With a minute remaining in the fourth quarter, Portland Trail Blazers guard Rudy Fernandez lobbed a pass near the rim. The high-flying Martell Webster flew high from the left baseline, spread his legs Jordan-esque, clutched the ball in his right hand, and slammed. The Rose Garden crowd, already on their feet, erupted in a joyous cheer, celebrating the exclamation point on another wonderful night in Portland.

The guards connected on this play, but this game against the Chicago Bulls was all about the big men. The Blazers, ranked 25th in the NBA in points per game, stormed out of the gate. Center Greg Oden made a hook shot to begin the game, a tip-in minutes later off a Webster missed three-pointer, two free-throws after more aggressiveness around the rim, and then gave way to LaMarcus Aldridge. The power forward hit a nine-footer in the lane after Oden’s two free-throws, then, on Portland’s next possession, camped out beyond the three-point line, took point guard Steve Blake’s pass, and swished his first three-pointer of the season.

Oden and Aldridge scored 11 of the team’s first 13 points, and took a break for the remainder of the quarter, as the guards put in their two cents. After five quick points, Aldridge looked to make plays for others. H rebounded his own miss trailing 16-15, and found Blake, who then lobbed to Webster for the slam. Two possessions later, he watched guard Brandon Roy maneuver through a double-team, took the pass, and, as the shot-clock ticked under five seconds, immediately fed Fernandez, who drained a three-pointer at the buzzer.

Portland’s ball movement, especially in frantic situations as this, was impeccable. Their three-guard lineup was behind the unselfishness, and a threesome of Andre Miller, Jerryd Bayless, and Roy especially gave Chicago trouble. The lineup full of ball-handlers enforced by head coach Nate McMillan forced Bulls lanky forward Luol Deng to guard Roy, which worked in the Blazers favor. Roy pulled up over the 6′9″ Deng, hitting a jumper, and then took advantage of the mismatch once more, stepping back a few feet on the next possession for a three-pointer to give Portland a three-point lead, 31-28, heading into the second quarter.

As a result of their inside-outside combination and tremendous ball movement, the Blazers shot an extremely efficient 57 percent in the opening frame. They only added to that percentage in the second, as the guards and big men were at it again. Miller, Oden, and Aldridge combined to score Portland’s first eight points of the period before Bayless drove to the rim, jumped into the air ready to throw down, saw Bulls hurling towards him, double-clutched in mid-flight, avoided the block attempt of Brad Miller, and acrobatically spun a layup off the glass.

Oden was dunked on moments later by Joakim Noah, a Florida alum whom he played against in the National Championship in his only season as a Ohio State Buckeye. In that game, Noah and the Gators had their way, and though Oden’s performance was impressive, the pain ran deep. He sought revenge, and with a 50-60 pound weight advantage on Noah, he answered this aggressive dunk with a calm, effortless jump-hook over his nemesis. As Blazers announcer Mike Barrett said after the scoring quarrel, “finesse over power, and Oden brings the finesse.”

This wasn’t the only time Oden brought the finesse, but for the most part, he and the rest of his teammates relied on power. Everyone was aggressive in the paint, whether it was rebounding or scoring. After Roy, who Barrett’s sidekick in the booth Mike Rice said has “been terrible at the line”, missed the second of two free-throws, Dante Cunningham, freshly inserted into the game and newly inserted in as their backup power forward, grabbed the offensive rebound, and passed to Roy, who jacked up a three-pointer upon receiving the ball, but missed his attempt at redemption. As he let out a yelp in frustration, knowing the shot was off, and took a few steps down-court, Blake swooped in for the rebound, prompting the always hilarious Rice to say “guards can rebound in the NBA. It’s not against the law.” As Barrett let out a chuckle, Blake zipped a pass to Aldridge, who slammed and let out a similar yelp to Roy’s, however this was full of content.

