The injury bug has made a permanent nest in the Blazers' starting lineup this season, taking out All-Star (Brandon Roy) and role player (Joel Pryzbilla) alike all season long. Portland hopes to have Roy back for a weekend Texas road swing, but during his absence, Webster has made his presence felt.
Blazers fans have always been teased by Webster's seemingly limitless shooting range and athleticism, but like most young players, consistency was an aspect of the game lost on Webster. He missed all but one game last season after breaking a bone in his left foot and having reconstructive surgery. The emergence of rookie swingmen Nicolas Batum and Rudy Fernandez in his absence also seemed to spell trouble for Webster this season.
Yet, oddly enough, Webster (and guard Andre Miller) are the only Blazers to have played in all 46 games this season. Webster, who has started 37 games this season, trails only Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge in that department. For all his improvements in the health department, though, Webster has made a bigger impact in his confidence with his shot this season.
Though he went through a rough shooting patch in December (making only 34.6 percent of his shots), Webster hasn't tried to change his form or do anything drastic with his game. He's using his athleticism to not only help his scoring touch, but he's become one of the team's best one-on-one defenders. In fact, aside from Pryzbilla and Greg Oden, Webster is the team's best shot-blocker and is among it's best rebounders, too.
Webster's teammates have noticed his growth as this season and see there's even more he can accomplish.
"When he gets it going, he really gets it going," Aldridge told The Oregonian. "And I feel like people are really starting to see what he can do when he finds his rhythm. I think that as he gets older, as he matures and as he learns the game more, the sky is the limit."
NBA.com's Five on the Rise is a weekly look at which young players (and resurgent veterans) have yet to reach stardom, have regained the form of their younger days and, most of all, have made the biggest impact for their team in the last week. These rankings are just one man's opinion and are released every Thursday during the season. If you have an issue with the names on this list, or have a question or comment for Jeff Case, send him an e-mail.
| G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
| 47 | 28.7 | 11.1 | 4.0 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.6 | .402 | .379 | .784 |
While the Blazers didn't have a particularly memorable week (they went 1-3 with losses to playoff contenders Boston, New Orleans and Utah), Webster impressed us with his big game against the Pistons (which Portland won). It was that game that was a perfect example of the change in the shooting guard from years past. He nailed a career-best seven 3-pointers and had a career-high 28 points, but more telling was that his monster night followed up a fairly-solid 19-point effort in an OT loss to the Celtics. In January, Webster has scored in double-figure in all but one game (a two-point, 1-for-9 stinker in a win over the Sixers) which is easily the best strech of his career. True, we'd like to see Webster not focus so much on the 3-pointer (he's attempted 438 shots this season, 240 of which are from deep), but his role in Portland is to open up space in the middle for LaMarcus Aldridge and the other bigs -- when they're actually healthy. Now that Batum is healthy, Roy is likely on the mend and Fernandez is always a threat to see minutes, we're interested to see if Webster can keep his newly-found consistency up as the Blazers get healthier. Especially considering he will surely lose some field goal attempts once Portland gets up to full strength and he'll have to become an efficient scorer.
| G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
| 46 | 28.2 | 10.5 | 2.6 | 4.7 | 0.8 | 0.1 | .479 | .391 | .843 |
Twenty-five games ago, the Raptors had were a 10-13 team and seemed headed for a first-round out (if they made the playoffs at all). Yet the night Toronto won its 10th game was also the same night Jack made his first start with Toronto and since then, the Raptors have found their stride. They are 16-9 since he took the starting point guard job from Jose Calderon and has been one of the main reasons Toronto has elevated itself from East bottom-feeder to a team with serious hopes of the conference's No. 4 seed. Though he doesn't boast the passing acumen or sweet 3-point stroke Calderon brings, Jack is more than willing to take big shots down the stretch of games and not afraid to get to the basket, two things Calderon struggles with. He's made his promotion to the starting lineup worthwhile for the Raptors as he's not only upped his stats in just about every category (as you'd expect), but also by an intangible toughness to the Raptors, who are now No. 2 in the NBA in free throw attempts.
| G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
| 44 | 34.3 | 13.6 | 9.8 | 2.2 | 0.7 | 1.3 | .575 | 1.00 | .756 |
As Horford waits to find out if his outside shot at a reserve spot in the All-Star Game, he surely can't cite a lack of fresh memorable play for coaches to recall. In his last six games, Horford is averaging 14.6 ppg and 9.0 rpg and put in a great night as the Hawks ended an 11-year long losing streak to the Rockets in Houston. He nine points and 10 rebounds in the victory as he and Josh Smith kept Carl Landry frustrated in Atlanta's win. In watching Horford, we like his old-school approach to the game, his tough work under the boards and how he's methodical about taking the shots that best suit his skills. Coach Mike Woodson told the Atlanta Journal-Constituion he thinks that whether or not Horford is an All-Star this season, he's well on his way to being one soon. "He's one of those guys that's going to continue to work and add something to his game every year," Woodson said. "When you do that, that's when you become an All-Star and a player in this league that everybody respects."
