Wow, talk about a crazy atmosphere for a pre-season game -- something like 19,000+ Highlights: too many to count, overall I'd have to say that nobody looked "bad," the hustle and energy from the guys was palpable from the top of the roster to the bottom (well I suppose, Hill, Tatum, and Randolph were a little underwhelming). But off the top of my head this is what stood out: -Rudy: Wow, I see what all the fuss was about, he had some amazing passes, and instantly makes everyone around him better. The crowd went crazy when he threaded a pass between somebody's legs to LMA for an easy shot. -Martell: While he wasn't hitting from range, he looked so damn tough taking it to the rack, and really hustled going after boards, and looked like his confidence is sky high. -Batum: Nicolas looked really fluid offensively and had some outstanding defensive plays. -Brandon: He's is just "Brandon", beautiful passes, hit some really nice shots, and got the team going early on when they were struggling on offense -LMA: It took awhile to heat up with his shot, but he totally stayed within himself and finished very strong -Greg: He looked really dominant on the low block and only seemed to get more comfortable as the night wore on, got called for a couple of really ticky tack fouls which made his 4 on the night bigger than they should have been; he instantly put all of Sacramento's bigs on their heels and got a lot of them in foul trouble. Sergio: Wow, what a game, his shot looks much, much improved, and he played loose and with a lot of confidence tonight, his defense wasn't great but it was passable, and he gave effort Bayless: He's a bulldog, his passing isn't spectacular, but he was making an effort to find the open man Joel: looked nice, had a few dunks and a block or two and collected a good handful of boards. lowlights: Seemed to take the team awhile to get the jitters out in the first quarter and part way into the second, other than that foul shooting was kind of poor. Anyway, this was a helluva game, and even though it was only a pre-season exhibition the feeling was completely different and almost had a playoff atmosphere at times. After what seemed like an interminable off-season I can say that the wait was well worth it.
The Sacramento announces kept talking about how this was like a playoff game and praising the Portland fans and talking about the turn around. Completely agree. Fun game to watch. Rudy needs solid minutes. I love him with Aldridge, Outlaw and/or Webster.
I agree with everything. There's just such a different energy when Rudy is in there, it was amazing that his presence made the team look so much quicker, and they must've had as many fast breaks in that game than they did all season last year. Sergio looked so impressive tonight, and his ability to run the offense was so nice to watch. You about covered everything, this season is going to be so much fun!
Game One from the 300 seats This won’t be a statistical analysis of our first game of the year. And it won’t be the same kind of look at the game and the players you’d get from a pro who studied the game. It’s just a few random thoughts from a longtime fan who watched our team for the first time this season with an old friend and a few Widmers. We upped our ticket purchase this year from the ten game package we had in the club level and sprung for a full season in the 300 level. On the way to the game we had a conversation about parking, multiplied 41 games plus 3 season games times the ten dollar parking fee and came up with $440 in parking fees. So we opted to park at Lloyd Center and take the Max to the Garden. We got there about an hour before gametime and there were lots of people walking briskly towards the arena and past some familiar faces outside buying and selling tickets. It felt good to be back. In fact it felt so good to be back I felt an urge to spring for some new Blazer gear. After giving everything a look see, I opted for a retro faded red t shirt with the original pinwheel logo. After a quick trip to the mens room to change into my new gear (trust me, nobody wants to see my chest), all I needed was cold Widmer and I was off to my seat. For you beer drinkers out there I am happy to be able to report that Mr. Allen has held the line on beer pricing. Widmer is still 8 bucks, and domestic beer 7. If you aren’t very thirsty, they have small beers now for 6 dollars. The game seemed to start slowly for both teams. And it took most of the first half for the Blazers to really get untracked after getting behind by 11 points. They came roaring back, took a small lead into the locker room at halftime, and as most of you already know dominated the second half. How did our guys do? A few players really stood out for me tonight. Rudy Fernandez is going to be a terrific addition to this team. He didn’t score that much tonight but I did think he showed everyone that he is a complete player. First of all, he is very very quick, and he is always moving. I thought he was better defensively than advertised, but what really stood out tonight was his passing. If you are on the floor wearing a Blazer jersey and playing with this guy you better keep your eyes open because the ball WILL be coming your way if you get open. His teammates are going to love him. He had a couple of spectacular plays at the rim. On one, a lob pass was thrown to him and he went underneath the basket, reversed and flipped it back up and in. At least I think that’s how he did it. His buddy Sergio had a pretty good game too. After a slow start he really took control of the offense, made some nice passes and ended up scoring in double figures. He looked much better than last season and seemed to have a nice handle on his game. Oh, that guy we drafted last year had a decent game too. After seeing Greg Oden play tonight I find it hard to imagine him NOT scoring in double figures every night. Sure, he looks a little rusty out there, but his footwork, his agility, and his strength and soft touch are amazing. This was your typical preseason game for both teams. Neither team shot the ball very well in the first half, and both seemed to be working the kinks out of their offenses and getting used to playing again. But I had a few beers, a few laughs, free chalupas, and a great time watching our team play together for the first time this year.
