The Portland Trail Blazers sizzled out of the gate, but that has cooled to a soft fizzle as of late. After the 7-2 start that now seems as much a part of this season as the 1976-77 NBA title, Portland has gone 18-27.
The season was tossed out the window at the trade deadline like a rotten banana peel. Only there aren’t many teams in Portland’s rear-view mirror that run the risk of slipping on the peel.
What triggered the escalating losses?
Some point to the Feb. 6 overtime loss to Oklahoma City. In that game, LaMarcus Aldridge blocked a game-tying shot at the end of regulation only to have it called goaltending. The Thunder won in OT. The following day the league said it should not have been ruled goaltending.
A win that night would have left Portland 15-10—and 2-0 against Oklahoma City. The Blazers lost three of their next four.
As easy as it might be to make that the turning point, it wouldn’t be right.
Another popular answer around Portland has been the sometimes horrendous play of point guard Raymond Felton.
Felton portrayed his inabilities perfectly on April 2 against the Utah Jazz by turning the ball over not once, but twice in the final 1:30 of the game. Including those two turnovers, Felton has now turned the ball over 13 times in the final three minutes of games. Nine of those turnovers came in games with the Blazers within 10 points of the opposition.
However, his late game Feltdowns are too easy of a scapegoat. Five players in the league have more late-game turnovers than Felton: Deron Williams (19), John Wall (19), Kobe Bryant (15), Kyrie Irving (14) and Blake Griffin (14).
The difference is they’re their team’s go-to guy down the stretch. Felton just gets in the way.
That has made Felton an easy target for Portland fans’ scorn. However, during the team’s nine-game stretch to open the season, Felton’s production was worse than it has been in the last nine games—all of which have come after Nate McMillan’s firing. So as the team has gone south, Felton’s production has actually improved.
He is not the reason Portland finds itself four games out of the playoffs.
To understand the Blazers’ so-called collapse, one must return to the preseason. One must recall Portland entering the 2011-12 season without a general manager. One needs to step back to when Brandon Roy suddenly retired and Greg Oden again revealed his knees are as healthy as Keith Richards.
Anyone assessing this team had to realistically expect a first-round playoff exit and nothing more.
With an aging starting center, a point guard who had yet to mesh with his teammates and a question mark surrounding the rotation of two quality players at small forward, this team was never designed to be playing in June of 2012.
Yet somehow the rain clouds in Portland aligned for a swift start to the season. Along the way came back-to-back wins over Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Lakers. Then a win over the Lob City Clippers.
Analysts like Charles Barkley were gushing about the Blazers on a national level.
It created a mirage. In it, Blazer fans saw their team competing deep into the playoffs, maybe even knocking off the Thunder in the West.
They thought 7-2 was the rule, not the exception.
That rule then crashed hard on the Willamette Valley floor. Then it sunk to the depths of Crater Lake.
Like Harvey Dent told us in The Dark Knight, “The night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise you, the dawn is coming.”
The dark part hasn’t been pitch black for Portland—the team is 25-29, not good but not dreadful. At times the team is still entertaining, as Luke the Wascally Babbitt is knocking down deep threes, J.J. Hickson is trapped in beast mode and Wesley Matthews has reactivated the three goggles.
The Blazers’ dawn could be here quick. The season has only 12 games left and then the Blazers should find themselves in the lottery. Then this season that wasn’t meant to be will drift away into the painful memories that have followed so many seasons in Portland since 1977.
Alex Hinshaw Ramon Ramirez Sergio Romo Brian Wilson Eli Whiteside Mike Fontenot
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