Portland vs Denver: 10

Portland 99, Denver 96 (boxscore)

10th straight win

And the Blazers keep winning. Maybe the most significant thing about the streak is that this team is starting to pull out victories even when they don't play their most beautiful basketball, and tonight things went far from perfectly. Carmelo and AI both had it going (34 points a piece). Denver's defense was keyed in on Roy to the point where it was getting ridiculous. There were extended periods of drought. On nights like tonight, they gut it out with toughness and show a knack for stepping up at the most critical moments. Watching this group become consistently timely is absolutely wonderful.

Roy and Aldridge contributed at a fairly steady pace. Roy had about three defenders on him at all times, so used Denver's enthusiasm against them in going 10-12 from the line. When points seemed to come few and far between, Martell always seemed to hit from outside (19 points, 4-8 from 3) to keep the Nuggets from running away.

Travis Outlaw used the end of this game to display exhibit #21378931296B of his growth this season. With Roy absolutely smothered, he became the go to offensive threat. And yes, he accompanied this with his usual collection of clutch rebounds and blocks, including the potential game-tying three.

By the way, I think its time we start recognizing Travis as a 6th Man of the Year candidate. Not that I think he deserves the award over the likes of Ginobili or Terry at this point, but I think he deserves mentioning. In the spirit of what I think the award represents, that is, the bench player that is of greatest asset to his team, he may be the leading candidate. Guys like Ginobili and Terry are more starters that happen to come off the bench, if that makes sense. They play starter minutes, they get starter fame, starter respect, starter money, Ginobili even plays in All-Star games. Do they fit the letter of 6th man? Definitely. The spirit? Not so sure.

Oden and his knee: sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy

I spent the day soaking up reactions to the news and trying to figure out how to react. I can tell you this: it really does suck.

This being the case, I'm tired of all the positivity going around. Oden is gone for the entire year, to a major knee surgery that has been known to end careers from time to time, and apparently we should be upbeat about this. Here's a brief list of reactions I've actually heard/read:

• Hey, we'll probably get another top draft pick out of this!
• LaMarcus will get a better chance to develop!
• We'll really get to see what Channing Frye can do!
• A new chance for some other guys to step up!
• SOME players that got this surgery made AWESOME comebacks!

Wow, we really are lucky this happened! I bet Cleveland fans are way jealous LeBron hasn't had to go through knee surgery. I'm goin to buy scratch-its!

I learned something else. Apparently, anyone who is disappointed about this is an asshole. Let me review this again, maybe I missed something:

The #1 draft pick, a supposed franchise player, will not play at all this season. Because he is getting arthroscopic knee surgery.

So when people fire off frustrations about this, they're dicks? I know we are less and less accepting of people being pissed off, but humor me. I'm not as Vulcan as some. I want to be pissed off a little right now. Let me, and let everyone else. Keep in mind: this really does suck.