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Live from the Rose Garden as the Portland Trail Blazers welcome the Atlanta Hawks. Caw! Caw! Caw! While we clearly can not compete with Anne Hathaway and James Franco butchering the Academy Awards, we do have Gerald Wallace. He'll be in uniform and on the court for the first time as a Blazer tonight. Also, Marcus Camby is scheduled to return after a 17 game absence. This means the Blazers are healthy. Take a moment for that to sink in.

The red carpet of basketball live blogs starts here...

PRE-GAME:
For tonight's game, Brandon Roy will still be limited to his 15 minute cap, while Camby will start but won't top the 20 minute mark. Meanwhile LaMarcus Aldridge will be limited to a minimum of 47 minutes. Wallace will be coming off the bench, but he'll likely usurp the starting job from Nicolas Batum within a week or so. If you want to know more about the first Blazer to be wear a headband in years, this Jason Quick piece is a great read.

Atlanta has a nearly identical record to Portland, but they do have the luxury of slumming it in the inferior Eastern Conference. The Hawks are still anchored by the consistent trio of Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, and Al Horford and they've taken the previous two matchups against the Blazers. Like Portland, Atlanta was busy during the recent trade season, acquiring Kirk Hinrich (white guy) and Hilton Armstrong (white guy in name only).

I just spotted Aldridge rapping along with Rick Ross' "John Doe" during warmups. In case you are curious, it was the "I parked the Caddy in the living room" line.

FIRST QUARTER:
11:59 - Camby can still jump, he wins the opening tap. Now put Wallace in! 0-0.

10:59 - Camby draws a foul but clanks both free-throw shots. Is it just me, or has that guy not scored a single basket all month? Slacker. 2-0 Hawks.

9:20 - A Batum blocks leads to a Camby-lead fastbreak (what?) and eventually a jumper from Aldridge. Camby at the point makes Andre Miller look young. 4-2 Blazers.

8:03 - Point guard Camby lobs it to Aldridge for the dunk. Dre, update your resume because you just lost your job. 8-4 Blazers.

7:53 - Horford is benched after his second foul. We all know what that means, Zaza Pachulia is in the game. Oddly enough, he is wearing the exact same dress as Anne Hathaway. 8-6 Blazers.

5:48 - Wesley Matthews tried to go behind the back, but just pushed the ball off his butt, Aldridge picks it up (he should have wiped it cleaned first) and dunks it. 12-9 Blazers.

4:49 - Batum steals a pass and takes it all the way down the court for a layup, but that gets less applause than the booming ovation for Wallace who checks in the game sans headband. 16-9 Blazers.

2:04 - The lineup of Aldridge, Rudy, Roy, Wallace, and Matthews has resulted in three consecutive defensive stops for the Blazers—or, offensive failures for the Hawks. 16-13 Blazers.

2:01 - Aldridge hobbles off the court and heads into the locker room. Of course. 16-16 tie.

0:00 - Atlanta takes advantage of the Blazers limited size and takes the lead as the quarter comes to an end. No word on Aldridge yet. 19-18 Hawks.

SECOND QUARTER:
10:41 - A suspicious call again the Blazers and then less than two second later, the makeup whistle against Atlanta's Josh Powell. Fair and balanced officiating. 21-18 Hawks.

10:14 - Wallace hits his first jumper in a Blazers uniform and one play later his fastbreak dunk is thwarted by Jamal Crawford. Worry not, there will be more Wallace dunks in the future. 21-20 Hawks.

8:30 - Crawford buries a long three for the Hawks. Even worse, no sign of Aldridge. 25-25 tie.

6:01 - When the Hawks expand their lead on back-to-back points from Kirk Hinrich and Josh Powell, it's a bad sign. Not nearly as bad as your best player limping off to the locker room, but still bad. 31-27 Hawks.

5:46 - Aldridge is back on the court. And in the game! We can all exhale and release that drifter from the kidnap dungeon. His knee ligaments will not be farmed. At least not tonight. 33-27 Hawks.

4:35 - Camby blocks Crawford at the rim, gets the rebound, and then there is a whistle against him. Boo-urns. 36-27 Hawks.

3:58 - Coach McMillan gets a technical foul. One more and Patty Mills will coach the team. 38-27 Hawks.

3:34 - That's three close calls in a row that have not gone Portland's way. If McMillan could kill an official with his eyes, this would be a crime scene. 40-27 Hawks.

3:18 - Make that four fouls. 23-9 advantage for Atlanta in this period. Portland hasn't taken a free-throw attempt since the first minute of the game. This is getting out of hand. 42-27 Hawks.

2:45 - Miller ends the 15-0 run with a layup but the following play's breakaway drunk from Matthews was called back for an earlier foul on the floor. Even the calls Portland gets are not going their way. 42-29 Hawks.

2:14 - A couple more non-calls against Aldridge under the basket and his outlet pass to Batum sails over Frency's head. It's been that kind of night. Unless everyone here is booing the Oscar victory of King's Speech. Either way, it's not a good night for humanity. 42-30 Hawks.

