Make room on the Portland Trail Blazers' bandwagon because here I come! They have one of the NBA's best scorers (Brandon Roy), a big man who hits the 16-foot jumper, runs, rebounds and posts up (LaMarcus Aldridge), two big men who are really big and use their size well (Greg Oden and Joel Pryzbilla, though neither is a distinguished player yet), a tall wingman who can shoot the three, drive and defend (Travis Outlaw), a crafty point guard (Steve Blake) two Spaniards who handle the ball so smoothly and shoot well (Rudy Fernandez and Sergio Rodriguez), and a roster where no one is older than 29. What?!
Watching them beat the Celtics, without Roy, last night at 1 a.m. was a true pleasure. The Celtics' dominance is mundane. Listen to a game, hear everyone exclaim about how tenacious, professional and superior they are. (Unsurprisingly, their TV broadcasters attributed last night's loss to the officials' botched call when the Blazers had six men on the court at the first half's end and scored two points. That was erased later in the game when Celtics forward Paul Pierce had an egregious travel of three steps and scored two points. Really, the Blazers killed the Celtics on the boards and in the paint. Every Boston sports fan whines incessantly.) It's a treat to watch a great team as it's born, full of raw energy, increasing intelligence and recognition of what they have and a little sloppiness that means they have to reach the top through pluckiness.
It's a shame it's so hard to watch the Blazers around here. Credit also due, again, to the Sports Guy's prescience in identifying the Blazers before the year began as the team all bloggers would fall in love with. He was quite correct.
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