Roy Turns Back the Clock as Dirk Disappears

I hope everyone was able to catch at least the end of Portland and Dallas's great game.  It was a must win for Portland as they do not want to be heading back to Dallas down 3-1.  Aldridge, who Blazers have been riding since start of this season, had a subpar game settling for way too many long jumpers.  It looked like the game, and series, was all but over until Blazers, led by Brandon Roy, had the 2nd biggest 4th quarter comeback in playoff history.  Roy turned back the clocks and put the team on his back after only playing 8 minutes in game two and many people, including me, writing him off as player way past his short prime.  Roy's 4th quarter performance has to be the greatest story to come out of the first round whether Portland wins the series or not.  Nowitzki had a better and worse game then numbers show.  He routinely made extremely difficult shots throughout the game and anytime Blazers switched on pick and roll he abused whoever was covering him (Batum caught it the worst).  He also dissapeared in the 4th as did their huge lead.

Portland went into the fourth down by 18 after not being able to buy a basket in the third quarter.  Blazers started the 3rd going 0/15 and did not get their first field goal until 1:31 left in the quarter.  They ended up being outscored 30-14 in the third.  The fourth quarter ended up being the complete opposite as they could not miss and shot 75%.  Roy scored 18 of his 24 total points in the 4th on only 10 shots, and had the 7 final points for the Blazers.  This still does not do his performance justice.  To really show Roy's 4th quarter dominance I have to copy this impressive stat from ESPN.

Brandon Roy either scored or assisted on 14 of the Blazers' final 17 made field goals and accounted for 33 of the team's final 43 points (76.7 percent) to help erase a 23-point deficit. This after scoring two points, with zero assists over the first 33:30 of the game.

This is also including this Larry Johnson like 4 point play to finally tie the game with 1:05 left in the game.

Nowtizki on the other hand was no where to be seen.  He had 4 total fourth quarter points and did not have a field goal attempt in the final 6:45 of the game.  He was double teamed once (assist to what looked like nails in the coffin 3 by Terry) and had mismatches throughout the fourth that he just simply did not try to take advantage of.  I challenge anyone to find me another first option and offensive threat of Nowitzki's caliber (There only about 7) that would not even attempt to take over as the game slips away.  While Nowtizki's badly timed disappearance didn't help, he can't take all the blame for the epic breakdown.  You have to wonder why Rick Carlisle, Mav's coach, went away from pick and roll with Nowitzki or Marion as they both got great position and match ups during first three quarters because of it.  Dallas fans are also surely going to point to the two horrible calls by the refs late in the game.  Chandlers fifth personal foul on Batum on what should of been a steal and changing an out of bounds call in what had far less then indisputable evidence to give Portland the ball.  Regardless, while those calls were blatantly bad, this game was Dallas's to choke away.

Heading back to Dallas tied 2-2 the momentum has to be in Portland's favor.  It is now a best of 3 with 2 games in Dallas.  If Portland can steal one of those games and take the series Dallas, and Nowitzki, will have lost in the first round as the 1st seed ('07), 2nd seed ('10), 3rd seed ('11).  Not quite the sweep a player is looking for.