Live from the Rose Garden as the Portland Trail Blazers meet the New York Knickerbockers. Portland is reeling from a loss to a fictitious basketball team from Oklahoma City Thunder, while the Knicks are relived to have a break from the unfair streak of playing against the Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics. Well, someone has to win tonight, right?
PRE-GAME:
The Knicks are led by David "Stuff White People Like" Lee, and coach Mike D'Antoni's shoot-first, do everything else later, style of play. They are hardly the glorious trainwreck they were under Isiah Thomas, but the franchise is just killing time until they crack open the vault and sign LeBron James.
Meanwhile, Portland has a lot of 'splainin' to do, following their whupping from the Thunder. Hands down the worst game of the season, the Blazers haven't looked that bad in quite some time and the loss triggered the grumbling talk of a trade, something this team might need to make the playoffs.
FIRST QUARTER:
11:11 - Greg Oden travels two plays in a row. I hope he knows that they didn't just invent the traveling call, it's been around forever and is not going away. Even worse than Oden's inability to move while dribbling, is that on both occasions he was wide open under the basket. Ugh. 5-0 Knicks.
9:19 - Sergio Rodriguez passes it to Shavlik Randolph, who is sitting at the end of the bench. Ugh, again. 10-4 Knicks.
7:05 - Brandon Roy nails a three-pointer from the far corner and Portland finally shows a little bit of a pulse in this game. 17-15 New York.
5:56 - Aw, it's Blaze's birthday. Mascots galore spill upon the court. Wait, what, Fred Meyer has a bear mascot? Freddy the Bear? He's wearing the creepy Porky Pig outfit: Vest, bow tie, no pants whatsoever. This is wrong. 19-17 Knicks.
4:34 - Roy with a sweet behind-the-head pass to Travis Outlaw for a breakaway dunk. Three straight plays, and three straight Outlaw shots at rim-level. Usually Outlaw doesn't influence the game like this until the final quarter. 23-20 Portland.
3:47 - Nate Robinson with a circus layup. Pretty impressive for a guy (literally) smaller than my mom. 29-22 Blazers.
0:00 - Not bad, not bad at all. Portland has a quiet 36 point quarter (one point away from their season high), despite getting off to a painfully slow start. This is the advantage of playing the Knicks, the only team that will allow you to shoot 88% (!!!) from the field. Shame on Brandon Roy, the only Portland player to miss a shot (he missed a pair) in the quarter. 36-27 Blazers.
SECOND QUARTER:
8:40 - Clearly trying out for a job with the Knicks, Sergio hits a three pointer while Coach D'Antoni' longingly stares in his general direction. The chemistry between those two is steaming up my glasses. 41-31 Blazers.
5:55 - Goodbye lead. The Bayless lineup brought the lead, the Rodriguez lineup fumbled it away. We are all tied, 42-up.
3:33 - Rudy Fernandez cleans up Sergio's mess. He polishes off a breakaway dunk, then knocks back a wide open three pointer. 51-44 Blazers.
0:27 - I don't care if it went in, every time Sergio chucks up a three, my instincts require me to yell "NO!" as loud as possible. 59-50 Blazers.
THIRD QUARTER:
10:50 - Once again, as I scream the word "NO!," Sergio hits his third shot from beyond the arch. Double digit lead goes here: 62-52 PDX.
10:19 - Sergio again! I'm going to lose my voice if this keeps up. 65-54 Portland.
8:36 - The pain and the pleasure of Greg Oden. The rookie pulls off a nifty block/rebound/pass following a Lee layup attempt that leads to a fastbreak. Despite his awful first few minutes, he's having a solid night under the basket on defense (five blocks!) and 13 points to go along with that. The biggest lead of the day: 71-56 Blazers
6:03 - Oden with a swat, now his career-high in blocks is at a half-dozen. The super rare (points, rebounds, and blocks) triple double? It's possible... 77-60 Portland.
3:53 - That was ridiculous. Nate Robinson just hit a 3/4 court shot, that did not count. The whistle had blown and he just threw the ball as far as he could... and it was a swish. He should at least win a new car or something. 77-71 Portland.
2:12 - A lead that was once a dozen is now down to three. Good thing that Robinson hail mary shot did not count. 77-74 Blazers.
1:25 - Knicks lead. Robinson with a three that actually counts. Ugh, this is not good. 80-78 New York.
0:00 - All tied up at the end of the third. 82-all.
FOURTH QUARTER:
10:30 - Outlaw, usually a guarantee in the final quarter misses his first two shots, while the Knicks are far more fortunate on the offensive end. 90-84 Knicks.
9:27 - The best player from University of Washington on the court right now is not named Brandon Roy. Travel-sized Nate Robinson just knocked down seven straight points and the Blazers should perhaps consider not allowing him to score at will. 92-84 New York.
9:01 - Sergio clanks two layups in a row. Sigh. When does Steve Blake return? 92-84 Knixxx.
8:06 - This isn't a matter of Portland winning, its just a matter of them not getting blown out on their home court. The lead in in double digits. The Blazers are in real trouble right now unless they start scoring, and do something about Nate Robinson. 97-84 NY.
5:19 - About damn time. Outlaw hits a three, followed by a 12-foot jumper from Aldridge. Still, Portland has a way to go and the clock is not their pal. 100-93 Knickerbockers.
4:35 - For some reason they took away Oden's 6th block. Conspiracy! Well, now he has five fouls to match his five blocks and he'll most likely be sitting the rest of the evening. 103-96 Knickers.
3:49 - A loose ball scrum is tipped by a diving Rudy Fernandez, and Outlaw is fouled on the breakaway layup. Too bad he only makes one of the free-throws. 103-97 NY.
1:54 - Just as Portland gets closer, the Knicks bury another three. Pray for a miracle. 108-103 NY
0:53 - Oden returns from sitting down and drinking Gatorade with his 6th block of the night. It resulted in two points from an Outlaw jumper. Portland sure could use a stop here on the defensive end right now. 108-105 NY
0:33 - Roy's at the rim heroics bounce out (!), but the tipped ball touches the Knicks last. Portland with the ball and a chance to tie. 108-105 Knicks.
0:31 - Outlaw with a jumper, down to one point... Al Harrington barely misses a close running layup and after some second-burning confusion, Portland call a timeout. Four seconds to go. Oh dear lord. 108-107 NY.
0:04 - OH SHIT! Roy somehow miraculously tosses up a desperate layup with three (!) Knicks in front of him... after some dramatic bounces... BLAZERS win. A little too close for comfort, but Roy can now add another game-winning buzzer beater to his personal highlight reel. Phew. Your final score: Portland 109, Knicks 108.
