Skip to main contentZach Randolph and Coach Nate are palling around at center court before the national anthem. You know what that means! It's the New York Kni——err, the Los Angeles Clippers!
We get a new cartoon intro that's not nearly as intense as the old cartoon intro, though this year's highlights have been both more frequent and both highlighty then those from years past. (The best part of the cartoon intro, by the way, was a buffed-up Ike Diogu smashing through the floorboards of a cartoon basketball court. I likey.)
FIRST QUARTER
I don't know about you, but I'm expecting plenty of clipping and blazing tonight.
12:00
Zach Randolph is Mr. Congeniality tonight. He's shaking everyone's hand (crowd and players alike), shooting big smiles to the Portland bench and hopping up and down in anticipation. He's asking for the ball each time up, and he's getting it. His first shot against Greg Oden is waaay off.
9:44
Channing Watch:
He's either learning Spanish or trying to teach Rudy and Sergio something. Can't tell from here. But there are a lot of hand motions involve so I'd imagine it isn't going very smoothly.
8:45
Nicolas Batum seems pretty crazy active so far tonight. He missed a three moments ago, but he also had a big dunk to start out and a big one-handed rebound on the other end. Pretty stuff! Earnin' that starting spot.
3:16
Rudy Fernandez just stuck a beautiful fastbreak pass through traffic to Brandon Roy. I mean, beautiful. Imagine how many minutes he would play if he was on the Warriors under Don Nelson. Nellie would never let him off the court!
I say this because Rudy is like a European Stephen Jackson without the anger issues.
3:16
Baron Davis looks like an old man trying to act like a superstar. I love Baron Davis' game, and furthermore I just love Baron Davis—he's hilarious— but dude is clearly a few steps slower than he was a couple years ago with the Warriors.
2:35
Joel cuts through traffic, picks up the foul and lays the ball in, if not "gracefully" then at least I can use the word "workmanlike."
2:21
Ch-ch-ch-changes! Jerryd Bayless checks in in Sergio's usual rotation spot, along with Channing Frye, who has recently seen these minutes usurped by Travis Outlaw. Travis hurt his tailbone, so he won't be playing tonight. It's a good chance for Channing to win back his reserve power forward role. Let's keep the Channing watch going, shall we?
54.6
Also, Baron Davis' "dunk" a minute ago wasn't very dunky. It was kind of funky, but not very dunky.
Jerryd Bayless knocks down a nice three to the crowd's elation.
Blazers hold for last shot. Brandon Roy dribbles at the top of the arc, then kicks to Rudy who knocks down another three. That's how you end the quarter.
SECOND QUARTER
Sergio comes in to run the point, but Bayless stays in at shooting guard. Very interesting. Chan stays in as well, and he's fighting for rebounds but gets beaten on the second one by his Blazer predecessor, Zach Randolph. Then Channing comes out of the game, giving LaMarcus a hard slap on the wrist on his way out of the game. LaMarcus takes a hard fall on his first offensive touch, but everybody's okay.
8:42
Sometimes I just start typing about what's going on in the game, and I forget to say anything interesting. They play "Getting to know Channing Frye" on the big screen (these are the things you really miss by watching the game at home), and ask him "PS3, Xbox 360 or Wii?" "Oh Xbox, absolutely. Hands down." "Guitar Hero or Rock Band?" "Depends, am I a loser or do I have friends? Guitar Hero." "boxers or briefs." "Neither." The crowd erupts. "Nah, I'm just kidding. Boxers."
7:17
Beautiful Spanish Connection alley-oop, perhaps the biggest one yet. Rudy swooped in baseline and did that little leg--twist he does while he's throwing it down.
5:48
Nothing to report.
5:00
I'm going to spend the rest of the quarter counting how many times Zach Randolph licks his fingers. I'll report back at halftime.
3:04
Okay, only one time so far. But it was awesome. I bet he's licking them right now on the bench. I bet he's just licking and licking and licking, like he's going to get to the Tootsie Pop center or something.
In all seriousness, though, Zach Randolph looks a lot better these days. He looks a bit slimmer, he communicates with his teammates more often, he fights a little harder on defense, and he just attempted an alley-oop, and it really wasn't his fault that it didn't go.
Of course, I was the guy who said he should stay in Portland at the end of his last season in Portland. No one was really saying that at the time. I got some hate mail. And without Zach leaving, there never would have been a Channing Watch.
I saw a lick! That's two!
1:52
Someone in the crowd hollers at Zach and he gives them a head nod, turning away from the court. Still spreading the love.
