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Live from the Moda Center as the Portland Trail Blazers host the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The sky is falling! The Blazers are terrible! The season is ruined! Now would be a good time to start furiously pressing those giant red panic buttons, y’all.

No, stop, don’t freak out just yet. It’s still early—come on back in from that ledge, Blazers fans. It was just last season that Portland started 2-2 before ripping off a 20-2 run. There’s hope yet. Things will be okay. Deep breaths.

The Blazers just need to get back on the winning path, and right on cue, here come the awful Cleveland Cavali...wait, the Cavs got LeBron James back? And traded for Kevin Love?

Oh, crap.

PRE-GAME:
The new-look Cavs are still a work in progress (see: Knicks, loss). Soon enough they’ll be laying waste to the league, but there will be some growing pains before they level up to total destruction mode. Still, LeBron James and Kevin Love sharing the same court should be illegal, and that’s before factoring in Kyrie Irving running point. The chances of the new Big Three handing the Blazers their third loss in a row are incredibly high. Portland didn’t lose three games in a row last season until the middle of February.

Part of Portland’s slow start can be attributed to the offense—they’ve struggled a bit on that side of the ball, posting a below average offensive rating thus far. It’s a small sample, of course—Hedo Turkoglu leads the league in PER so obviously the numbers are off at this point—but it’s worth keeping an eye on.

Damian Lillard has had a rough go of things here early, too. His shot has been consistently short and he’s had trouble finishing at the rim, but there may be a reason—he’s been dealing with an abdominal strain. An injury is never a good thing, but hopefully that helps explain part of his slow start. It's either that or he's secretly filming Thunderstruck 2.

Adding insult to Dame’s injury, the Blazers are debuting their sleeved jerseys for the first time tonight. They are growing on me—I kinda sorta maybe like them? Sacrilegious, I know, but they are here to stay. Time to accept our new sleeved overlords. Resistance is futile.

Speaking of jerseys, goodness there are a lot of "vintage" LeBron James jerseys in attendance tonight. I'm glad to see the bandwagon is still operational.

FIRST QUARTER:
11:06 - Robin Lopez breaks the ice with a bucket over Anderson Varejao. Forget the rest of the game, let's just have those two go at it one on one for the rest of the night. Winner gets a Pert Plus commercial! 2-0 Blazers.

9:41 - Huh, so the Blazers got a fancy new addition to the jumbotron—there's now an image of the Portland skyline behind where the score is displaced. The font is a little weird, but the image is a nice touch. 6-5 Blazers.

8:31 - Back to back threes for Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. The bandwagon fans don't discriminate on what Cleveland player they cheer for—both got loud ovations after scoring. 11-10 Cavs.

6:25 - Dame for three! He missed his first attempt of the night, but he rattled that one home. He looks much better tonight, and has done an excellent job setting up the offense. 19-19 Tie.

5:30 - LeBron had Aldridge on a switch, dribbled out past the three-point line, and calmly pulled up and sunk from distance. 24-19 Cavs.

4:51 - Shot clock winding down, five feet behind the arc? Not a problem for LeBron. He's got nine points here early. 27-20 Cavs.

3:30 - Cleveland needs time after a quick 7-0 run by the Blazers, capped off by a Lillard steal and a Batum dunk. First team to 120 wins! 27-27 Tie.

3:03 - Think Dame wants this one? He just took Kyrie into the post! And he drew a foul! He's got five points and four assists here early after knocking down his two freebies. 29-27 Blazers.

1:19 - Tristan Thompson is lunch meat. He has no hope of guarding Aldridge. 31-30 Blazers.

0:00 - Welp, another terrible ending to a quarter. Chris Kaman missed a turnaround jumper. Kevin Love grabbed the rebound, threw an outlet pass to Matthew Dellavedova, and Matty D drove the length of the court and laid it in as the buzzer sounded. 34-31 Cavs.

SECOND QUARTER:
10:45 - Is starting the quarter with two straight turnovers good? Steve Blake wants to know. 34-31 Cavs.

9:28 - Chris Kaman with the first bucket of the quarter for either team. Remember last quarter when it was tied infinity to infinity? I miss that. 34-33 Cavs.

7:55 - Four minutes, four total points. 35-34 Blazers.

6:35 - LeBron caught Matthews in a mismatch, took him into the post, and scored with ease. Wesley did all he could—that was just great offense. 39-37 Cavs.

5:01 - Robin Lopez is the leading scorer for the Blazers, just as everyone predicted. He has ten after sinking a hook shot over Kevin Love. 44-41 Cavs.

