Where is the love? Why do so many pundits and taking heads consider these guys to be a flash in the pan? As Martin Luther King Day arrives, the Portland Trail Blazers have the second-best record (31-9) in a brutal Western Conference, along with the third-best overall record in the NBA. They have twice beaten San Antonio and Oklahoma City and come up victorious against Indiana, Miami, the Clippers and Golden State. Yet all of those teams continually garner more confidence from
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
Super typhoon Haiyan ravaged the Philippines over the weekend. As details of its destruction have become global news in the days since its wake, more and more athletes are coming forward to herald the relief cause. It began last week, as Haiyan was first reaching land, when Golden State Warriors forward Harrison Barnes had linked to the American Red Cross’ relief page on his Facebook post, as was mentioned in Friday’s Tweet of the Day. Monday, many more NBA players have come forward
In a teleconference last week, we asked NBA analysts Chris Webber and Greg Anthony to pick a Western Conference team which missed the playoffs last season but will make the playoffs this season. “Dallas, mainly because of Dirk Nowitzki,” Webber said. “He’ll be back healthy. What he does, with spacing, getting guys involved … We take his game for granted.” “I would go with the Pelicans,” Anthony said. “I think that’s a team that could make sizeable leaps and surprise a lot
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
Did your NBA team confuse you this offseason? Were moves made that left you asking questions? Scratching your head? Leaving you angry and befuddled? This column is for many of you. It discusses the three teams with the most puzzling offseasons. After a lot of thought and consideration, there were three teams that really stood out and left this writer really question their thought processes. The first is easily the Milwaukee Bucks. After trading an interesting long-term asset in Tobias Harris for