Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge are one of the best guard-forward combos in the NBA. (GETTY IMAGES)

Fans in the Pacific Northwest haven’t felt this good since Starbucks introduced the caramel macchiato.

The Portland Trail Blazers are coming off a 54-win season and fresh off a trip to the Western Conference semifinals where they lost to eventual NBA champion San Antonio. Things are looking up in Portland, and expectations for the 2014-15 season are extremely high.

“We’re a good team and we’re a playoff team. We gotta do the things to make us stay at that level,” Blazers point guard Damian Lillard told NBA TV.

“In our team meeting I told the team we need to hold each other accountable. There’s only so much a coaching staff can do,” Lillard said. “You see Miami. You see Dwyane Wade and LeBron James arguing last year in the playoffs. On the outside they’re arguing. But really they’re holding each other accountable. That’s what made them a championship-level team. I think that’s our next step.”

General manager Neil Olshey thought the Blazers could move into elite status in year four of a four-year process, but they’ve actually done it in three years.

“A lot of it comes from the work Terry [Stotts] has done and a couple of impact moves, adding guys like Robin Lopez and Damian Lillard,” Olshey said.

Owner Paul Allen has deep pockets, so the Blazers have unlimited resources to build a championship team. And Olshey thinks they’re close after drafting a franchise point guard in Lillard two years ago to pair with LaMarcus Aldridge, whom Olshey calls the best power forward in the game.

Aldridge and Lillard have quickly become one of the best guard-forward combos in the NBA. It’s the similar model used by Olshey’s former team, the Los Angeles Clippers, led by Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.

The 6-11 Aldridge owns one of the best mid-range jump shots in basketball. He averaged career highs in points (23.2) and rebounds (11.1) last season, and was named to his third All-Star team. Aldridge, 29, is entering the prime years of his career while his teammate, Lillard, is just scratching the surface.

Lillard, 24, followed up his Rookie of the Year campaign with another superb year, averaging 20.7 points and earning third-team All-NBA honors. He’s also earning the reputation of being a clutch performer. The signature moment of the Blazers’ 2013-14 season came during the first round of the playoffs when he sent his team into the second round with his 3-point buzzer beater in Game 6 against the Houston Rockets.

Lillard and Aldridge were one of three teammates to average 20 points per game. The other two were Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and Sacramento’s Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins.

With Aldridge and Lillard leading the charge — and strong support from role players Wesley Matthews, Nic Batum and Lopez — the Blazers have one of the best starting fives in the NBA. Those five guys produced 84 points night after night. The improvement needs to come from the bench, an area the Blazers ranked near the bottom in the league.

Portland added veterans Steve Blake (second stint with the team) and Chris Kaman to the roster during the offseason, hoping to bolster the bench, and second-year guard C.J. McCollum has looked good in training camp and Will Barton continues to improve. McCollum, who can play point or shooting guard, will fill the spot vacated by Mo Williams to provide some scoring punch.

“All our young guys have gotten better,” Aldridge said. “C.J. has gotten better. And bringing Blake and Kaman is going to be great. Steve can help mentor Dame [Lillard] and help bring C.J. along.”

Another area of improvement for Portland is on the defensive end.

Last season the Blazers gave up 102.8 points per game, which was 22nd in the league. Defensive transition has been a point of emphasis in camp with hopes of cleaning up some of the woes that hurt them against better teams.

When you look at the recent history of the Blazers three names come to mind: Sam Bowie, Greg Oden and Brandon Roy. Those are three major investments that didn’t pan out.

Now, it is up to these Blazers to erase the bad memories and blaze a new trail.

Joel Huerto is editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

Oklahoma City All-Star guard Russell Westbrook may not be ready to go until December. (GETTY IMAGES)

Anyone who watches ESPN’s “First Take” knows Skip Bayless’ daily diatribe on Russell Westbrook. Bayless slams Westbrook every chance he gets, pointing out Westbrook’s shortcomings as a point guard and how he is curbing Kevin Durant’s greatness.

