Game 27: Portland Trail Blazers 105, Phoenix Suns 102

BOX SCORE

Jerryd Bayless believers, this one is for you.

Bayless made the most of his opportunities tonight with a career game: 29 points, 4 assists, and 3 rebounds in 29 minutes. He provided much needed scoring and aggressiveness throughout the game and stepped up even more when the score was tight down the stretch.

He scored going to the rim, he scored at the free-throw line, he scored off pull-up midrange jumpers, he scored off spot-up threes. Bayless even seemed charming during his post game interview with Cheryl Miller. I say "seemed" only because my fiancee could not help but exclaim about the size of his forehead during the entire interview to the point where I didn't hear a single thing he said.

Martell Webster was the quiet hero tonight. He finished some tough lay-ups that energized both the crowd and the team when Portland was struggling to get back into the game. Late in the contest he blocked an Amare shot attempt from behind, tipped in a missed free throw, and fittingly nabbed the offensive rebound that sealed the victory.

LaMarcus struggled with his shooting tonight needing 15 shots to get 15 points. It was disappointing given the weak post defense he faced, but Aldridge has struggled against the Suns over his career averaging around 14 and 6 in those contests.

Roy did his typical slow gathering of inertia as the game moved along, peaking with some late game heroics and an impressively stuffed stat sheet. Przybilla had a very Przybilla-like 10 boards, 2 blocks, and 3 points.

Tonight Portland lived by the three. No, the didn't just live, they thrived. They self-actualized. They made 10 of their twenty attempts from deep. Blake was hitting. Roy was hitting. Martell was hitting. Bayless was hitting.

No other players took an attempt, but if they did I'm sure they would have been hitting also. Shooting like that will compensate for a lot of weaknesses. Unfortunately the Blazers can't rely on nailing half of their three point attempts every night.

Portland's defense was the usual; Phoenix shot 48% despite missing a fair amount of open looks. Grant Hill, who is 37 years old and has ankles that only Zydrunas Ilgauskas can relate to, scored thirteen points in the first quarter. Most of those came from simply beating the Blazers down the court in transition for easy lay-ups (did I mention that he's 37 and has ankles that only Zydrunas Ilgauskas can relate to?).

Oh well. Bad defense is a quality of this team, this we all know. But enough of all that. Tonight was a fun win for a group that has had little success against quality opponents this season. Enjoy it.