Sheed couldn't make it today, so he asked me to fill in and get the team back on track after an ugly one in Philly. Back to backs are tough, but it's always good to have the opposing team in the same boat. The Nets stand at 19-20 having just lost in Boston by 32 last night. We need to take care of business in this one, as anything worse than 3-1 on this trip would be disappointing.  Also, check out NetsDaily.com for opposing team coverage.

Well that was quite the disaster.  How many times can a team get way down in the first quarter and expect to make a full comeback?  The Blazers have been awful in first quarters lately and tonight was one of the worst, with an even worse end result.

I'd first like to say that it's bad luck for me to have to listen to the first quarter at work.  I endured Wheels making call after call of Portland turning the ball over then Philly getting an easy bucket.  It was really ridiculous, at one point, down 15, Wheels sort of gasped and made a sound/comment of disbelief.  It was just an atrocious start that continued to a dismal half time score and then of course a blow-out victory for Philadelphia. I'm over it, tomorrow will be very important, we shouldn't lose back to back games against below .500 teams.

Box Score

Dave's Recap at Blazer's Edge

NBA.com Terribleness

Blazers transition defense.	Brandon and LaMarcus playing better tonight.
Philly hitting a season high 11 threes.
Blake getting injured.
Bayless & Sergio being equally bad in relief.
Outlaw shooting 3-10 and 1-4 from the free throw line.
Oden, 2 points and 3 rebounds, what?
Philly D just crushing our gameplan.
Perhaps a little overconfidence?
16 turnovers to the Sixers 9 for the game.

TrueHoop and Blazer's Edge are talking Mark Cuban today, pretty hilarious that he actually told J.R. Smith that it's not OK to throw elbows.

The Blazers are ranked 3 on this NBA.com assessment of the best offenses.

Finally an article from a logical perspective, thank you Ball Don't Lie and Kelly Dwyer.

The ESPN Rookie Rankings aren't feeling the Blazer rookies, Rudy is 6 but Greg at 10 now?

Just like the Blazers and Portland fans weren't happy with the Celtics, the Raptors aren't happy either.

Casey Holdahl has the 2nd of his 6 pieces on Travis Outlaw, so far so good.  Travis is hilarous and Casey found a timely topic.

Channing caused me to be speechless with this. Must see TV.

Pre-Thoughts from RCP, let's not have a repeat of last year.

15 thoughts from Blaze of Love, epic photoshop work on the Elton Brand picture. I kid, I kid!

Eddy Curry talk from A Stern Warning, strange happenings from the big man in New York.

The Trail Blazers roll into Philadelphia tonight on a three game winning streak, including a win on the road in Chicago.  Not to be outdone, the Sixers have also been playing well, winning four straight and five of their last seven. The Blazers won on Monday by getting major contributions from Travis Outlaw, Greg Oden, & Steve Blake.  Roy and Aldridge had off nights which bodes well for the Blazers tonight.  Those two will not have another bad game.

There is also the swirling Darius Miles situation.  I don't think it's a distraction at all for our players, simply something for the blogs and the media to discuss.  Brandon Roy is going to let the East Coast know that he should be an All-Star tonight.

As far as Philly goes, they are playing very good basketball.  They've beaten a few good teams including the Rockets and Hawks.  I seriously doubt it can continue for long considering Brand is on the shelf for a month.  Look for the Blazers to actually establish dominance early and get a solid win

For the last few days, Ben at Blazer's Edge has been holding a hush hush interview over the heads of the B-Edge readers.  Well, Bust a Bucket is proud to announce that Ben got Clyde Drexler to do an interview!  I would say that for a site like ours, which is based on the early 90's era, that is the #1 interview of all time.  Well done. Anyway, plenty of good questions and answers, here's my favorite exchange as it relates to my feelings on Jerryd Bayless.

Blazersedge: Have you gotten a chance to see Jerryd Bayless play?

Drexler: Bayless is awesome. I got a chance to see him in college at Arizona. I think he's going to be one of their top five players next year.  I really do. Because he has major skill level and it just takes awhile for the guards to get adjusted in this league.

Also, Ben asked a good question relating to Mike Rice, our one and only interview, which we still appreciate very much.