Bayles is back in. It's nice to see the young man getting some minutes. Oh, and the score is 52 - 48 Clips. Make that 55 - 48.
50 seconds
I take back what I said about Baron. He was just warming up. He has looked pretty good with 14 points and 4 assists in the first half.
Brandon kicks to Batum who kicks to LaMarcus. G.O. could learn a few things from Aldridge. I mean, I'm sure he has learned a few things from LaMarcus, but he could learn a few more. The biggest thing people want to see from Greg, I think is ferocity in the post. And thus far he hasn't had a grip on the ball down there.
HALFTIME
Again, this is what you miss when you watch the games on TV. Tonight's halftime show is a T-shirt-launching engineering contest. Look at the nerds!!!!! Look at the nerds!!!!!
One of their t-shirt canons exploded and the plastic tube shot into the third row. It could have killed somebody, but it was really great entertainment. I suppose the same personal health waivers intrinsic in buying a ticket ("The Trail Blazers are not liable for injury caused by Travis Outlaw's elbows flying into the crowd") apply to t-shirt cannon failure.
THIRD QUARTER
Oden shows what he's got over Zach by kicking the ball out to Brandon Roy at the three-point line, then Zach shows off his magnificent hustle and comes away with the rebound. Again, though, this is a smarter Zach Randolph than the one we remember from a couple of years ago. He looks so much sharper and livelier on defense, it's pretty fantastic.
Across the league, Hedo Turkoglu tries to end the Magic's game against the Suns the way he ended the Blazer game—with a dagger—and gets them up by one. But the Suns are still in their game, for sure. Fucking Magic.
6:59
Tied at 66. I'm a little surprised that people are booing Zach so hard. That may sound naive, but the dude was recently traded to L.A., he has to be wondering why no one seems to want him. I mean, c'mon. Shouldn't we just get over it? Zach is nice to us, after all. Let him be some other city's problem and let the guy be. That's my two cents.
6:03
Now the big screen is asking for Blazer fans best air guitar moves . The winner gets a copy of Guitar Hero for PS3. There are some pretty good ones going on here, the best one from a nerdy looking redhead with a mini-fro. The woman who wins is just a swirling mass of hair. She looks like she might sell the game to a pawn shop and buy meth with the cash.
I'm going to hell.
5:10
Greg Oden is clipping right along. He gets a standing ovation on his way out of the game for some hustle on the ball and a really frustrated expression. Funny how empathetic this city is to Greg's frustration. I feel bad for the guy, but at the same time, I'm not too proud and I'd like to have his millions, so if he'd rather be a highly successful music journalist (which I think he'd be really good at) then an emerging basketball star, I'll swap spots with him. Doubt I'll get in the game, especially at the center position, but I'll swap spots with him. I could maybe go up against Marc Gasol. In a bad facial hair contest.
In case you were wondering...
1:42
Brandon Roy hustles Eric Gordon and takes him to the hoop with a very special spin move—he takes a hard hit but finishes the play.
Next trip down Sergio Rodriguez is a little dynamo. I love watching that guy when he gets it going. He moves too fast to type about, plus I can't keep my eyes off him when he's on the court or he'll do something amazing. But he's all "arriba! arriba!" and it's rad.
18.2
Blazers up by 4. Brandon Roy hangs out at the top of the arc again, and slips past with Mardy Collins with a sweet crossover. He comes damn near dunking over Clippers reserve center Paul Davis. Sheesh. What a stud.
MVP chants. Seriously.
FOURTH QUARTER
That heee-larious trail cat, Blaze, has done it again. This time he stole the cotton candy man's cotton candy, and he handed it out to people in the crowd. Who dream up your antics, Blaze, I'd like to shake their paw.
10:06
Joel's called for a foul he didn't commit and his reaction is this sort of flustered housewife expression. I like that. He hasn't been arguing calls at all lately, even when the crowd is pretty sure there's a conspiracy going on. Joel just puts his hands on his hips, lets out a big burst of air from his mouth that would blow his hair around if he had hair, and composes himself. "What am I going to do about you boys?"
They're putting all the fan photos up on the big screen to the tune of J. Geils Band's most monumental achievement (after "Angel in a Centerfold," of course), "Freeze Frame." Here's mine:
Needless to say, it does not go up on the big screen.
6:39
Brandon Roy is an absolute BEAST! He's up to 26 points, and the last two, like many of Roy's points, came from some amazing spinning and a jumpshot so pure it brings a tear to your eye.
5:41
I just approved a comment! I have a fan!
