BLAZERS CLINCH PLAYOFF BERTH DESPITE LOSS TO ROCKETS

It was a good news/bad news situation for the Portland Trailblazers on Sunday.  The bad news?  They lost to the Houston Rockets 102-88 at the Toyota Center.  The good news?  Dallas beat Phoenix, which clinched a playoff berth for the Blazers for the first time since 2003.  Being a ‘glass half full’ type of team, the Blazers were more focused on their postseason achievement than on their regular season loss.

Yao Ming led the Rockets with 21 points and 12 rebounds, and he got a lot of help from his teammates with four other Houston players scoring in double digits.  Luis Scola posted 16 points, Ron Artest 15 and Aaron Brooks 14.  Reserve Von Wafer chipped in for 10 points, and Chuck Hayes had a nice contribution with 9 points and 10 rebounds.

Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge led Portland with 22 points apiece, but the usually productive Blazer supporting cast was ‘missing in action.’  Reserve Travis Outlaw, who has become one of the best ‘sixth men’ in the league during the stretch run, added 15 points as the only other Blazer to score in double digits.   After the game, Brandon Roy said that the big picture was more important than a single loss:

" We're in the playoffs. We're happy about it."

Center Joel Przybilla, who has been an extremely valuable contributor in the absence of Greg Oden for lengthy stretches this season, elaborated on Roy’s thoughts:

"Of course, we would have rather won, but we're still in the playoffs. For guys that have been here a while ... through a lot of the downs, it's very gratifying for us to know we're going to get in the playoffs and hopefully get in there for a lot of years to come."

As Przybilla noted, the future looks extremely bright for Portland—they’re the youngest team in the league led by two second year players in Roy and Aldridge.  With a legitimate chance to finish as high as second in the NBA’s Western Conference this season, the prospects for greater success in the future is almost limitless.

Now that the Blazers have clinched a playoff berth, coach Nate McMillan stressed to his charges that there’s still work to be done:

"I congratulated the guys for getting there, but our work is still not done. We have a chance for home court and we have to keep working at it."

The Blazers’ play two more on the road during their current trip, heading to Memphis on Tuesday and San Antonio on Wednesday.  They’ll return home on Friday to face the Los Angeles Lakers at The Rose Garden Arena.  Houston leads Portland for fourth place in the conference by ½ game and face a tough challenge on Tuesday as the host the Orlando Magic.  They’ll head to Northern California for two games after that, playing at Sacramento on Thursday and Golden State on Friday.