GAME THREAD: GAME THREAD: NBA: PORTLAND (4-5) at WASHINGTON (3-5)

[SportsTicker]

NBA: PORTLAND at WASHINGTON

<div class="pre">PORTLAND (90)

fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
S Blake 33:37 3-8 0-0 1-2 5 2 7
B Roy 33:26 2-8 7-10 0-5 2 2 12
L Aldridge 39:11 8-17 2-3 4-10 2 3 18
M Webster 30:14 5-12 2-4 2-5 1 2 13
C Frye 14:29 2-5 0-0 1-3 0 2 4
J Przybilla 28:01 2-2 1-1 1-7 0 3 5
J Jack 22:11 5-7 6-7 0-3 5 1 18
T Outlaw 20:36 3-7 4-6 0-3 1 1 11
T Green 11:36 0-3 0-0 0-0 2 3 0
R LaFrentz 3:47 1-1 0-0 1-2 1 0 2
S Rodriguez 2:52 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
J Jones DNP - COACH'S DECISION

______________________________________________________
TOTALS 240:00 31-70 22-31 10-41 19 19 90
______________________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.443, FT-.710. 3-Point Goals:
6-19, .316 (S Blake 1-4, B Roy 1-3, M Webster
1-2, J Jack 2-4, T Outlaw 1-4, T Green 0-2).
Team Rebounds: 8. Blocked Shots:7 (J
Przybilla 5, L Aldridge, M Webster).
Turnovers:17 (B Roy 4, S Blake 2, C Frye 2, J
Jack 2, L Aldridge 2, R LaFrentz, J
Przybilla, T Green, M Webster, T Outlaw).
Steals: 3 (R LaFrentz, J Jack, M Webster).


WASHINGTON (109)

fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
A Daniels 40:33 4-12 2-2 0-5 10 1 10
D Stevenson 23:43 0-0 0-0 0-2 4 3 0
A Jamison 34:32 11-23 4-4 7-11 2 0 30
C Butler 34:24 5-13 3-3 3-5 4 1 13
B Haywood 23:38 4-8 9-9 4-10 0 4 17
A Blatche 26:09 5-11 0-0 2-4 3 5 10
D Songaila 19:35 1-4 0-0 0-2 1 2 2
R Mason Jr 19:03 3-8 0-0 0-1 0 2 8
N Young 14:36 6-9 3-4 0-1 2 4 17
D McGuire 3:47 1-1 0-0 0-1 0 2 2

______________________________________________________
TOTALS 240:00 40-89 21-22 16-42 26 24 109
______________________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.449, FT-.955. 3-Point Goals:
8-22, .364 (A Daniels 0-2, A Jamison 4-8, C
Butler 0-1, A Blatche 0-1, R Mason Jr 2-7, N
Young 2-3). Team Rebounds: 7. Blocked Shots:3
(A Blatche 3). Turnovers:8 (A Daniels 3, A
Jamison, D Stevenson, B Haywood, D McGuire, A
Blatche). Steals: 10 (A Daniels 2, A Blatche
2, A Jamison, D Stevenson, B Haywood, D
Songaila, C Butler, N Young).

-------------------------------------------
PORTLAND 15 23 25 27 - 90
WASHINGTON 22 25 31 31 - 109
-------------------------------------------

Technical fouls: Portland - 1 (Defensive
Three, 10:52 2nd). Washington - 2 (D
Stevenson, 9:47 2nd; A Blatche, 0:04 3rd).
Flagrant fouls: None. A: 20,173. T: 2:11.
Officials: Jason Phillips, Matt Boland, Tom
Washington.</div>

 

[SportsTicker]

NBA: PORTLAND at WASHINGTON

<div class="pre">NBA PORTLAND AT WASHINGTON
NOTE: RESENDING BOX TO CORRECT POINTS OFF TURNOVERS AND
TIME OF GAME.</div>

 

[SportsTicker]

By Tim Hipps
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer


WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Gilbert Arenas was ruled out just beforethe start of the game. However, it was the Portland Trail Blazerswho looked like they were missing their star.