Do you know that when they shoot t-shirts out into the crowd, they aren't Blazer t-shirts at all? I mean, you'd expect a Blazer shirt with some corporate sponsor on it, but not an outright Intel shirt (tonight's sponsor). I hope the nerdy redhead kid from the Guitar Hero contest caught it.
3:50
Blazers are up two but that little Eric Gordon is at the line shooting—wouldn't you have guessed it—two! What a world. He misses the first and the crowd flips. Those thundersticks (TM) are loud tonight. I wonder if they have the Intel logo on 'em?
3:13
Greg Oden just picked up his first foul, but it was against Zach Randolph, who's hearing the boo birds as loud as I've ever heard them. He actually looked a little shaken at first, walking back from the line to the big Blazer logo to fix his shorts and compose himself for the free throw. He was shaking his head like a dude with turrets, not quite antagonizing the crowd, but acknowledging them—as if it just didn't compute.
2:51
Greg Oden goes up against Zach Randolph, and Zach finally fouls. This crowd wants Oden to stuff on Zach so bad. They just want to see him smash Zach's face in with the ball the way Shaq did to Joel Przybilla last season. Well I don't think Greg's that type of player. At least not this year.
You know, if you look into an L.A. Lakers crowd, you see Kobe jersey after Kobe jersey. Entire sections draped in them. But they just showed a section of the Blazer crowd and I saw a 7, a 52, an 88 and a 12. I saw shaggy rockers and little kids, jock dudes and wanna-be gangstas. Sure, they're mostly white. Anyway...
92 - 92, Mardy Collins misses both his free throws that would have put the Clips up over the home team. On the other end, Roy is in control, and he gets some respect from the refs when he flails and throws the ball up. Not a shooter though.
Roy has it again. He shuffles past Collins, leans in with a Kobe-style jumper and gets the foul. Shot bounces out. We are really seeing this kid come into his own. He's getting past his "team leader" rep and becoming an outright all-star. Maybe we'll start seeing more number 7s in that crowd.
50 seconds
B-Roy drifts in for a beautiful layup to give him thirty and put the Blazers up by four. On the last play, Zach Randolph absolutely creamed a set Steve Blake. He put an arm out and threw him to the floor. But Zach had ditched the ball and I watched the official as his head turned away from Zach in the paint. Should have been a foul, maybe even a flagrant (it was certainly more flagrant than that Channing Frye foul last game), but nobody saw it except an infuriated crowd.
Zach leaves Dunleavy's huddle early and coach screams at him, outright screams, pulling him back in. I guess Zach is eager to play.
20.6
Al Thornton knocks down an ice-cold jumper from just inside the arc. People are leaving. Which is fucking stupid. I'm sorry, but you people are stupid. Maybe you ate too much free cotton candy from Blaze, but this is a two-point game with 20.6 seconds left. That's a lifetime, as they say.
Sergio set to inbound. And there's an off-the-ball foul on Al Thornton that sends Steve Blake to the line. That's a technical foul shot plus another possession, and Steve Blake, amazingly, misses the free throw. Why would you not have Rudy shoot that? He's at like 98% on the season!
Rudy can't pass it in and Nate calls time. Jeeeeez, you see what I'm talking about? You'd have to be a fool to leave this game right now.
20.6 (still)
Sergio gets it to Blake, who is smashed by Baron Davis and some other dude. If it weren't the last stretch of the game, he probably would have gotten a T for that.
Blake misses the first of two, and these Clips are doing everything they possibly can to get technical fouls. It's incredible.
Steve Blake misses ANOTHER FREE THROW. THREE MISSES IN A ROW!
Wow. This place got real quiet.
8.1
I have the best fans in the world. They are so jovial!
Baron Davis turns over the ball, Blake gets fouled, and makes one of three. Dude is psychologically shattered! Oh my god!
The Clips get one last chance to win it and lose me a fan forever. I won't let you down, new fan! You and me are in it for the long haul. We're gonna be best friends.
Ok, look for Zach with the walk-off three pointer. I mean, look for Zach to miss the walk-off three pointer.
0.0
Baron. Davis. With. The three. Rudy was all over him and he still knocked it down with a hand in his face. Oh my god. This home court that had treated the Blazers so well is turning into a veritable house of horrors. On the monitor to my right they show Paul Allen looking up at the scoreboard, his mouth open like it's groundhog's day and he sees more winter on the way.
OVERTIME
The good news? Chalupas seem a sure thing.
