If a "good loss" existed, last night might have qualified. In falling 99-95 to the Boston Celtics, the Portland Trail Blazers at least showed murmurs of a pulse, hope that this young season shouldn't be written off just yet. Unlike their previous few defeats this was the most complete effort from Portland since their romp over the Detroit Pistons in early November. Scoring 15 consecutive points in the final period, an overmatched Blazers lineup did their best to catch up to the Celtics. In fact, had the team not coughed up an offensive rebound to Kevin Garnett in the final seconds, the Blazers had a great shot at winning, or at least sending this game to overtime (where they are a depressing 1-6 over the past two seasons).

Wesley Matthews was once again the best scoring option for Portland, dropping a one-sided line of 23 points with an inexcusable zero assists or rebounds. Brandon Roy had a strong first half, and more important than his stat line was Roy's postgame comments about how good his legs felt during the homestretch. Last night also featured a shocking 7:58 of court time from Sean Marks, who proved that he is the worst player in a Blazers uniform since Ha Seung-Jin. Someone needs to package up his highlights (zero points, zero rebounds, zero assists, two turnovers, five fouls) into a YouTube montage scored by a hiphop track (I suggest Kanye West's "Amazing").

But a loss is still a loss, and for Portland that is five in a row, their worst streak since the 2007-2008 season (for context, the mythical Raef LaFrentz actually played in one of those games). The team travels to Washington on Friday in an attempt to salvage one game on this road trip. If that game is their sixth loss, then we can forget about the glimmer of hope we saw in Boston.