Monday, July 14, 2008

Trail Blazers 78, Wizards 73: Final

- Nick Young puts up a desperation 3, which he misses badly, but the stripes call Bernard Robinson for a foul. Three free shots, of which Young makes 2.

The Wizards, practicing their regular season scenarios, foul Bayless, sending him to the line. Makes one of two. That's Bayless' 23 free throw of the night.

Maric boards the miss, but he gets swatted going back up. Robinson gets the rebound and a trip to the line.

After the free throws, Nick Young puts up a meaningless 3, and like that, the Blazers have their first summer league win. Blazers 78, Wizards 73.

- Josh Davis, who's had a nice little game, gets a trip to the line, making both. Blazers up by 6. Wiz nail a 3, closing the gap to 3. Bayless is fouled in the backcourt, and he makes both. So after all of that, with 12.3 seconds to go, the Blazers lead 75-71. Bayless with 27, thanks in large part to 17 made free throws.

- Nick Young gets called for an offensive foul, and the Blazers have the ball up one with 30 seconds to play. Davis misses a layin, but Bayless is there for the rebound. He gets the bucket and the foul, though he missed the freebie. During the scrum for the rebound, the ball goes off the Wizards, though the ref calls it off the Blazers. Josh Davis argues the call, and the ref switches up the call. We're close enough to hear the ref say "My bad."

- Another three from Koponen and another set of free throw attempts for Bayless. The play of those two has been the story of this game, hands down. Koponen has 19, Bayless with 23. Blazers up 69-68 with 46 seconds to play. It's getting interesting.

- The Blazers keep the possession alive with 2 offensive rebounds, finally resulting in yet another Koponen three. And a tough shot at that. The Finnisher is starting to get hot. He's gotg 8 in the quarter and 16 in the game. Games is tied 64-64. Blazers ball.

- As per my request, Koponen hits a three to get the game to Wizards 64, Blazers 61. A Wizard turnover give the Blazers a chance to tie the score or even take the lead should a rare four point play occur.

Bayless gets called for carrying. To be honest, that call is probably a bit overdue.

- Just got the news from Blazers PR that Nicolas Batum will not return due to a case of bruised ribs.

- Pinnock, Maric, Bayless, Davis and Robinson take to the floor to start the final quarter. The Wiz take the first two buckets, and Petteri Koponen checks in for Pinnock. It'll be interesting to see who gets the lion's share of the point guard duties in crunch time.

Bayless gets UP to block Dee Brown's shot at the rim, but it's called goaltending. That's real close, at least it looked that way from my vantage point.

Koponen with a great move to get a layin. Need a little more of that, and right quick.

Wizards up 62-53 with 7 minutes to go. Time to make a move. Heck, making a three pointer would qualify as a run at this point.

5 comments:

SabonisFan3386 said...

Koponen was petteri-ng it up out there! A couple more performances like this and I've gotta think the Blazers will look long and hard at giving him that 15th spot. Casey, do you think Koponen (distributor) and Bayless (slasher/scorer) will switch roles in tomorrow's game, or should we expect them to stick to the 1 and 2, respectively?

Unknown said...

Hope Koponen plays up to his full potential as in doing so, he will make the Roster!

shannmels said...

Casey,

Where is David lucas? I thought he was on the summer league roster! Can you let me know whats going on with him? Does it have something to do with the 3BA? Let me know thanks!

Casey Holdahl said...

I know that David tweaked his knee on the first day of Summer League practice, and I think that injury is keeping him out of the games here in Vegas. I'll get a official answer from the team today, but I'm almost certain that's why he's not playing.

MGNNoah said...

David Lucas apparently suffered a last minute groin injury and didn't make the trip. I really wish Ike was playing too.