Sunday night the Blazers are getting healthy at the expense of the Los Angeles Clippers, which is a good team to get healthy against. It will snap a six-game losing streak that has seen some ugly play out a Blazers team many thought would rebound this season.
There are injury issues in Portland — Gregg Oden and Brandon Roy have no good knees between them — but that doesn’t explain the lackluster efforts. Coach Nate McMillan admitted he might be part of the issue to the Oregonian, describing a conversation after the team’s Friday loss to the Wizards.
“Evidently, they’re not responding to me, because all these games look similar,” McMillan said. “So I asked them: ‘Is it clear what we’re asking you to do?'”
His words were met with blank states and silence
“They didn’t say anything,” McMillan said. “The thing is, they didn’t have to say anything. I think the games show that. We’re not getting it done.”
This comment from Brandon Roy isn’t helpful either.
“Everybody’s at a loss for words,” Roy said. “Coach (Nate McMillan), he doesn’t know what to say to us. And we don’t know what to say to one another.”
There have been people such as the Oregonian’s John Canzano who have suggested that McMillan’s coaching seat is getting pretty hot. It may well be because this has been a disappointing season for the Blazers and they can’t just fire the players to shake things up.
McMillan can coach, but sometimes after a while teams start to tune coaches out. A new voice can deliver the same message but in a different way and it gets through. Sometimes that is needed. It may be getting close to that time in Portland, unless they can play the Clippers every night.
