You can see and feel it on the streets of Portland this week. There’s a lot more folks roaming around wearing red and black, they’re smiling a little bigger than everyone else, and they’re attitudes seem better. You could attribute the good vibes to that funny smelling smoke that wafts around everywhere all the time now, but you’d probably only be about half right. The main reason folks look a bit more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed is because believe it or not, it’s Trail Blazer season again! And with the season the home team had last year, fans have every right to be excited.

In the program handed out to fans at the Moda Center on opening night this Tuesday, there was a quote from Blazers’ coach Terry Stotts that summed up last season perfectly, and shined some light on how the Blazers feel going into this season.

“We have to understand the reason we had the season we did last year was because we stuck with the process and continued to get better throughout the year…we look at this season as a continuation of last season.”

Truer words couldn’t have been spoken. Last year the Blazers quieted the naysayers, and this year there’s nowhere to go but confidently up.

Last night the Blazers played their first of three match-ups this season against the Los Angeles Clippers. It was also slatted to be the first huge flair-up of a boiling hot rivalry that was established during round one of last year’s playoffs. The tension between the teams from last season even bled into this year’s preseason when they faced off on October 13th. The Clippers squeaked by the Blazers 109-108, but not before a very physical and emotional game with many lead changes, and the ejection of Al-Farouq Aminu and DeAndre Jordan for various infractions.

Leading into last nights game against their new nemesis, predicting a mean but steady Blazers team would be wise. As far as the Clippers, the officials would be seeing a lot of twisted, pouty toddler faces if the calls and score didn’t go the their way. They’d also be smart to keep a pacifier at the ready in case Clippers’ coach Doc Rivers got a little fussy too.

All things considered, when the smoke cleared last night the Moda Center was scorched earth, and the Clippers sailed off with a 114-106 victory over the Blazers.

No matter how much the players on both teams poo-pooed all the rivalry talk before and after the game in interviews, once the official tossed up the ball for the tip, it was motherfucking Thunderdome at the Moda Center. Less than two minutes after said tip, DeAndre Jordan and Mason Plumlee tangled and both ended up flopping to the ground hoping for a whistle. No one had scored and it already looked like there was gonna be blood on the court before the night was over. They should’ve just handed out tattered post-apocalyptic clothes to each team and dangled implements of death on chains from the jumbo-tron after the first quarter was over.

There are plenty of stats and highlights to speak of from last nights game. Damian Lillard posted a double-double with 29 points and ten rebounds. Maurice Harkless showed up big and dropped 23 points. Clippers’ Blake Griffin and Chris Paul drained 27 points each. Griffin also pulled down ten rebounds to get himself a double-double, and hammered down some nasty dunks that are probably being played on ESPN right now.

But the numbers really didn’t matter last night. It wasn’t a basketball game. It was war.

The second half started with DeAndre and Plumlee going nose to nose and being split up by officials and teammates. They both received technical fouls. After that every foul was hard. Bodies from both teams were hitting the floor on almost every up and down. It was a difficult game to watch.

Every time you tried to focus on the positives that both teams were accomplishing, or any kind of game flow, there’d be some insane uncalled foul, or some ticky-tacky foul called. There was so much covert pushing, pulling, and groping going on away from the ball the refs didn’t know what to call and what not to call. The crowd was spewing so much venomous vitriol at the refs that they probably lined up an armored car for them to jump into once the game was over.

After Griffin manhandled Plumlee at the top of the arch in the fourth, Plumlee retaliated by giving Griffin a forearm to the back under the hoop. Naturally he went flying, and again, the officials found themselves breaking up fights.

There’s nothing wrong with a good-old-fashion rivalry, but if it turns the game into a Royal Rumble it’s not basketball anymore. The next time the Blazers saddle up to charge at the Clippers, they need to figure out how to not let the Clippers get in their heads, and they need to not sink to the Clippers’ level and play rough and tumble. Someone needs to be the bigger team, and since the Blazers are the classiest team in the NBA, it should be them.