Antawn Jamison had a season-high 30 points and grabbed 11rebounds as the Washington Wizards coasted to a 109-90 victoryover the Trail Blazers on Saturday night.


Arenas, a three-time All-Star who underwent left knee surgeryduring the offseason, missed the game because of soreness andswelling in his left knee. He is averaging 22.4 points, 5.9assists and 4.4 rebounds this season - none of which seemedneeded against Portland in this one.


"There's nothing good about losing Gilbert," Wizards coach EddieJordan said. "We want him healthy. I feel for him because hehates to miss competition. We always felt that back-to-backsearly in the season were going to be a little tough for him.

"When we had shootaround, Gilbert walked through all the plays.I didn't know anything about his knee being a little bit moresore than normal. Right before our pre-game meeting, Gilbertand our trainer came in and said it was a little bit too sore."

Five Washington players had their highest-scoring game of theseason before 20,173 at Verizon Center, the Wizards' thirdsellout crowd of the season. The Wizards' reserves provided aseason-high 39 points.


After Blazers forward Channing Frye scored the first basket ofthe game, Jamison hit a 3-pointer to spark an 11-0 run for theWizards. Portland stormed back with seven straight points tonarrow the deficit to 11-9 but would never regain the lead.

Jamison's standout performance keyed the Wizards, who won theirfourth in a row and snapped a three-game losing streak againstthe Blazers. Jamison shot 11-of-23 from the field, including aseason-high four 3-pointers.


"Guys were extra focused," Jamison said. "To miss what Gilbertdoes on a night-to-night basis was a big blow. We have been inthis situation before. We knew the guys that were playing weregoing to have to step up and take it to another level. We knewwe would need some contribution off the bench."


The victory marked the first time the Washington has won four ina row since January 15-20.


Brendan Haywood notched his sixth double-double of the season -after recording just seven all of last campaign - with aseason-high 17 points and 10 rebounds.


"It says that we're a team," Haywood said. "We're not just athree-man act. The 'Big Three' get a lot of attention, but wehave a lot of guys who can play and they showed that tonight.

"Andray Blatche was huge. Nick Young did a fantastic job. Tome, he was our team MVP with (a career-high 17 points) off thebench. Roger Mason hit a lot of shots early for us to getgoing. Everybody stepped up and had a hand in this one."

Young admitted that he knew he had this big performance in him.

"If I don't have confidence in myself, nobody will," Young said."I went out there with a lot of confidence. I had everybodytelling me 'get focused.' Everybody just supported me outthere. Coach said opportunity was knocking.


"And (Gilbert) said, 'Just go out there and play my game.' Whenhe was a rookie, and he had his chance to go in, he played hisgame."


Antonio Daniels, who started in place of Arenas, had his firstdouble-double of the season with 10 points and 10 assists.

LaMarcus Aldridge had 18 points and 11 boards and reserve guardJarrett Jack added 18 points for the Blazers, who have losttheir first six road contests.


Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan questioned whether his teamcan run the up-tempo offense he has implemented on a nightlybasis.


"We just look like we have heavy legs," McMillan said. "For me,just thinking about this and looking at us, can we play at thispace? Can we play this style that we're trying to play - upand down and that scrappy defense? Because right now we justlook like a team that's running in quicksand."


Jack thinks it's simply going to take time to adjust to the newsystem.


"The system is still fairly new to us," Jack said. "We're stillworking the kinks out. We had six or seven preseason games totry to do it, but trying to adapt to a whole new offense for 15new faces is going to be a task in itself. I think we can do itwith some more hard work in practice.


"We have to do a better job, if that's the way we're going toplay, of establishing the tempo early and then trying to sustainit for all four quarters."


Aldridge admitted that the pace is taking its toll.

"I don't think you realize how hard it is to play this up-tempoevery night," Aldridge said. "To do it back-to-back, it takestime for your body to get used to running every night. He saidhe might have to go back to just doing it on certain nights orat home games because guys got tired tonight."