Blazersedge: Last question because I know you've got to run: do you have any message for your color commentating colleagues with the Blazers, Mike Barrett and Mike Rice?

Drexler: Tell Mike Rice, that the only thing I learned from Mike was how to talk noise. [laughs] He's one of the all time great guys. I love Mike. You tell him I say continued success.

One last thing, Clyde Drexler also did a chat on ESPN today. Our very own BaB reader Kevin AKA Scotty B! had his question answered by Clyde. I personally love this question and my answer is 9 championships.

Kevin, Portland, OR: If Arvydas Sabonis had come over immediately after he was drafted in 1986, do you think you would have won a title with the Blazers?

Clyde Drexler: We would have had four, five or six titles. Guaranteed. He was that good. He could pass, shoot three pointers, had a great post game, and dominated the paint. And he would have been younger. He was very effective in the NBA as an older player who had suffered an ankle injury.

Here's the whole chat: http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=24592

Players have come and gone in the short time that Kevin Pritchard has been the General Manager of the Portland Trailblazers. The GM/Player relationship can be a fickle one, much like real life relationships. Some are good, some are bad and some are train wrecks. When these relationships end you’re always left asking the same questions: What just happened? How did it end? Do I hate them? What’s on their MySpace?

It’s only natural to wonder how your Ex is doing; Kevin Pritchard and his former players are no different. These are his “Ex Files”.

Lived Together – Jarret Jack

Oh what could have been? When we first met things were rocky for both of us, we were at the bottom of the league and he was looking to prove himself. We moved in together right after college, unsure of what we wanted or where we were going, but it didn’t matter because we were doing it together. We thought we both wanted the same things, but over time something happened, we changed. We didn’t mean for it to happen and we’re not really sure when it happened but it did, and there’s no going back. We’re not the same people anymore and we have different needs. It’s great to see that you’re doing well in a similar role with the Pacers, we’re happy for you, really we are. We know that you want to get back together but it’s not going to happen, we’ve moved on. Please stop calling.

One Night Stand – Von Wafer

What a night! We’re not sure how we ended up together but we certainly didn’t plan on it. You were there, and then, in a blink, you were gone. Did you use us or did we use you? It doesn’t really matter, for one magical night you played 32 minutes and had 5 boards and 11 points on 4-10 shooting (2-5 from 3-pt!). We got what we wanted, we got the win. We hope you were equally as satisfied but we’re not too worried about it. We heard from someone that you just got your contract guaranteed for the rest of the season by the Rockets. Wonder if we would have been good together…

Dumped Us – James Jones

What did we do wrong? We cleaned up our act. We stopped hanging out with all of those bad apples. We’re going places, Baby! If you don’t want to be a part of that, then that’s fine but stop pretending it’s because of something we did. We gave you everything you ever wanted, but it was never enough. More money? It was always about the money with you. One day you’ll learn that money isn’t everything. Don’t come crawling back to me when you’re broke and out of a job, ‘cause we won’t listen. You had your chance. How’s Miami (Pssh, like they’re going anywhere)? That was rude, we didn’t mean that. You’ve got our number.

Old High School Girlfriend – Zach Randolph

We were just kids when we met, that was high school! We had a lot of fun, but we both knew it wouldn’t last forever. We were going to college in the fall and you were going to stay here and get your Aesthetician Certificate. We really wanted to make it work, but you wouldn’t stop hanging out with your friends, your Hoops Family. When we were together we used to blame them for pulling you down, but we can see clearly now and we know that you’re no different, you’re just like them. You had so much potential but you’ve wasted it. You’ll never learn. We couldn’t stay around and watch you throw your life away. We feel sorry for you, really we do.

The Stripper – Sebastian Telfair

When we first laid eyes on you we knew you were special. You could do things that no one else could, you stood out from all the rest. You had so much potential. It was all window dressing and we should have known better. We thought that we could change you and harness that talent, take you away from the hard life that you knew before. But you don’t want to leave that life, do you? Trouble seems to surround you like a black cloud, constantly following you and tainting all that is good about you. We just weren’t strong enough to save you, too much damage had already been done. We still think about you at night and all that you could have been. Be safe.

