The Last Home Game?

Written by wendell maxey | 21 April 2009

No one wants to think it. No one wants to say it. But Tuesday night very well could be the last game of the season at the Rose Garden, if Game 2 is anything like Game 1 between Portland and Houston.

Going down 0-2 before heading on the road would be nothing short of deadly for the Blazers playoff run.

It’s not about a lack of faith. It’s about remaining impartial in this job. Besides, I didn’t see anything Saturday night that led me to believe Portland is prepared for the physical and mental battle that is the NBA Playoffs. Did you?

No fire. No spark. No way. That’s why it wasn’t hard to pick Houston to take Game 2 in a preview piece I did for HOOPSWORLD which started running late yesterday.

Monty Williams, Blazer assistant coach, put it best when he told me prior to Game 1, “the playoffs expose everything.”

The man speaks the truth.

To think this could be it – the last game at home - that’s hard to swallow after everything this team has accomplished, and the relationships I’ve been blessed to build this season with players, coaches, other writers and fans alike.

Where did seven months go?

If Tuesday really is the last stand at the Rose Garden, I can’t help but flashback to the second game of the regular season. Walk with me.

It was the first Thursday in November. The game was on TNT. The Houston Rockets were in the house. Down to the wire. Overtime. You remember where you were. I do – standing about 10 feet down from the Rockets bench in the tunnel leading back into the belly of the Rose Garden.

The Rockets led 99-98. There was 0.08 left on the clock. Brandon Roy took the in-bounds pass from Steve Blake. Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest missed the switch, and Roy – in all his smoothness - hit the game-winning three-pointer from 31 feet out.

“That’s why when you have a shooter and scorer like Brandon Roy, you are never out of it,” said Reggie Miller calling the game on TNT.

When you think of the 2008-09 season you will remember “The Shot”.

Could Tuesday be Portland’s last shot?

pic via: daylife