ABM
Happily Married In Music City, USA!
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http://www.blazersedge.com/2011/12/...ew-sacramento-kings-vs-portland-trail-blazers
The Sacramento Kings ride into town fresh off of a season-opening win against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Blazers also notched a victory in their opener against the Philadelphia 76ers. The young Kings must play on the road in this contest while the veteran Blazers remain with the home emotion in their favor. That could be one of the determining factors in this game.
The Kings present an interesting, perhaps even scary, challenge this year. Their main weapon is a double-barreled shotgun backcourt consisting of Tyreke Evans and Marcus Thornton. Evans is a multi-tool point-cum-scoring guard whose superstardom has been derailed, though not completely, by injuries. He's big, he's talented, and he's not shy about putting up the ball. Thornton is more of a shooter and less of a physical specimen. His scoring prowess got buried between Chris Paul and David West in New Orleans. In his third season, Sacramento is his new lease on life. He's starting and looking to make an impact...which he most certainly did against the Lakers, scoring 27, backing up his 21 ppg average of 2010-11. These two guards are going to come at you until you cry uncle......
......One trap the Blazers must avoid is getting into a deep shooting contest. Sacramento will almost certainly win that battle.
It goes without saying that turning over the ball is not the way to keep the opponent's tempo in check. That's another place where this game could fall apart for Portland.
If they avoid those egregious errors, however, the Blazers should be able to ride the wave of emotion to a nifty 2-0 start and exit the building to sunny skies and the hope of a pleasant tomorrow. It won't be easy but it's certainly doable. Once again Portland's questions revolve less around talent than consistency and being able to replicate their good performances. This would be the opportunity to show that the Blazers can play to their strengths against beatable teams without falling prey to their weaknesses.
