Since Brandon Roy knows he can’t go back, he’s trying his best to look forward.
Two days after admitting that he was on the brink of tears due to his limited role in Tuesday’s Game 2 loss to the Mavericks, and that he “always thought I’d be treated a little better,” the Trail Blazers shooting guard addressed the media to reflect on those comments.
The conclusion?
“It was something that maybe shouldn’t have been said,” Roy said at Thursday’s pregame shootaround. “I’ll apologize to our fans if I offended anybody, but it was just me being disappointed in losing games, and I just wanted to be out there to help.”
Roy said that he did not talk to his teammates about the remarks and that everybody’s trying to look ahead to what’s really important — which was getting back into this series.
“This is a minor distraction to what Dallas is actually doing,” Roy said. “I think everybody’s focus is ‘how can we beat Dallas?’ ”
Roy went on to say that he is generally a slow starter but will look to get going as quickly as he can. He said that after the substantial amount of playing time (26 minutes) he received in Game 1 of the series, that he had hoped to capitalize on some things in Game 2 — and while he was “frustrated,” understands that McMillan sticking with the starters down the stretch was “part of the game.”
“I got caught up in the emotions of being a competitor,” Roy said. “If I don’t play that much, I gotta be OK with it.”
The Rose Garden was seemingly forgiving, giving Roy a huge ovation when the video scoreboard showed his face before the Thursday’s game, then a bigger one when he checked into the game.
He responded with nine points in the first half on 4 of 5 shooting.
Feed your horse
LaMarcus Aldridge came into Game 3 averaging 25.5 points per game in the series, but took just three field goal attempts in the fourth quarter of Game 2. This was certainly not strategy.
Blazers coach Nate McMillan confessed Wednesday that his team got away from its game plan, trying to exploit certain matchups when it should have been going through Aldridge the whole time.
He reiterated that point before Thursday’s game.
“We have to understand who the ball needs to go to and not get away from what got us here, which is going through LaMarcus,” McMillan said. “The guys on the floor have to make reads.”
Dallas coach Rick Carlisle predicted that Aldridge would get a lot more opportunities Thursday, and the Blazers did run most every play through him early on, giving Aldridge scoring opportunities and freeing up Wesley Matthews for that epic first quarter. But does the burden fall on Aldridge at all? Is it up to him to essentially say “give me the ball?”
He says no.
“We have different flows in the game. Gerald (Wallace) might have a good matchup or (Andre Miller) has a good matchup,” Aldridge said. “When it’s time for me to get it, I end up getting it.”
Loud crowd
Carlisle also was asked how influential the Rose Garden crowd was vs. other arenas. He was quick to give it props.
“It’s as good as any crowd I’ve ever been involved with, and that goes back to my experience as a coach here,” he said. “If you’re a player for the Trail Blazers, this fan base is one of the byproducts of being here.”
