From The Oregonian

[Maverick]

It's so what as Blazers drop finale

04/17/03

JASON QUICK

LOS ANGELES -- Nobody on the Trail Blazers seemed too concerned about Wednesday's forgettable 107-93 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, which bumped the Blazers to the sixth seed and a matchup with the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

Coach Maurice Cheeks said the Blazers were tired and the main concern is to come together for the playoffs, which begin with Game 1 on Saturday and Game 2 on Wednesday in Dallas. The Blazers split the four-game season series with the Mavericks, winning the last two.

"I told them we have to be a team," Cheeks said. "That was my main message. We have to be there for each other."

In typical Blazers fashion, Portland will enter the playoffs as a mystery. They are good enough to beat the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns with consecutive strong efforts at home, but they are inconsistent enough to sandwich those wins with listless road losses to Memphis and the Clippers.

The Blazers (50-32) closed the season on a 6-8 stretch, but Cheeks said the recent wins over the Lakers and Suns convinced him his team is ready for the playoffs.

"I'm satisfied with the basketball we are playing," Cheeks said. "I think we can become a pretty good team with the way we have been playing -- not like tonight -- but with the way we have defended and ran the ball recently."

The Blazers, who could have earned a matchup with Minnesota with a win Wednesday, showed no signs of being playoff-ready . They missed nine of their first 10 shots and held one lead -- 72-71 -- for 20 seconds in the third quarter against a Clippers team that had nothing to play for.

Scottie Pippen, who played in his second game since surgery on his left knee on March 18, started but finished with three points on 1 for 9 shooting. Bonzi Wells, who has shown signs lately of becoming a dominant player, missed four layups before finishing with 19 points on 9 of 23 shooting.

But nobody wanted to create much of a fuss over the game, instead choosing to focus on what lies ahead. And that was Cheeks' goal in delivering his lengthy postgame talk.

"It was a great speech; it was the truth," Derek Anderson said. "And sometimes the truth might hurt. The thing he said was that we have to do everything possible, that we all have to give our all. We are not going to base our confidence on this game, or on the two games we had just won. This is a whole new season, and we know we can win."

The Blazers will face a Dallas team that spent much of the season with the NBA's best record before being overtaken by San Antonio in the last month. The Mavericks are known for their offense, and they must have been drooling while watching the lowly Clippers shoot 56.4 percent Wednesday.

"We're going to definitely have our defense tuned up," Pippen said. "That's going to be the focal point of these next few days of practice, to really make it tough for teams to score on us. We realize that our offense isn't going to be as strong as their offense, but defense is where we can really balance things out."

Cheeks said there was no preference to play Dallas or Minnesota.

"I don't have a feeling about playing Dallas," Cheeks said. "We have got to do it, period. It's a challenge we have to welcome."

Notes:

The Blazers placed Dale Davis on the injured list and activated Chris Dudley before Wednesday's game. During the regular season, players have to sit out a minimum of five games when placed on the list, but since it was the last game of the regular season, Davis is eligible to return for the playoff opener. . . . Since the playoffs went to an eight-team format in 1984, the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference has won five times. The last time was in 1995, when Houston beat Utah. Jason Quick: 503-221-4372; jasonquick@news.oregonian.com

[Mavs Rule]

I found an audio interview that lasts about 30 minutes from this same Blazer expert Jason Quick. In it he goes into great depth about individual matchups, blazer strengths and weaknesses, predictions, etc. It is a comprehensive look through the opponents eyes about playing the Mavs.

Oh, BTW, the best thing is he predicts the Mavs in six! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

Click on this link and then click on "Listen to the entire webcast".