The Portland Trailblazers Win Their 10th Straight In Dramatic Fashion

Martell Webster scored 19 points while Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge each added 18 to help the Portland Trail Blazers extend their winning streak to 10 games with a 99-96 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Friday night.

With the game tied at 94, James Jones made the second of two free throws with 36.2 seconds left.After Roy blocked Anthony's try, Travis Outlaw made a pair of free throws to give the Blazers a 97-94 lead. Iverson's driving layup with 6.9 seconds left narrowed the deficit to one.Jarrett Jack made a pair of free throws to extend the lead back to three before Linas Kleiza's 3-pointer was blocked by Outlaw for the final margin.

Portland, which has the longest current winning streak in the NBA, has not won as many consecutive games since the Blazers were victorious in 12 straight in the 2001-02 season. Portland started the streak with a win Dec. 3 at Memphis, after going 5-12 to start the season. Seven of the 10 wins have come at home, where the Blazers are 12-3.

The Trail Blazers beat some pretty decent teams as well in their streak, including Denver twice, Utah Twice, New Orleans, and Toronto. They also pulled ahead of Utah for second in their division and are a mere half game behind Denver for the lead.

Spurs Open Season With a Win

The San Antonio Spurs did what they do best, win basketball games. On the night they were celebrating their most recent NBA Title, they beat the Portland Trail Blazers 106-97.

Going into this game we knew what to expect from the Spurs. More dominance this season, and they are going to be there when it comes time to decide who is playing in the NBA Finals. What I did take out of this game is how good the Trail Blazers can be. Think about the fact that Greg Oden is not there this season. LaMarcus Aldridge is a freak of nature waiting to dominant the pain. Brandon Roy is a fantastic player that needs to be a shooting guard, not a point guard.

This team will not make the playoffs next year, but if they can get a lottery pick, and draft a PG they are going to be a force in the next 2-3 years.

But lets go back to the Spurs. How good is this team? It seems they win over 50 games every year, they make it deep into the playoffs, and throughout the season all we hear about are the Suns and Mavericks. How come they do not get the respect they deserve? This is a team who has been as dominant in their sport as any team has been over the past 8 years. I think they are going to do the same this season. People will over look them and talk about the more flashy teams. But I promise you this. To make it to the Finals, you are going to need to get through the Spurs first.