A Reversal of Fortunes

Basketball has always been a circular sport, from the balls and the rims to the storylines and emotions. The Blazers started a down slide early in the year when they lost a commanding 25 point lead to the 76er's and ended up losing 88-92. This time the Blazers came full circle on the 76er's and had there own come from behind victory. The ironic thing about that is the final margin for today’s game was...you guessed it 25 points.

During the pre-game the Blazers continued to honor influential people and highlights of Blazer past. Today they honored Harry Glickman who was one of the co-founders of the Blazers. It was also against this same Philadelphia franchise that Portland, which Glickman was the architect for, won its only championship. Glickman made a very heartfelt speech about the Blazers that was highlighted by him talking about the character of the Blazer players and how now the team is one everyone can cheer for.

The game started out well for the Blazers as they had a five point lead at the end of the first period. The Blazers were playing together as they had 7 assists on 8 made baskets. They were playing good defense and were being aggressive. Then the second quarter started. As the second unit began to come into the game the flow was beginning to be controlled by Andre Miller and the 76er's. Miller was 5/6 for 11 points in the second period. Meanwhile the Portland bench minus Frye shot 1/8. The 76er's entered halftime up by nine.

When the second quarter started you could tell that McMillan let the Blazers know that the 76er's were imposing their will on the Blazers as Brandon, as he has done in the past, came out with more fire. Roy had nine points in the quarter and was getting to the free throw line. Portland aided by some timely three point shooting from Blake made a run at the end of the third quarter and it ended with Portland trailing by only 1.

The forth quarter was like watching the forth quarter of the last meeting between these two teams only this time the roles were reversed. Portland opened the forth by going on a 20-0 run which got the crowd at the Garden rocking and blew the game wide open. Outlaw put an exclamation point on the game when he threw down a thunderous dunk with Rodney Carney in his face. So the Blazers got their 13th win in a game filled with irony, but as you enjoy this run think back to the team that Harry built and think about coming back around. It feels like that circle is almost complete.