Blazers Win Season Opener
Sunday, May 02, 2004
DELTA CENTER, UTAH -- Shareef Abdur-Rahim could not wait to get on the floor for his Blazer debut. “I was jumpin’ up and down before the game…I just couldn’t stop fidgeting around,” said the 6’9” forward from Cal. Maybe that helped him, as SAR, coming off the bench, scored 22 points on 10 of 16 shooting, grabbed 10 boards, and dished out 6 assists in 27 minutes, to go along with being named Player of the Game. Not at all daunted by pre-season rumors of him being shipped north to Seattle for Brent Barry, SAR showed up big in the first half, rallying the Blazers back from an early deficit of 11-2 to a double digit 2nd quarter lead.
“His versatility to play both the 3 and 4 spots really helped us out, and his unselfishness on the court was one of the main reasons we won this game,” said Portland head coach, Mo Cheeks. Jerry Sloan, head coach of the Jazz, added, “Abdur-Rahim was all over the court, driving, posting up, taking jump shots…none of our guys could stop him.”
It was, however, another Portland big that took over in the fourth quarter. “Z-bo (Zach Randolph) was a monster in the 4th…he was out there just dominating the offensive glass and converting post opportunities,” chirped Cheeks. After a quiet start with struggles on offense, rebounding, and defense, Randolph exploded late in the 3rd quarter (just when the Jazz were catching up), where he dominated Kirilenko, Collins, Ostertag and anyone the Jazz threw at him. Randolph also grabbed a team high of 3 offensive rebounds, all with less than 5 minutes to play, and led the team in blocks, with 2 (Theo Ratliff, Dale Davis, and Qyntel Woods all had 1 apiece).
Speaking of Woods, the young man was 3rd on the team in scoring with 16 points. After an amazing Summer League where he lead all players with 28.3 points a game, Woods first entered the game late in the 1st quarter, with Randolph, SAR, and Anderson taking a breather on the bench. No worries, as Woods used his quickness and athletic ability to drive past Jazz players time and time again. “Qyntel was our spark plug out there…and our main scorer with some of our main guys on the bench,” responded Cheeks when asked about Qyntel’s play.
Cheeks also added, when a reporter posed the question of how he felt of his team’s play, “I thought we played great tonight. I thought we could use some work on some part of our game, like our boxing out the defensive end, or our team defense, but I thought we did a good job overall on both sides of the floor.” Sloan seemed to agree, “We had a tough time stopping their weapons…guys like Woods and Miles were on the break all the time, our low post defense just wasn’t good enough tonight to stop SAR and Z-bo…guys like SAR and Stoudamire did a nice job feeding their other players down low for easy buckets. I thought Carlos (Arroyo, 24 points on 11 for 18 shooting and 7 assists) played a great game though, nothing against Damon or Dan Dickau, but Carlos really lit them up tonight.”
Notes: Arroyo led all scorers with 24, and Giricek had 15 points for the Jazz, who shot as a team 40.5% from the field. The Blazers were led by SAR (22), Z-Bo (18), and Woods (16), while shooting a 58% clip from the field. Both teams struggled from the line, although neither team reached the line often (Utah had 3 attempts, Portland had 8). The Jazz took a team record of 39 3’s in the game, making only 6…Giricek was 3 for 15 and Hapring was 1 for 12 from behind the arc…Damon struggled with his jump shot until hitting a clutch 3 with under a minute to go that sealed the game for good…
Copyright 2003 The Oregonian
Box Score
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Portland
Pos. No. Name Pts Mins FGM FGA FG%
PF 33 S. Abdur-Rahim 22 27 10 16 .625
SG 1 D. Anderson 9 25 4 8 .500
C 34 D. Davis 0 8 0 0 .000
PG 7 D. Dickau 0 6 0 0 .000
SF 23 D. Miles 6 12 3 4 .750
SF 25 T. Outlaw 0 0 0 0 .000
SF 21 R. Patterson 0 0 0 0 .000
PF 50 Z. Randolph 18 25 9 18 .500
C 42 T. Ratliff 6 21 3 3 1.000
PF 11 V. Stepania 0 0 0 0 .000
PG 3 D. Stoudamire 9 27 3 10 .300
SG 24 Q. Woods 16 14 8 10 .800
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Portland
Pos. No. Name 3PM 3PA 3P% FTM FTA FT%
PF 33 S. Abdur-Rahim 0 0 .000 2 2 1.000
SG 1 D. Anderson 1 3 .333 0 2 .000
C 34 D. Davis 0 0 .000 0 0 .000
PG 7 D. Dickau 0 0 .000 0 0 .000
SF 23 D. Miles 0 0 .000 0 0 .000
SF 25 T. Outlaw 0 0 .000 0 0 .000
SF 21 R. Patterson 0 0 .000 0 0 .000
PF 50 Z. Randolph 0 0 .000 0 0 .000
C 42 T. Ratliff 0 0 .000 0 0 .000
PF 11 V. Stepania 0 0 .000 0 0 .000
PG 3 D. Stoudamire 1 1 1.000 2 4 .500
SG 24 Q. Woods 0 0 .000 0 0 .000
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Portland
Pos. No. Name OReb DReb Rebs Blk Stl Ast
PF 33 S. Abdur-Rahim 0 10 10 0 0 6
SG 1 D. Anderson 1 3 4 0 0 6
C 34 D. Davis 0 4 4 1 0 0
PG 7 D. Dickau 0 1 1 0 1 2
SF 23 D. Miles 0 2 2 0 1 1
SF 25 T. Outlaw 0 0 0 0 0 0
SF 21 R. Patterson 0 0 0 0 0 0
PF 50 Z. Randolph 3 7 10 2 0 4
C 42 T. Ratliff 0 7 7 1 0 0
PF 11 V. Stepania 0 0 0 0 0 0
PG 3 D. Stoudamire 0 3 3 0 0 7
SG 24 Q. Woods 0 1 1 1 0 1
Game Stats- Code: Select all
Entire Game Portland Utah
Points 86 76
Bench Scoring 38 3
Field Goals 40/69 34/84
Field Goal % .580 .405
3 Point FG 2/4 6/39
3 Point % .500 .154
Free Throws 4/8 2/3
Free Throw % .500 .667
Rebounds 42 35
Off. Rebounds 4 8
Def. Rebounds 38 27
Blocks 5 4
Steals 2 3
Assists 27 15
Turnovers 10 5
Fouls 7 7