PORTLAND, Ore. -- Say this for the Blazers: They aren't putting the cart before the horse. Not if you judge by their media day, anyway.
Of course, distilling a message from these events often proves difficult. Every year, for every team, large chunks of the yearly media event are as predictable as a sunrise: Player X doesn't care about minutes, he just wants to win; Coach Y says he'll use the whole roster and wants to run more this year; and Player Z added the proverbial 15 pounds of muscle and looks great.
Sometimes they're even true.
If you peer through the fog of clichés long enough, you still can glean an overarching message at these events. On Monday, the Trail Blazers offered just such an opportunity. The message, loud and clear, was one of focusing on the intermediate steps to the exclusion of the eventual prize.
Portland won 54 games last season, gave the Lakers as many problems as anyone in the West and has more young talent than any Western contender. These are inarguable facts. Equally salient is that they lost in the first round of the playoffs to Houston, a defeat they blame on their lack of playoff experience.....................
