LaMarcus Aldridge's pain in the neck

Lost in the discussion of Greg Oden's healing foot and Brandon Roy's spastic back is the news that LaMarcus Aldridge's neck isn't feeling so hot either.

"My neck is still sore," said Aldridge. "I’m going to try and get a massage today and hopefully that will loosen it back up and get it to where I can move it from left to right."

Aldridge, who's first on the team in minutes per game and blocks and second in points and rebounds, woke up in Orlando on Monday morning unable to move his neck. Chalk this injury up to life on the road. Aldridge doesn't remember injuring his neck; he just knows it hurts to move it. It's one of those risks you run sleeping in hotel beds that weren't made for 6-11 power forwards.

"I can’t really look left to right," said Aldridge. "On one of my layups (against Orlando) I couldn’t really look up at the rim. The things that you take for granted are actually hard; when you’re on defense looking left to right, trying to look up when you shoot it. All of those things. It was hurting Monday night, so I’m trying to get it fixed so I can do all of those things (against Miami)."

LA received massage treatment throughout the game against the Magic, though the infirmity didn't keep him from recording his second double-double (16 points, 11 rebounds) of the season, which begs the question: How do you score and board without being able to move your head?

Said Aldridge: "I think most of my shots were jump shots, so you just got to look straight and shoot it."

Say what you want about the Trail Blazers being a jump shooting team, but at least against Orlando, Aldridge's ability to get buckets without getting a clean look at the hoop paid off.