Cavs Set New NBA Loss Record At 24 Straight

And counting...

Wesley Matthews scored 31 points and LaMarcus Aldridge added 20 to give Portland a 111-105 win over the Cavs, who haven't won in the 2011 calendar year and have now lost 34 of 35.

With just one win since November 27th they now have also matched the record for overall losses in a row they previously set over 1981-82 and 1982-83.

"It feels like a bad dream," said guard Daniel Gibson.

Here's some highlights ((or lowlights)) depending on your point-of-view...
It's the end of it all...
((HT: FSOhio/NBA/youtube))


You gotta feel sorry for Byron Scott for taking this gig...

RIP Mo Lucas

Mo Lucas//Courtesy: Roger Jensen-The Orgeonian

Sadly, there are at least a couple generations of basketball fans who probably don't even know who Maurice Lucas is. They should.

Lucas passed away Sunday in Portland, Oregon at the age of 58. He'd been battling cancer off and on for the past couple of years while working as an assistant for the Portland Trail Blazers, the team that he made his mark with.

Here is more on Lucas's legacy in basketball, from OregonLive.com RIGHT HERE

If you haven't seen or heard of Lucas's NBA exploits, you really should look them up. He was the prototype for the 4-man in basketball terminology. The ultimate power forward. Really, he was for lack of a better way to put it, an enforcer. But not in the Bill Laimbeer trying to hurt someone way.

The Blazers teams that he played for in the late 70's, which featured a then healthy Bill Walton and Lionel Hollins....and coach Dr. Jack Ramsay were some of the greatest in NBA history.

We can remember watching the Blazers/Sixers series as an impressionable 12-year old who loved everything basketball. That series featured a Sixer team with Dr.J, George McGuiness, Lloyd (World) B. Free and Darryl Dawkins. But Portland beat them, because they were a better team. And they were a better team...because they had Maurice Lucas.

Checkout this old footage of the Portland/Philadelphia series...Courtesy: Ginoonkamote/NBATV/YouTube:

Poor Grizzlies Fan

We are filing this just because we can. And it's funny. Though it may not be so funny to the guy that it happened to.

To set the stage. During a timeout in the Memphis/Portland game the other night, a fan gets picked out of the stands to run and jump off a trampoline and dunk like the mascots do. He...ummm...well he wasn't so successful.

Thanks Sports Hernia and the Trailblazers for the video.

Oden Likely Out For Season... Again...

((HT: NBA/CSN NW))

This time it looks like a fractured left patella...
Not the tendon, the whole patella...

He was injured colliding with a driving Aaron Brooks midway through the first quarter. Oden and Brooks both went up and Oden's contact was the worst of the two...

Remember, Oden missed his rookie season after undergoing microfracture surgery on his right knee. Last year, he sat out six games after injuring his right foot in the season opener against the Lakers, then missed 14 games after the All-Star break with a bone chip in his left knee.

People in RipCity are just hoping the Sam Bowie comparisons go away...
Here's the injury...

Lamar Odom Gets A Game

The NBA has suspended Lakers forward Lamar Odom one game without pay for leaving the bench area during an altercation.

NBA executive vice president of operations Stu Jackson ruled Tuesday that Odom left the "immediate vicinity" of the bench after teammate Trevor Ariza's hard foul on Portland's Rudy Fernandez with 2.2 seconds remaining in the third quarter Monday touched off a skirmish between the teams.

Odom will miss the Lakers' game in Houston on Wednesday.

Broderick Turner of the LA Times continues...

"We're disappointed with and we disagree with the league's ruling," Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said.

Despite being short-handed, the Lakers got some good news when the league said Ariza wouldn't be suspended for his flagrant foul on Fernandez. Ariza was ejected after laying out Fernandez on a fastbreak layup attempt with 2.2 seconds left in the third quarter and the Lakers down, 83-55.

Ariza was assessed a Type 2 flagrant foul, which carries an automatic ejection.

"Ariza will not be further disciplined," NBA spokesman Tim Frank said."Every flagrant foul is reviewed to see if it warrants a suspension. This was determined not to be the case."

After the Lakers were defeated, 111-94, by Portland, Odom was asked if he was concerned that he might get suspended.

"No, I stayed on the bench," Odom said after the game. "I stood up. I didn't go nowhere. They'll [the NBA] see it and they'll see I didn't go nowhere."
Here's the play and the aftermath...
((HT: CSNW/NBA))

Griz Tell Blazers To Perch And Rotate

Obviously, there is no honor among some General Managers in the NBA...

The Memphis Grizzlies are re-signing Darius Miles ((pictured/thanks Sam Forencich, NBAE)), whose injury is now no-longer career-threatening, to another 10-day contract.

If Miles plays in two more games this season, the Blazers will have to pay out the remaining two years-and-$18-million of his old deal. This would then, by NBA rules, force Portland owner Paul Allen to pay out a dollar-for-dollar penalty for violating the luxury tax guidelines.

Gee, thanks... Now Allen will be forced to sell a few more versions of Vista that people aren't fans of these days.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports looks at it from another owner's standpoint- Cleveland Cavs owner Dan Gilbert. And Gilbert is none too pleased with the Blazers tone of e-mail...

Gilbert admits in an e-mailed response that while the Cavs have no interest in signing Miles, "there has got to be a better tactic than this one."

OSG HQ would suggest that any Blazer who works in their Portland front office not try to get a loan through Quicken any time in the near future.

We Double-Dog Darius You

((HT: Ian Thomsen at si.com))

Okay, so Darius Miles ((pictured, thanks/Joe Murphy-Getty Images)) , formerly of the Memphis Grizzlies was supposed to be hanging them up for good two seasons ago when he was a Portland Trail Blazer. He underwent microfracture surgery to repair his right knee. The injury was considered to be "career-ending" by a medical examiner appointed by the NBA.

But wait... there's more...

He's played in eight games this year with two teams during the exhibition and regular season
- including Memphis who waived him last week so they wouldn't have to pay him for the full season.

If Miles plays in two more games, his old contract numbers roll back to the Portland salary table, they get charged a boatload of money since they would surpass the luxury tax threshold, and they would be out of play when it came to signing free agents next year...

What to do...???

If you're Trailblazer President Larry Miller, you fire off a lengthy e-mail to your counterparts warning them that, as you shake your index finger at them electronically, they better not sign Miles...

To wit... the final paragraph...

"Please be aware that if a team engages in such conduct, the Portland Trail Blazers will take all necessary steps to safeguard its rights, including, without limitation, litigation.''

Don't be surprised if Miles tries to gain employ in a right-to-work state...