Boston 93, Portland 78

I expected more from the Portland Trailblazers.

[recap] [box score]

Rarely are you going to seen an NBA team -- never mind a team that has the second-best record in the West after 20 games -- play as poorly as Portland did last night in the last few minutes of the second quarter and then the third. Boston went on a 21-0 run at one point, as Portland went seven minutes without a point and nearly ten without a field goal. 21-0 runs and droughts of that kind just don't happen in the NBA, but they did last night, as Portland failed in transition defense and in genearting any sort of good shot on offense. Just a lot of standing around on both ends from the guys in the black jerseys.

The story of the night turned out to be Glen Davis living up to his Big Baby nickname and crying on the bench. If you weren't watching, about midway through the fourth quarter, Portland had cut a big lead to 13, in large part due to some poor play by the Boston bench. Upset at this, Kevin Garnett laid into the reserves during a timeout, and at one point, a visibly angry Davis left the huddle and went to the end of the bench, where he could be seen with tears in his eyes as he agitatedly yelled about something.

We don't know what Garnett said and as the game ended everything appeared to be okay as Davis exchanged a high-five with KG as the latter came off the court. However, Garnett said in a post-game interview that Davis was upset about some things, and that, in so many words, he needed to accept his role and stay within it. I don't think it's ultimately a big deal, but it deserves a few words.

The last several victories in this 11-game winning streak have come on the back of our starters, with very little help from the bench. I am sure this bothers Garnett, as he knows that we're going to need the bench if we want to win the title. As a team leader, part of his job is to do, essentially, what he did to hold the reserves accountable for their performance.

In Baby's defense, however, KG can be pretty abrasive and is probably prone to saying some pretty harsh things. Baby is a sensitive kid -- he's only 22 -- and he admires Garnett greatly; it's understandable that KG's criticism might grate on him a bit.

That's particularly true if Davis isn't comfortable with the role he's currently playing, which would be understandable. Despite his girth, Davis spent most of his college career at LSU playing in the high post. With Patrick O'Bryant apparently not ready to contribute yet, Davis and Powe are the only bigs off the bench. These two, who are really undersized fours, are being asked to play the four and five together.

Wednesday against Indiana, Davis missed a handful of 17-foot jumpers, a shot he had been taking (and making) recently. That's the game Davis would rather play, shooting from outside and using his footwork -- remarkable for man his size -- to move toward the basket. I think it's safe to say that KG, at least, feels that Davis should lay off those shots, and that this fact was made known between Wednesday night's game and Friday's.

I think the Boston locker room will take care of any disagreement between Garnett and Davis; KG himself said in the postgame that he'd "get real deep" with Davis to try to understand what he's going through. Davis will take some ribbing from teammates for his emotional reaction, and will probably get similar treatment in the media and from the opposition. That's not really a big deal.

The only issue will be getting or keeping Davis happy with his role on this team. Although I'm more of a Powe guy, we need Davis to play valuable minutes of the bench, even if he is playing out of position.

Next game is Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern against ... Indiana, again. This has been a ridiculously tough stretch for the Pacers, as this will be their fourth game since Tuesday against the best three teams in the NBA. No national TV for this one. No national TV for this one and I've got my contracts final to study for, but I'll watch the game on the Internet and post if anything noteworthy happens.