So, in regard to last night’s game, I have a few opinions to share. First, I’m going to have to disagree with Channing and Amare who made statements to the media that Brandon was not a diference maker in the game and is “just another player” on the team. While i’m sure Brandon would agree with these statements due to his uber humble personality, I just can’t. And I’m especially surprised that Channing, who knows Brandon’s game well, jumped on that bandwagon. Not as surprised as I was to read this guest bloggers pre-series prediction (sorry I won’t let ya live that one down buddy). Mi Oden jersey es su Oden jersey, amigo! Brandon was the reason this game went the Trail Blazers’ way and it wasn’t because of the modest stats he put up.

LMA had to be the happiest guy in Portland when he found out that Brandon could see some minutes in game 4. Rudy was probably not quite as thrilled (I’ll save my comments on that situation for another post). LaMarcus said it himself during the postgame press conference, that within 30 seconds of Brandon taking the floor he got his first single coverage look of the series. And he took full advantage of that by setting a playoff scoring personal best. The Suns just can’t double and triple down on LMA like they have been when Brandon is not on the court. He will make any team pay for that.

Big shots are Brandon’s specialty. Everyone in the NBA should know that by now. Brandon’s nearly 1/2 court game winner from last season vs Houston is still in heavy rotation on commercials for the NBA. Brandon didn’t hit a buzzer beater last night but he hit shots when it was most important for the shot to go in. His only made three pointer of the game is the best example of that. And this is what the team is missing when he’s not on the court. Andre is great but is more 2D to Brandon’s 3D (‘Dre ain’t got no J). Portland will always hit an offensive dry spell at some point with their slow pace of play (7+ minutes without a FG last night) so they heavily rely on the player who has the ability to generate his own offense whenever the ball is in his hand. The pace of play in game 1 was not typical for the TBs so they didn’t miss him as much as they would have in last night’s game. The Suns played so well in games 2 and 3 that I’m not sure it would have been any diference although the argument can be made that the game might have had a completely different look and feel were Roy in the lineup.

Another reason Brandon’s mere presence on that court contributed to the win is what it did for the fans. Portland has some of the most loyal and dedicated fans of any US pro sports team. They’re the only gig in the state (MLS coming soon) so fans pour all of their fanaticism in to one Blazing pot (couldn’t resist that one). This is a fan base that booed their team (deservingly so) on their home court because they didn’t put up the kind of effort that was expected of them. Brandon’s remarkable comeback story re-energized Blazer fans and the team relied on them in the fourth quarter when push was coming to shove… Quite literally.

This leads perfectly to a few ponts I want to make about sportsmanship in this series. Now I expect an elevated physical game in the playoffs but that physicality should happen between the whistles. Amare’s shot to Batum’s injured shoulder after play had clearly ended was not okay from my perspective. I’m not implying that a player should take it easy on an injured player. Quite the opposite is true, in fact. If your cover has a bum wheel, cross him over and take him to the hole. Take advantage of the fovorable matchup. That’s expected. But Amare crossed the line with the post whistle elbow to the injury and behaved, as Adam pointed out, like a child. Poor form. With classy guys like Hill and Nash leading your team that type of behavior shouldn’t be tolerated.

Okay, I’ve been typing this on my phone from the backseat of a car on the drive back from back from a great weekend in the Dells and my thumbs are not so kindly asking me to stop.

I can’t wait for the rest of this series to play out. Just no more blowouts for crying outloud.