The Think Tank

*** Update***
I uploaded the photos to the friends.thinktankgallery.com.  You can click on the image at left or click on the Think Tank Gallery link at the top of the page to see the rest.
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Its all even now!!

All-Star Brandon Roy returned to the floor tonight in a surprise for fans and the Pheonix Suns alike, helping the Blazers defeat Phoenix 96-87.   He had a decent game, nothing to get all excited about, but having him back seemed to insipire the Blazers as much as it vexed the Suns.

Despite the hubbub of Roy’s return, it was  LaMarcus Aldridge who stole the show with his game-high 31 points and 11 rebounds.  The Suns had no answer for him at all.  The rest of the team played the sort of basketball that Blazer Maniacs have been dreaming of since Game 1,  limiting Amare Staudamire’s effectiveness, keeping a man on Steve Nash at all times and forcing players like Jaren Collins to beat us.  Those players couldn’t get it done.  Thankfully Jason Richardson finally remembered that he is a streaky player and came back down to earth.

We controlled the tempo, crashed the boards, got in Phoenix’s face from time to time (gotta love that Bayless flagrant, even though it wasn’t really a flagrant), and limited the Suns to only 4 fastbreak points on the night.

All in all it was another outstanding performance from the Blazers on TNT.  The way the year has gone, if we could have played all of our games on TNT we’d probably have won about 65 games this year.

I brought my camera with me this afternoon, so I’ll update this post in a bit with some pics.

Game 5 will be in Phoenix on Monday night, and Game 6 will be back in the Rose Garden on Thursday.

Go Blazers!!!