The Blazers will probably feel way better soon, considering they play just four games over the next two weeks, and three of them are against the Pelicans, Kings, and Kings. After that, they have a five-game home stand until the end of the year.

Based on their reactions, I'm not sure the Trail Blazers have committed a foul all season.

It's almost painful to say this during a game going this badly, but the Grizzlies really don't look very good themselves.

So with Clingan and RWIII out today, do you think the Blazers can small-ball their way past a pretty mediocre Grizzlies team by catching them off guard? For what it's worth, the Grizz are missing their point guards, too.

Today is the 40th anniversary of one of the most famous Trail Blazers regular season games: Their dominant 1985 road victory in Boston. It was the Celtics' lone home loss all season, going 50-1 at the Garden including the NBA Playoffs. Full game here! www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vMQ...

If the Blazers were going to have a 1-4 stretch, this has been pretty much the best 1-4 stretch you could possibly ask for.

The Blazers have shot 28 free throws to Cleveland's 11. And Portland is defending hard.

For those who won't look: Giannis made a cut move, seemed fine, ran upcourt and suddenly lost stability in his leg, like he'd been kicked in the knee from behind. He went down, sat there, and rubbed the back of his lower leg. Maybe he got lucky, but it looked bad, and eerily familiar.

I'm not surprised the Cavs are struggling against the Blazers tonight. Portland is pushing hard after a couple rough losses, and Cleveland's recent play is kinda low-key just plain bad (Have only beaten the Clips, Pacers, and the Bucks who lost Giannis). This should be an interesting second half.

I really suspect the Blazers are due for an upset soon. They're playing hard every night and are bound to catch a team. And Cleveland is missing a few new players to injuries, so tonight could be interesting.

A quick reminder that the Blazers do own some of the Bucks draft picks/swaps, BUT the pick statuses are complicated thanks to the remaining details of the Larry Nance trade with the Bulls (affects 2028 pick) and the Deni Avdija trade with the Wizards (affects 2029 pick). 2030 is a clear swap though.

Tonight's game is yet another reminder that, "the players play hard for him!" was never a valid reason for the Blazers to keep Chauncey Billups. That's a minimum expectation for a coach! And the team is playing just as hard tonight for another coach.

The Blazers are wearing turquoise at home, while OKC is wearing red. It's so confusing as a viewer. Can the NBA please please restore some sanity to the jersey situation?

These two games have been added to complete the Portland Trail Blazers schedule now that they're eliminated from the NBA Cup: Thurs, Dec 11: At New Orleans Pelicans Sun, Dec 14: vs. Golden State Warriors Two very beatable teams.

For those who haven't yet heard, the Blazers have expanded their over-the-air HD coverage. 1. Bend, OR area: COTV (18.2) has all games in HD. 2. Seattle area: 20 additional HD games on KSTW 11. There are two unavailable games: Dec 26 vs Clippers (Prime) and Jan 26 vs. Celtics (Peacock, no NBC).

You know, I was going to say that OKC sure looked like a team that remembered that short-handed loss in Portland on a B2B. But then again, they look like this pretty much every night when they're at full (non-Jalen) strength. Felt like they were swatting away a gnat all night.

NBA legend Lenny Wilkens passed away today. He's primarily remembered for his years with the Seattle SuperSonics, but he played a key role with the Portland Trail Blazers as both a player and coach. www.theringer.com/2025/01/24/n...

As if on cue, Chet Holmgren, Alex Caruso, and Lu Dort are all out for Oklahoma City tonight, joining the Lakers and Warriors as teams who sat key rotation members against the Blazers on the second night of a back-to-back.

A random early trend: The Blazers' opponent tonight, OKC, is on the back end of a B2B with late overnight travel. That also happened against the Nuggets, Warriors, and Lakers (twice!). They've gone 3-1 in those. It'll make up 5 of Portland's 8 games after tonight, with a rest advantage in four.

The Blazers play the Pelicans next Wednesday, 8 days from now.

CJ McCollum fractured the fifth metatarsal in his left foot as a rookie before the season started. This was the same bone he injured while at Lehigh and w/ Martell much fresher in people's minds then, there was a lot of worrying about CJ's future. So hopefully this goes the CJ route.

Long-time Blazers fans may remember that Martell Webster suffered a fifth metatarsal injury in 2008. He came back a few months later, played literally one half of one game in Toronto, got re-injured, and missed the rest of the season. So, the Blazers should exercise caution with Blake Wesley.

