Last night we got some free courtside tickets to the Trail Blazers - Rockets game. I must admit that I wanted to go because I thought it would be a good opportunity to witness first hand just how bad the team is, and although some players didn’t let me down, there is reason to be somewhat excited for what the future has in store for the team.

After watching the team scrape home for a 76-75 victory, I’m going to go on record and say that the team needs Sebastian Telfair starting. Watching the game last night, it was visible to me that the team flows better when he is on the floor - the kid can flat out make plays, and I think that if he wasn’t playing last night, the Blazers would have been beaten. Of course by keeping Telfair, it means that either Jarret Jack or Steve Blake will have to be traded. Bye bye Steve Blake.

There were two other things I liked last night: Victor Khryapa and Joel Pryzbilla. The team somehow needs to keep Pryzbilla here. They can’t afford to lose him, especially given Theo Ratliff’s history with injuries. Khryapa just flat-out hustles, and that is what this team needs - players that will give 100% effort no matter the score and no matter what is going on behind the scenes. Unfortunately, Martell Webster was kept out of the team last night. Mrs. BBQ and I were both looking forward to watching him play, especially after his recent run of excellent games.

Randolph takes another jumper

What I didn’t like last night was Darius Miles and Zach Randolph. Darius is done. It’s obvious from the effort he displayed last night that he wants out of Portland. He shot 1 of 7 in 24 minutes and that one shot he made was a dunk. Zach Randolph was awful. Does he even know how to give up the ball to his teammates? I counted at least 6 times that he held the ball for at least 5 seconds before putting up an unsuccessful long-range jump shot. Please Zach, give the ball up to your teammates so they can create something for you or someone else. Taking long-range jump shots with a defender in your face isn’t good basketball, as your 6 of 19 shooting illustrates. Learn to pass the ball and make your teammates better.

Darius is happy he gets a shot without defenders around him

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 6th, 2006 at 7:52 am and is filed under NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.