From: edrury@3cpu.rain.com (Ed Drury)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.pro
Subject: Blazer Week 2
Date: 23 Nov 92 13:14:23 GMT
Reply-To: edrury@3cpu.rain.com (Ed Drury)
Organization: Garden Lane Software


			WEEK TWO
        
11/14 New York 94 at Portland 109

 As we've seen in three of the four previous regular season games, 
it  was  Portland's  bench  who  stepped  up  and  won  the  game. 
Strickland, Robinson, Elie and tonight Mark Bryant all contributed 
heavily  in  out  scoring New York's  bench  52-25.  But  Portland 
dominated  the  Knicks in this game in just  about  every  aspect. 
Portland had five block shots to New York's one by Ewing. Portland 
had  19 offensive rebounds to New York's 8 and out  rebounded  the 
Knicks  43-28. Cliff Robinson led the Portland cause with 21  pts, 
Terry  Porter  contributed  17 and Clyde Drexler  with  his  third 
consecutive double double had 13 pts, 10 rebs and 9 assists. 

 For  the  Knicks, Patrick Ewing had 28 pts and 8 rebounds  in  42 
minutes,  John Starks had 21 points and 7 assists in  32  minutes, 
and  Tony Campbell had 11 points, 2 assists and no rebounds in  27 
minutes. No other Knicks scored in double figures.

   New York    19   24   33   18   94
   Portland    23   34   26   26  104

11/20  Portland 104 at Sacramento 99

 Probably the worst game Portland has played so far and one  which 
they  were  lucky to win. The Blazers were out rebounded  for  the 
first time. The game got off to a slow start. 24-18 at the end  of 
one  and  Portland  led by 9 at half time  mostly  behind  a  13-1 
difference  in fast break points. Portland led by 12 with about  5 
minutes  left in the game, but then Sacramento got back  into  the 
game  on free throw shooting. Cliff Robinson led Portland with  21 
points as Portland again got great contributions from their  bench 
and a balanced attack with 7 players in double figures. Sacramento 
got 20 plus points from 3 players led by Tisdale with 23. Richmond 
wound up getting 21 points but struggled for most of the game on 6 
for  16  from the floor. Walt Williams had 22 points on 5  for  20 
from the field.

 The  win  clinches  the 20th  consecutive whining  (Oops) winning
month  for  the Portland Trailblazers.

   Portland    24   24   28   28  104
   Sacramento  18   21   30   30   99

11/22  Portland 115 at Detroit 90

 This  win  was the 200th for Rick Adelman which  is  the  fastest 
route to 200 wins of any coach in league history. His mark of  200 
wins  in  288  tries is one try less than  Billy  Cuningham,  John 
Kundla  and  Pat  Riley. Rod Strickland scored  the  first  Blazer 
triple  double of the year. Strickland's 10 rebounds was a  career 
high and his triple double his first ever and he added to that  13 
assists and 11 points in 27 minutes. Cliff Robinson with 20 points 
off the bench, led the Blazers   for  the second straight game. In 
the previous six contests, the Blazers had a different high scorer 
each time. Terry Porter continued his hot three point shooting  by 
adding a pair of them.

 No Portland player played 30 minutes in this game, as the contest 
was never in doubt after the opening tip off. But playing time has 
been  an area of concern and disscussion on the local talk  shows. 
Can everyone stay happy with reduced playing time? And given  that 
everyone indeed does accept a more limited number of minutes,  are 
they getting enough to get into a good rhythm? With the length  of 
the  NBA  season and the possibility  of injuries, some  may  well 
take the position that this is a nice concern to have.  Certainly, 
if  it  was the only concern, everything would look real  good  at 
this  point.  Duckworth had some good looks at the basket  in  the 
first quarter but his shots were not falling and he wound up going 
2  for  8 on the night after shooting over 50% for the  first  six 
games. Likewise, Mario Eli struggle from the field making just one 
of five attempts including a pair of missed 3 pointers. 

 Detroit   19   24   18   29
 Portland  25   31   26   33

 Here's the unoffical year-to-date by-the-minute break down :

    Name       G  M/G     PPG    PPM   RPG  APG
    Porter     7  33     18.9   0.57   3.4  5.6
    Drexler    7  33     17.7   0.53   7.4  6.3
    Robinson   7  25     14.7   0.59   5.3  1.3
    Duckworth  7  24     12.4   0.52   5.4  1.0
    Kersey     7  28     12.1   0.44   6.3  2.1
    Elie       7  22     12.1   0.54   2.4  3.0
    Strickland 7  26      9.3   0.35   5.9  5.6
    Williams   7  29      9.0   0.31   5.4  0.9
    Murray     3 6.7      5.0   0.75   1.0  0.3
    Bryant     7  16      4.6   0.29   3.0  0.4
    Johnson    3 2.7      1.3   0.50   0.7  0.0
    Smith      3   3      0.7   0.22   0.0  0.3

 Portland is averaging just about 114 points and giving up 100. I
think their margin of victory is 13.6 so they are off to a decent
start. This week they play San Antonio at home and Phoenix on the
road before heading off on a killer paced road trip.

-- 
   __
 /--   __/
(___, (_/rury@3cpu.rain.com