I’m no analyst, statistician, or historian on the NBA, so I can’t really say whether or not there has ever been a Cinderella team in the past that has beat the odds and won the championship, despite naysaying talking heads. However, what I definitely am is a Blazer Believer that sees a team that had a lot to prove at the beginning of this season, and has certainly widened the eyes of anyone who thought they were not going to amount to much in the 2015-16.
With only 15 contests left in the regular season schedule, the Trail Blazers are somewhat comfortable in the sixth seed in the west. Before last night’s game against the Orlando Magic tipped off, the two teams that were nipping at the Blazers’ heels in the playoff race by only one game, the Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets, both lost their games. The gap had widened a smidge, and the Blazers would’ve been wise to lather up the flubber and get down to business. Having won five of the last six match-ups with the Magic at the Moda Center, one would think that the Blazers would have no problem dismantling the Magic.
Logic ended up prevailing. After 48 minutes had ticked away, the Blazers flummoxed the Magic with a 121-84 victory.
Orlando got off to a real quick start putting up 11 points to the Blazers’ two. The home team looked a little sluggish. Not surprising since they took a pounding from the Warriors Friday night in Golden State. It was early in the game, but if the Blazers were a little travel ragged, they needed to shake it off quick before the Magic made a Blazer win disappear.
Before I could even finish typing me previous thought, the starting line-up quickly bit back and got their first lead of the game. The Blazers had warmed up. Well, except good old Meyers Leonard.
Per usual, our beloved(?) Leonard was looking a little clunky after a few minutes on the court. During a full timeout just before the two minute mark, the team sage Chris Kaman could be seen trying to instill some of his knowledge in the young player. How this guy has not developed passed the doe-eyed-rookie vibe in four years, I’ll never understand. He plays like he’s made of glass.
All through the first half the Magic were fiercely double teaming Damian Lillard and shutting down his offense. At the half way mark of the second quarter he had only five points. The Magic may have been able to keep Dame from scoring, but they didn’t stop him from dumping seven assists to his teammates.
After being quiet for some time now, Allen Crabbe looked more like the rabid player we saw earlier in the season. With three minutes left in the half, Crabbe was the highest scoring Blazer with 12 points. By the end of the game he ended up draining 18. That’s the beauty of this team. If the star players are having an off night, there’s almost always someone who picks up the slack.
In the second half, things started to get a little interesting. Orlando’s Jason Smith was dinged for setting an illegal pick on Lillard. Dame and Smith ended up going chest to chest, well…forehead to throat, and shared some heated words. The two were broken up before anything could escalate. The brief altercation served to only feed Dame, and with three minutes left in the third, he had already rung up a double-double with points and assists.
A minute later, Ed Davis came down hard on Smith’s back as he went in for a lay-up, giving him what looked like a little poke in the eye. The foul was a little hard, but it didn’t seem like Davis was being malicious. The officials decided to review the play.
After review, expecting Davis would just get a flagrant foul at best, the all seeing officials decided to slap a flagrant two foul on him, and he was ejected from the game. The crowd was baffled. The boos rattled the rafters. You could bet the decibels peaked for the night at that point.
A few minutes later, Leonard and Plumlee found themselves under the hoop fighting each other over a defensive rebound. When Plumlee wrenched it away with authority, obviously thinking he was tangled up with a Magic player, Meyers stood there and looked like someone had just stolen his lollipop. He stopped and stared at the back of Plumlee’s head as he started to run down the court. Meyers finally realized no whistle was blown and decided he better get back on offense. Oh Meyers…
Come the fourth, and the Blazers pretty much ran off with it. With just under eight minutes left in the game, coach Stotts decides a 28 point lead was commanding enough and dumped the bench into the game. Chris Kaman, Pat Connaughton, and Brian Roberts got some solid time to pad their stats.
The Blazers win 121-84, and tighten the screws on their sixth seed. All is right with the world…
There would seem to be a direct correlation between the number of free beers that Mike Scheckla, the Mascot Hippy, has handed to him, the better the team invariably does. Write him in for Governor of Orygun & Mayor of Portland. He’ll do for the City and State what he does for the team. Best of all, we can pay him in beer.