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11.19.08 TRAIL BLAZERS VS. BULLS
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BY ROBERT KREMERS
PORTLAND, ORE. – The Portland Trail Blazers (7-5) used a balanced offensive attack to knock off the Chicago Bulls (5-7) 116-74 in front of 20,599 at the Rose Garden. The 42-point margin of victory was the third-largest ever recorded at the Rose Garden. Brandon Roy led the way with 20 points, five rebounds and two assists, but a collective effort on offense resulted in six Trail Blazers scoring in double figures. Ten players scored at least seven points and, for the first time this season, every player on the active roster logged at least one point.
"Overall I thought we just came out and were all about business," said Nate McMillan. "From start to finish, this was our best game of the season. We got aggressive from the start, got our rhythm and hit our shots."
Greg Oden played in his first home game of the season and received a standing ovation coming off the bench in the first quarter. Seconds after the crowd sat down, they were brought back to their feet as Oden gathered position in the post and immediately dunked the ball. Oden finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.
Portland got Chicago into early foul trouble by pushing the tempo and hammering the ball into the post. The game was won in the paint, as Portland had 52 points in the key to Chicago’s 34. The Trail Blazers also won the battle of the boards, outrebounding the Bulls 49-33.
The Trail Blazers jumped out to an 8-1 lead off a quick three-pointer by Nicolas Batum, followed with a dunk by Joel Przybilla and capped off with a three-pointer by Steve Blake. Chicago coach Vinny Del Negro called a timeout, but the Trail Blazers never looked back and pushed the lead as high as 47 points in the fourth quarter.
Sergio Rodriguez finished with seven points and nine assists, including a connection with Rudy Fernandez on a fast-break ally-oop that brought the fans at the Rose Garden to their feet once again.
The Trail Blazers travel to Sacramento for a game against the Kings Friday night at 7:00 p.m. on Comcast SportsNet Channel 37. Brian Wheeler and Antonio Harvey will have the radio call on 95.5 The Game and on all of the stations of the Trail Blazers Radio Network.
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NATE MCMILLAN
“From start to finish we were all about business I thought. I really like the way we responded to last night’s loss. We talked about trying to play a full 48 minutes. I thought we did that, with everybody contributing. The pick-and-roll really worked; in fact everything was working. I think it started with our defense and shadowing Derrick Rose. That seemed to disrupt their offense. With the kind schedule we’ve had and the close games we’ve had we like to have a game like that, especially now that we have to go out on the road again.
“I think Joel (Przybilla) is setting a great example for what we want from a ‘big’ at the defensive end. Its good for Greg (Oden) to see that from Joel to get a good idea of what we want from him. Overall we do want to do a better job of getting our bigs deeper in the paint. When we do that, like we did some tonight, you still have to find ways to get the ball down there.
“Overall I thought we just came out and were all about business. From start to finish, this was our best game of the season. We got aggressive from the start, got our rhythm and hit our shots.”
CHANNING FRYE
“Its going to be a big game (at Sacramento on Friday). This is big (the win). I want to thank everyone who came out. We’re becoming dominant at home. We’ve got to continue to establish our game, like running the ball and playing unselfish. Tonight everyone was scoring. Chicago tried to play good ‘d’. We took them out of their stuff early and kept putting pressure on them.”
VINNY DEL NEGRO
“They jumped on us early. They put a little pressure on us and got us out of it a little bit. Their big guys just controlled the paint on us. We got in foul trouble early. From the tip, they controlled the tempo of the game. We had too many turnovers and we got back on our heels. The list can go on and on. It was just one of those games where we could never get anything going and give Portland a lot of credit."
“Their size with Oden and Pryzbilla and their length… they share the ball and get out in the open court… Aldridge… the list goes on. They’ve got a lot of young guys over there and a lot of long bodies. They gave us a lot of trouble. They did a better job with their pressure. We just never got into anything and from the jump, they were on us."
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You could argue that the Trail Blazers ended this one after they went up 8-1 with 10:05 minutes to play in the first quarter, but the Bulls could have come together out of the timeout and made a game of it.
Maybe it was over in the second quarter, when the Bulls collected their fifth team foul with 9:54 to play in the half, putting the Trail Blazers in the bonus for almost the entire period. But teams have rallied back from worse.
But the final nail in the coffin occurred at the end of the third quarter when Sergio Rodriguez threw up a high-arching runner as time expired to put the Trail Blazers up 88-57 with just a quarter to play. The game was probably "over" long before that, but Rodriguez's buzzer-beater symbolized the Trail Blazers we-can-do-no-wrong night at the Rose Garden
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• The Trail Blazers last won by 40 points on March 7, 1999 against the Houston Rockets at the Rose Garden
• The center tandem of Joel Przybilla and Greg Oden combined for 25 points, 19 rebounds and 6 blocks
• The Bulls didn't score their first field goal until 8:14 in the first quarter
• The Trail Blazers scored 62 points in the first half, the most points scored by Portland in a half this season
• The Trail Blazers remain unbeaten at home. The Bulls have yet to win on the road
• The loss for the Bulls was their worst since losing by 51 to the Pacers in 2003
• The Trail Blazers held Derrick Rose to single-digits in scoring for the first time this season
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