Update: The second half against California was one to forget for the Oregon Ducks. So was their game against Stanford. Nothing went right for Oregon, outplayed in every category to fall by a demoralizing 18 points on Senior Day.
Their defense was lacking, as Stanford shot 59 percent from the field and scored 88 points, the highest total allowed since the first game of the season. Jeremy Green, who entered in a groove for the Cardinal, wasn't their biggest threat, as forward Josh Owens dominated the Ducks undersized frontline to score 31 points on an incredibly efficient 12-15 shooting. He grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked four shots, affecting the game in many aspects to overwhelm Oregon.
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Portland Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy returned to form against the Denver Nuggets, bringing back memories of old in delivering late to help his team sneak by for a 107-106 victory.
Portland dominates first half behind balanced scoring, rebounding advantage
The Blazers, sporting a starting lineup of Andre Miller, Wesley Matthews, Rudy Fernandez, Nicolas Batum, and LaMarcus Aldridge, shrugged off a slow start to control the tempo in the first half, getting solid production from these five as well as contributions from a slimmed bench.
Portland shot 45 percent in the opening two quarters to take a ten-point lead at halftime, while holding Denver, the highest scoring team in the NBA, to 31 percent shooting. A key to their success was a surprising rebounding edge, which was ten at intermission despite having only one true frontcourt player in Aldridge.
They were extremely active in the first half, with their assortment of guards crashing the glass. Andre Miller was one of them, snatching eight rebounds.
Ben Johnson is a former three-time All-PAC-10 shortstop at Oregon State University and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1990 MLB Draft. A four-time conference Coach of the Year in the Midwestern and Mt Hood Conferences while leading Sheldon High School and Hood River High School to conference championships, Johnson also coached at Willamette University and served as an Associate Scout with the Kansas City Royals. A featured baseball writer with Beyond the Beat, Johnson is also the creator of College Baseball Stars.com.
The Oregon Ducks are undoubtedly going to experience some turbulence before the youth and inexperience factor settles into a confident playing rhythm. Eight freshmen made their collegiate debuts for Oregon last weekend with three (OF Connor Hofmann, 1B Tyler Kuresa and OF Aaron Jones) starting all four games of the series.
The bats have continued to be somewhat of a sore spot and liability given that there are not going to be a lot of 4 or five run innings with this offense, which places a tremendous burden on the starting pitching in general and the bullpen in particular.
The general rule at the upper levels in baseball is that the majority of the time, the winning team has scored more in one inning than the losing team has scored the entire ball game, but with the Ducks inability to string big innings together, they have to grind through some tough situations and winning consistency is threatened.
Thus, we witnessed Oregon's 2-2 start to the beginning of the 2011 campaign. Oregon had the lead early and into the middle innings in the first two games of the series, but lost both when the starting pitching exited the ball game.
When Gerald Wallace arrived in Charlotte back in 2004, he went from a rarely used forward with the Sacramento Kings to a versatile cornerstone of a Bobcats franchise building from the ground up. Not a bad way to start: An All-Star with the energy to block shots and fill it up on the other end. It never hurts adding a first team all-defensive NBA member in 2010 to a team already booming with a strong defensive mindset.
But where does Wallace fit in with the Blazers? And does the acquisition leave Portland too shorthanded on the frontline in the deep West? Eric King, Travis Margoni and Nick Poust of Beyond the Beat examine the Wallace trade and the man known simply as "Crash".
Eric King
The Portland Trail Blazers made out like bandits in yesterday’s trade by acquiring Gerald Wallace from the Charlotte Bobcats. While it always hurts to see Blazers players traded away, this was a deal the organization absolutely could not have walked away from.
Leading up to the trade deadline, the Blazers were faced with a couple difficult decisions in regards to the future of the team. Should they keep the crafty veterans and make a playoff push, or should they trade for youth and begin rebuilding? Trading Joel Przybilla opened up a third option and provided the one alternative that improved the team in both the short term and the long term.
Update: Sean Marks wasn't a member of the Charlotte Bobcats very long, but Joel Pryzbilla might be.
Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer is reporting the Bobcats plan to release Marks, while Pryzbilla will report. There has been no word yet if the Bobcats will buy him out. Bonnell has the rest here: "MoPete,Marks Already History"
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Aaron Brooks said he didn't want out of Houston. That did little to sway the Rockets from trading the former Oregon standout point guard to the Phoenix Suns for Goran Dragic. Brooks recently had a falling out with Rick Adelman and earned himself a one-game suspension, leaving Brooks' name to make the rounds during the NBA trade deadline.
The Suns snatched him up, as detailed by The Arizona Republic.
"We are excited to add Aaron Brooks to our team," said Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby. "We are confident that he will upgrade our backcourt now and in the future. He should add scoring to our second unit, which is important to our success."
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