What the Blazers NEED most heading towards the playoffs
The Portland Trail Blazers are 2nd in the Northwest Division with a 43-26/.623 W-L Record, 1 game behind the Denver Nuggets, and hold 6th place team in the Western Conference … after failing to qualify for the playoffs last year.
This is the Box Score from their game last night, a tough loss at Cleveland, in OT [92-97].
This is the Full Play-By-Play.
These are some of the observations made by Henry Abbott, a die-hard Blazermania Fan, based on what he saw in this game and hoped for Out-of-the-Box-thinking which he felt might have made a positive impact on the eventual outcome for Nate McMillan’s team coming down the stretch.
What you might not realize, however, about this current edition of the playoff-bound Blazers is that they are doing this work this season without the services of their Starting Off Guard-Small Forward, Martell Webster, who put up these numbers for their squad last year:
| Year | Team | G | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | OFF | DEF | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | TO | PF | PPG |
| 05-06 | POR | 61 | 18 | 17.5 | 0.399 | 0.357 | 0.859 | 0.5 | 1.7 | 2.1 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.70 | 1.50 | 6.6 |
| 06-07 | POR | 82 | 27 | 21.5 | 0.396 | 0.364 | 0.705 | 0.5 | 2.4 | 2.9 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.93 | 1.50 | 7.0 |
| 07-08 | POR | 75 | 70 | 28.4 | 0.422 | 0.388 | 0.735 | 0.7 | 3.2 | 3.9 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 1.11 | 2.10 | 10.7 |
and has missed 68 of their 69 games played, so far, this season.
Instead of going with the crunch-time line-up suggested by TrueHoop’s author, what yours truly is really looking forward to seeing from the Blazers down the road … whether later this spring or next season … is this specific 5-Man Unit on the floor together with the game on the line:
PG - Brandon Roy [6-6, 211]
OG - Martell Webster
SF - Travis Outlaw [6-9, 207]
PF - LaMarcus Aldridge [6-11, 240]
C - Greg Oden [7-0, 285]
When the Blazers’ overall team health is such that they can field that specific group, in a playoffs series, with the likes of:
PG - Sergio Rodriguez
PG - Steve Blake
PG - Jerryd Bayless
OG - Rudy Fernandez
SF - Nicolas Batum
PF - Channig Frye
C - Joel Przybilla
in reserve, they will be a legitimate contender to reach the Western Conference Finals.
Tags: Brandon Roy, Channig Frye, Greg Oden, Henry Abbott, Jerryd Bayless, Joel Przybilla, LaMarcus Aldridge, Martell Webster, NBA.com, Nicolas Batum, Rudy Fernandez, Sergio Rodriguez, sports.Yahoo.com, Steve Blake, Travis Outlaw, TrueHoop