Bayless is right about one thing, and that is Westbrook is not a true point guard. What Bayless misses completely is the fact that Westbrook is a unique talent who can’t be boxed into a position. He is more of a hybrid, someone who can play point but not necessarily trapped into that role.

If Bayless was coaching Oklahoma City, he would have Westbrook bring up the ball, hand it to Durant, and get out of the way. This completely wastes Westbrook’s special talent. He’s at his best when he doesn’t have restrictions. Curtailing him would be like owning a Ferrari and letting it sit in the garage.

Westbrook plays with raw emotion and, even though his exuberance leads to mistakes, it is the very reason why he’s such a difficult cover.

Oklahoma City got a preview of what life would be like without Westbrook during the 2013 Western Conference playoffs. Westbrook tore the meniscus in his right knee in the first round against Houston and missed the second-round matchup against Memphis.

Without their All-Star guard, the Thunder were eliminated by the Grizzlies in five games despite Durant’s superhuman numbers in the series that saw him average 34 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.

“Everybody thinks he should be a traditional point guard like a [John] Stockton or a Mo Cheeks (former Thunder assistant coach),” Durant said during the 2011 NBA Finals. “There’s a lot of people that cannot be like Russ, either. We need him to play the way he plays.”

Westbrook’s impact on the court can’t be measured by mere statistics. He is the emotional leader of the Thunder, and his absence definitely altered the entire playoff picture. With him in the lineup, OKC is a championship contender. Without him, the Thunder won’t make it past the second round.

OneManFastBreak.net examines the teams in the Northwest Division and where they’ll finish:

1-OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER

Durant and the Thunder will have to wait until until December to have Westbrook back on the court after he suffered a setback in his rehabilitation process. He is expected to miss 4-6 weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery to alleviate swelling in his right knee. This means the spotlight shifts to third-year guard Reggie Jackson. He showed some flashes of brilliance in the Memphis series, and even if Westbrook returns Jackson could see increased playing time and be a candidate for Sixth Man of the Year. This could be a make-or-break season for Serge Ibaka. The 6-10 forward must become more than just a defensive force and expand his game on offense. Last season Ibaka improved his scoring average by four points (13.2 points), but he did most of his damage from the outside. Ibaka must develop a back-to-the-basket attack and not settle for jumpers. So far during the preseason, Ibaka has shown an improved jump hook and has been more aggressive in the paint. If Ibaka can move up his scoring average around 17-18 points, the Thunder will be the best team in the West and a sure bet to reach the NBA Finals.

2-DENVER NUGGETS

To say that the Nuggets are undergoing a facelift would be a huge understatement. Head coach George Karl is gone. General manager Masai Ujiri is now in Toronto. And Andre Iguodala, the key piece in the Carmelo Anthony trade, left for Golden State. Tim Connelly, who worked in the front office in Washington and New Orleans, takes over for Ujiri and former Indiana Pacers assistant coach Brian Shaw tries to fill in the big shoes left by Karl. Shaw has been passed over numerous times for other coaching jobs, so he’s out to prove to everyone in the league that he’s more than qualified to be the head man. Shaw will rely heavily on a few holders from the Karl regime: Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried, Danilo Gallinari, Andre Miller, and JaVale McGee. Gallinari was initially thought to be lost until February after ACL surgery, but now it’s possible he could return in December. Gallo’s comeback can’t come soon enough, especially with the loss of Iguodala. McGee is expected to be the starter at center, and if he ever stops contributing to Shaqtin’ A Fool segments he could actually be a top-10 center.

