If you'll forgive what sounds like a tangent for a moment, the Joe's Sporting Goods store in Lake Oswego near the Bridgeport Mall on I-5 closed down this past year. I was worried that it would be difficult to find a suitable anchor tenant to keep that strip mall alive (ugh, I must be getting old and incredibly bourgeois to root for a strip mall's survival), but apparently Dick's Sporting Goods felt just cocky enough to open their own outlet in the shell of a dead rival, and they held its grand opening this weekend. I mention this because I stopped by with lil Joe on Saturday, only to discover that Andre Miller of the Blazers would be signing autographs from 2-3 that afternoon. Sure, why not? The line was quick and orderly, lots of kids with free miniballs and whatnot, and--no slouch Andre--the celebrity signer was right on time and ready to go immediately. He got the memo, apparently. When it was our turn in line, I welcomed him to Portland and said, "You're part of the family now." He said thank you as I said more inaudibly, "...so be good." More brightly, I asked, "What did you think of the 3-guard?", meaning the new lineup look coach Nate had installed the night before in an attempt to break an early malaise. He spoke clearly but very quietly, "It was cool." Considering he had just upped his minutes and team profile considerably in the move--and it appeared to have worked--I thought perhaps he might have been a little more pumped to acknowledge it.* I wonder if tonight's game might have given him that gleam I was looking for, as the Blazers rolled on the strength of another great start predicated in large measure by the new look, and specifically Miller's first 20-point game as a Blazer, to go with four bounds and two steals. There are several other things to love about the effort against a reeling T-Wolves team now at 1-6, but primary is that as long as Brandon Roy can handle whoever is at the 3 for their opponent, having Roy, Blake and Miller on the floor to support Aldridge and Oden is giving opponents all THEY can handle. I had a center-court seat from the 300s tonight, and the feeling was positively gleeful, watching elements of the team blossom like a hothouse flower in time-lapse photography: sudden, bright and even brilliant at times. It's as if someone held open a door of some future reality, and you could peer inside and see a team consistently producing that kind of team movement and production at an elite level--and you look and the jerseys all say "Rip City." Of course I'm dramatizing a little, and it's a fool's predicate that relies on Andre Miller hitting his outside shots and every opponent looking as small and lost as the T-Wolves. There were a number of things to love tonight, though, and many of them did flow from the pace set by the three-guard start, which itself is really only plausible for this team with Miller as one of those guards. Miller is a hybrid of Roy and Blake, which I guess is why he's perfect at the 2 guard between them. Blake stretches the defense with threes, does a decent job distributing and is not a rim hound at all, while Miller is an excellent passer, drives well but not expertly, and is not much at the arc. (Roy drives like a champ and hits all the shots Blake does and more, but he'd be wasted at the point most times). Something abut that synergy makes it work. Before, Blake would either dish to Roy, go inside, or flick to Outlaw/Webster for either the three or Plan B. Roy was often the crucial terminus, as he would then be the one to hold, pop, drive or dish--and at times tended to render Blake unnecessary unless an open kickout three was needed. With Miller in there, the options seem to explode: he can distribute, drive or sometimes pop. But when he distributes to Blake there is a different tree of options for where it goes from there, as opposed to when Miller feeds Roy as the beginning of the play. And god love 'em, but just having Miller on the floor seems to prevent the intermittent sinkhole a Travis/Webster pass becomes, at least to start halves. It almost forces the ball all the way inside, because there's no intermediate step between guard and big man at the forward position to start taking ill-advised long range jumpers. So you have three distributors working inside to two big scorers. When Miller mostly pases and lets Roy do his magic and Blake sharpshoot distance daggers, as they did vs the Spurs, it seemed to work well. When there are four scorers going and one strong feeder, suddenly the offense began to move around the court more, became more aggressive to the basket across the board. The gravy comes when Miller's feeling his shot like tonight, and there are thus five serious scoring options on the court for the Blazers, I'm not sure there's much any team in the NBA can do with that scenario. The T-Wolves are not really an adequate test for the long haul, but it was clearly