And Brandon Roy can add to his stat line. But a win would have been nicer. These Clippers are hungry.
The Clips go up three. The crowd isn't happy with these refs after they reverse an out-of-bounds call and give it to the Clippers. Ick. Ick ick ick.
3:35
It's Brandon vs. Baron on the Blazers end. On the Clips' end it's all Zach. He misses the floater but damn it looked pretty good.
The refs refuse to call anything against the Blazers, and the crowd is in all-out boo mode. Clips up three and they have possession with 1:53 left. I can see the Clippers' radio guys to my left, and the expressions they're giving were of "oh my god/AHHHHHH!/is this some kind of joke?" in regulation, but now they've got a "please lord give us this win" sorta thing going on.
1:30
Greg Oden is all hustle tonight. He wrangles a rebound and gets it up court to Roy and then Blake, who makes the three. Tie game, until Zach Randolph hits two free throws and gets the Clips back up by 2. It's 104 - 102 Clippers at the moment. This one could get even longer.
57.7
Keep refreshing, Ahmad, my one fan, and I'll try to update quickly. Blake is inbounding...
He gives it to Roy, and by SHEER FORCE OF WILL and JEDI-STYLE MAGIC, he gets a big jumper over Baron to tie this one up again with 48 seconds left.
Baron buries a two on the Clips end after confusing Aldridge, but Roy comes back and hits over Baron from the same spot as last time back. Roy's up to 36, and they look soooooo good.
Has anyone ever really listened to the lyrics of "R-O-C-K-In the U.S.A."? Or "Y.M.C.A." for that matter?
Baron has the ball, he's yelling at his team. He takes another jumper, but this one's off. We're going into DOUBLE OVERTIME!
If I were a coach, I'd be winless at home and on the road and long fired by this point in the season. I would also substitute Spanish Chocolate for Steve Blake right now, and get Joel "I shoot 99% from the field" Przybilla in there while I was at it. I want to see running and gunning—clipping and blazing if you will—and I think the Spanish Connection is the way to get that done. And Joel cleans the glass really nicely.
Oden wins the tip. Blake kicks to Rudy, and it goes around the horn to LaMarc, who misses the jumper.
Zach hits one on the other end. Zach, by the way, is up to 34 points. But Brandon Roy hits yet another wacky jumper to give him 38.
3:18
An alley-oop to Canby is good, and Roy looks deflated on the other end so he kicks it to LaMarc, who misses the long jumper. Clips have it, and they go to Zach, who runs the lane and lays it in real smooth. 112 - 108 Clips.
2:17
An offensive foul on the clips. It's Collins that hits Rudy.
But the Blazers turn it over and Baron Davis runs the length of the court for a nice floater. Clips up six, and the Blazers are going to need an early Christmas miracle at this point.
1:48
It looked like the Blazers had gotten their three point groove back tonight, but the percentage is down to 37 against the Clips' 47. The red and black has 18 points off treys.
1:28
I hate to say it, but Baron now looks more energetic than Brandon. And Zach is fouled, he has 36. Drops his first free throw. Drops the second. Clips up 116 - 108. This should be the end, but we'll see if Brandon can reach superstar level right now.
48.8
Greg with a beautiful rejection on Baron, but the ball is deflected to Eric Gordon, who hits the short jumper. And the fans are filing out. At this point, I won't call them stupid. I still wouldn't leave just yet, in case Roy has a Tracy McGrady half-minute, but in all likeliehood, this one will go down as an L. 118 - 110.
If nothing else, the exiters missed a very sweet put-back dunk from Greg Oden. A joyless putback but a putback nonetheless. Sorry Ahmad, I don't think I can win this one for you. Mardy Collins hits both his free throws on the other end. Roy pulls up for three. WOW. Four possesions in a row and none of the Blazers threes go down. I've never heard it so quiet in here as that last twenty seconds or so.
Brandon finishes with 38 points and 9 assists, plus 4 boards. But he won't think much about that, I'd wager.
Good night, fans. Fan. Ex-fan. Sigh.
-Casey
Hope I covered the bases there, Ahmad. These fans gave a hearty cheer to B-Roy's statline, but there were so few of them left you could hardly notice. This was a tough one, man. I mean, the Clips aren't as bad as they look on paper after that trade and when Baron plays well (which he absolutely did tonight), but a loss at home is a loss at home, and when you're trying to retain that "nobody comes into our house" mindset, this has to be tough. Cause the Clips came in to your house. And they stole the furniture.
Goodnight for reals. Maybe I'll seeya Tuesday.
WWeek 2015
