Portland 107, Sacramento 102

After the recent games against Atlanta and Houston, where the Blazers played like dog feces, it's always nice to see the Sacramento Kings next up on the schedule.  That said, even the Kings aren't always a guaranteed win for Portland.  But either way, suffice it to say that it's helpful.

Last night, it was pretty much a team effort.  Matthews was the leading scorer for the Blazers, with 21 points.  Perhaps more importantly, Wesley's 3 steals in the game may have proved more helpful, with 2 of those steals coming late in the game.  

LaMarcus Aldridge seemed to get on track a bit, with 20 points and 10 boards.  Camby helped out with 13 rebounds in his limited 21 minutes of playing time.  Andre Miller had 19 points and 6 assists and Batum added 17 points of his own and played good defense on just about everyone in the Kings' lineup.

There wasn't anything flashy about this win, but at least it was a win.  With a tough four game East coast road trip coming up that sees matchups against Miami, Orlando and Atlanta, you could say that Portland needed this game.  If Portland had somehow let this game slip away (they did only win by 5 points, after all), Blazers fans would be freaking out, to say the least.  We're good at freaking out.  Seems like we've had more than enough practice at it.

Mike Tokito of the Oregonian notes:  "There was plenty to nitpick, if you're so inclined, but really, the time for being picky about the how of wins is long gone, with just 21 games remaining. The win nudged the Blazers (34-27) back into sixth place in the Western Conference, just .001 ahead of New Orleans (35-28).

Portland should welcome any help it can get, and it got some Wednesday, with New Orleans, Houston and Phoenix -- all part of the logjam in the lower half of the West playoff race -- losing."

It's going to be real interesting to see exactly how high or low the Blazers will fall come playoff time.

Sacramento 96, Portland 81

Uhhh, how the hell did this happen?

I was out and about during the end part of this game, and had to follow along on my phone.  Once I had arrived to my destination, I was able to check the final score, and you could say I was a little surprised at what I saw.  I actually thought it was an error and my phone's app wasn't working correctly, so I had to go to my computer and check there.  It wasn't an error.

This is the kind of loss that just pisses me off to no end.  Nothing like a loss to Miami in overtime by 7.  That kind of loss is at least tolerable.  No, this pisses me off, to the point of wanting the Blazers to start tanking and blow up the team just for the hell of it.  Cannot stand losses like this.  I couldn't imagine what it'd be like being a player and losing to the effing Kings.

I mean, the Kings?  Really, Portland?!?  You got owned by the Sacramento Kings???  I would rather take a Blazer forfeit over actually playing the game and still losing.

Ok, I'm over it.  I better go to bed before I start cursing.

Portland 94, Sacramento 90 In Overtime

Wow, we sorta miss Marcus Camby huh?  Geez this game tonight with ugggggg-ly.  The whole game I was thinking, 'oh the Blazers will put it together at some point and pull away from them.'  But that never really happened.  Blazers were down seven points late in the game, and almost let it slip away from them. 



Cunningham would have punked poor Casspi

Despite the sloppy play throughout the game, the Blazers did win with a total team effort.  Aldridge started slow, but ended up with a respectable 23 points and 9 rebounds.  Batum scored a season-high 24 points.  And Andre Miller contributed 20 points of his own, and a couple key shots down the stretch.

I was very disappointed that DeMarcus Cousins and Joel Przybilla didn't come to blows at some point during the game.  Things between them a couple different times seemed primed for a good suckerpunch or two, which would have been pretty awesome. 

And what was up with Omri Casspi running his face into Dante Cunningham's elbow and then getting up in Dante's face about it.  What the hell dude?  Hey Omri, check the replay.  You ran into his elbow with your face, you idiot.  Casspi's acting job did get the offensive foul called on Cunningham, which was cheap.