Return of G-Od.

So, last night was another big NBA night. Dwight Howard had a monster line in their win over the Durant-less Thunder, posting 30-19-3-10, that last 10 being a ridiculous 10 blocks. The Lakers (sadly) also won their 7th straight, and was nearly a 20+ pt road blowout for most of it before the Hornets made a push and a game of it in the 4th.

The biggest news items though were probably the return of Greg Oden and the "fight" between the Rockets and Suns.

Oden only played 16 minutes and looked very rusty. He had a measly 3 pts, 2 rebs, 2 blks, 2 TOs, and sadly the ONLY negative +/- for the whole Blazers team at -6. His first stint was in the 2nd quarter and defensively he looked fine. Blocked a shot, altered a few more, generally okay. On offensive though, it was just plain bad. The Blazers kept trying to force feed him, even when he clearly was not in post position or did NOT have his guy pinned. The good news is that when he did catch the ball, Oden almost always drew a double/triple team from the heat, the bad news is that Oden passed very poorly out of coverage. Anyway, all of that led to a lot of TOs, deflections, and poor/rushed attempts after bumbling away most of the shot clock. He and the Blazers offense clearly looked uncomfortable out there and I don't understand why McMillan is rushing him in his first game back. Why not just let him get into the flow of the game, play D, rebound, MAYBE get a put back or two (if he can snag those o. boards). Wait until he's in shape and comfortable before calling plays for Oden. His second stint, Oden just looked tired/winded on both offense and defense, at that was that. Still though, I have high hopes and expectations for Oden and I'm sure his best days are still and will come. For any doubters/haters out there, Oden is not Bowie, Kwame, or Kandi at all. He's legit and he's gonna be a force in this league.

While Oden underwhelmed last night, Rudy Fernandez was AMAZING! 25-3-2, 2 stls, on excellent percentages. He's gonna make the Rookie team this year for sure, though probably below Rose and Mayo for guards. Though imho, if Rudy was on the Grizzlies and was getting 35-40 minutes and a green light to shoot, he'd probably be putting up as good or maybe even better numbers than Mayo.

Rudy is a baller and each Blazers game I watch this year, I am constantly saddened and reminded about the completely ineptitude of the Phoenix front office. For those that don't know, Phoenix actually had the draft rights to Rudy in the '07 draft. Except cheapskate Suns owner Robert Sarver, who's always worring more about the lux tax than winning games, decided to sell Rudy's rights to Portland for $3 mil cash and a dump of James Jones' $3 mil expiring contract. So basically, they sold Rudy for $6 mil. Right now, I'd rather have Rudy than Barbosa on the Suns. Rudy is a bigger and more natural SG guard, just as good of a shooter, arguably a better passer, younger, and so much more clutch. Bah, if I was going to rant about the PHX front office and their draft/trade decisions, I'd go on forever so I'll just stop now.