just too much for them to handle--too many people to guard, too much power and range and movement. It was like the Blazers had unfolded a swiss NBA player knife, and just opener-corkscrew-toothpick-SCISSORS!ed themselves through the opposition. And even without Tony Parker, the Spurs are a very savvy team--and for the first game through at least, they looked kind of confused by it. As I said, there were other things to love in tonight's game that weren't really there on Friday. First and foremost, Greg Oden had what I think was his best game of the year, and among the best of his career. He had some strong offense against an aging but still tough Tim Duncan Friday, and tonight his stats were a little less showy--11 points, 4 boards and two blocks. But for the first time in ever, his subordinate minutes to Joel Przybilla's were not the result of foul trouble. He did his first full shift to open the game while picking up his only foul, and Joel simply stayed in the game longer, collecting rebounds and standing up Al Jefferson like a brick wall. It was almost comical watching Al twitch one way, then the other, trying to get Prizz to bite--then putting up a short-armed clunker. When he was in however, Oden managed his offensive position on the post nearly perfectly to my amateur eyes. He was usually deep enough to be able to make a move, and when he did move he moved quickly and forcefully. On one occasion he spun deceptively quickly into the middle of the lane and uncontested for two. He took the pass well and kicked it back well, sometimes right back and sometimes on to the next player. And he even had a beauty assist underneath to Miller; both of the bigs did a nice job finding open men. It was contagious. On defense it was if he was just following Joel: hands up, stand straight and tall, don't buy the fakes. His one foul wasn't even a mechanical mistake; it was contact but Greg had good position and body angle. He kept active at both ends, perhaps stimulated by the upgrade in flow set off by the backcourt. Whatever it was, Oden was comfortable in all facets, looking like he actually had a gameplan for himself. He didn't come off the court looking like Dwight Howard, but he significantly altered the game. One unappreciated side benefit of the 3-guard is the chance for Jerryd Bayless to get consistent run of at least a few minutes each night. Bayless is a decent shooter who goes to the rim better than anyone except Roy, and his offensive energy turns the entire team up when it starts to lull. Nate can use Jerryd that way all season, to break up the monotony (and of course relieve one of the starting guards). It seemed such a shame to waste such an obvious talent without giving it room to develop, but he was clearly behind the other three, and after about 5-6 minutes he seems to lose his edge a little. This usage pattern suits him and the team perfectly for now. Here's something else almost unfathomable: Brandon Roy was a little off, did not take many shots at all (6!)--and not only did the team have those points to spare elsewhere, for the first time in memory it seemed to faze the rest of the team not a wit. Ordinarily a dry spell by Roy seems to make his teammates think, "Man, with B-Roy down I definitely have to step up!" And you can almost see the sense of panic that somebody is going to have to replace Brandon's production if he's going to be off that night. Not only was his lack of scoring not a factor tonight, it was as if his teammates barely noticed before adjusting and using what did work. The part of Brandon Roy seemed to be ably kept by Andre Miller for the night, so no worries! As an aside, have you ever seen a team put up a 90% assist-to-shots-made ratio? 41 shots taken, 37 of them had assists! And as long as we're talking 90%, that's the FT percentage made by the Blazers tonight, 27-30. From distance? almost half made, 7-15 and also a more appropriate number of attempts for the game relative to all shots. After refusing to be defeated but noting some concerns, I must temper my enthusiasm--but still allow myself to be delighted with the obvious change in events brought on by the lineup shift. Friday it looked like it could work; tonight it looked like it could dominate the right opponent. Some form of it in varied doses could probably work against all of them, in fact. Certainly for the short term, it's been a turning point. Two final season-firsts: Chalupa! and Dante Cunningham's first fix minutes and six points in the NBA. It was a good night to be a Blazer. Next up, a five game roadie starting in Memphis, where the Allen Iverson roadshow continues... *Whatever--he doesn't have to prove anything to me at a community outreach event. I'm not offended at all; I wouldn't want to try and make conversation with 200 people in an hour, either. Just noting his reaction. |
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