FWIW, yesterday I was involved in literally two conversations where someone asked if the Blazers are hoping to just have Splitter be interim coach until they can bring back Chauncey Billups. Kind of speaks to the current opinion of the Blazers front office.

In case you missed today's big news story broken by Shams Charania, the NBA has apparently hired some dude named Al, and will be utilizing him to check betting activity.

The Blazers' supposedly-tough early schedule is softening fast. Even beyond the two upcoming games against the Lakers minus Luka/LeBron, some of the "good" teams coming up aren't looking all that special.

At the start of the actual game broadcast, a calm Kevin Calabro reiterated that there are allegations against Chauncey Billups, he's placed on leave, then also read the Blazers' statement and threw it to Splitter. As you'd expect, both Kevin and Brooke were pro's throughout.

In a "my brain is funny" moment, I kind of treated Tiago Splitter's elevation to head coach as the equivalent of when Terry Stotts would move Jake Layman into the starting lineup to keep the rest of the rotation intact. But then I also just kinda missed Terry Stotts.

Blazers Broadcasting openly acknowledged the Billups situation at the beginning of the pregame show, with Brooke carefully stating the general situation of his suspension, showing and reading the team's press release and then moving to footage from Splitter's pregame press conference.

New Blazers interim head coach Tiago Splitter spoke with media pregame for the first time after Chauncey Billups' arrest. While fielding questions, he made it clear the team is trying to stay focused on basketball and moving forward with their jobs. Here are a few quotes from the interview:

I will always remember exactly where I was when the news broke that Billups was signed to a contract extension. Until that moment, I gave Joe Cronin and the Blazers front office the benefit of the doubt, that they were just waiting out Neil Olshey's mistake. It immediately became Cronin's mistake.

So tonight’s Blazers pregame show is appointment viewing, yes?

It has been a long day, and I'm spent. At the end of it, I mostly find myself just truly frustrated at the Portland Trail Blazers organization. There are absolutely no excuses to justify the franchise ending up in this position. Accountability is required.

I'm amazed how many people easily conflate "Chauncey Billups, the personality" with "Chauncey Billups, the person". The former enables the latter.

Horford does not play both halves of back to backs, so he should sit Friday in Portland with the Warriors on short rest.

Oh, hey, let's talk about something fun: Tiago Splitter seems like a really promising head coach candidate. And at least as far as I know, he's not a terrible person. He should be a good candidate to guide the players through what is going to be a very awkward stretch until ownership changes.

I may be forced to assume that the @bsky.app trending topics system is broken since Chauncey Billups still isn't listed there.

I think the funniest thing I've read today are the ongoing arguments among NBA fans about whether Billups was intentionally trying to lose games as Blazers head coach, or whether he was just simply that bad of a coach.

Yeah. They're now actively linked with a gambling scandal in worldwide headlines. That's a stink that doesn't quickly vanish. I literally had two friends who are non-sports fans say hi this morning, and promptly talk about my team's coach being arrested for gambling.

I think we need to step back and recognize that this is one of the biggest stories, and the single biggest scandal, in Portland Trail Blazers history. Their team name is in national and worldwide headlines for a gambling scandal. This will change the reputation of the team from this point on.

We're now learning that Billups was being investigated for years. And all kinds of little tidbits are coming out of the woodwork as everyone pokes around. Joe Cronin and the Blazers literally just extended Billups' contract, and did the equivalent of vouch for his character. Now we're here.

Loose translation of the Blazers coaching story: "Nate Bjorkgren was strongly considered as head coach, but the team knows every fan has read the insider account of why he got fired in Indiana."

I have been gone for an hour and it feels like a lifetime has passed in terms of Portland Trail Blazers news. What a morning to be really busy and mostly offline.

I have a lot to say, but honestly I'm still trying to digest all of this.

The Blazers have a real serious problem on their hands.

Whew, yawn, just woke up, anything interesting happen overnight?

Perfectly fine loss for the Blazers tonight. Their next game is Friday night against the Warriors, and the Blazers will have a rest/travel advantage sleeping at home while Golden State plays the national late game against Denver the night before.

Fun tidbit: The Blazers and Wolves don't see each other again until February 11th, near the All-Star Break. It's almost hard to imagine what these two teams will be like by then, compared to opening night.

Well, this is at least aging well on NBA opening night.

Alright, it's finally game night again! And if you'll indulge me here for a few minutes, a few thoughts about the team this season, as well as my own status writing about the team.

The true gift from @nbacobwebs.bsky.social has been showing us how many teams just couldn't resist a good preseason brawl, for whatever reason. Also, I miss when teams would travel around their region to smaller cities and play games in preseason.