Even though the Blazers had a pretty impressive season last year with a bunch of young players they still were dedicated to making their team better this offseason by adding some key free agents to the mix. The one thing that has been missing on this team has been stability at the point guard position and veteran leadership.

Yes, Brandon Roy has turned out to be a great leader and will be one of the best players in the NBA in the near future, but he seriously lacks experience and that was no more apparent than in the first round of the playoffs last year against the Houston Rockets.

Coming into that series I believe the Blazers were the dark horses to make it to the NBA Western Conference Finals to play the Los Angeles Lakers, but boy was I wrong as the Houston Rockets just manhandled the Blazers early and never let up.

As a result of the Blazers early exit, the Portland front office decided to make some moves this offseason. The Blazers intially wanted David Lee, Paul Milsap or Jason Kidd, but they settled on Andre Miller of the Philadelphia 76ers. Like I said earlier, he is no Kidd, but he brings experience and veteran leadership to team in desperate need for it.

Reportedly, the deal for Miller is worth about $21 million over three years with $14 million of that being guaranteed.

It had to happen eventually, but game two will do as Brandon Roy lights up the Houston Rockets for 42 points in a winning effort by the Portland Trailblazers.

Game one was an absolute nightmare for the Blazers at the Rose Garden. As if it wasn’t bad enough losing at home, the 27 point margin of victory by the Rockets was even worse.

Coming into game two the Blazers spirits were down and the once promising young Portland team looked no more than a inexperienced playoff team headed towards a first round exit. Little did Blazers fans know that both LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy came to play in game two and were not headed to Houston in a 2-0 hole.

42 points after tip off at the Rose Garden Brandon Roy was flying high and filled with confidence that the Blazers still had some fight left in them. Aldridge also had a great game to remember adding 27 points of his own while grabbing 12 rebounds.

Portland still has some adjusts to make if they plan on advancing to the second round, but the Blazers got a much needed win at the Rose Garden before they play two on the road in Texas.

Even though Yao Ming was a beast in first game of this series and gave the Blazers quite of bit of trouble in the paint it was a different story in game two where the big fella was limit to just 11 points and 8 rebounds. The unknown players were the ones to keep the Rockets in contention in game two as Aaron Brooks and Von Wafer help carry the scoring load. Brooks finished with a team high 23 points and Wafer added 21 off the bench for Houston.

The series may be at tied up at 1-1, but the scales definitely feel like they have been tipped in the Rockets favor. If the Blazers want to make it a series they need to have some convincing wins on the road before returning to the Rose Garden in game five.

Unfortunately for the Rockets they have suffered a major blow in game two as Dikembe Mutombo went down with a season and ultimately career ending knee injury. Mutombo didn’t play many minutes behind Yao, but he will definitely be missed.

The Rockets might not have their go to guy Tracy McGrady, but they have done just fine without him and will be looking to finally advance to the second round of the playoffs in the Yao Ming era.

The Blazers on the other hand will be looking pretty good going into this series after beating the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets convincingly over the past couple of weeks. The Rockets defense will without a doubt put Brandon Roy and company to the test in this first round match up, but in the end I believe Portland will prevail.

About a month ago I would have said this match up would go the full seven games, but now I see the Blazers winning in five or six. The Blazers are all coming together at the right time and have plenty of players willing to step up and get the job done. As if the one-two punch of Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge weren’t enough they also have Rudy Fernandez, Travis Outlaw and believe or not Greg Oden playing at a high level coming into the postseason.

It should be a very entertaining series, but I think the Blazers will be the team to advance. There are a lot of great teams in the West right now with legit chances of taking down the Los Angeles Lakers, but if any team is going to take down Kobe’s crew it will be the Blazers!

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It may not have the highlight reels of say the Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins back in the 80s, but with defending Slam Dunk champion Dwight Howard, past winner Nate Robinson who has ridiculous hops, high flying younster Rudy Gay and Spanish import Rudy Fernandez who got my vote because a sick dunk on Dwight Howard in the Olympics this past summer you can’t go wrong.