The Closing Time Pickup – Jamaal Magloire

When we first got together we couldn’t believe our luck. You were standing there at the end of the bar looking so good. Sure, we were 10 beers deep and they were closing the place, but we liked what we saw and we wanted you all to ourselves. We’re not sure what happened after that but the next morning we had the worst headache. We crawled out of bed looking for Tylenol when we heard you rummaging around in the kitchen making breakfast. We smiled and peeked inside to admire what we had pulled off the night before, only to be horrified by what we saw. You weren’t some gorgeous woman from the end of the bar, you were a hideous beast. As we sat and watched you devour the entire breakfast like a black hole we wondered how on earth we were going to get you out of our house. Finally we got you to leave, but now we’ve got to spend the rest of our days hearing our friends how awful you were. We have to keep reminding them that you used to be an All-Star.

The Bitter Divorce – Darius Miles

Has it come to this? We have to get the lawyers involved now? Can’t we just both admit it was a mistake and move on. Things happened so quickly. You were young and we were young and we thought we were going to set the world on fire, but it didn’t happen. You never really lived up to your potential and you dragged us down in the process. We stayed faithful and tried to motivate you but you weren’t having it. You were a lot more selfish than we thought and everything was about you. Sometimes it is best to make a clean break, but you can’t even do that right can you? Hurting us isn’t going to make you feel better. You need to be happy for our success and move on with your life. You’re young and you’ve got your whole life ahead of you. Go find what makes you happy and stop trying to drag us down. You’ll be hearing from our attorney.

Last Monday CDub mentioned something to me that I thought was interesting.  He said we needed to interview Mike Rice. I thought it was a great idea, so during courtside, as many of you know, I shot them an e-mail and hoped for the best. Mike graciously accepted my request and he agreed to meet me before the game against the Warriors on Saturday. I met Mike at Schonely's Place at 5pm and he took me down to the court so we could do the interview courtside while Joel, LaMarcus and Brandon were shooting around. It was my first official Bust a Bucket interview and Mr. Rice made it a great first effort. He also agreed to do a little spot for the website which is posted below and on the right sidebar. I'd also like to publicly thank Mike one more time for being such a great announcer and a great guy, a hybrid of sorts.

We took a bunch of the questions submitted by our readers, the reader who submitted each question is labeled right after the question below.

PS. Last but not least, after the interview with Mike I was able to finally meet up with Ben from Blazer's Edge. He was sitting courtside by the Warrior shoot-around, getting shoe and tattoo pictures, it was good to finally meet one of the masterminds behind Blazer's Edge. Also shout outs to Mike Acker from Trailblazers.com, Michael Tillery from the Portland Observer, & Zach, our man with the Red Bulls. Anyway, let's get onto the interview, Mike Rice's responses are all in italics, enjoy!

If you look at the teams who have won NBA championships over the past few years like the Celtics, Spurs, and Heat--you can see that each one had a player that opposing fans would call "dirty".  Do we have a player who is scrappy, clutch and hard working like that? Someone like James Posey or Bruce Bowen. Is that a piece we still need? (T. Boyd)

Each team had their own philosophy of how to win and most of those included a physical philosophy, you can't be pushed around. If you look at the Blazer team, probably the only guy that fits that mold is Joel Przybilla. He has the philosophy, most of the guys are young and they really havent found the best way to win basketball games. I think Nate McMillan is an old school coach and will agree with you that we need a player that's more physical on the outside, we don't have one yet. I think Kevin Pritchard would look at that and think we need somebody more physical, it is one of the things we need. We have to get more physical if we are going to be a championship contender.

What are your feelings on Travis Outlaw?  I know he is well liked by his teammates but do you see him in the long-term plans? (DPJones)

Travis has been [in the league] for this is his sixth year, and I think Travis has improved his offense every year. He's getting better. I think to help this team take another step he needs to improve defensively. We haven't seen that as much as we've seen in his offense. I think whether he stays or not will depend on how much he improves his defense the rest of this year. That will determine whether he's with us in the future.

