland was looking for a strong win to go 2 - 0 on this road trip so far.

Starting Five:

LaMarcus Aldridge
Nicolas Batum
Brandon Roy
Andre Miller
Juwan Howard

This was Portland's 14th different starting line-up this season! It's rough being unhealthy. Top honors of the night,
I'm happy to say, go to EL MACHETERO! That's right ladies and gents, Rudy Fernandez played, undoubtedly, his best game since coming back from back surgery earlier this season. No he didn't score the highest but his performance gives him the gold tonight. The 6'6 Spanish guard tallied 17 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal. Tonight we saw a much more aggressive and confident Rudy who carefully calculated his movements and made things happen for this team, not to mention he clocked in a good 31 minutes of play. See Rudy, when you play like this you get minutes!!! When you play like you were playing...you don't get minutes. Crazy how things work like that. Brandon Roy was the top scorer of the night with 20 points that went along with 5 rebounds and 5 assists. It's great to see B Roy getting back in the swing of things and I'm sure that if he wouldn't have had a 20+ night tonight we would not have gotten the win ('specially since LMA had a forgettable night - 9 points, 2 rebounds). Andre Miller had a fantastic night as well with a near triple double, 18 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds. Miller has been such a vital player for this team, anyone who thinks otherwise is obviously not paying attention. The guy is putting up double figures in scoring and assists, so when you think about it, technically Dre had an extra 20 points on those 10 assists! Keep it up Dre, we need you!

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

The Blazers got their act together tonight for this win but that doesn't mean there weren't spots of adversity. Once again, Portland saw themselves with a 15 points lead and watched that lead decrease quickly. Portland needs to sit down and learn how to get a lead and hold on to it! Besides that we played a pretty good game of basketball. The Blazers came out with a sense of urgency and got the job done. Portland won the game 101 - 87.

Photo of the Night:

GO GET IT OL' MAN! Juwan throwin it down, proving he's 37 years YOUNG.

The Blazers next travel to Chi-Town to take on the Chicago Bulls on Friday at 5 PM PST.

•  Portland has won five straight games in the series, tied for its second-longest active
streak against any NBA opponent (Minnesota, 11; San Antonio/New Jersey, 5).
•  The Trail Blazers won, 122-98, Nov. 23 in Portland in the first game of the series behind
double-doubles from LaMarcus Aldridge (24 points, 13 rebounds) and Greg Oden (24
points, 12 rebounds). Portland shot 57.5% (42-73) from the floor.
•  In 2008-09, Portland swept Chicago for the second consecutive season and the 10th
time in franchise history. The Trail Blazers won by an average of 28 points in two games
(112.5-84.5), their largest average margin of victory against any team last year, while the
112.5 points marked their highest scoring average against any opponent a season ago.
•  Portland’s 42-point win (116-74) against Chicago on Nov. 19, 2008, marked the Trail
Blazers’ largest margin of victory since Nov. 17, 1997 (120-75 win vs. Dallas), and Port-
land’s biggest win vs. Chicago, all-time.
•  The Trail Blazers held the Bulls to 38.9% field goal shooting and a 14.3% (4-28) mark
from downtown, both lows by a Portland opponent last season, in two Trail Blazers wins
in 2008-09. Portland converted on 48.7% of its field goal attempts (18-39 3-PT).


(Pictures: Yahoo! Sports)