The Winter Of Our Discombobulation

By Corbin Smith

Winter has descended on the mighty Pacific Northwest. The sun disappears behind the grey. Our streets are once more in a state of light, moist dusting. The chill of the air pinches your face, and the only warmth to be found in all the land is around the warm fire of the Portland Trail Blazers, be it from the radioactive heat from a television screen or a warm pretzel at the arena.

The Blazers find themselves at this moment in a state of chaos. A team overrun with a strange mix of young (but not that young) lottery choices and a small mound of fairly average NBA players. The organizational goals are nebulous: Is this a core, or is everyone being fattened on generous usage so they can be shipped out to whoever has those good draft picks? Whatever the case, the entire arrangement is temporary.

Last night was the occasion of Wes Matthews' return to Portland, where he played for five years and was beloved by everyone who watched him. You probably recall his final game in a Blazer uniform, on March 6, ended with a tear to his Achilles tendon. He has already been back on the court for a month, and for a fella who just rehabbed from the worst injury a player can get, he looks all right.

He is playing a pretty similar role in Dallas as he did in Portland: lots of curls around screens, keeping defenses on their toes and promoting ball movement in a motion heavy system, an occasional post-up on a player who can't match with him strength-wise, pick-and-roll if it has to happen. In the third, he helped create an open transition bucket for Deron Williams by running to the corner in transition, taking his defender (Allan Crabbe) with him and leaving a wide open lane to attack. Heady play, hustle play, classic Matthews up-and-down. The crowd was, down to a person, happy to see him—at least until he drilled a late three pointer and stressed everyone out.

The Blazers kept it tight for a lot of a the game, relying heavily on their bench, which out-performed their starters by a considerable distance. Their primary tactical gambit for the game was switching on nearly every pick-and-roll that involved Dirk Nowitzki. This is an old-school Dirk tactic, from the time before he had a considerable post-up game. Terry Stotts probably feels he should take post-ups on guards instead of face-ups against big men. I don't want to imply it never works, of course: Dirk did have a few turnovers. Unfortunately, the switching led directly to Dirk's game-tying bucket: a switch on an initiating Felton-Nowitzki pick-and-roll left lil' old CJ McCollum to try and box out big ol' Dirk when Charlie Villanueva's corner three-pointer hit back iron with six seconds to go in the game. Dirk barely needed to jump to tip it in for the tie, which was good for him, because he never really jumped that much before and he especially doesn't jump now.

Lillard's game winning attempt was, really, really terrible. The screens of Chandler Parson's past are no more. The Blazers are ruled by disorder now. The center is not holding.

STRAY NOTES:

• Felton is still lustily booed in Portland, and in the handful of one-foot-in-the-arc jumpers he treated himself to suggests that maybe he was forcing it a little to try and rub it in the crowd’s big, fat, dumb face. Did you know he has been pretty good this year? I am surprised, personally: Last time he had a big contract year, you might recall it got really ugly.
• Dirk turned Vonleh and Plumlee into little puddles of goo. Probably instrumental in the switching, which actually kind of worked OK (Dirk got stripped twice!) until it didn’t. Weird to see Aminu—who is a smaller, strong, defensive forward, and is, therefore, the exact type of player that has traditionally bugged Dirk—not get a shot at him.
• Lillard scored six points during the end-game foul-times, which I admire. Maybe the team’s not great, but you’re a star and stars eat on the porch while everyone else crawls around in the dirt looking for a single blade of grass to eat.
• Meyers scored 23 points and attempted a whopping 11 three pointers in 23 minutes. One clever play the team ran involved him standing near the three point line, faking like is he moving past the arc, so his (large, possibly shot-blocking) defender moves with him, then sprinting towards the rim and catching an alley-oop pass. He’s still the Blazers most intriguing talent, seeing as everyone else on the team is 25 and probably topped out on their potential.

Willamette Week