Armchair sports pundits who have criticized the somewhat spacey play of Blazer forward Travis Outlaw are now going to get to see what the team can do without him. Travis has broken the same bone in his foot that kept Martell Webster off the court all last year, and that means no Ennio Morricone fanfare at the Rose Garden for the next two months, at least.

It will be interesting what Coach does to the lineup with one of his very favorite bench players in sick bay. And star Brandon Roy, who's been looking a little down in the mouth lately for other reasons, has one more cause for a funk; he was clearly disappointed that Outlaw, his close friend, will be missing.

After Outlaw went down the other night, Webster got only 11 scoreless minutes of play, and that's got to be a concern. One wonders whether he is still not 100% in the foot department. Which leaves Juwan Howard -- a calm and experienced veteran, but not somebody who's going to be running the fast break with Andre Miller, that's for sure. Maybe Rudy Fernandez will quit pouting and use his extra court time to become a major scoring machine. We Blazer fans can only hope.