Things have changed in Rip City. For the Portland Trail Blazers, the 2013-14 season not only represented a return to the playoffs, it ended a drought of not making the second round that had lasted longer than a decade. Yes, the Trail Blazers got taken to the woodshed by the San Antonio Spurs in the conference semifinals, doing just enough against the eventual champions to avoid a sweep. But plenty of other teams got whooped by the Spurs, too. Winning against the Houston
Raise your hand if you had the Portland Trail Blazers leading the Western Conference. OK, now put your hand down and stop lying. The Trail Blazers are 16-3. After a disappointing loss in Phoenix that ended a double-digit winning streak, Portland is 3-0 in December, including back-to-back home victories over the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder, two of the best teams in the NBA. There are two things every NBA fan wants to know right now. First, is this Blazers team
BROOKLYN – Portland Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts doesn’t run any crazy offensive scheme. He just tries to get the most out of his talented players. Often this season, that has meant letting his shooters shoot with the rest taking care of itself. So far, that has been a major key to the success of the NBA’s hottest team. It seems simple, but in a sporting landscape where coaches like to exert influence or control, sometimes giving individuals freedom can get
The 2012-13 season was not a kind one to the Portland Trail Blazers. Forget the NBA Rookie of the Year Award given unanimously for only the fourth time in history to Damian Lillard. Forget, too, the second straight All-Star nod for LaMarcus Aldridge. Also forget that Aldridge, Lillard, Nicolas Batum and Wesley Matthews comprised the top four-man lineup in the league. Portland finished the campaign on a franchise-worst 13-game losing streak and wasn’t competitive in a game for more than a month. This season is shaping
Damian Lillard, last season’s Rookie of the Year, led the NBA in minutes played. To put that into perspective, over the last five seasons, only two rookies – O.J. Mayo and Derrick Rose in 2008-2009 – even placed in the top 15 in minutes played. That comes out to three rookies among 75 players, a minuscule 4 percent. It is beyond a tremendous burden to put on a rookie, much less one who is handling the ball. That burden extended to the
Think the Lakers have problems? Well, yeah, they do. But if you get all of your NBA news from the Worldwide Leader, you would think the Lakers are the only team that has problems. But this week, three teams with better records than the Lakers started showing some cracks in their foundations. Of course, they don’t have the same 12-car pile-up quality that the Lakers’ problems have, so their issues are overlooked. [Read more…]
During Wednesday’s game, the NBA announced that Charlotte Bobcats forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had won Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month honors for November. Kidd-Gilchrist later celebrated by throwing a terrible cross-court pass in the closing seconds that became a turnover and led to a buzzer-beater by New York’s J.R. Smith that sent the Bobcats to their fifth straight loss. This is how it often goes for rookies. One minute, they are surprising us all by playing above our expectations and showcasing an
(This is another in a series of 30 guest columns that will run in October, when optimism reigns supreme across the NBA. The theme will be “Five Reasons to Feel Positive About … ” We encourage you to follow the authors on Twitter and visit their sites. – CS) Portland Trail Blazers fans had to endure one of the franchise’s worst meltdowns in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season. Following an epic sell-off and housecleaning, the Blazers enter this season with a new