Brandon Roy's 52 Leads Blazers in Victory Over Suns

There is a simple process of determining what shots the Blazers should take. For example, this is a great shot attempt.



Any time he has an opportunity, Greg Oden should feel free to attempt that. It has a pretty good chance of going in.

Note a few things: his defender, Shaquille O'Neal, is outside the restricted circle having as much impact on the shot as the Ice Cream Vendor in the Alamo Dome. Which, for those keeping score at home, is in San Antonio, Texas, not Portland Oregon.

Second, the help defender A'mare Stoudemire is also spectating. Two other Phoenix defenders can easily see the power of Oden as they are just a few steps away.

In other words, this is a great shot attempt for Oden, LaMarcus Aldridge, or any other Blazer to attempt; an uncontested dunk.

Here is their second best shot;



As you can tell, Brandon Roy is off balance, going up on the reverse side of the rim, throwing up an awkward, just been fouled shot that still finds a way to tickle the twine.

In truth, though, it doesn't really matter if he made the shot or not. The important thing, as any Blazer fan can tell you, is that any shot taken by Roy is, by definition, a better shot than any shot that is not an uncontested dunk that is attempted by any other Blazer.

Roy has been on fire for the last few games. First he went back to back to back games with more than 30 points, including a career high 38 point outburst. In the fourth game he was merely great, scoring "only" 29 points. Of course, had he not sat out the entire fourth quarter, he probably could have crested the 30 point mark fairly easily.

So on a night when the Phoenix Suns came to town, Roy got ready to kick it up a few degrees.

One of those big scoring games saw the normally reliable, 90 percent free throw shooter Steve Blake almost single-handedly give the game away as he missed four out of five free throw attempts inside the last minute, allowing the Clippers to tie a game Portland had completely in hand and then surprise the Blazers in double overtime.

On this night, it was Roy's chance to ice the game. Leading by three with just under 10 seconds left, he stepped to the line for a pair of free throws. He had every excuse to miss; he had played the entire second half, was all over the court defensively, was bringing the ball up the floor, and so forth. He was doing everything.

After the two recent shocking home losses, Portland fans were nervous. If Roy missed the first, everyone would have gotten that "here we go again" feeling, knowing Phoenix would somehow find a way to tie the game and then win in overtime.

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