Posts tagged BrandonRoy at FanHouse

Okay, good news, bad news, Blazers fans.

Good news: An MRI showed "no significant changes" to the knee of Brandon Roy which has sidelined him recently. So you can go ahead and exhale into the bag.

Bad news: He's out 7-10 days, according to an official team release via Blazer's Edge. That would of course include Sunday's game versus the Lakers.

The upside is that after L.A. and Detroit, the schedule isn't brutal for the Blazers during that time. They've got a series of middle-of-the-pack easter teams on a four game road trip with a game against struggling Golden State next Saturday. They also only have five games max in that time.

It's possible this could end up being a good thing for the Blazers. They desperately need someone on their team, perhaps Rudy Fernandez as BE suggested, to step up and provide some support. More and more close games have become the Roy Show and the Blazers will need more come April.

Yeah, that's just me trying to put a positive spin on the fact that the Blazers have lost their best player for a week with a wonky knee, and they haven't exactly shined without him, especially after getting blistered by the Hornets post-Tyson-Chandler ejection the other night.

Buck up, little Blazers!

In case your hangover hasn't been enough of a reminder today, last night marked the end of 2008. So what better way to celebrate than to take a look back at some of the most memorable plays from the first two months of the season? Here are the ones that NBA.com decided were the top 10 of '08.


Numbers two and nine were my favorites, but it's hard to argue with that Brandon Roy shot at one considering the arc on it, the distance, and the fact that it was a game-winner.

So did they leave any out? Trevor Ariza's save to Sasha Vujacic against Boston comes to mind. If there are any of your favorites that were missed, go ahead and leave the YouTube links in the comments.

FanHouse's NBA Guide gives you a daily look at all the games that matter ... and some that don't.

I have little doubt my friends in the District of Columbia and Motor City have the birthday cakes and noisemakers ready for NBA TV's 24-hour celebration of The Chosen One, LeBron James. Check here for the LeBron Day programming schedule, which leads up to ...

HEADLINERS
Cleveland at Miami, 7:30PM EST, NBA TV

Home-and-homes might be the best scheduling quirk, and (given the right teams) carry a sort of playoff-type mood. The Portland-Denver home-and-home last week added some flavor, and this Cavs-Heat match could do the same. Of course, Dwyane Wade and LeBron are good friends; this isn't a rivalry with any off-court smoke. But Wade almost caught LeBron in Cleveland on Sunday, and given the type of competitors we know Wade to be you'd imagine he'd love to make a statement by upsetting The King on his special day.

The NBA on Christmas Day is a tradition at my house. (Well, I like to watch it -- the rest of my family either shoots guns or goes to the movies.) And as a result, I'm highly intrigued by the various storylines that emerge for each of the games that are set to go down.

And this year, there's a spicy little twist to the storylines: tons and tons of new shoes. Well, five pairs to be exact, but they're coming from the game's biggest stars. LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, Brandon Roy and Steve Nash will all drop new kicks on the public come Christmas Day. And since the folks at Nike.com have been kind enough to share them with us (and a sick new Kobe commercial) we're going to do the same with you.

LeBron's, featured above, are the "Zoom LeBron VI (Chalk Edition)":

"In keeping what has become a tradition in the Zoom LeBron series, the Cleveland Cavaliers star will unveil yet another special Zoom LeBron VI on Christmas Day. This year, LeBron will break out the "Chalk" edition of his signature sneaker when he takes the court on Christmas Day. The Zoom LeBronVI "Chalk" shoe takes its inspiration from LeBron's pregame ritual of tossing talcum chalk in the air before each game. The tongue of the shoe features a silhouette of LeBron tossing chalk in the air. The shoes' colors matches the Cavs alternate blue uniforms. A limited number of the Zoom LeBron VI "Chalk" shoe will be sold at the Quicken Loans Arena on Christmas Day."

More kicks and information after the jump.

There's just something about the Suns this season that makes the other team's best player go absolutely bonkers against them. Devin Harris did it, Dwyane Wade did it, and last night, it was Brandon Roy's turn. You could chalk it up to pace or a lack of defense, but as you can see in this sampling of highlights from Roy's 52-point performance, a lot of his shots were contested, and sometimes, a player just gets into that zone where they can't be stopped.


Despite Roy going off like that, the Suns led most of the way, and even had their chances down the stretch. But an in-and-out three-pointer from Jason Richardson, and a crazy bank shot from LaMarcus Aldridge late -- along with Roy shooting the lights out -- were simply too much for the Suns to overcome.

The final result isn't indicative of how hotly contested Portland-Boston had been in the first half. The Blazers came out matching Boston shot for shot, and led by a possession most of the half. With three minutes left in the second quarter, Boston went into beast mode and turned it into a blowout (which would become somewhat close, but never really in danger).

One of the biggest threads from the first half to me was the verbal sparring between Brandon Roy and Paul Pierce. Pierce has always talked a good deal, and a) joining up with Kevin Garnett and Sam Cassell, and b) winning a title ... those have only made Pierce's mouth motor stronger. Roy, though, isn't considered much of a talker. Portland as a whole has taken on a bit of a "soft" reputation, earned or not.

But Roy did not let the war of the words become one-sided Friday.

Holy heck. We had your prototypical April barnburner in Portland last night ... (p)re-enacted in the first week of November. You may think this clip ends after the first minute with Brandon Roy's killer jumper to put the Blazers up two with 1.9 seconds left in overtime. But Yao Ming has something to say about it. And Roy has one more thing, too. Just watch.



The highlight comes a bit out of context, too: Roy and Yao had rather bad shooting nights leading up to this exchange. Still, once Roy potentially lost the game by fouling Yao there, you had to know he'd redeem himself, yeah? For his part (via Blazers Edge), Roy has perspective.

When questioned by a foreign reporter, Brandon said that he voted for Obama and that "Obama winning the election is bigger than any shot I could make."

After Wednesday's absurd night at the NBA theater and this wild finish ... is it safe to say the league has been inspired by the political events of the week?

With all the attention given to the return of Greg Oden this season, you might have thought the rest of the Blazers were chopped liver. Did people forget that Brandon Roy was an All-Star last season, or that LaMarcus Aldridge is a budding Rasheed Wallace clone (minus the occasional crazy, of course)?

That's why it was kind of funny to me when a lot of folks started predicting doom for the Blazer when Oden got injured again against the Lakers. This team won 41 games in the Western Conference with Roy dealing with a bum foot for a good part of the year (Roy only officially missed seven games last season, but he was basically playing injured for a good amount of games).

A young team with tons of room for improvement was already playing .500 ball in one of the toughest conferences in NBA history. That tells me something folks. Basically, with or without Oden, this will be a solid team for years to come.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. The Oregonian, via TrueHoop. Lamarcus Aldridge isn't mad at Brandon Roy about the ribs any more, thanks to Travis "Chuck Woolery" Outlaw and New Jack City.

2. Contra Costa Times. The Warriors traded for Marcus Williams a few months ago. Apparently he has not impressed, as the team declined to pick up his ultra-cheap 2009-10 option.

3. Ball Don't Lie. Dwyer tries to put Greg Oden's injuries into perspective.

4. Tirico Suave. Yao gets rejected by the rim. (It's more funny in isolation on YouTube than it was during the game, where it looked like Yao wanted to rip someone's eyebrows off.)

5. Los Angeles Times. A little trip down L.A. Stars Lane.

6. Matthew Yglesias. A 'Zards fan agrees with Bill Simmons that Gilbert Arenas is the new C-Webb.