Lakers score first-round knockdown, and Oden goes down

Roy issues an 'almost guarantee' that Blazers will be ready Friday for San Antonio

By Kerry Eggers

The Portland Tribune, Oct 29, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

Blazer center Greg Oden prepares to leave Staples Center after injuring his right foot in the first half of Tuesday's season-opening, 96-76 loss to the L.A. Lakers.

ANDREW D. BERNSTEIN / GETTY IMAGES

LOS ANGELES — They have already sized the players for rings, ordered the champagne and scheduled the championship parade route.

At least that’s the way it seems, with all the talk here in Tinseltown. And maybe the Los Angeles Lakers warrant such plans. The Trail Blazers did nothing to dissuade those who are on the Laker bandwagon Tuesday night.

The defending Western Conference champions kicked the Blazers in the teeth early, survived a third-quarter surge, then let Kobe Bryant deliver the knockout blow en route to a 96-76 opening-night victory at Staples Center.

“It was like going up against your big brother in your backyard,” Portland center Joel Przybilla said. “We want to get where they’re at. It was a good lesson.”

Teammate Brandon Roy had the same kind of analogy in mind.

“It’s like we were in the middle of a fight, and we got knocked down,” said the all-star guard, held to a pair of free throws through most of three quarters. “Maybe we were feeling ourselves a little bit, thinking it was going to be pretty. We got away from what we do. I can almost guarantee we won’t do that again Friday.”

That’s the date of Portland’s home opener against San Antonio. There is work to be done before then.

This was supposed to be the coming-out party on national television for a promising young Portland team, embellished by the NBA debut of rookie center Greg Oden.

Boy, did that work out.

The Blazers laid an egg on the biggest stage possible, shooting .345 from the field and generally looking the part of playoff pretenders.

“We were a little bit nervous, and the Lakers are on a mission this season,” Portland coach Nate McMillan said. “We talked about what we want to do, and we found out we can’t talk, we have to play the game. We weren’t ready for the level of play tonight.

“After a few minutes, that nervousness just turned into playing basketball. (The Lakers) were the aggressors. They jumped on us, kept the pressure on us. We couldn’t run an offense. Defensively we couldn’t get into our schemes. It was just total domination.”

As for Oden, it couldn’t have gone more poorly for the 7-footer. He suffered a mid-right-foot sprain early in the game, sputtered through 13 scoreless first-half minutes and then stayed in the locker room throughout the second half. X-rays were inconclusive, and Oden will undergo an MRI Wednesday morning.

The Blazers’ two biggest weapons, Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge, were shooting squirt guns most of the night. Roy missed his first nine shots, then made five of his last six to finish 5 for 15. Aldridge was 4 for 12. They combined for 22 points on 9-for-27 shooting.

Travis Outlaw (8 for 15, team-high 18 points) and reserve Rudy Fernandez (5 for 10, 16 points) were the only Blazers who seemed ready for prime time.

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit