1. This was an awesome game which also puts us in a tie with Utah for 4th place in the West. But why can't the Blazers do this against Minnesota and the Pacers?

2. While the Blazers have shamelessly promoted Oden all year, Joel Pryzbilla has emerged as a real defensive force in this league. The organization should start a movement to get 'Zilla named to the all-defensive team, if not defensive player of the year.

3. After watching Trevor Ariza's foul on Rudy about 50 times (that's at least how many times CSN showed it), my impression is that Ariza appeared to be going for the ball. However, I was watching the game in a pub and couldn't hear what the Blazer announcers said.

Well said Jack.

Agreed that it was a great game. And Ariza's foul was definitely a flagrant 2, though it seemed more reckless than malicious. Not sure where you're getting the "gangster wannabe" descriptor from, other than Ariza is a black dude with some tatoos (including one of his mother's name--gangsterism at its worst!). Going to UCLA seems pretty un-gangster too, though maybe things have gone really down hill since Woodin?

Ariza appeared to be going for the ball.

When the guy is past you, and the only way to "go for the ball" is to clock him across the head and hook him under the arm, you let him have his layup. If you deck him, you're a punk. Particularly when you're down 30 points.

But the Lakers have always been punks. It comes with the purple uniform.

I don't want to say anything too emotional right now that I'll regret later, so let me just say that Kobe is the anti-Christ, Phil Jackson is a serpent, and this Trevor Ariza is the spawn of Satan. I'll have more to say once I calm down.

The brain doners got caught up in this after their coach let the dogs loose. Bill hit the nail on the head with the serpent simile.

I would love to say that was a terrible flagrant foul by Ariza ( I hate the Lakers), but just like Gil, I saw the replay dozens of times, and he was going for the ball. The guy did not deserve to get ejected.

You don't go for the ball on a play like that by extending your arm completely out to your right side away from the play and then swinging it in as hard as you can, raking the player on the head. Batum makes this block-from-behind play regularly and he never does that. This was someone delivering a blow.
It was a viscous cheap shot and I'm glad Rudy wasn't paralyzed.

"Going for the ball" was just an excuse to bring the hammer down on him from behind while he was in the air. There was no way he was going to get the ball without also clocking him in mid air. He intended to hit him and hit him hard. Even Phil admitted it was a clear flagrant in the LA Times today. That was a very dangerous play and one that merits a multi game suspension.

Totally not a Flagrant Foul.
I'm a big fan of the Blazers, and Rudy's skills on the court and I was at the game, had a great view of the play, plus the couple of replays we got because they didn't want to show it over and over.

Ariza was going for the ball all the way. Watch the replay again, Rudy was up in the air, arms extended up and out with the ball. Ariza, jumps swipes his hand towards the ball and hit Rudy's hand and ball. He didn't hit him anywhere else, didn't undercut him, didn't tackle him, just hit him at the hand (ball) and the follow through of Ariza along with Rudy's arm changed Rudy's momentum and Rudy whent down hard.

I feel bad for Rudy, but it was only a foul, nothing more.

A player can 'go for the ball' and yet, simultaneously take a dude's head off... it's still a flagrant. At best the move was reckless, at worst it was thuggish. Really, that was frustration getting to the Lakers.

Ball don't lie.

This isn't the first time other teams have flagrantly hacked Rudy on a breakaway drive to the basket, though often it's not whistled that way. Guess they hate that slight Spaniard showing them up...

At the Game,
"He didn't hit him anywhere else"? Time to upgrade those seats. He almost snapped his head off.

It was no doubt a Flagrant 2 because Rudy was way past Ariza with a clear path to the basket when Ariza grabbed/hooked Rudy's right hand and pulled him to the ground. The still photo on the front page of the Oregonian sports section clearly show's Ariza's hand "hooked" around Rudy's hand before Ariza held onto it and threw Rudy to the ground. Anyone who has played basketball knows the difference between a hand and a ball. The egregiousness of the foul was compounded by the fact that Rudy was going full tilt at the basket in a very vulnerable position. The game is dangerous enough as it is without jerk's like this out putting people in the hospital. I'm going to the game next time the Lakers are in town, and I don't care if I have to sit in the frikin' rafters with binoculars, but I'm going to scream my lungs out in support of the Blazers.

I loved the Lakers in the 70's and 80's - but I lived in San Diego at the time. I think today's Lakers are the equivalent of the 1980's Celtics - talented butchers (later to be replaced by the notorious Laimbeer-Rodman Pistons).

I'd be interested in the perspective of a 1980's Portland resident on the "showtime" team. Michael Cooper was admittedly a thug, but the rest of the team was, although perhaps a bit (:)) arrogant, clean playing.

And I still remember the heartbreak of 1977, as "Kareem and the seven mules," despite winning more regular season games than anyone else, where shut out in four by the Commie Hippie and his flock, coached by a Richard Nixon impersonator!

It was a viscous cheap shot and I'm glad Rudy wasn't paralyzed.

I fail to see the relevance of the foul's viscosity. However, I, too, am glad Rudy wasn't plagiarized. I think that was Norm Crosby.

The foul was recklessly dangerous, if not intentionally.

cc,
You got me. I need a computer with brain check.

How quickly one forgets Casey Stingel.