I still think Superman (D-Howard) will win his second Slam Dunk Contest in row, but this time it won’t be as easy with three amazing dunkers to compete against. We all know that Nate Robinson can hold his own despite being just 5 foot 8 inches tall (possibly 5′ 9″) then there is Rudy Gay who has shown during games that he can get creative above the rim and finally you have Rudy Fernandez who I think will surprise everyone with what he can do.

All and all we are all in for a treat come All Star Weekend!

Even though the Portland Trailblazers were able to get the best of the Eastern conference powerhouse Pistons in Roy’s absence they still dropped a couple important games to Chris Paul’s New Orleans Hornets and Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers.

With clearance to get back to practicing with the Blazers, Roy should be able to play when they take on the Golden State Warriors on Saturday at the Rose Garden unless he suffers a setback to his return to the floor.

“They said it was cool as long as I felt OK,” said Roy.

Brandon Roy even said that he felt that he could have played against the Detroit Pistons, but I guess he didn’t want to push it and since they got the win anyway, looks like that was a good decision.

Number #1 will have Portland Trailblazers fans chills for a long time!!!

It would be hard to argue that Brandon Roy has not been the one of the main reasons for the Portland Trailblazers success this season or even that he is a legitimate MVP candidate. The Blazers aren’t winning games like the Los Angeles Lakers or the Boston Celtics have this season, but they are vastly improved from seasons past and have a legit chance at winning the Northwest division if they can hold off a revamped Denver Nuggets team lead by Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups.

With that being said, the Blazers not having Roy in the lineup could be costly depending on how long he is out. This season Roy has drastically improved his game, not that it needed much improvement, but he has turned out to be born leader and one of the best two guards in the game by leading his team in scoring and to close race in the Northwest.

After already missing two games Roy will be sitting about 7 to 10 more days before his sprained hamstring on his right leg will be ready to go. Unfortunately for the Blazers, during these 7 to 10 days they will face both the Western conference leading Los Angeles Lakers and the new look Detroit Pistons lead by Allen Iverson.

The Blazers were able to take down the Boston Celtics recently, but they will be tested yet again against arguably the best team in the NBA right now in Kobe Bryant’s Lakers. Portland lost in their first meeting with the Lakers to start the season and lost Greg Oden to injury in the process and now will have to take on this Western conference powerhouse again without a key player in Brandon Roy.

The Phoenix Suns on the other hand looked like they had gotten back to their high scoring ways as they seemed to have found the missing piece of the pie by adding sharp shooting high flying Jason Richardson into the mix. Richardson didn’t have a huge game with only 17 points, but he proved he play in this offense without a hitch and still stroke it from deep as he hit 4 of 7 from beyond the arc.

Even though the Suns had six players in double figures and the lead for most of the game, it was Roy’s night as he was literally unstoppable in the fourth quarter. From hitting threes, dishing the basketball and getting to the line Roy was the man with chants of MVP when he went to the free throw line 21 times.

The only downside for the Blazers on Thursday night was Greg Oden’s foul trouble which plagued him all day long. In only 17 minutes on the floor Oden racked up 8 points, 2 boards and a couple blocks. The Suns just constantly attacked the basket early and Oden couldn’t help but try and contest some shots which eventually earned him a trip to the bench.

A big part of the 243 points that were scored in the shootout at the Rose Garden on Thursday was the scorching hot three point shooting by both teams, especially by the Suns. Phoenix hit 67% of their three point attempts mostly do to Matt Barnes and Jason Richardson who accounted for 9 of those shots from deep. As for the Blazers Roy, Steve Blake and Rudy Fernandez hit a combined 11 threes with Roy leading the way hitting 5 for 7.

Back to Brandon who just destroyed the Suns defense. Like I said earlier, Roy just couldn’t be stopped and looks to be taking getting closer and closer to being one of the elite players in this league while making his Blazers into one of the best teams in the Western conference.