Chemistry with a fighting chance

Even without Oden, Nuggets' opponent tonight making waves

Aaron J. Lopez

Published February 4, 2008 at 12:45 a.m.

Text size

Photo by Photos: Associated Press, Getty Images

Brandon Roy

Steve Blake

LaMarcus Aldridge

Martell Webster

Travis Outlaw

Channing Frye

James Jones

Greg Oden

More Denver Nuggets

More stories »

One month into the season, the Portland Trail Blazers were living up to expectations.

Young, inexperienced and generally dreadful.

They had lost four games in a row and nine of 10 to fall to 5-12 - seven games behind the Utah Jazz and 5 1/2 behind the Nuggets in the early jostling for position in the Northwest Division.

The painstaking rebuilding year predicted by many after the loss of No. 1 overall pick Greg Oden was in full swing, and young psyches were on the verge of submission.

"It was a chance for things to go really bad," Trail Blazers point guard Steve Blake said. "You either start to give up or you fight even harder."

On Dec. 2, the Blazers decided to fight - first, among themselves.

During a morning shootaround in San Antonio, coach Nate McMillan put together a practice session that he later admitted was designed to incite his young team.

Center Joel Przybilla and swingman Martell Webster nearly came to blows, and trash talk ran rampant. At one point, Blake got so angry that he picked up a chair and threw it as far as he could. When McMillan told him to pick up the chair, Blake complied, only to heave it again.

In the ensuing two months, the Blazers have taken their frustrations out on the rest of the NBA. One night after going at each others' throats in San Antonio, they began a 13-game winning streak that helped them emerge as one of the league's most unlikely playoff contenders.

"The losing was very frustrating, and the only thing that we could do was take a look at ourselves and ask ourselves: Were we playing hard? Were we doing the things we needed to do to win?" McMillan said during a phone interview last week.

"We answered that by giving more effort, playing together, committing to each other and committing to the team. It could have gone the other way, but I applaud the team and the players man for man for going out there and getting it done."

As the Nuggets and Blazers conclude their season series tonight in Portland, Ore., only two games separate the three top teams in the Northwest.

Denver, Portland and Utah conceivably all could finish among the top eight teams in the West and earn a playoff berth, but the division crown will be the only guarantee in a cutthroat race featuring no fewer than 10 teams.

"The West is tough," Nuggets center Marcus Camby said. "The other night in New Orleans, we went into that ballgame fourth in the standings. By the time the game was over, we dropped down to ninth."

Less than five months ago, ninth place seemed like a pipe dream for the Blazers.

Rebuilding project

On Sept. 13, the euphoria and optimism that had been building in Portland popped with the suddenness of a balloon meeting the blade of a surgical scalpel.

The team slogan, "Rise With Us" easily could have been replaced by "Cry With Us" when promising 7-foot center Oden had microfracture surgery on his right knee.

Oden, a likable 20-year-old, was supposed to be the centerpiece of Portland's rebuilding plan. Instead, he has become a giddy spectator who cheers on his teammates from behind the bench.

"They've surprised me and surprised probably the rest of the league, especially when early in the season they lost Greg Oden," Camby said. "I thought that was going to set that franchise back a year or two."

After an initial step backward, Portland has overcome Oden's absence, thanks to the rapid development of guard Brandon Roy and second-year power forward LaMarcus Aldridge.

Roy, the 2006-07 NBA Rookie of the Year, was named to the Western Conference All-Star team last week and already is gaining a reputation as one of the league's most versatile young players.

ESPN analyst Bill Walton went so far as to say that Roy would be a Hall of Fame player. Within hours of that Dec. 21 on-air proclamation, Roy scored 18 points against Denver and blocked a shot by Carmelo Anthony to preserve a three-point win against the Nuggets.

"I'm sure he'll get his jersey retired here," Blake said. "He's on that path. There's something special about him. He knows when to take over in big games, especially in the fourth quarter. He's already proven he's our go-to guy, and he accepts the challenge."

Before Roy's arrival, it had been a while since the Blazers stood tall in the face of a challenge.