3-PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS

If there’s a team in need of some good luck, it’s the Trail Blazers. The team is still reeling from the Greg Oden and Brandon Roy setbacks. Oden was supposed to be the face of the franchise for the next 10-15 years after he was chosen No. 1 overall in 2007. Roy was the Rookie of the Year in 2007 and well on his way to being a fixture at All-Star games until his knees fell apart. Last season, the Blazers hit the jackpot with Damian Lillard. The sixth overall pick in the 2012 draft exploded out of the gates and went on to win Rookie of the Year without much of a challenge. So far, Lillard is as healthy as he can be. That’s the good news. The bad news is the same can’t be said about 2013 draft pick C.J. McCollum. The highly regarded rookie broke a bone in his left foot in practice — a similar injury he suffered while at Lehigh — five days into training camp, and no timetable is set for his return. Sound familiar? The Blazers have been here before, sadly, and hopefully McCollum will be able to overcome this latest injury and not take a similar path taken by Oden and Roy. For three consecutive seasons, LaMarcus Aldridge has averaged 21 points and nine rebounds. Aldridge is so consistently he’s taken for granted and doesn’t get the recognition he richly deserves.

4-MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES

Flip Saunders knows how it feels to be in the playoffs as a member of the T-Wolves because he was there the last time it happened. Saunders was hired by team owner Glen Taylor to run the basketball operations, and he’ll be ready to don his coaching suit on the first sign of trouble. Saunders’ presence in the front office and his long history with Taylor can’t be good for Rick Adelman. All the pieces are in place for Minnesota to have a good season. All the pieces have to do is stay healthy. Kevin Love missed 64 games last season because of a broken right hand, and Minnesota fell apart when he went down. When healthy, Love is regarded as one of the best power forwards in the game. In the two seasons prior to his injury Love averaged 23 points and 14 rebounds. Those numbers earned him a four-year, $60-million contract extension. Ricky Rubio enters his third NBA season and appears to be fully recovered from an ACL injury he suffered in 2012. Rubio is arguably the best passer since Magic Johnson, and those who question that statement needs to watch more T-Wolves games. Rubio is an absolute wizard with a ball in his hands. He loves to set up his teammates, and his teammates love him for it. Rubio’s jump shot, on the other hand, is still a work in progress.

5-UTAH JAZZ

Tyrone Corbin graduated from the Jerry Sloan school of coaching, naturally he takes an old-school approach when it comes to his team. The Jazz may not have the most talented roster but they are disciplined and hard-nosed. Whether it’s Al Jefferson or Paul Millsap or Enes Kanter or Derrick Favors, the Jazz select players who fit their system. Jefferson (now with Charlotte) and Millsap (Atlanta) are no longer with the team, but their replacements are more than capable of filling their big shoes. Kanter may not be as good as Jefferson offensively, but he’s a better defender and equally good on the boards. Favors is a huge upgrade over Millsap. The fifth-year pro averaged 9.4 points and 7.1 rebounds in 23 minutes. Given starter minutes, Favors should be a double-double machine. Gordon Hayward is the only returning player who averaged double digits in scoring last season. Hayward is a decent starting small forward in the NBA, but he’s not what you would consider a No. 1 scoring option. The Jazz were hoping first-round draft pick Trey Burke would be that top scoring option, but his season has been derailed by a broken right index finger that would keep him out 8-12 weeks.

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh have lost five of their last eight games. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The Miami Heat have hit a rough patch in their title defense. LeBron James and Co. have lost five of their last eight games, the most recent one to the Portland Trail Blazers.

Despite leading by as much as 13 points, the Heat somehow let the Blazers hang around and eventually pull out a 92-90 come-from-behind win Thursday night in Portland.  Wesley Matthews made a 3-pointer to tie it at 88 with just under a minute to go, and after a Chris Bosh dunk Matthews hit another three to finally give the Blazers a 91-90 lead. LaMarcus Aldridge missed the first of two free throws with 10.4 seconds left for the final margin.

Nicolas Batum led the Blazers with 28 points, and Aldridge had 20 points and 15 rebounds. Matthews finished with 18 points. The Blazers held LeBron James to 15 points, snapping his 54-game streak with at least 20 points that dated back to last season.

Bosh had 29 points for the Eastern Conference-leading Heat, who dropped their second straight game.

The Heat went into the game ranked second-to-last in the NBA with an average of 39 rebounds a game. Against the Blazers they had 45. In the loss to Indiana in Jan. 8, Miami got outrebounded 55-36. And in a Jan. 4 loss to Chicago, Miami was outrebounded 48-28. Teams are beginning to figure that the best way to neutralize Miami’s explosive offense to keep them occupied on the boards. The one glaring weakness of the Heat is their lack of size up front. Bosh is a power forward playing center and James, who normally plays the wing, has dropped down to power forward for most of the season.

If Miami is going to repeat as NBA champs, the team must address its rebounding problems. To borrow a phrase from Pat Riley, “no rebounds, no rings.”

If Miami continues to struggle to rebound the ball, Alonzo Mourning may be forced to come out retirement.

The Heat are 0-2 on a current six-game road trip, and dropped to 7-8 overall away from American Airlines Arena. Portland was coming off a 125-119, overtime win over Orlando at the Rose Garden on Monday night.

Damian Lillard, the reigning repeat NBA Rookie of the Month, had 10 points and eight assists and became the first NBA player to make at least 75 3-pointers in his first 35 career games since Allen Iverson in 1996-97.

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook may need to carry the load on offense with James Harden now in Houston. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The Oklahoma City Thunder pulled off a shocking trade three days before the 2012-13 season opener. It was a blockbuster trade that will affect the Thunder adversely in the short term, but it was a great move long term. Also, the trade shouldn’t prevent Oklahoma City from winning the Northwest Division.

1-OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER — Kevin Martin isn’t the passer nor the defender Harden is, but he can score and score a lot – if healthy. However, he can’t create his own shot and that’s where a healthy Eric Maynor comes into play since Russell Westbrook is more of a scoring point guard. A healthy Maynor gives the Thunder a better backup point guard and more flexibility on offense, as head coach Scott Brooks can move Westbrook at shooting guard and Martin at small forward to give Kevin Durant some rest. Durant (28 points per game) and Westbrook (23.6 points and 5.5 assists) are still the big guns in OKC, and the season hinges on their success. The other big piece in the Harden trade is rookie Jeremy Lamb, who may be eased into the lineup. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Thunder fall in the second round of the playoffs because they will miss Harden. He was a great facilitator and a scorer when KD and RW weren’t on their A game.

2-DENVER NUGGETS — Signing Ty Lawson to a four-year extension is huge because Andre Miller can’t play 35 minutes per game anymore. This is a talented team that added Andre Iguodala, who should be a great improvement at shooting guard. His defense will help the Nuggets and their depth is pretty impressive when they can bring Wilson Chandler off the bench at small forward to replace Danilo Gallinari. This is a solid team that can go 10 deep. Having said that, this is a team that will probably be a sixth seed and a first-round exit in the postseason is a likely scenario.

3-UTAH JAZZ — This team will benefit from Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love starting the season on the bench with injuries. The Jazz didn’t exactly move the needle with their offseason moves. Marvin Williams and Mo Williams don’t really strike me as big improvements over Gordon Hayward and Devin Harris, especially Mo. He’s a combo guard who is probably best suited to being a sixth man on a good team. But, acquiring Williams makes them a little more athletic and a deeper with Hayward coming off the bench. I don’t see this team being better than a .500 team.

4-MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES — When Love and Rubio are healthy, this team will to be fighting for the eighth seed like they were last year before injuries hit them hard. This season, they will be without Love for about eight weeks and that hampers their chances to make the playoffs. Derrick Williams will be expected to start and contribute more than he has so far in his career. Brandon Roy was signed to provide some offense, but they may need him to do more than originally anticipated. Andrei Kirilenko should be a nice fit as the new small forward as a defender and passer. He will also be expected to pick up some of the scoring slack they lose with Love sidelined. J.J. Barea and Luke Ridnour should be fine in replacing Rubio until he returns. Nikola Pekovic is a nice young center who averaged 13 points and 7.4 rebounds last season. The Wolves may be looking at a 35-win season.

5-PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS — The Trail Blazers continue to be a jinxed franchise. And they are starting over again. LaMarcus Aldridge is their franchise player and he’s the player they are pinning their hopes on to carry the bulk of the scoring after his 2011 season in which he averaged 21.7 points. Damon Lilliard may be a good PG one day, but he is coming from Weber State where great basketball doesn’t come to mind. Wesley Matthews is a solid defender and 13-14-point scorer. Nicolas Batum is a solid role player at small forward, but he may be asked to score more, which isn’t his forte. J.J. Hickson will be playing as an undersized center, but he showed some potential to revive his career when he averaged 15 points (54% from the field) and eight rebounds in 19 games with Portland. The starting five isn’t bad, but the bench is probably going to be one of the weakest in the league with Jared Jeffries, Sasha Pavlovic, Ronnie Price, Nolan Smith, and Joel Freeland.

Darren Jacks is a regular contributor to OneManFastBreak.net. Send him an email at: djroxalot@hotmail.com

Zzzzzzz. Zzzzzzz. Is the draft over yet? Man, that was a snoozer. I think ESPN should re-hire Stephen A. Smith just to give the draft a jolt. That was like watching paint dry. Or, maybe ESPN should hand the draft over back to TNT so we can listen to Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley make fun of all the picks.

Outside of Jeff Van Gundy, who was easily the funniest guy on the set, the draft coverage put me to sleep, not to mention the inordinate amount of sleeper picks (sleeper in a bad sense) NBA teams kept writing down on the card for Commissioner David Stern, and the bald guy who took over later in the evening, to read and announce to a very intoxicated crowd at Madison Square Garden who kept chanting “Jeff!…Van!…Gundy! “Jeff!…Van!…Gundy!”

The NBA Draft was the same old story: the good teams did well and the bad teams … well, to quote Barkley, they were terrrrrible! It’s impossible to opine how well or how poorly each did based on one night, but I’m going to do it anyway because it’s entertaining. OneManFastBreak.net breaks down the winners and losers of draft day.

WINNERS

— Sacramento Kings: GM Geoff Petrie is one of the best talent evaluators in the business and he landed the second-best player in the draft in Kentucky big man DeMarcus Cousins with the No. 5 pick. The Kings play in a division that includes the world champion Los Angeles Lakers, who boasts one of the biggest and tallest frontcourts in the league, so it was extremely important for the Kings to get bigger and stronger up front to compete with the Lakers. Cousins (6-11, 290) can complement 2010 Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans, giving the Kings a solid inside-outside punch for the next 10 years. There were questions about Cousins’ lazy attitude, but as Van Gundy pointed out, you can’t be lazy when you average 10 rebounds in 23 minutes. The Kings also took Marshall center Hassan Whiteside (6-11, 215) with their second selection, adding more length to their roster.

— Washington Wizards: The Wizards instantly became better by selecting Kentucky point guard John Wall (6-4, 195) at No. 1. Wall is not only the best player in the draft, but he is also the most charismatic. He is a leader and plays with a ton of energy, which the Wizards severely lacked last season after Gilbert Arenas was sent home for bragging about his gun collection in the arena. Washington also improved its roster by reportedly bringing in guard Kirk Hinrich, who is expected to be dealt next month by the Chicago Bulls to the Wizards in a cap-clearing move. With Wall, Arenas (assuming he’s on board with the team this season) and Hinrich, the Wizards have a dynamic three-guard rotation. The Wizards also added two physical frontcourt players in Clemson’s Trevor Booker (6-7, 240) and frenchman Kevin Seraphin (6-10, 255).

— Oklahoma City Thunder: OKC enters the 2010-11 season one big man away from seriously contending for an NBA title. Heck, they took the Lakers to six tough games with Nenad Krstic as their starting center so anyone with a pulse should be an upgrade. Thunder GM Sam Presti picked up Kansas center Cole Aldrich (6-11, 245) via a trade from New Orleans and then traded for 20-year-old center Tibor Pleiss (7-0, 220) of Germany. Aldrich is a strong rebounder and defender, and should contribute immediately for head coach Scott Brooks. Pleiss is a project they can stash in Europe for a year or two. Euroleague guru Fran Fraschilla compares him to Rik Smits. And for their second-r0und selection, the Thunder drafted Louisiana Tech’s Magnum Rolle (6-11, 225). You can’t go wrong drafting a guy named Magnum.