4:10 - Woah, ball movement. That was a beautiful possession, very Spurs-ian. Four passes, inside to outside to inside to outside, finishing with a wide open corner three for Wesley Matthews. 44-44 Tie.

3:06 - Dame for three! He's back! 48-46 Blazers.

2:06 - Lopez is living on the baseline, eight feet from the basket, and he's eating Cleveland alive. They aren't bothering to guard him, and he's making them pay by sinking baby jumper after baby jumper. 50-46 Blazers.

1:46 - RED ALERT: We have a Brendan Haywood sighting. 50-48 Blazers.

0:45 - Guys, I know how to fix the offense—just have Dame sink his threes. Problem solved. 53-50 Blazers.

0:00 - Portland will head into the half with a five point lead, their first halftime lead of the season. So far, so good. 55-50 Blazers.

THIRD QUARTER:
11:29 - Lillard starts the scoring this quarter with a dunk at the rim. Those abs must be feeling fine. 57-50 Blazers.

8:40 - Kevin Love: still not that good at defense. That's four points—two from a Lillard/Lopez pick and roll, two from Aldridge free throws—that's he given up this quarter. Portland is going after him, and it's working. 63-54 Blazers.

7:10 - Timeout Cleveland. They know halftime is over, right? LeBron is hacking away on defense, they are turning the ball over, and their offense is just Dion Waiters and Kyrie Irving dribbling for twenty seconds. Portland has opened this one up. 67-54 Blazers.

5:39 - Fifth straight possession for the Cavs. Three offensive rebounds, two fouls on Portland trying to rebound. Give them enough chances... 69-57 Blazers.

3:50 - Just when it seemed like the Cavs might be waking up, Lillard crossed up Waiters and buried the three in his face. Splash. 74-64 Blazers.

3:26 - The crowd is not reacting well to these foul calls that Kevin Love is drawing. Booing him is the loudest they've been all night. 74-66 Blazers.

1:37 - The Blazers offense has completely stagnated, and it's allowing the Cavs to chip their way back into this one. In need of instant offense? Why, I think I hear Will Barton's music! 74-68 Blazers.

1:08 - Woah, Chris Kaman! Tristan Thompson was going for his second straight dunk, a two-handed poster, but Kaman met him at the summit and pushed it away. Unstoppable force, meet immovable object. 74-68 Blazers.

0:00 - Dame had his deep three at the buzzer blocked by Marion, but it's okay. On the previous (final) possession, Kyrie tried to go behind the back but instead threw it out of bounds. At least Dame got a shot off. 76-69 Blazers.

FOURTH QUARTER:
10:31 - Remember when the Cavs had 34 points after the first quarter? They have 69 now—just 35 total over the second and third quarters. Maybe this Portland defense is legit? 78-69 Blazers.

9:59 - Two straight trips for Matthews to the post against Dion Waiters, two straight buckets. On that last make, Thomas Robinson and Shawn Marion got tangled up. Robinson looked to be trying to box out with only his arms, and Marion took offense and shoved him right back. They called a double foul on the floor, and after an unnecessarily long review, they ended up calling double-techs plus a common foul on Robinson. Carry on. 80-69 Blazers.

8:49 - Dame wants this one. After getting lost by Waiters on a pick, Lillard was able to recover quickly and swallow the layup attempt from behind. Just took it right out of dude's hands. 81-71 Blazers.

7:09 - LeBron is out here looking like he went to James Harden's School of Defense over the summer. Flat-footed, not moving, dying on picks. What a weird sight. Is he hurt? 83-74 Blazers.

5:51 - One more bucket and this one might be over. Cleveland is straight disengaged. 87-74 Blazers.

4:52 - A loud ovation here for Dame as he stood Kyrie up twice on defense. Kyrie showcased his handles but couldn't shake Lillard, and then Dame stopped him from trying to post up. Lillard has been locked in. Think he remembers that Kyrie beat him out of a Team USA spot? 89-74 Blazers.

4:05 - Matthews for three! This one feels done. LeBron didn't even try to get back on defense after gambling and missing a steal. 92-74 Blazers.

3:06 - Matthews with another Dirk-esque, one-legged fade away from the post. Cleveland needs time as this crowd erupts. That might be last we see of the starters tonight. 94-76 Blazers.

2:00 - If you guessed "Alex Kirk" and "Joe Harris" as the names of the two random white dudes that just checked into this game for Cleveland, you win. 97-78 Blazers.

FINAL: 101-82 Blazers. See, y'all, the sky ain't falling yet. That was a nice win, but there's something funky going on with that Cavs team—LeBron had zero points for the second half on only four shots. That won't happen often. The next meeting between these two will be much more competitive. But a win is a win, and a 2-2 start sure looks a lot better than 1-3.