The patience of Trail Blazers fans has been tried a lot lately. They’ve been waiting for an impact free agent. Waiting for a dominant Greg Oden. Waiting for a healthy Martell Webster. On Tuesday night, that patience was rewarded with a 98-86 preseason victory against the Sacramento Kings at the Rose Garden. It wasn’t always pretty and it was an only exhibition, but for the first time in recent memory, Trail Blazers fans got to see nearly everything they had been waiting for.
In Andre Miller, fans finally saw how the presence of a ten-year veteran can change the complexion of a young team. Coming off the bench, Miller, the first “big name” free agent signing of General Manager Kevin Pritchard’s tenure, displayed an array of crafty moves on both ends of the floor. From finding LaMarcus Aldridge beating his man down the court for an uncontested layup to hitting turnaround jumpers from the baseline post, Miller controlled tempo while showing flashes of the old school point guard play that he’s built his career on.
“I never had a problem playing in any situation as far as up-tempo or half-court offense,” said Miller, who finished with 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting to go along with five assists. “I think I can adjust to either game and it’s good when you have some guys in the post that can get the ball and score the ball, it makes my job a little easier.”
While fans got their first official look at Miller, some might have been asking themselves if Tuesday’s game was the first time they had seen the real Greg Oden.
“He got deep post position, scored – did some good things,” said Nate McMillan. “He looked pretty good out there. We were able to get him the ball and allow him to make some decisions. I thought he had a pretty good game.
Oden, who put up 18 points and nine rebounds, displayed the quickness and raw athleticism the Portland front office knew he possessed when they drafted him with the first overall pick in 2007. But Oden showcased more than just physical gifts against the Kings, as the spin moves, face-up jumpers and baby hooks he’s worked on over and over again during the offseason were on display against the likes of Spencer Hawes, Jason Thompson and Jon Brockman.
“It’s good (to play well in the first game),” said Oden. “It helps with my confidence this year to have a really good first game, and we’ll try to keep it going.”
Martell Webster, playing extended minutes for the first time since last year’s preseason, was admittedly nervous.
“It’s all a mental game,” said Webster, “especially after coming off an injury. Trying to get (the injury) out of your mind is something you have to work on.”
A foot injury that kept Webster on the sidelines for all but five minutes of the 2008-09 season was in the back of his mind as he entered the game at the 5:25 mark in the first quarter to a extended ovation from the Rose Garden crowd, but after a few times up and down the court, Webster seemed to find a rhythm that was more important than the six points and two rebounds he ended the night with.
From Miller’s abilities to Oden’s improvement to Webster’s jumper, fans might have seen the things they wanted to see on Tuesday night, but Coach McMillan will be looking for more when the Trail Blazers return to the court Wednesday night for another game against the Kings, this time in Sacramento.
““That was a great film for us to teach from,” said McMillan. “We needed that game to look at ourselves and to see where we are at. We have a lot of work ahead of us. One good thing was that we got to the free throw line 46 times, but other than that we’ve got some work. They beat us to the ball, offensive rebounding, we didn’t react as quickly as we needed to. We forced them to miss, but 16 offensive boards – and that’s been an emphasis during this training camp.”
NATE MCMILLAN
On Andre Miller
“You just saw him direct. I thought he did a good job of quarterbacking and directing and basically ran our counter sets…He just played basketball and made some reads. He went into the post a couple times when he felt like he had a matchup there. He delivered the ball and had a couple steals. He’s the one guy that is communicating, talking on the defensive end of the floor. We’ve got to get everybody else doing that.
On Greg Oden
“He got deep post position, scored – did some good things. He looked pretty good out there. We were able to get him the ball and allow him to make some decisions. I thought he had a pretty good game.
BRANDON ROY
“We didn’t play as well as we liked. But it’s something to build on, we’ll have another opportunity tomorrow and we’ll try to play much better, especially rebounding the basketball. But we held them to low percentage shots on defense, but they got a lot of second-chance shots.”
On Andre Miller
“I thought he did a good job. He can initiate the offense, he can post up. We haven’t had a guard that can post up and command a double team, so I thought he did a great job of getting us in rhythm and just going out there and playing and trying to find his own rhythm.”
ANDRE MILLER
“I was just trying to save my energy actually, just one breath at a time trying to get in shape, it’s a long season, the defense will get better as we go and we’ll just try to keep building in practice.”
• After defeating Sacramento twice last preseason, Portland has now won three straight preseason contests between the teams … Portland holds a 17-11 edge all-time in preseason games against Sacramento … The Trail Blazers and Kings continue their home-and-home to open the preseason in Sacramento tomorrow.
• With tonight’s win, Portland inflated its record to 163-127 all-time in the preseason ... The Trail Blazers have run the table in the preseason twice over the years, going 2-0 in 1998, and 8-0 in 1999.
• The Trail Blazers are now 29-13 in the preseason at the Rose Garden ... When opening the preseason at the Rose Garden, Portland is 9-1 … This is the eighth consecutive season the Trail Blazers have opened the exhibition season at the Rose Garden, going 7-1.
• Portland ran its record to 28-12 all-time in preseason openers, including a 3-1 mark in games against Sacramento.
• The Trail Blazers are looking to post a winning record in the preseason for the third consecutive year, a feat last accomplished from 1997-99 ... To do so, Portland would need to win at least five games for the first preseason since 1999 (8-0) ... Portland went 4-3 in each of the last two exhibition seasons.
• LaMarcus Aldridge led all scorers in the game with 20 points (8-11 FG), all in the first three quarters ... He was the only player in double figures at the half (11) and led all scorers with nine points (4-5 FG) in the first quarter.
• The Trail Blazers earned a 15-2 edge in fastbreak points in the game … Portland outscored Sacramento on the fastbreak, 8-0, in the first half.
• The Kings outrebounded the Trail Blazers by 10 on the offensive glass (16-6) … Portland was the NBA’s best offensive rebounding team in the 2008-09 regular season.
• Neither team led by more than six points until Brandon Roy’s lay-up gave Portland a seven-point advantage, 65-58, at the 1:51 mark of the third quarter.
• In his first game in a Trail Blazers uniform, Andre Miller led all players in assists, tallying five in 26 minutes off the bench.
• Greg Oden led all players in rebounds (nine), as well as free throws made and attempted (10-12).
• Kings guard Sergio Rodriguez played for a team other than the Trail Blazers for the first time in his career, scoring seven points in 15 minutes.
• In tonight’s game, Sacramento forward Omri Casspi logged the first minutes by an Israeli-born player in NBA history, totaling nine points (4-4 FG) and two rebounds in nine minutes, all in the fourth quarter.