— Los Angeles Clippers: This is the only time of the year when the Clippers trump the Lakers on the front pages of the L.A. sports sections. The Clippers hold a draft lottery party every year, it seems like, and most of their picks normally end up as fodder for stand-ups at The Laugh Factory on Sunset Strip. But this season, whoever is doing the picking, the Clippers made some solid decisions. Wake Forest’s Al-Farouq Aminu (6-8, 205) is a capable small forward and Kentucky’s Eric Bledsoe (6-1, 190) is not a starting point guard, but he could be a decent backup. But the biggest news of the day in Clipperland is that Blake Griffin, last year’s top overall pick who missed the entire season because of a knee injury, has been cleared to play.

— San Antonio Spurs: Year in and year out, head coach Gregg Popovich and GM R.C. Buford make excellent picks in the draft and this season is no different. With the 20th overall selection, the Spurs took Oklahoma State shooting guard James Anderson (6-5, 210), who many consider as the best shooter in the draft and San Antonio badly needs guys who can put the ball in the basket. Then, with the 49th pick, the Spurs nabbed center Ryan Richards (6-11, 230) from England. San Antonio has a history with picking international gems, and Richards could turn out to be a steal.

LOSERS

— Portland Trail Blazers: Billionaire owner Paul Allen fired GM Kevin Pritchard on the day of the draft. Then, to add salt to the wound, he made Pritchard work the rest of the night. On his final shift as Blazers GM, Pritchard selected Memphis guard Elliot Williams (6-4, 180). A lame pick for a lameduck GM. But who could blame him? The Blazers also traded small forward Martell Webster to Minnesota for forwards Luke Babbitt (6-9, 225, Nevada) and Ryan Gomes. Gomes could be a nice player, but Babbitt could be another Luke Jackson.

— Minnesota Timberwolves: The Timberwolves keep taking athletes who like to run, but then they try to fit them in a triangle. It won’t work. I’d like to think Syracuse forward Wesley Johnson (6-7, 195), taken fourth overall, will be a stud but, for some reason, I keep seeing Hakim Warrick or John Wallace. Outside of Carmelo Anthony, Syracuse players tend to flame out in the NBA and Johnson could fall into that category.

— Orlando Magic: The Magic selected Kentucky center Daniel Orton (6-10, 255) in the first round. Orton averaged 3 points a game as DeMarcus Cousins’ backup and had trouble with keeping his weight down. Now, unless Orlando has plans of trading Marcin Gortat, they now have a logjam at the center position. Dwight Howard, obviously, is the starter and Gortat is an excellent backup. So where does that leave Orton?

— Atlanta Hawks: The Hawks not only didn’t address their needs in the frontcourt, but they seem to be planning for life without All-Star Joe Johnson. Atlanta swapped first-round picks with New Jersey, acquiring scoring guard Jordan Crawford (6-4, 195), and then took Pape Sy (6-7, 225) from the Senegal in the second round. Jordan Crawford is basically Jamal Crawford, so the Hawks have too many Crawfords on the roster.

— New York Knicks: The Knicks might as well have taken the day off because they basically have put all their chips in the LeBron James sweepstakes. Andy Rautins (6-5, 193) and Landry Fields (6-5, 185)? Are you kidding me? That’s the best they can do? It’s LeBron or Bust in NYC.

— University of Kentucky: Coach John Calipari was shedding a tear a little bit Thursday night. For one, he was happy his guys all went in the first round. Secondly, he knows he’s got some serious rebuilding (or reloading) in Lexington. But don’t feel too bad for Coach Cal because he’s got another stout freshman class coming in this season.

Eight days after undergoing knee surgery to fix a torn meniscus on his right knee, Roy returned to the basketball court and played in a pivotal playoff game at the Rose Garden.

