LaMarcus Aldridge: The Portland Trail Blazers Star Needs Help

After opening up the season 7-2 and atop the Western Conference, the Portland Trail Blazers have gone 7-9, including eight losses on the road and seven losses by four or less points.

Nearly a shoe-in for an All-Star appearance, PF LaMarcus Aldridge has been nothing short of spectacular, stringing together six straight 20-plus point performances, the last three of which have been 28-, 29- and 39-point explosions.

At 23.1 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, L.A. has given his all, night-in and night-out, for the Portland Trail Blazers, and the fans have taken note via their monstrous eruptions when he knocks down a jumper.

But it seems as though his teammates are not on the same page.

Gerald Wallace has been incredibly inconsistent, recording his lowest numbers since his breakout season in 2005. Wesley Matthews has only had two 20-plus point games thus far and is shooting an abysmal 41 percent from the field, and it's taking Jamal Crawford 12.5 shot attempts to average 13.5 points per game.

And let's not forget Raymond Felton who's only shooting 20.2 percent from downtown, 37.3 percent from the field and has a tendency to push the tempo faster than he can handle

The only other Blazers aside from L.A. worth noting are Marcus Camby, who in his 15th season still manages to snag nearly 10 rebounds and block two shots per game, Nicolas Batum and Kurt Thomas.

Aldridge cannot do it on his own.

Even last year when the injury-ridden Blazers somehow made it to the playoffs, Matthews and Wallace were playing at a nearly elite level.

L.A. was just the go-to.

Now, a team stacked with talent just can't put all of the pieces together.

Someone's got to step up.

We've seen it over the past two games for the New York Knicks. Jeremy Lin had back-to-back 25-plus point games to help his team get over their slump.

Who's it gonna be for the Trail Blazers?

Maybe a trade is necessary for Portland to get it together?

Or maybe someone deep down on the bench will provide the spark that the rest of the team isn't?

Or maybe, just maybe, the players will get it together themselves.

Let's put it into perspective.

Rip City took their second home loss of the season to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Monday night. It was a great game that raged into overtime, but the Blazers missed eight of nine shot attempts when it mattered most.

Kevin Durant didn't, and neither did Russell Westbrook.

Like OKC, Aldridge can be Batman, but he needs a Robin.

The Trail Blazers (14-11) are now on the outside looking in. With Saturday's loss, they dropped to ninth in the West, giving up their spot to the Houston Rockets, a team that they are clearly more talented than.

While there are four teams tied in the West at 14-11, it's disappointing that of those four, Portland is the weakest link.

Something's got to give.

Make a trade, light a fire under your team's behinds or bench somebody, but this kind of play from a so-called elite team is purely unacceptable.

LaMarcus Aldridge has been brilliant, but the man needs help.

Kristian Winfield is a Featured Columnist for the Portland Trail Blazers on the Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @BriscoXCI.