Thursday, February 28, 2008

Two interesting stats from last night's game

I probably uttered more curse words during last night's game than I have the entire season. If we would have lost that game, I don't know what I would have done. Relinquishing big leads then eventually losing is bad enough when you're playing top-tier teams like the Lakers and Celtics, but to do the same things against the current incarnation of the Clippers? That would have been too much to take.

But luckily, the Blazers did get the win. Jarrett Jack came up huge after a tough game the night before. Same for Martell Webster and Channing Frye. Von Wafer, in his first action as a Trail Blazer, posted career-highs in (take a deep breath) points (11), field goals made (4), field goals attempted (10), three point field goals made (2), three point field goals attempted (5), defensive rebounds (5), total rebounds (5) and minutes played (32). In fact, Wafer's minutes last night constituted 26% of his time on the floor this season. What's more, Wafer only played 21 fewer minutes last night than Taurean Green (the player he was recently trade for) played during his tenure with the Blazers. Make of that what you will.

Onto those other stats. The first comes courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN).
The Trail Blazers earned a split during their visit to Los Angeles by defeating the Clippers on Wednesday after losing to the Lakers the previous night. Portland was the 14th team to play on the road at Staples Center on consecutive days. Three of those teams lost both games: the Timberwolves in 2001 (April 12-13), Grizzlies in 2003 (March 30-31) and Hornets in 2004 (Dec. 21-22).

I'm not entirely sure what the significance of that statistic is, but at least we're not the fourth team to ever loose back-to-back games to different teams in the Staples Center.

The other interesting stat (which is only kind of a stat) comes from the AP writeup of the game.
The win was Portland's first against the Clippers on the road since Dec. 18, 2002, when they erased a 14-point, fourth-quarter deficit behind Scottie Pippen and Rasheed Wallace.

More good news! Another streak comes to an end this season.

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