OK, maybe it wasn’t quite as dramatic as the Willis Reed moment at Madison Square Garden and Roy wasn’t dragging his leg around the court. However, Roy’s miraculous return was a moment Blazers fans won’t soon forget.

Roy scored just 10 points in the game, but the 26 minutes he spent on the court gave the Blazers a huge emotional boost, carrying them to a 96-87 victory over the Phoenix Suns and tying the series at 2.

Portland didn’t expect Roy to return so quickly and were prepared to go without him in the first round. But he jogged on the court with his teammates for warmups after getting cleared by his doctors. He then entered the game with 4:06 left in the first quarter and the Blazers seem to feed off the crowd’s excitement.

“We got our main guy back. Knowing that he was out there, I thought our guys were calm. I thought we played the game that we needed to play,” said Portland coach Nate McMillan, whose team has been besieged by injuries all season long, but Roy’s amazing recovery has given the Blazers a shot in the arm – or leg.

“I just didn’t feel right, you know, sitting in the training room knowing that I could contribute. So I just had to keep getting back at Coach,” said Roy, who played the entire fourth quarter.

“I was going to do everything to get out there on the court. I felt good out there on the floor, making some moves and just trying to get my rhythm back. I was just happy we got a big win. LaMarcus did a good job of carrying us.”

Roy’s presence certainly helped LaMarcus Aldridge, who hit 11 of 19 shots from the field and scored a game-high 31 points.

“As soon as he checked in the game and made his first open shot I said, ‘Thank God he’s back.’ Just having him out there is so big for us because any second he could get going,” said Aldridge, who added 11 rebounds.

Though Roy should be commended for even braving through a painful injury such as this one, the Blazers’ management and coaching staff should overrule their star player and tell him to shut it down for the rest of the season. It’s the smart thing to do and the right thing to do.

“I want to play,” Roy told the Associated Press. “It’s the playoffs. You play 82 games and take a beating just to get to this point.”

Roy, the franchise player for a franchise that has been ravaged by injuries this season, suffered a similar injury while at the University of Washington. The injury will require surgery, which will sideline him for four to six weeks.

Roy’s knee trouble is the latest in a long line of Blazer bad luck this season.

Starting center Greg Oden and his backup Joel Pryzbilla were lost for the season because of serious knee problems, and there is no certainty that both will be ready next season. Forward Nicholas Batum missed a great portion of the regular season with a shoulder injury and guard Rudy Fernandez has been nursing a tender back.

The injury bug also hit Blazers coach Nate McMillan, who ruptured his Achilles’ tendon during practice earlier in the year. 

Thirteen different Blazers have missed a combined 305 games because of injuries this season, second in the league only to the Warriors.

Even though the doctors have said that Roy cannot do more damage to his knee, which he injured last Sunday against the Lakers, the injury is serious enough that it will handicap him and the Blazers when he’s on the court. He won’t be able to jump, cut or change direction with the same speed and it could also put added pressure on his other knee if he tries to compensate.

So, the best strategy here is to play the healthy guys and hope for the best. Roy’s health should be the top priority and the Blazers shouldn’t risk the rest of his career for one postseason run.

Maybe next season the Blazers should hire a witch doctor to eliminate all the bad omen.

Before his year was cut short, Oden was among the league leaders in field goal percentage (60 percent) and blocks (2.3) and was averaging 11.7 points per game. He missed his entire rookie season because of microfracture surgery and sat out 20 games last season due to foot and knee problems.

Oden’s latest setback is just one of several injuries for the depleted Blazers. Forward Nicolas Batum has yet to play after shoulder surgery, forward Travis Outlaw fractured his foot in mid-November, forward Rudy Fernandez is out 4-6 weeks after undergoing surgery to alleviate pain in his right leg and head coach Nate McMillan recently ruptured his right Achilles tendon during practice.

McMillan was participating in practice because the team is so short-handed.

Despite all his shortcomings and inability to stay upright for an entire season, the Portland Trail Blazers are still a better team with Oden in the lineup.

