PORTLAND, Ore. — Nate McMillan could win the N.B.A.’s coach of the year award because he not only Lewis-and-Clarked the Portland Trail Blazers through the league’s strangest season to reach the playoffs, but ruptured his Achilles’ tendon in the process.
Brandon Roy had knee surgery Friday. He won't play in the first round, but the team hasn't ruled out his return this year.
Crutches long gone, he patiently fielded an array of questions last week from a huddle of reporters asking about the latest big-font news in this Blazers-mad city: the All-Star guard Brandon Roy had torn the meniscus in his knee and his availability for the playoffs was in serious doubt.
McMillan treated it like just another ho-hum story angle to navigate. At this point, the Blazers are well past presumptions and predictions of any kind. The owner and an assistant coach have cancer? The star player has nude photographs on the Internet? Another player injures himself in the shower? The beloved general manager may be fired?
Will Roy play? Who knows!
“If you just looked at all the headlines, you’d be like: ‘That team is not going to the playoffs. That team would be lucky to have 20-something wins,’ ” forward LaMarcus Aldridge said. “You’d think this team cannot do well. But we are, and we did.”
Hours later, Aldridge was admitted to the hospital with a nasty stomach virus. A day later, Roy decided to have knee surgery; he faces about a month’s recovery time.
Despite their record, Blazers (50-32) seem allergic to good fortune. They lost more players to injury than any other playoff team and used 16 starting lineups. Yet the Blazers won 13 of 16 games before losing a meaningless finale Wednesday to earn the Western Conference’s No. 6 seed. They were 14-11 against the other seven playoff teams from the West, winning five season series against them. They were 2-1 against third-seeded Phoenix, Portland’s first-round opponent beginning Sunday night.
Dismiss their chances at your peril..........................