Portland went inside when they needed to, but were also aggressive with their outside shooting. Ahead by ten, 55-45, with a tad over two minutes remaining in the second quarter, Blake called for the ball as Roy drove into the middle, and Aldridge acquiesced his request, passing to “Blakey”–Rice’s term of endearment–who made Aldridge’s compliance worthwhile, nailing a three-pointer to extend their lead to thirteen, its largest so far. Aldridge’s assist started a trend, as Portland assisted on their next four field goals as well to end a marvelous first half. Two were from Miller to Aldridge and Oden’s superb backup, Joel Przybilla, and the two others were from Roy to Miller and Aldridge, with the latter notching the Blazers season-high 65th and 66th points of the first half.

Their fifteen-point lead at intermission slimmed to ten after three quarters as Chicago came out of the locker-room scorching hot, making 9 of their 11 attempts in the period. But, despite their offensive show that translated into 29 points, they couldn’t slow the Oden and Aldridge show. Having already scored three points in the period to bring his total to 13, he came, according to Barrett, “out of nowhere” to grab a rare miss by Aldridge, patiently waited for the defense to clear, then dunked as Noah bit on his pump-fakes. Oden didn’t score the rest of the period, and Aldridge only tallied three points in the frame, hardly constituting as a show, but their presence alone made Chicago’s defenders conscious of their whereabouts, which made life easier for their guards, a group that anchored the remainder of the period to help maintain a manageable lead.

After a quiet third for Oden and Aldridge, the two erupted in the final and fun-filled fourth with a considerable amount of help from Fernandez. The Spaniard hit a three-pointer from Roy, and Oden made two free-throws, giving him a incredibly efficient 17 points on only five field goal attempts. Fernandez followed by dribbling the ball aimlessly well beyond the three-point line, draining precious seconds off the shot-clock. Noticing the clock was under five seconds, he crossed over the seven-foot Noah and hoisted over his outstretched hand, canning the desperation three-pointer. Barrett screamed “Good!!!” as the crowd cheered for the umpteenth time. The lead was fifteen again, and was brought back to that margin when Oden found Fernandez for a layup.

With the lead at sixteen at the five-and-a-half minute mark of the fourth quarter, Oden and Aldridge scored 9 of the game’s next 11 points, a spurt capped off by a brilliant alley-oop from Fernandez to Oden and a long jumper by Aldridge from Blake. Oden had already surpassed his previous season-high of 18 points, and now, following the Fernandez lob, had 24 points to compliment his 12 rebounds.

Before Aldridge made that 22-footer, the crowd wanted more from their big center, chanting “Oden! Oden!”, pleading Blake to answer the call. He did not, knowing Oden had already done enough. So, having already posted the best game of his career, Oden exited. He was all smiles on the bench, a smile Aldridge and the rest of the Blazers shared. Those smiles turned into screams of satisfaction as Webster took the pass from Fernandez and jammed thunderously. The guards finished their most thrilling and efficient win of the season, but the 24-point blowout of the Bulls was made possible by the men in the middle, the dominating tandem of Oden and Aldridge.

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Game Notes:

The Blazers scored 122 points, shot a blistering 57 percent from the field, made 32-40 free-throws, and committed only ten turnovers. The scoring output was their best of the season.

The Bulls shot 46 percent, dished 23 assists, and committed a lesser amount of turnovers, six, but were out-rebounded by 20, 47 to just 27, and, entering the game allowing only two opponents score 100-plus points, clearly couldn’t contain Portland.

The Blazers had 50 points in the paint. The Bulls had just 32 points in the paint.

Cunningham played 14 minutes, his highest total of the season, and in that time, the Blazers were +14. He had 4 points, grabbed 3 rebounds, collected a steal, blocked a shot, and played tremendous defense in stints that spread over the final three quarters.

Fernandez finished with 13 points on 5-7 shooting from the field and 3-5 from three-point land. Miller had 16 points, making 10-11 free-throws. Aldridge shot 10-16 from the field and grabbed 13 rebounds.

Finally, Oden made 7-8 field goals and 10-12 free-throws.

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