WASHINGTON – The Trail Blazers lost a game here Monday afternoon, but they also scored perhaps a more important victory.
The victory was that Brandon Roy walked out of the Verizon Center without a limp, and the Blazers' long term outlook on the season hadn't been compromised, no matter how much a 97-92 loss to the lowly Wizards was tough to swallow. (See Blazers game story.)
See, about an hour before the game, as he left the court after a 30-minute warm up, Roy boldly declared his strained right hamstring was healed enough for him to play.
"I'm going to go," Roy said as he left the court. "I feel like I'm good enough to try and go, and hopefully I can play through the game. It's one of those things where unless I play I just really don't know, so I would rather go out there and give it a shot."
It wasn't the all-systems-go one might have hoped for, but it was enough to momentarily give general manager Kevin Pritchard and coach Nate McMillan a quick jolt of optimism.
But there was one word in Roy's post-workout assessment that perked the ears of athletic trainer Jay Jensen: Try.
Roy told Jensen he thought he could try and play. Instantly, Roy knew he had played his cards wrong.
"Jay said, 'Well if you are saying you want to give it a try, I don't think you are ready to play. I'm going to get coach,' " Roy said.
This was serious business, after all. Roy is the franchise player. Usually, as Roy goes, so too do the Blazers, who are now 14-26 all-time when he doesn't play.
As Jensen left the training room to get McMillan out of his office, Roy sat back and looked at the ceiling.
"I thought, 'Oh boy. I should have chosen my words differently,"' Roy said dejectedly.
Down the hallway, before Jensen had reached him, McMillan was borderline jubilant. I had told him Roy said he was going to play.
"That's all I need to hear," McMillan said, smiling.
But after Jensen reached him and told him the uncertainty in Roy's voice, McMillan's mood changed. He immediately headed to the training room.
This time, McMillan ran Roy through the questions. How are you feeling? How much does it hurt? What are the things you can, and can not do?
"All the while, I'm looking at his face," McMillan said. "There was some doubt there."
Roy said the room got silent. For a good while.
"It was like a minute," Roy said. "All of us, just kinda quiet. Then I guess everyone went big picture."
McMillan broke the silence and made the executive decision.
"He looked at me and said 'Nah. Not tonight,' " Roy said.
After the Blazers couldn't hold a 73-70 lead entering the fourth, when they were outscored 27-19 down the stretch, McMillan said he had no regrets.
"Our plan is if we can hold him for a couple of games, it's better than losing him for a month," McMillan said.
Even if it meant hurting their playoff standing by losing to lowly Washington (14-26).
"The key is long term," Pritchard said. "We weren't going to sacrifice the rest of the season for today. It's not worth it."
Jensen said if Roy would have played and aggravated his injury from a strain to a tear, the team could count on missing their star for two-to-four weeks, at least.
Now, with Tuesday's off day before Wednesday's game at Philadelphia, Roy will have nearly seven days since he last played against Milwaukee. The feeling between McMillan and Jensen was if they had survived holding Roy out for four days, why not make it six?
Come Wednesday, though, Roy said there will be no debate. No training room quiz. No nothing.
"I'm going to play," Roy said. "Not try. I'm playing Wednesday in Philly."
Posts
