Thoughts on Portland 109, Chicago 95

Thanks to a quasi-legal feed from Justin TV, I watched the Portland Trail Blazers take on the Chicago Bulls in Chicago. Portland won 109-95 which is even more impressive given their crappy first quarter. Chicago has shooters, but no real identity as a lot of their main dudes like Hinrich and Deng have been hurt this year. They have the #1 pick, Derrick Rose, but he was pretty much a non-factor.

Portland was much more aggressive this game in getting to the rim as Chicago has a soft front line.

Nate MacMillan coached a good game and had the right players on the court to give Portland favorable matchups.

Thoughts on individual players:

• Greg Oden played great. He was aggressive on both ends of the floor and seemed more in-sync with the offense. He finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds in 25.5 minutes of game time. Of course, it didn't hurt that he was mostly guarded by Drew Gooden.
• Travis Outlaw had a great game as well and took over the scoring load in the third quarter. He finished with 33 points, 7 boards and 3 blocked shots. He still took a number of goofy shots, but he was aggressive going to the rim and played good defense. He's not really a favorite of Blazers fans in the know, but he has his moments.
• Steve Blake shot well with 16 points, 10 assists and 3 steals. His play is steady and he was able to get to the rim more on Rose than I expected.
• Brandon Roy shot poorly and looked to be tired. He hit some key shots in the fourth though.
• LaMarcus Aldridge had another maddening game where he couldn't really get on track. He took too many outside shots and didn't post up a soft front line as much as I think he should have. He grabbed six rebounds, but it didn't seem like he was boarding all that well.
• Nicolas Batum played his usual 15 minutes and did alright. He's mainly in there for defense and hustle and provided both. He was called for some ticky-tack fouls, but he is a rookie.
• Rudy Fernandez doesn't shoot as well as I think he can. He also doesn't go to the rim as much as I'd like or as much as he did in the Olympics. It's almost as if someone has told him to make his living behind the three point line. He seemed to have his hurt his foot when fouled hard dunking over Nocioni so we'll see if he's good to go in the next game.
• Jerryd Bayless got a little more than 9 minutes of playing time and did score 7 points and was aggressive. He got no love from the refs, but rookies rarely do.
• Joel Przybilla was hampered by foul trouble and his broken left wrist seems to be holding him back a little.
• Sergio Rodriguez played fairly poorly in limited minutes. He often drives to the hoop, but to no avail. He doesn't finish well nor does he find the right open guy. I think he would do better in a different offensive system since Portland doesn't run much. I'm not sure how much trade value he has now though.

All in all, it was a good road win for Portland and I was happy to see some aggressiveness in driving towards the hoop.