The Houston Rockets duo of point guard Kyle Lowry and power forward Luis Scola picked the Portland Trail Blazers apart, fueling an offense that rarely missed to a blowout victory at the Rose Garden.

Lowry, Scola have fun, toy with Portland

From the onset, the two Rockets dominated the Blazers. Lowry found teammates, drove past his defenders with ease for continuous layups, and nailed a few three-pointers. He had eight points, six assists, four rebounds, and two steals in Houston’s 30-point first quarter. While he was running circles around Portland, Scola waited for Lowry’s passes picked his spots, and did a considerable amount of damage in the post and on the perimeter by scoring 10 points on 5-5 shooting in the opening quarter.

They never let up, as there wasn’t much resistance from the Blazers. Lowry had 21 points and 11 assists, controlling the game throughout while silencing every Portland run by making plays for himself and others. Scola added 21 points as well, shooting a blistering 10-11 from the field. Both contributed to Houston’s impressive 52 points in the paint.
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I know what you are thinking.

What can John Salley possibly do for Greg Oden besides have him on the "Best Damn Sports Show Period"?

Hear the man out. Salley, who played 15-seasons in the NBA and won four rings between the Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, isn't your typical big man turned sports and reality TV show personality.

Since the start of the New Year, "Spider" Salley has dedicated himself to becoming a wellness expert -- specifically going from becoming a vegetarian to a vegan and spreading the message about how such a diet change will improve the longevity and "wellness" of your life. Salley now campaigns for vegan values like PETA and has been invited to speak to Congress in support of the Child Nutrition Act.

It's even more personal for Salley - when his father, Quillie Salley, fell ill to cancer in his fifties before passing away at 73, John was there to help his dad improve his nutrition and to battle the disease.

"I noticed a change in him when I helped with his diet. But my aunts and uncles have all died from cancer. I thought, this can't be right. Something has to change."

Salley feels that change can extend to the NBA and guys around the league like Dwayne Wade, and yes, even Greg Oden.

Update: Jarron Collins is officially a Blazer once again and took part in Portland's walk through porttion of practice according to the Oregonian's Joe Freeman.

Collins was inked to a 10-day contract, and he 6'11 vet is going to be more than just an insurance policy for Portland.

“In a situation like this, when you’re bringing in new guys, it helps that these guys have been in the league, they pretty much know sets and systems and how to play basketball,” coach Nate McMillan said. “So they pick up things pretty quickly. And the fact that he’s a big body, he’s healthy and ready to go — we like him.”

Now with Collins in camp, Portland continues to wait for T.J. Ford's buyout from the Indiana Pacers -- which now appears "unlikely" according to multiple reports.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports agent Bob Myers - who also represents Jarron Collins and Brandon Roy in partnership with Arn Tellem - won't be bought out from Indiana with the midnight deadline approcaching.
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Update: It appears the Blazers are planning on using one of their available roster spots to sign Jarron Collins to a 10-day contact. 

From John Conzano on Twitter: "Source: Jarron Collins is Portland bound #pdxtrailblazers"

From Joe Freeman on Twitter: "Jarron Collins is 'hoping to sign a 10-day contract in the near future' with the Trail Blazers, according to his agent, Bob Myers."

Collins is a 6'11'' and 249 lbs. center who has been in the league for ten years.  He started his career in Utah and stayed there for eight years before becoming a free agent.  In 2009, Collins played with the Blazers during preseason, but then was cut in favor of Patty Mills for the 15th spot on the roster.  He was picked up by the Phoenix Suns, however, and stayed with the team for 34 games, starting 10 of them.  Most recently, Collins was signed to the Los Angeles Clippers on January 7th, 2011 on a 10-day contract.  He then followed that up by signing a second 10-day contract with the Clippers on January 17th.

Collins holds career averages of 15.9 minutes per game, 2.9 rebounds per game, 0.2 blocks per game, and 3.9 points per game.  But while Collins' stats hardly stand out, remember that he's only going to be expected to play about 5-10 minutes on average and therefore hardly needs to be anything more than a big body who can take up space in the paint and use fouls if necessary.

They weren't the best of times, and they weren't the worst of times, but the Beavers won one game and lost one game in their final homestead of the season at Gill Coliseum this weekend, topping Stanford, 87-80, and falling to California, 87-76.

Throughout the season, many writers and fans have wondered -- and written -- "Which Beavers team will show up today?"  It's not a tale of two teams, though.  The Beavers have been the same all season, struggling to put together solid halves of basketball back to back, playing awful zone defense, and looking confused on offense when the team needs desperately to produce points.

Notes

Man-to-Man Defense, At Last: It's been clear since the first exhibition game, when the Beavers hosted Western Oregon University, that the team's 1-3-1 defense was going to allow opponents to get open looks from three and at the rim this season.  Come to find out, the OSU 2-3 half court zone looks like Swiss cheese to most teams, too.  

Jared Cunningham told us back in January that the team is able to play man-to-man defense, but coach Craig Robinson didn't want to go that route.  Why might Robinson be reluctant?  Cunningham didn't know.  We can only speculate, but perhaps he doesn't feel his young team has many good man-to-man defenders; this couldn't be said of the perimeter players, but it's possible that Robinson doesn't want to leave Angus Brandt and Joe Burton isolated on the block.  This is the most likely reason I can come up with.

Gerald Wallace, making his debut after being traded from the Charlotte Bobcats, and Andre Miller were extremely active throughout for the Portland Trail Blazers. Their teammates didn’t follow suit until it was too late, as the Blazers dug too deep a hole to ultimately spell defeat at the hands of the Atlanta Hawks.

Blazers play like a tired team

This being their third game in five nights, with the previous two going into overtime, Portland looked like a team in need of a break. They hung with the Hawks early, as neither team could really get going offensively, but quarter-ending runs by Atlanta severely hurt the Blazers.