Nate McMillan usually looks upon poor defense with contempt, but on a Thursday night in southeast Portland, McMillan was more than happy to let a few mistakes slide during an inter-squad scrimmage and court unveiling at Cleveland High School.

“We wanted to have fun tonight,” said McMillan. “We didn’t want to be sloppy but we didn’t want to risk challenging each other and injuring one another. I thought they did a good job of trying to run some plays, keeping it loose and trying to get a little work in at the same time.”

Loose would be a good way to describe the scrimmage. The Black unit, lead by Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden, defeated the White unit 86-79 in front of an increadably accomidating and appreciative capacity crowd at Cleveland's “Warrior Dome.”

Despite playing just four eight-minute quarters (with a running clock), both teams managed to put up impressive offensive numbers thanks to an array of alley-oop dunks and high school range three-pointers. Both Aldridge and Jerryd Bayless finished with 14 points for the Black squad, with Travis Outlaw and Channing Frye each adding 13 points for the White unit.

“They shot the ball well,” said McMillan. “I thought they did a good job of trying to work on some plays and stay out of each others way where we didn’t tweak and ankle or something like that.”

All proceeds from the event went to the Portland Schools Foundation, which was presented a check courtesy of Wells Fargo and the Trail Blazers totaling $10,000.

Przybilla can’t catch a break, can catch elbows: The life of an NBA player, for the most part, is enviable. Fancy cars, expensive homes, private jets. The whole nine.

But try being Joel Przybilla.

In the last six months, Przybilla has broken his finger while going up for a rebound and contracted a nasty case of bronchitis (on this birthday, no less). And the topper came during Thursday’s scrimmage when Przybilla, while fighting for a rebound, took a Greg Oden elbow to the right eye, resulting in a nasty, blood-gushing gash that required stitches.

“Joel if fine,” said McMillan. “He’ll get about four or five stitches. Greg went up for a rebound and came down on (Przybilla’s) head.”

Blake, Frye return: Thursday’s scrimmage was also the first time the public had a chance to see Steve Blake and Channing Frye in action this season. Blake, who sustained a hamstring pull before the start of training camp, and Frye, who had bone spurs removed from his right ankle in early September, both returned to practice this week. Both looked good playing extended minutes. Blake finished with 11 points while running the point for the Black team and Frye ended with 13 for the White team.

“We got all of our guys back,” said McMillan. “This is the first time we’ve have everybody healthy this first week of practice. We’ll see those guys in their first game on Monday against Sacramento.”

Batum starts again: Rookie Nicolas Batum, a member of the third-string just a few weeks ago, again started with the first unit, contributing 15 points to lead the Black unit in scoring. Batum has been practicing with the first unit all week, and all signs would seem to indicate that the 19 year-old Frenchman will be the starting small forward come the season opener against the Lakers.