Sunday, October 12, 2008

UPDATE: Sunday at the Rose Garden

I've got some updates from Nate McMillan's pregame presser.

First off, Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and Rudy Fernandez will not play tonight. Roy and Aldridge are being held out simply to rest, and Fernandez, though McMillan said he probably could play if he had to, is being held out as a precaution. Sounds like the ankle is just about back to 100 percent.

The starters tonight will be Sergio Rodriguez, Luke Jackson, Travis Outlaw, Shavlik Randolph and Greg Oden. McMillan said he's keeping Jerryd Bayless in the second unit because the Blazers are limited at guard due to injuries. Joel Przybilla, who's battling a case of bronchitis, is available and will probably play around 15 minutes.

As for Steve Blake, McMillan said he ran through some offensive sets at practice on Saturday, and should be close or ready to go by the next preseason game.

Greeting Blazers fans. I trust you're all enjoying a pleasant, early autumn weekend in the Northwest. Leaves are changing, pumpkin futures are through the roof and preseason basketball is in the air.

This afternoon marks the final home game of the preseason, meaning the next time you'll get to see the Red and Black Attack in person (assuming you live in Portland-metro area and don't plan on traveling to distant locals for preseason games) will be on Halloween night in the regular season opener.

Today's Sunday matinee pits the Utah Jazz (1-1) against our Portland Trail Blazers. It's an act of futility at this point to guess who will and won't play tonight for both teams, but I think it's safe to say both Nate McMillan and Jerry Sloan would rather get out of this afternoon's game healthy than win a win.

Since there's no television coverage of today's game, I'll be providing some updates in this here blog for your reading pleasure. If you're following along, throw some thoughts in the comments section, and we'll get a good old fashioned web dialog going throughout the game. It'll be fun, I promise.

3 comments:

Mery VonMort said...

Is Rudy Fernandez going to play tonight?

eazy said...

I cant believe the beavers lost to stanford still. either way the blazers will dominate tonight

Will said...

Anyone have a link for a live stream of the game?