In the 61 games Oden appeared in 2008-09, the Blazers were 40-21 and gave up just 94.1 points per game, which is 2.2 less than what they allowed during the season Oden sat out after microfracture surgery.

“The potential for this team is all going to depend on how fast Oden grows,” said NBA TV analyst Eric Snow. “The faster he grows the closer [Portland] gets to the championship. That’s how important he is to this team.”

During the preseason, Oden averaged a team-high 13.6 points, 9.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks. I know it’s the preseason, but Oden needed to start somewhere. He is still very raw on offense, but he is moving better and seems to have the spring back in his legs.

The Blazers’ defense and rebounding have been stellar this season thanks to Oden. Portland is holding its opponents to 90 points per game (second behind Charlotte) and has a rebounding margin of 5.2 (tied for first with Memphis).

Now, the Blazers must push forward the rest of the season without their young franchise center.

Rookie center Greg Oden has been in and out of the Portland lineup this season because of an unsteady knee. (GETTY IMAGES)

The comparisons are justified and the start of their careers are becoming eerily similar, leading me to believe that Greg Oden is the HD version of Sam Bowie. Ouch!

Back in the 1984 NBA draft, the Portland Trail Blazers committed a basketball sin when they took Bowie, a 7-footer out of Kentucky, and passed on some really good shooting guard out of North Carolina, who just wowed everyone during the ’84 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Hakeem Olajuwon was the first player taken in the draft and then the Trail Blazers selected Bowie over Michael Jordan. The Blazers reasoned that they already had a budding stud at shooting guard in Clyde Drexler and clamored for a big guy.

Portland has not been able to live down the selection of Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan in the 1984 draft.

Blazers management asked for the opinion of Jordan’s Olympic coach, Bob Knight, to get a feel for their option 1A. Knight told Blazers brass that Jordan was the real deal and he’s a can’t miss prospect that could become super, super star. Portland gave Knight the same reasoning, saying the ballclub had a pressing need at center. Knight replied: “Put (Jordan) at center. He’s that good.”

Fast forward to the 2007 NBA draft where the Blazers were caught in the same predicament. The consensus choice was to take the 290-pound center from Ohio State, Greg Oden, instead of the wiry high-scoring forward out of Texas, Kevin Durant. So far, Oden hasn’t had enough court time to warrant a debate. Durant is the modern-day George “Iceman” Gervin while Oden can’t seem to escape the shadow of gimpy Trail Blazers big men such as Bowie and Bill Walton.

Whether it’s some sort of curse or just really, really bad luck, the last 30 years has not been good to Trail Blazers’ centers. Walton helped the franchise win its only NBA title but his career has been rendered incomplete because of a chronic foot injury. Bowie’s plight has been well documented, then came the tragic death of Kevin Duckworth last April. He was just 44 years old.

Oden never had any knee problems in high school, and although he missed nearly half of his season at Ohio State because of torn ligaments in his right wrist, his knees were sound during his one season in Columbus. But just months into what would have been his rookie season in the NBA in 2007, Oden went to have his knee scoped but doctors discovered that he needed microfracture knee surgery to repair the damage.

The injury bug just kept following Oden. In his first NBA game, he sprained his ankle during a nationally televised game against the Lakers. Then, his knee started swelling up, causing him to miss two weeks.

That’s when the Bowie parallels became surfacing.

Statistically, Oden and Bowie are equals. In fact, Oden’s stats are slightly lower than Bowie’s. In 48 games, Oden is averaging 8 points and 7 rebounds. He has missed 21 games this season. Bowie averaged 10 points and 8 rebounds during his rookie year in 1984-85. He played 76 games that season. The next three seasons, Bowie’s leg gave out and he was limited to 38, five and 20 games, respectively.

Frustrated by the injuries and his inability to live up to the massive hype bestowed upon him since draft day, Oden has looked lost, at times, and can’t seem to stay upright long enough for Blazer fans to feel good about his future.

The future is bright for Portland, with young studs such as Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Travis Outlaw, Nicolas Batum and Rudy Fernandez blazing the trail. Just not sure if Oden will be a part of that future.