Blazer Talk: Blazers versus Denver Nuggets.

Tonight's game will mark the return of Darius Miles from a two day suspension he got for mouthing off to his coach. It is no secret that coach Cheek wanted to suspend Darius for at least 10 games. There are plenty of fans in agreement, but not all. It is rumored that Mo will deal Darius at least 8 DNP's. I hope he does and he certainly has my support. I will also add that I do not expect Darius to get a very warm greeting from the fans either. I'm afraid it is going to be wintery cold for Darius tonight.

The Blazers got their butts kicked by a Kobe-less and coach-less Laker squad last night. Zach Randolph was 0-12 in 29 minutes of play. Zach has been relegated to the bench, and with play like that, it is justified. Damon, Ruben and Nick played well. Joel Pryzbilla got a technical for barking about a call, I actually thought it was funny. Let's hope he calms down tonight. The bright spot last night was the entrance of Viktor Khryapa into the line up. He was quick on his feet and nailed a 3 for his first NBA points. He seemed to have a very good eye for where the ball was going. I will be watching that more closely tonight.

Denver has been winning since George Karl took over as coach. I read today that Karl is bribing his guys with a day off if they can secure a win over Portland. K-Mart and Melo are playing very well. All is seemingly well for Denver.

The bottom line is that the Blazers must play better than they did last night. Zach has got to score or sit. We can not afford to have him meandering all over the floor and not contributing. Pryzbilla and Theo both seemed to struggle last night, hopefully they can shake whatever it was off. The guys just didn't have the effort and general "snap" they have had in previous games. We need it back, or we will lose again. Even Damon, Ruben, and NVE had spans where baskets were eluding them. We need a strong effort tonight from everybody to even have a chance. As always, I think the Blazers can do it. It remains to be seen if they will. DA will still be out. Both teams played and traveled last night.
Game Preview

UPDATE: Good game guys. I'll have more to say about Darius later, but he did do well tonight. Everybody did. Extra kudos to Damon, Nick, Ruben and Joel. NBA.com is referring to the team as "Ruben Patterson's Blazers" tonight.

Blazers Win & here is how they did it.