PHOENIX — It’s tough for us to knock the city of Portland because, well, it’s a lot like Denver.
Both have postcard scenery and enough microbreweries to float the Titanic (moreover, we claim the unsinkable Molly Brown and they claim the Bionic Woman, Lindsay Wagner).
Both towns have hipsters and hippies and hip young bands that are too cool for this reporter — notably, The Fray and Flobots and their Shins and Decemberists.
They’re the City of Roses. We’ve got the Grizzly Rose. They have a minor-league baseball team. We have a . . . just kidding.
But doggonit Denver, it just might be time to put the kibosh on this camaraderie. Just look who’s breathing down your Nuggets’ necks.
Yes, for all the hoopla about our hoops team — third in the Western Conference and first in the Northwest Division — guess who’s fourth and second?
Indeed, the Trail Blazers are relevant again, and at the all-star break Portland is 32-20, 3 1/2 games behind the 36-17 Nuggets.
Here in Phoenix, where the constellations of all-stars shine in the desert night, Portland’s star-stirrer Brandon Roy will be teamed tonight with Denver’s Chauncey Billups, the two players responsible for their team’s ascension.
“Chauncey has stepped up Denver’s play,” said Roy, who is averaging 22.7 points per game. “Coach (Nate McMillan) told us, going down the stretch, we can’t expect them to play bad basketball. We have to play good basketball if we’re going to stay in this race. And that’s our mentality going forward here — let’s not count on them to do bad.”
As for the season series, it’s split. The next matchup is March 5 at the Pepsi Center, followed by a Tax Day matchup in Portland on the last day of a taxing regular season.
Last season, the Trail Blazers, younger than some fraternity intramural teams, missed the playoffs. As for this season’s success, Roy said: “I wouldn’t say that I’m surprised, but I can’t say that I thought we’d be this good either. We felt if we play good basketball and our young guys mature quickly — Greg Oden, Rudy Fernandez, Nicolas Batum — then we’d have a chance of being pretty good.”
Looking back.
Fifty-three games into the season with his new-look Nuggets, coach George Karl admitted this week that his two-season “experimenting” of fast-paced offense with off-and-on defense “might have been wrong. I thought we learned a lot, I thought we still had success, but it didn’t have a depth of toughness. Fortunately, I’ve had some success coaching the old way (with a defensive focus). Kenyon Martin bought into it early, the coaching staff got fired up with it, we talked to Nene, Carmelo (Anthony) comes back off the Olympics, Anthony Carter is always with us. Back in August, we were pretty confident we were going to be able to be a good team. I’m not sure we thought we’d be this good. We’re excited about being really good. But it’s a hard road.”
No deal.
The NBA trade deadline is Thursday, and there is understandably a lot of buzz here in Phoenix, with teams such as Portland, Chicago and even the hometown Suns rumored to make big deals involving big names — all-star starter Amar’e Stoudemire for starters. As for the Nuggets, when asked if he anticipates a Nuggets transaction, Karl said: “I don’t even think I’m taking my cellphone on this five days (off during the all-star break), that’s how much I probably think there’s not going to be a phone call.”
Karl said he’s going to Breckenridge during the time off. Some of the Nuggets’ brass, notably Rex Chapman and Mark Warkentien, are expected to attend meetings and hobnob in Phoenix. The Nuggets return to action Wednesday at Philadelphia.
Former Suns owner Jerry Colangelo, who runs the USA Basketball program, spoke this weekend about giving “birth to the Suns franchise” and now “there’s turmoil right now, transition, rumors and speculations regarding a coaching change and a trade. Because of the age of the players, there’s instability right now. A lot of things could happen in all of those areas.”
Asked if he would ever trade a young star such as Stoudemire, Colangelo said: “My attitude has always been, I would trade anybody, and the only person with a guaranteed no-cut policy was my wife of 48 years.”
Lucky rook.
Nuggets rookie Sonny Weems has played 32 minutes in the NBA, and here he is at All-Star Weekend. J.R. Smith asked Weems to help him in the slam dunk contest.
Weems said he’s not star-struck, but “one person I really want to meet is Kobe Bryant.”
His veteran teammates have already been introduced.
Spotlight on …
Andre Miller, 76ers guard
George Karl’s got a thing for point guards. Like a lover not over a breakup, he’ll occasionally bring up the likes of Steve Blake or Miller, former floor generals of his now on other teams. Of course, Karl has one of the best point guards alive right now in Chauncey Billups, and the Nuggets have the second-most wins in the Western Conference. But Karl still has respect for a player such as Miller, traded to Philly in the Allen Iverson deal.
“Andre is a tremendous throw-the-ball-ahead, get-easy-baskets point guard,” Karl said. “He and Steve Nash are probably the two guys who throw the ball over the defense as well as anyone in basketball. I think we saw that here. . . . (The 76ers) are playing as well fast as anyone in the league. They run.”
On Wednesday, in Denver’s first game after the all-star break, it will face Miller in Philadelphia, where the Nuggets lost a heartbreaker a season ago.
This season, Miller continues to be one of the more underrated point guards in the league, averaging 6.5 assists, along with 16.0 points and 4.3 rebounds. His last game before the break, Miller went 9-for-11 from the field, finishing with 24 points, nine assists and just two turnovers in a win against Memphis.
“They’ve got great athletes on the wing,” Karl said about the 76ers. “Thaddeus Young is coming into his own a little bit and Andre Iguodala has triple-double abilities every night he plays.”
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
