Trail Blazers vs Timberwolves Sunday, 11/08/09 AT 06:00PM

Trail Blazers dominate from start to finish

11/08/09

Written by: Max Mandel  / avg. rating: 5.0



Since the Trail Blazers season began on October 27th, fans have waited to see a dominant 48 minutes of basketball from this team. The wait is officially over, as the Trail Blazers (4-3) executed at an extraordinarily high level from the opening tip in their 116-93 victory over Minnesota (1-6). In the victory, every player on the Trail Blazers scored, with five guys reaching double figures.

Portland head coach Nate McMillan elected to stay with the starting back court of Andre Miller, Steve Blake, and Brandon Roy, and tonight he saw glimpses of just how potentially good the offense can be with those guys on the court together. Miller delivered his best offensive performance as a member of the team, scoring 21 points on 9-14 shooting. Coach McMillan had nothing but praise for the veteran point guard after the game.

"He (Miller) will look up. He will see the floor. He's creating some of that off of the defense, coming up with steals and rebounding the ball. He sees all that, he sees the floor and he's delivering the ball."

With Miller providing the scoring, Roy and Blake were able to focus on distributing the ball to open teammates. Roy scored only two points, which is his lowest output since the 5th game of his career, but he dished out seven assists and grabbed six boards. Despite playing off the ball, Blake consistently put his teammates in a position to score, and handed out five assists to go along with six points. It was this outstanding team performance that McMillan credited for the win.

"The thing tonight, what we wanted to do is be about business, go out and try to work to improve and get better," McMillan emphasized after the game. "We had 35 assists tonight. That's always a good sign when the team is moving the ball, because it will get everybody involved."

In only 25 minutes of action, LaMarcus Aldridge registered his second double-double of the season. Playing aggressively on the offensive end throughout the game, Aldridge scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, with five of those being offensive. Greg Oden also made several nice contributions on both ends of the floor, scoring 11 points and blocking 2 shots.

The Trail Blazers bench put together a performance that will cause many to argue that it is the deepest and most talented in the league. In his typical workman like display, Joel Przybilla came off the bench and produced at a high level. Przybilla scored seven points and brought down 13 rebounds. Travis Outlaw looked confident and provided a huge performance for his team, with 19 points off the bench, including 3-4 from beyond the arc.

Jerryd Bayless, who is being used as a spark plug at the end of the first and third quarters, scored a season-high 12 points. A huge round of applause must also be given to Dante Cunningham, as he made his NBA debut in the win. After receiving a loud ovation from the crowd when he entered the game, Cunningham scored six points on 3-4 shooting.

In the loss, the Timberwolves received a solid outing from Nathan Jawai. Jawai came off the bench to score 16 points and grab six boards. Despite not being 100% recovered from the knee injury he suffered last season, Al Jefferson scored 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the double-double. However, after the game, Timberwolves head coach Kurt Rambis had nothing but praise for this Trail Blazers team.

"Portland is a really good team. They cause us a lot of match-up problems. They've been together long enough that they understand each other as teammates, and how to get the ball to what people at the right time, in the situations where they feel comfortable."

The Trail Blazers now head out on the road for the next five games. They return to the court on Tuesday night, when they visit the struggling Memphis Grizzlies. Opening tip is scheduled for 5:00 PST.



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