1:14 - Stop rubbing it in, Hinrich. 46-32 Hawks.

0:05 - Much like on Friday, Roy chips in a pretty shot to end the first half. The ugly, ugly, ugly first half. 48-36 Hawks.

0:00 - We were just debating if people were booing the officials leaving the court or the ad for the upcoming Kenny Chesney concert. Why not both? 48-36 Hawks.

HALFTIME:
Aldridge is now wearing a leg brace/wrap. He actually had bubble wrap on his knee, but Patty Mills kept popping it. Also, with only 36 points on the board there will be no chalupas tonight.

THIRD QUARTER:
11:15 - Johnson scores at the rim and Batum bumbles the possession and gets a shotclock violation. Excellent start. 50-36 Hawks.

10:53 - Matthews is fouled and the officials receive a condescending round of applause. Blazer fans are jerks. 50-38 Hawks.

9:10 - Matthews grabs Johnson and doesn't get a whistle, so maybe that sarcastic ovation worked. Someone should call the referee fat just to see what that does to his self-esteem. 52-42 Hawks.

8:14 - Portland is shooting 27% from the first quarter. It's the curse of not letting Wallace play in his headband. Or Atlanta's excellent defense. 59-42 Hawks.

5:20 - I admire the statistical accuracy in the Blazers' bench also shooting 27% as well, but this game is slipping away from the home team. Atlanta is normally not this good, but they look fantastic right now. 20 point lead. This would never happen if Sean Marks was still here. 63-43 Hawks.

4:14 - Rudy elects to get out of the way of a driving Marvin Williams, and instead just lazily fouls him while giving up the basket. Clearly the Blazers spent too much time before the game watching the E! Red Carpet show and not enough time studying tape on how not to lose by 20 points to Atlanta. 66-43 Hawks.

3:34 - Wallace gets run the hell over by Crawford. That charging play was the highlight of the night. It was also the only good defensive play of the night. In other depressing news, Miller just hit layup, the first field goal of this quarter. 66-46 Hawks.

2:22 - Miller lowers his shoulder into Hinrich to hit his second straight basket. 4-0 run, catch the fever! 66-49 Hawks.

1:27 - Portland is shooting 8% from beyond the arc. Rudy cares not for such numbers, he heaves up another three and once again it rims off. 68-49 Hawks.

0:52 - McMillan waves the white flag and puts Mills in the game. 68-49 Hawks.

0:00 - More missed threes. Portland is now 1-15 on the night. Rainier Wolfcastle was right, the three goggles do nothing! 68-49 Hawks.

FOURTH QUARTER:
11:34 - Mills hits a three. The crowd goes nuts. In any other city this place would be tumbleweeds by now. 68-54 Hawks.

8:54 - Camby and Roy are both over their minute caps. Both are on the bench right now, and will probably stay there for the remainder of the night. 71-55 Hawks.

8:43 - Smith smacks Wallace in the head going for a steal. That could have been avoided if he was wearing his headband. Or a helmet. 75-58 Hawks.

6:15 - Blazers getting schooled by Zaza Pachulia. Make it stop. 77-60 Hawks.

4:49 - Batum slams into Crawford without a whistle, resulting in Wallace hitting his first three. Crawford lets his opinion be known and gets a technical foul. 80-66 Hawks.

4:08 - Even "Free Throw Guy" looks depressed. I think he needs a "Free Throw Gal" in his life. They can both be annoying together. 82-68 Hawks.

2:55 - A wild turnover is capped by Matthews saving the looseball and tossing a pass to Aldridge under the basket for a layup (after the shotclock, but no one else seemed to notice that). Ten point lead! I guess after Friday's comeback anything is possible. 82-72 Hawks.

2:55 - Hinrich pushes Batum and turns over the ball before it is inbounded. Wow, that was a bonehead play. If Portland comes back, that will be a defining moment. And it gets closer, Wallace scores at the rim. 82-74 Hawks.

2:13 - And then a shotclock violation for Atlanta, which Miller follows with a short jumper. Commence meltdown. 82-76 Hawks.

1:34 - Crawford for three, but seconds later Miller answers with a quick score and then a turnover from Atlanta. 85-78 Hawks.

0:39 - That might be it. Aldridge called for a charge under the basket and the brief window of hope has now slammed shut. But it sure was a thrilling three minutes of competitive basketball we just witnessed. To bad the previous 40-something minutes were so terrible. 87-78 Hawks.

0:14 - The Blazers will not die. Rudy is fouled during a three attempt—he'd just miss anyway (he's 0-5 on the night)—and he converts all three foul shots. The Blazers then steal the inbound pass for two more quick points. But still, a comeback is not happening. 89-83 Hawks.

0:00 - And that'll do it. Your final score Atlanta 90, Portland 83. In a game that started with such high expectations, the Blazers come crashing to earth and are routed by a defensively superb Hawks team. See you Tuesday night, when the Houston Rockets come to town.