Cast of characters

From accusations of dogfighting to drunken driving to dope smoking, the Trail Blazers were more prolific on the police blotter than in the NBA standings in the late 1990s and early part of the 21st century.

So fed up with their team's play and lack of professionalism, Blazers fans voiced their displeasure through the time-honored art of "civil disobedience." Portland's attendance bottomed out at 15,053 per game, dead last in the NBA, during the 2005-06 season.

Power forward Zach Randolph was among those who brought infamy to the team, and the curtain finally might have dropped on the "Jail Blazers" era when Randolph was traded to the New York Knicks on June 28, the same night Portland drafted Oden with the top pick.

Thanks to a community-friendly roster that has carried itself well on and off the court, attendance at the Rose Garden is the highest it has been since 2002- 03, which also happens to be the last time the Blazers made the playoffs.

"You can see a big difference," said forward Travis Outlaw, Portland's first- round pick in 2003. "When I first got here, it was kind of like the 'Jail Blazers' to now where it feels like the community's behind us."

More work ahead

For the past several years, Blake has been a community member himself, making his offseason home in Portland while playing for Washington, Milwaukee and Denver.

He left the Nuggets as a free agent in July and insists he carried a large dose of optimism when he joined the youngest team in the NBA.

"I expected us to be really good. I did," he said. "I knew Brandon Roy was coming off a great season. I knew LaMarcus had a big upside to him. Of course, I was expecting Greg to be around, but he got hurt.

"I knew we had an opportunity to be good. I didn't know we had a chance to be first-place good, but that's just kind of the way things have gone."

There is little reason to believe the Blazers will fade from the playoff picture any time soon.

They play hard every night, they go 10 deep in their playing rotation and they have a knack for winning close games - a unique attribute for young, unproven teams.

"I don't know where Portland's going to end up," Nuggets assistant Doug Moe said. "I don't know if they're going to end up being any good, but to this point, they have maximized their abilities. . . . I like to see teams like that succeed and do good."

A foundation for success certainly is in place for the Blazers to cause havoc in the West this season and beyond. Oden is waiting in the wings, and the team could have $12 million to $24 million in salary-cap space by the end of the 2008- 09 season.

"Whatever we do this year, of course, would be special, but our plan is for the future," McMillan said. "We feel in the next couple years we should not only be a team that is playing in the playoffs, but has a chance to win a championship."

At the very least, the Blazers have served notice to the rest of the NBA: They won't go down without a fight.

lopezaa@RockyMountainNews.com

Tip drill

Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan was asked to describe some of his key players with only one word. These are his split-second assessments:

G Steve Blake Defender

C LaMarcus Aldridge Potential

G/F Martell Webster Versatile

F Travis Outlaw Supersub

F Channing Frye Shooter

F James Jones Better Shooter

C Greg Oden Unknown

G Brandon Roy Poise

Sweet music

As the NBA's youngest team, the Portland Trail Blazers are the equivalent of a best-new-artist nominee at the Grammy Awards on Sunday. Here are some song titles by actual nominees that might apply to the upstart Blazers:

Artist Song Blazers application

Feist Past in Present Current squad restoring winning tradition of 1990s.

Ledisi Someday Open-ended time frame for debut of 2007 top pick Greg Oden.

Paramore Born for This Fourth-quarter theme for cool-headed standout Brandon Roy.

Taylor Swift Invisible Portland's status in the West playoff picture from 2003-07.

Amy Winehouse You Sent Me Flying Zach Randolph's reaction when traded from Portland to New York.

Potential for a photo finish

In an absurdly top-heavy Western Conference, the difference between first place and second place in the Northwest Division could mean the difference between a playoff berth and heartbreak. A look at the three Northwest contenders and their remaining schedules:

Vs. teams Team Record Home Road plus-.500 Comment

Utah 30-18 18 16 18 Regained front-runner status after surviving 3-11 stretch in December.

Nuggets 28-18 16 20 22 Injuries, road struggles have hindered chance at division crown.

Portland 27-19 17 19 19 Overachieving group remains dark horse with nothing to lose.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News