<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>LaMarcus Aldridge has shown he can shoot from the outside. He has shown he can run the court. And he has shown he can block shots inside. Now, the Trail Blazers forward wants to prove he can be an effective inside scorer. "I'm trying to get to the basket more, trying to be more aggressive," Aldridge said. That's what coach Nate McMillan and assistant coach Maurice Lucas want to hear. Both have been harping all season for Aldridge to take his talented game closer to the basket. If there has been a weakness in Aldridge's game, it has been an inability to get to the free throw line because he spends so much time on the perimeter, despite being 6-foot-11. But in the past four games, Aldridge has more than doubled his free throw attempts, averaging 8.5 per game, after averaging just fewer than four per game in his first 25 games. "When you are more aggressive, you get to the line more," Aldridge said. "And lately, I've been getting to the basket more, which I feel good about. This year, I think I have been showing people I can score on the block, that I'm not just a jump shooter anymore." Tonight, when the streaking Blazers (21-13) play host to Golden State (20-15), will be a good indicator as to how committed Aldridge is to his inside game. The Warriors like to play with small lineups, and in the first meeting with the Blazers -- during which Aldridge was injured -- the Blazers repeatedly went inside to center Joel Przybilla early in the game, forcing Golden State to change its lineups. "The way they play, they will switch a lot and they will switch smalls on bigs, and if that's the case, our advantage will be our size inside, and we have to take advantage of that," McMillan said. "They are going to put point guards on our (power forwards and centers), and our guys have to recognize that and get it to our big men." Aldridge said he will enter this game with the same mind-set as any game.</div> Source: Oregon Live
