Zach Leads Blazers Over Pistons
posted: 12/6/2006 at 6:47 AM
Some trends in the NBA make perfect sense. Others do not. The fact that the Trail Blazers have now won 7 of the last 9 games they've played at the Palace of Auburn Hills could be a little surprising to you, given the very recent history of both teams. Again, as we said early in the TV broadcast last night, some of these things can't be explained- you just ride them as long as you can. For some reason, the Blazers play well in Detroit. They beat the Pistons last night 88-85.
It was a nice, and you could probably say unlikely way, to snap a 5-game losing streak. You drop all four games on a homestand, and then hit the road for 6-straight games, and win the first one in Detroit. And this wasn't some flukey win. The Blazers didn't play anything close to a perfect game, or beat the Pistons when they were having a horrible night, or without six of their best players or anything. They simply smothered them with defense, hustle, and rebouding. Three things that have been missing lately.
Last season in Detroit, Zach Randolph put 37 points on Rasheed Wallace, a career high, and the Blazers lost the game in the final seconds. It was clear on that night Wallace needed help guarding Zach, and that double-teaming him, like the rest of the league does, was clearly the best way to force someone else to beat you. Flip Saunders apparently thought he knew something other team's didn't, and didn't double-team Zach until it was too late. Randolph cruised to 31 points and 13 rebounds. Rasheed had his hands so full trying to slow down his former teammate, it threw his offensive game out of whack as well, and he shot just 3 of 10, and had only 7 points.
Speaking of Portland's defense, they held the Pistons to just 43 percent shooting, and kept them 10 points under their season average. Tayshaun Prince, who was never a factor in the game, had just 10 points on 4 of 13 shooting. Rip Hamilton, who had 15 consecutive points for Detroit to end the first quarter, scored just 10 the rest of the way. And the guy who always seems to play well against the Blazers, Flip Murray, was effective off the bench, scoring 11 points, but at no point took over the game, like he can.
Again, the Blazers didn't play a tremendous offensive game. They shot, and scored, below their seasonal averages. They were just 41 percent from the field, and were only 3 for 10 on three-pointers. But, they turned the ball over only 8 times, and outrebounded Detroit 46-35.
Jarrett Jack had a very solid game, against a guy he's been compared to a lot, in Billups. Jack had 18 points, 5 assists, just 1 turnover, and was also 9 for 11 from the free throw line. He was under control, and displayed a kind of leadership that Nate McMillan has been wanting. I mentioned Sunday to expect to see more of Sergio Rodriguez, because of how he's been handling the team on the floor. Don't think Jarrett hasn't been noticing all of this, and against Detroit he very much answered his coach's request. We saw Sergio for a few minutes in this game, but McMillan just didn't think the matchups, guarding a much bigger Billups, and then Flip Murray, were good ones for him.
It's also been said lately that with Joel Przybilla and Raef LaFrentz back, the player who could be losing some minutes is LaMarcus Aldridge. Nate has been the one who has mentioned that. Trouble is, how do you not play Aldridge big minutes when he gives you this? The rookie had his first NBA double-double, 11 points and 11 rebounds last night. He was 5 for 9 from the field, and hit several deep jumpers. He and Zach are making for a very nice combo, with the inside, outside play.
It was nice to see the Trail Blazers happy on the short flight from Detroit to Milwaukee after the game. Zach climbed on the plane, and said "that's more like it," with a big smile on his face (see photo above).
No time to rest, as the Blazers take on the Milwaukee Bucks tonight. We'll have it for you at 5 o'clock on KGW-8, at the Trail Blazers Television Network. Wheels and Tone will, of course, have it on the Blazers Radio Network.
One last note- Brandon Roy had a very good workout yesterday at the Blazers practice facility in Tualatin. He shot and did some conditioning, and was pain free. We had a camera crew there shooting some of the workout, and we'll be rolling some of that video into the TV broadcast tonight.
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Mornin Mike, Loved watching the game last night. The blazers have been showing good enough work on the offense and with zach playing like he has I'm not to woried aboutit. Certainly when roy comes back, sergio and lamarcus continue to progress, and the team continues to get used to playing together we'll keep improving overall and getting more consistant. I think the blazers success in W's and L's this season will be able to be acurately tracked by looking at the opponents feild goal percentage. I'll guess the magic number at 45% (portland's and the league's averages). If they can hold thier opponents under that it will show good effort on the devensive end. Teams scoring above that are probably getting alot of wide open looks and layups. Of course this isn't that bold of a statement being that so far portland is last in league for opponents feild goal percentage and is not last in the W\L column.
Zack is the real meal deal. 26 and 10 could get any player to the all-star game and now that he is making new against the Pistons he deserves all our votes.
ROY, ROY, ROY, ROY, ROY. Please just give me some Brandon Roy. Now is the perfect time to bring him back. The Blazer's fell to rock bottom in my opinion after the five game skid. Now, with the big win in Detroit they have the opportunity to recover big time. All of these guys have been finding their games individually, and now all they need is a leader. Z-Bo might be our all-star, but he's no floor general. We need Roy to make the smart plays at the critical moments, and to handle the ball in the fourth quarter. He just makes everyone around him better, hopefully it will be that extra push we need to become a winning team.
I don't remember the last time i saw a player who leads the league in assists per 48 minutes and has a 4 to 1 assist/TO ratio get demoted from the backup spot for making one bad pass. Bringing Dickau in worked out, but did he earn that PT over Sergio? I hope he's playing like a god in practice. Sergio could never duplicate Dickau's 1 for 8 performance in his last outing because Nate would pull him faster than you can say Rodriguez for missing a free throw.
Mike, I also would like an explenation as to Sergio's apparent demotion. Has Dan been out-playing him practice? The only way for a player like SR to get more effective is to play him so he and his new team mates can get more and more familiar with each others games. Jack has also proven that he would be by no means a liability at the 2 spot when he thinks about scoring so I cannot see ANY excuse for not playing Sergio. What are we missing here?
Mike, just read Quick's report on nate's explination of SR's demotion. Lame- While i have seen him pull Zach out of the game for a few minutes for not doing what he wants I have yet to see him pull Zach for being the WORST defender on the team making the same defensive mistakes over and over again. It seems that almost every time someone scores an easy layup on us Zach was the closest or should have been the help D. Sergio and Juan who are considered defense liabilities are more effective on defense than Zach. I'm not saying Nate should stop playing our most effective offensive player, but to not play someone like SR because he made a bad pass is shooting yourself in the foot,, the more experience we get him the better off the whole team will be.
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