Regarding trades, who do you see as a more expendable player, Sergio Rodriguez or Jerryd Bayless? Both are certainly trade bait, but which one would fit in with the future of our team? (O Storm!)

Well, I think Jerryd Bayless is the type of player that will make up the Blazers future. I think he's hard nosed, he's a competitor, he's a modern day basketball player who can get to the rim and shoot foul [shots] like Brandon Roy, he can shoot outside, I think he'll be around for a long time. Unless, there is a super star involved in the trade and the other team wants Bayless, that's the only reason they'll make the trade. Otherwise I see him here. Sergio Rodriguez, it just depends on what the Blazers do in the trade market, whether he stays.

Who are your favorite Trail Blazers of all time? (Friend of the Blog Jerry)

I enjoyed Danny Ainge, I enjoyed Terry Porter, Clyde Drexler.  Simply because they were guys that when you weren't on the basketball court, you were traveling or had dinner with, you could talk basketball with them.  They were guys that knew the history of the NBA, who had played in the NBA, who did well.  There are a lot of modern day players that really don't know the NBA before Michael Jordan.  And so I enjoy those three a lot.  I enjoy, modern day, Brandon Roy.  I think Brandon Roy is the type of super star that every team is looking for.  He's friendly off the court, he knows the history of the NBA, he's appreciative of what he has, so he'd be the modern day guy I really enjoy being around.

Who is the better radio play by play man, Schonely or Wheels? (CDub)

You know, it's interesting.  My career here with the Blazers, I've been with Schonely and Eddie Doucette.  They were two of the great old time anouncers.  Eddie Doucette was with Milwaukee for years and he introduced the phrase, "Sky Hook" and so he had a great past.  And Schonely, of course had "Rip City."  And in the modern day, Wheels is the modern day guy.  The type of anouncer that has, you know, Schonely had "Rip City," he has "Boom-Shaka-laka."  They're very much the same.  I think Mike Barrett is also in that category.  He does tv now and you don't have as many sayings on tv, but I think Mike Barrett is a modern announcer along with Wheels.  But I don't think you can pick a best, they were all super announcers.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't have a signature sign off phrase when the Blazers win do you? What do you think about, "We're eating steak tonight!?" Any other ideas? (Scotty B!)

Well, you know, that's infringing on the play-by-play guys' territory.  Play-by-play guys make up nicknames, they have signature phrases, where analysts know the game.  They shouldn't jump in over a play-by-play guy.  For instance, when he's making a final call:  "The shot is good!" and he goes crazy.  Cause if you break in there, that's really not your job.  An analyst on tv talks a lot.  A lot more than radio.  A radio analyst hardly talks at all because you can't see the game, so the play-by-play guy has to do most of the talking.

So have you ever broken in on the play-by-play guy?

On tv, yes, because in tv, you're kind of allowed.  They can see it.  And Barrett lets me have a lot of room to work.  A good television play-by-play man is very difficult because you got to know when to let the analyst in.  You got to know what to say.  It's two completely different jobs.  It's easier for me to be a television analyst because you get to talk more.  On radio, you hardly get to say anything at all.

It's not too often that a player gets drafted (1962, 8th round) by the NBA but doesn't even attend training camp, do you have any regrets about not giving the NBA a shot?  (CDub)

Not really.  I blew out my knee right before I was supposed to go.  Otherwise I might have gone cause really, there were only eight teams in the NBA at the time, so I was really a second-round draft pick in today's world.  When I blew out my knee, I got a coaching job immediately, and I had to make a decision... Rehab my knee and go back to the NBA or take a coaching job?  And I took the coaching job.

I know you're a big golfer, a 6 handicap is pretty impressive, over the years have you played with any Blazer players? Who were the most memorable? (CDub)

Yeah, I've played with all of them.  Terry Porter and Ainge were the best golfers.  And almost everybody plays; Clyde Drexler, Buck..  They all played golf.  Today, the young guys really haven't gotten into that.  The last 3 or 4 years, I can count on one hand...  Even Steve Blake's dad is a 2 handicap and Steve Blake doesn't play, and you would think he would play because his dad plays all the time.  Modern guys don't take their clubs.  When I used to go on road trips, all the players took their clubs.  Especially... Greg Anthony was another guy that I played with all the time on the road.  But today, I take my tennis racket and I play with Barrett tennis cause it's too tough to find anyone to play golf with.

