The Trailblazers' Season Comes to an End

Well, unfortunately last night in game six of the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, the Portland Trailblazers finally succumbed to the final defeat of the season. The Phoenix Suns managed to beat the Blazers four games to two in the series and thus will move on to face the San Antonio Spurs in the second round of the playoffs.

Portland, despite being loaded with young impressive talent, has just been plagued with ridiculous amounts of injuries to nearly all of their key players this season. We still did not have our two centers of Oden or Przybilla back over the past few months of the season. And to add insult to injury, (literally) our all-star Brandon Roy ended up with a meniscus tear in one of the final few games of the regular season, where we beat the hated Lakers on their own home floor.

While Roy returned to play after surgery in the last two playoff games against the heavily favored Suns, one cannot help but wonder if he had been healthy for the first four games if that might have been enough to propel the Blazers past the Suns into the second round instead.

Well, after drying my tears, I have to say that I am very proud of our Trailblazers and the herculean effort the guys put forth in spite of this horribly injury-plagued season. They still managed a 50 win season and a sixth seed berth in the playoffs. My only hope is that they can get rested and repaired so that they can be contenders next year.

With Nate McMillan's coaching and the talent and chemistry on the team, anything is possible. In the meantime, I guess I am now a Utah Jazz fan for the remainder of the playoffs. Barring their demise, anyone but the evil Lakers will do just fine!

Trailblazers; Struggling to Remain Excellent

My poor Portland Trailblazers have had a very rough season thus far. There is so much talent and genuinely good chemistry on the team. They are athletic, unselfish, and boy can they play some basketball! They continue to fight with the Denver McNuggets for the lead in the Northwest Division of the NBA, and all of this despite the fact that they have been plagued with injuries and illnesses.

Now I don't mean that just one or two key guys have gone down for a bit. My Trailblazers have lost up to seven guys at any one time during this season thus far, and that doesn't include a short stint where even Coach McMillan was out sick. Too make matters worse, it would look like our two centers, Przybilla and Oden are out for the entire season with their injuries.

It is enough to make a grown man cry, even though the last time I did that was when the evil Bulls cheated and beat the mighty Trailblazers in the NBA Finals back in the 90's.

As of right now the Blazers are still without Batum, Przybilla, Oden, Fernandez, Blake, Outlaw, and Aldridge. Despite this they still have a respectable record and have managed to beat some very good teams along the way, their current two losses to scrub teams notwithstanding.

Anyway, several of these guys are on the mend and set to return soon. Once they do, the Western Conference had better watch out because I suspect things will be back on track in Rip City!

Off to a Great Start in Rip City!

I realize that the season has only just begun, but I cannot help but be happy and hopeful with the results of my mighty Portland Trailblazers thus far. With 1/8th of the 2009/2010 season finished now, the future NBA world champions are 1st in their division, 2nd in the Western Conference, and tied for 3rd in the entire NBA!

Seeing this almost takes the sting out of my Seahawks very sad NFL season thus far. Anyway, this is just a small part of the reason why I say that deep inside EVERYBODY is a Trailblazer fan whether they know it or not! (Even my otherwise-perfect wife who refuses to admit her love for OUR Trailblazers!)