With the Portland Trail Blazers holding a twelve point against the Minnesota Timberwolves lead thanks to a 29-12 dominating spurt over the first eight and a half minutes of the second quarter, point guard Andre Miller dove onto the ground at mid-court, grabbed the loose ball, and shoveled it to center Greg Oden. LaMarcus Aldridge ran alongside Oden, who dribbled twice, running the fast-break as a seven-foot point guard, and passed the ball to the power forward. Aldridge, with the lone Timberwolves’ defender collapsing on him, fed Oden back immediately. Oden dunked with emphasis, and having run the give-and go fast-break to perfection with the 6′11″ Aldridge, pointed at his teammate expressing thanks, and jogged up-court sporting a huge grin.

The basket that completed the fast-break run by big men was Oden’s fifth of the game, notched his 12th and 13th points, and was the eleventh made field goal in sixteen attempts in the second period by Portland.

None of those makes were by Brandon Roy, who has been quietly productive since the switch to the three-guard starting lineup. Head coach Nate McMillan called a timeout, not necessarily because Minnesota guard Jonny Flynn had just followed Oden’s dunk with two jumpers, but because he wanted to call a play for his star guard and end his surprising 18-minute scoring drought. Four seconds ran off the clock before Roy drove into the lane for a layup, penciling his name in the scoring column as the eight Blazers to score in a tremendous 32-point quarter.

That quarter, which featured four three pointers and only one turnover, was outdone by a magnificent third period. Oden had 12 points and 10 rebounds in the first half, and continued his brilliant play in another brilliant quarter by Portland. Roy set the tone, scoring the first Blazers points, and then turned unselfish, letting his teammates pick up where they left off in the second quarter. Oden dunked on a feed from point guard Steve Blake, Miller followed with a layup from Roy, and then Blake found Oden again for another dunk.

In the second quarter, Portland missed consecutive shots only twice. In this third quarter, they missed five shots, and none in succession. Blake’s second pass to Oden for a second dunk was Portland’s fifth assist on six makes, and their all-around unselfishness and spectacularly consistent ball movement continued. Ahead by twelve, Rudy Fernandez grabbed one of many misses by the Timberwolves, and passed the ball to Blake. Blake dribbled nonchalantly up the court, made eye contact with Adridge, watched the power forward glide towards the rim, then lobbed a pass perfectly and Aldridge slammed it through. Aldridge paused after the dunk, stared into the sparse crowd oohing and awing, then elatedly jogged to play defense sporting the same smile spread across Oden’s face earlier.

After Oden drew a double team and dished to Fernandez for the second of the Spaniard’s four three-pointers, Blake found Oden for a third time, cutting to the basket for a lay-in. The Blazers assisted on three of the next four field goals before finishing the quarter with another assist and another from Blake. The guard passed to Aldridge on the right baseline. Aldridge aggressively drove to the basket, where Minnesota’s beastly 6′10″, 295-pound rookie and Australia native Nathan Jawai awaited. Aldridge made him look like a defenseless 180-pound guard, moving him aside then jamming over him. He paused and smiled just as before, celebrating his 10th and 11th points, the 16th and final field goal and 34th and 35th points of the period.

Portland was 16 of 21 from the field in the third, and in outscoring Minnesota by thirteen, extended their lead to 21 points. They added two points to that margin by scoring 22 in a fourth quarter that featured dunks and three-pointers by Martell Webster, capping off the Blazers third-straight stellar and convincing performance. The last two, blowouts of Memphis and Minnesota, were anchored by Greg Oden, who in the words of announcer Mike Rice, “is having fun. Oh yes!”

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