 Phoenix Suns | |  Portland Trailblazers |
| 1-1 | 1-1 | |
| 7:00 PM Pacific / 10:00 PM Eastern | ||
| TV: My45 HD / NBA TV | ||
| Probable starters: | ||
| Steve Nash | PG | Steve Blake |
| Raja Bell | SG | Brandon Roy |
| Matt Barnes | SF | TrOut |
| Amare Stoudemire | PF | LMA |
| Shaq | C | NOT Greg Oden |
Tonight the Suns play my second favorite team in the league. There's something about Portland the city, the fans and this team that are very appealing to me. And now we have the Porter, Frye and Diogu connections to our "sister" city.
The big news this season out of Rip City was the return of the God of Crutches. I was really looking forward to the much hyped and delayed debut of GOden but alas that will have to wait awhile. If we are lucky. I am starting to wonder if we are ever going to see this guy really deliver or if he will end up like Michael Olowokandi. Didn't we see this movie once before?
With or without Oden, the Blazers are a young dynamic team with a long list of potential stars. They are the anti-Cavs.
On any given night Aldridge, Roy, Outlaw, Webster along with Batum, Diogu, Bayless or Rudy can go off. But while there is a lot of balance in the potential there is very little (really no) experience winning at the NBA level.
That's why the Potential Blazers are going to be very inconsistent. There are nights they are going to tear it up and others when they will look like a U-25 team.
The Suns are coming off a great opening night win in San Antonio and a disappointing but not heartbreaking loss to the Hornets. With a day's rest against the Blazers who played the Spurs to a 100-99 victory last night the Suns have the clear advantage.
This game all comes down to Bell on Roy. You might recall this match up last season where Raja schooled the young fella on how the game is played. This was one of Raja's great defensive performances and if he can come out with this kind of effort the game won't be close.
Bell on Roy was great. He was playing him tight and then when Roy got by him he rode his ass like a tail-gaiting Texan. He gave him no room to manuever and feed him right into the lane for some good help D by the big fellas. That was a well concived and executed game plan against one of the games top guards.
The other key match up is Amar'e and LaMarcus. LMA has had some good performances against the Suns but all Amare needs to do is make this match up a wash and rest of the Suns should take care of the difference unless the young Potential Blazers get hot and then all bets are off.
I am going to this game tonight as is JSun who will have the recap later this evening. Knowing me and my big mouth (fingers?), I am sure I will have a few thoughts as well.
Be sure to check out the best NBA blog on the planet run by some very smart and decent guys - Blazers Edge and be ready to welcome a lot of wandering Blazer's fans to BSoS. They will certainly drop by and leave some comments but should be much more civil guests then we sometimes see from other teams (Spurs..cough...Lakers).