Okay, so golf courses around Portland, what's one of your favorites?

I like The Reserve, you know, I've played every course there is in the city, or almost in the state. Everyday I find something good about any golf course I've played, I really don't have a favorite, anywhere that's free.

You're the only announcer to ever get kicked out of a game. I have to ask you about this, as some young blazer fans have never heard about it. Can you share the story with us? (More info on the incident here)

At the time, Steve Javie, the official, was a young official.  That previous week he had kicked out a mascot, a fan, and kicked somebody else out, a trainer or something like that.  He was on a roll that week, he had made a call, and I looked on the monitor and saw it was a bad call on Cliff Robinson. I kind of put my hands like that [two hands waived at the official] and he ran over, Cliff thought he was going to call a technical on him, because Cliff was standing there doing the same thing. He ran by Cliff and that's when he kicked me out of the game, the rest is history.

Have you talked to Javie since the incident?

No, We have not talked since that day, it was probably 12 years ago, 10 years ago something like that, we have not talked since. Javie really doesn't have a...I wrote a big article in our Rip City magazine about...I didn't call it Steve Javie...I talked about the abuse of power, and we made up a story about it and I think he had read that and we have not talked since.

What is your relationship with Mike Barrett off the court? I think you perfectly compliment each other on the air, but what about when the cameras aren't rolling?

Yeah because, a lot of the old time announcers did a lot of sports, Dick Stockton would do football on a Friday and basketball on a saturday, you know they bounce around a lot.  The guys I worked with, Wheels, I worked with Wheels for about 5 years, and Barrett are career basketball people. They know the game as well as analysts do. You can go down and talk basketball with Barrett and he really knows the game, they study the game. They're not looking for there next [game], like the announcer for the Lakers, Joel, he's probably doing football this weekend and so he really doesn't live basketball like Wheels and Barrett do.

What are your thoughts on the NBA game compared to when you played and/or coached?

The athletes are so much more talented as far as athletic ability. Because of that, they don't have to know the game as well, it's not pass and cut. It used to be you had a lot of people on the team who could pass the basketball now you have one or two, and the are designated to do the passing, other guys shoot.  It's almost specialized, in the old days, guys did a couple more things, your inside guys could rebound, but they could have post moves and all that stuff like that. The athletes are just more specialized and bigger and stronger then they used to be.

Sometimes radio and TV analysts claim to not be a fan of the team, I sense that you are one of the biggest Blazer fans around? Am I correct in this assumption?

Well, in the NBA, it's not like we're on TNT or CBS, we work for the Blazers. Every announcer who does local TV works for their team and gets paid by their team. So, if you're not a fan of that team and you don't really deep down hope they win, you probably wont have a job long, simple as that.

Are you much of a computer guy? Do you ever read any of the Blazer fan blogs?

I spend about 3 hours a day on the computer and mostly I read articles from every city. Every day I touch base with every team in the NBA. I read something about the other 29 teams everyday. I want to see what our fans are thinking so I do read the chat rooms and I read the blogs. I'll read what Canzano says in his blog, or Quick and what the fans comments are to those, I'll read Barret's blog. So I do that, in order to keep up with your own fans you have to do that.

If you could sit down with any person in the world, sports or otherwise, who would it be? why? What would you talk about?

I think right now it would be Obama, I think he's as interesting as it gets today, to see what makes him tick, to see what his other interests are. If it weren't [Obama], it would probably be someone like Ghandi to see what his world views are and how he thinks the world will survive. It would be Obama [though].

Have you ever seen our site, BustaBucket.com?

Yeah I have, Barrett showed me. You know I wasn't that familiar with it. (Me: It's pretty new) Yeah yeah it's new, I will follow it from now on. Because now I know of it. As soon as I know of something I put it down so I can click right on it.

In response to discussing the song Bust a Bucket: I'll tell you, we played it the other day, where was it? (Me: It was on when Terry Porter had his number raised) Yeah, yeah that was it, I looked up and thought, damn, that's Bust a Bucket.