My take First off a disclaimer - This is the first game of preseason, meaning that many of the things we saw shouoldn't be extrapolated to the regular season....with that out of the way.....Wow! First off Rip City was rocking from the second quarter on. I have never seen a preseason game with that croud noise. I personally almost lost my voice (I blame Rudy for that). Things were definitely bogged down in the first quarter as it was obvious we were trying to get used to playing in a real game setting. Then late im the second quarter.....all hell broke loose. We started making the extra pass, our defense tightened up, and there were no easy baskets for the kings the rest of the game. The 31 assists weren't bad either as this team showed how much fun sharing the ball can be. Individual Player Thoughts Roy - Roy was Roy and he definitely did not look like a player that had surgury not too long ago. LMA - Couldn't score in the first half even if you left him at strip club with a stack of $100s. Things definitely got a lot better in the second half and his last second buzzer better in second quarter got the momentum going firmly in our favor. Again didn't need to take much from this game for him but I will mention this, he looks absolutely RIPPED. Webster - Looked fairly decent on Defense, couldn't get his shot to fall from distance very well. You can definitely tell that he put in serious time in the gym during the year as some of his dunks were pretty ridiculous. He probably should take Rudy out to dinner for all the alley oops he got during the game. Sergio - Not the same player we saw last year. He shot looks great and I mean really good. All three of the treys were all net. He actually played respectable defense and applied pressure the second the opposing PG got the ball over half court. He did let Udrih by him a couple times but his defense looks much better than last year. Oh he definitely likes playing with Rudy. Oden - Probably could not have asked for better debut than this despite the fact you could tell that he looked a little tired at times. Missed a couple shorties, but then made Spencer Hawes look like Gumby. Poor hawes could not do a thing. Grabbed a couple offensive rebounds and had those putback we like so much. Oh and there is that defense thing. The Kings get could not score inside when Oden stalked the paint. It was completely obvious of the instant impact he has on the defensive side. That Block on Hawes was pretty nice as well. Oh and he free throw stroke looked damn good. Rudy - Wow....just wow.....his court vision is absolutely amazing. He is personally responsible for me almost losing my voice. The alleyoops, the dunks, the layups....what is there not to like? He defense was not bad either but you could definitely tell that he likes to play the passing lanes. Overall he is the most dynamic player I have seen in a blazer uniform in years and here is the best part...He obviously loves to get his teamates involved and does not need a large amount of shots to be effective. Bayless - Played good defense, hit a couple outside shots, attacked the rim with reckless abandon. Really did not too bad bringing the ball up the court either. He did have a couple possesions were he pounded the ball for a while though, but those were few and far between. Good first game for him Outlaw - Don't really need to say much about him. Pryzbilla - Man it sure is going to be nice having a legit defensive center with the second unit as there were no massive breakdowns that we often saw last year. Didn't fumble the ball away at any point and hit his free throws. Not much more you can ask for. Diogu - Loves him some offense, reminds me a lot of ZBO in a lot ways, some good (good at attacking the rim) some not so good (ball had a tendency to move slower when he had the ball) overall a pretty solid game for him. Batum - To me he was the surprise of the night. Played very good defense, got to rim fairly well, and actually looked like he belonged on an NBA court. A very fluid player and could be a good one a couple years years. Hill - Played decently , got some boards, not much offensive game (nothing new there) Randolph - Made a couple good offensive moves, not much memorable besides that. I highly recommend that if you have a chance to see this team live in rosegarden this year. DO IT! The RG is going to rocking the entire season. Again probably couldn't have asked for anything else in your first preseason game
