Sports Column

Team play reason for Blazer boom

On Sports

By dwight jaynes

The Portland Tribune, Jan 8, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (12 Reader comments)

Even as it has unfolded, I haven’t quite been able to figure out the Trail Blazers’ dominant play. I mean, how could this team get this good, this fast? How and why is it happening?

It was time to ask an expert.

The Trail Blazers have played the Utah Jazz four times in the last 25 days (I can’t remember two NBA teams playing that frequently in that short of a span, ever). So it only seemed natural to ask Jerry Sloan, the veteran and very wise coach of the Jazz, what he thinks of the Blazers, who won three of the four games.

What has made the Blazers so successful, Jerry?

“They get the ball to the right guys about as good as anybody in the league,” Sloan says.

Usually that guy is Brandon Roy.

“He’s one of the best players in the league. A great player,” Sloan says.

OK, what makes Roy such a great player in only his second year?

“He can get to just about any spot on the floor he wants to get to,” Sloan says. “He’s big and strong, can get to the basket, get to the free-throw line and get the ball to open teammates. I knew he was going to be a great player the first time I saw him.”

But, Jerry, the team is so young …

“Doesn’t matter if you’re young if you have great leadership. And I don’t know him at all, but he looks to me like a great leader,” Sloan says. “They play good defense, too. They play hard every night.”

But they don’t get fastbreak points, and they don’t rebound all that well. They sure seem to need to make a lot of 20-foot jump shots.

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