| G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
| 45 | 24.9 | 8.7 | 5.8 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.4 | .460 | .279 | .753 |
Early in the season -- when Orlando was off to a 17-4 start -- we lavished praise upon Ryan Anderson and Jason Williams in this space for filling the gaps nicely for the Magic. Yet once Orlando got everyone back in the fold (we're looking at you Rashard Lewis and Jameer Nelson), the team struggled to keep rolling along. Coach Stan Van Gundy plugged Barnes into the starting lineup 15 games ago and although the Magic are an unimpressive 7-8 in that stretch, they have come around of late, winning three of their last four. We attribute a lot of that to Barnes, who is easily one of the top blue-collar rotation players in the league. He played a big role in pestering Gerald Wallace as Orlando escaped Charlotte with an overtime victory and did a decent job on Rudy Gay in a narrow loss to the Grizz, too. We like the fact he also was the guy who called out his teammates for thinking too much about last year's Finals run and not about this season. His teammates have praised him for his relentless energy on the offensive boards, while Barnes is just trying to get Orlando on track. "Personal stuff is not really important," Barnes told the Orlando Sentinel. "More important as a team is for us to get back on track: get Dwight [Howard] going, get Vince going, get Rashard [Lewis] going. And I really come with that energy."
| G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
| 39 | 28.7 | 11.7 | 4.6 | 2.7 | 1.2 | 1.1 | .495 | .339 | .719 |
The Jazz's small forward spot has been in flux all season as last year's starter, C.J. Miles, started the season on the injured list with a torn thumb ligament. In the meantime, the Jazz tried Kirilenko and rookie Wesley Matthews in Miles' place, with Kirilenko starting the season's first eight games. But after a 3-5 start, Kirilenko went to the bench and rookie Wesley Matthews got the starting nod ... until Miles returned to the starting lineup on Dec. 21. Coach Jerry Sloan saw his club go 4-6 with Miles as a starter, so Kirilenko got another shot and since then, the Jazz have been humming along. They've won seven of their last eight games (all of which Kirilenko started) and Kirilenko has been one of Utah's better performers during the run. He's averaging 14.5 ppg, is shooting a scorching 63.0 percent from the field and reminded many of his all-around stat-stuffing days of about six seasons ago. His length on defense has also helped Utah protect the paint better and the Jazz have shown some improvement in their interior defense. "No question [his size] makes a big difference. He's able to block shots and play defense. I probably should have had him [starting] all along, if I'd been smart enough," Sloan told the Salt Lake Tribune.
The Next Five
G: Arron Afflalo, Nuggets -- Charlotte has to be wondering what got into Afflalo, who burned them for 24 points (including a career-best six 3-pointers) and had seven assists in a nice home win for the Nuggets. Afflalo has been a starter for the Nuggets since early November and put up great stats that month (9.5 ppg, 42.4 percent on 3-pointers, 3.2 rpg). In December, he slumped a bit and as Denver went through a stretch without Chauncey Billups, teams focused on limiting his contributions and Denver went on a mini-swoon in the middle of the month. Of late, Afflalo has picked it back up again and is averaging xx.x ppg in January. Denver has definitely needed his contributions, considering that Carmelo Anthony sat out the game against Charlotte with a sprained left ankle and the team is also dealing with some attitude problems from sixth man J.R. Smith. Afflalo was traded to Denver from Detroit over the summer and has been viewed as a defensive stopper, but as he recently told Game Time, he's enjoying the fact he gets to show all his skills with the Nuggets. "When I came into Detroit, they mainly wanted to use me for defensive purposes," Afflalo said. "I'm getting my opportunity here in Denver to show on both sides of the ball."
G: Aaron Brooks & Kyle Lowry -- Normally we reserve each spot for one player at a time, but we had a hard time picking between Brooks and Lowry. So they both get a spot here for their standout game against the spurs last week as they combined for 46 points, 16 assists and shot 16-for-29 from the field in a 116-109 win. The win gave Houston a 1-1 split against San Antonio in the season series and given both teams' struggles of late, could prove vital if the Southwest Division gets hairy in March or April. Though both guards have struggled since that monster game together (Brooks is shooting 35.9 percent since then; Lowry is at 33.3 percent), we have neglected to get the Rockets' guard duo in this space all season for one reason or another. As the win over the Spurs showed, Houston has one of the top starter-backup point guard combos in the league (along with Chicago, San Antonio and Orlando are on that list, too).
F: Rasheed Wallace, Celtics -- Maybe that injury to Kevin Garnett wasn't such a bad thing after all? The absence of Garnett, who missed 10 games before returning to Boston's lineup on Jan. 22, forced coach Doc Rivers to play Wallace more, which likely helped get 'Sheed out of an early-season scoring slump. Wallace started seven of those 10 games, played roughly 32 minutes a game and saw his scoring average (13.0 ppg) and shooting percentage (46.6 percent) hit season highs. Although Boston struggled often without KG, his time off the court benefitted Wallace, who took on a mentoring role with some of the younger players and became a fill-in team leader while Garnett got better. In the two games since Garnett came back, Wallace is fitting in well with the second unit and is providing a solid scoring punch. He had 14 points and six rebounds in a thrilling win over the Blazers and followed it up with a solid-if-unspecatular five-point, four-rebound game in a win over the Clips.
F: Shawn Marion, Mavs -- We've praised the Bobcats' Gerald Wallace in this space many times this season for his ability to rebound among the NBA's behemoths and put up Marion-like numbers. Now we're finally starting to see the man Wallace has resembled at times emerge this season, too. The Mavs' small forward has been in the starting lineup for all but three games this season, but in the last five games, has truly started showing the all-around skill he was known for in his glory days with the Suns. His scoring average is only up a tick (13.4 ppg vs. 11.7 ppg this season), but he's increased his rebounding totals (7.4 rpg), has been blocking some shots and getting into the passing lanes for steals. He had a huge block last week to save a win in Washington and has some in Dallas talking him up for the All-Defensive Team. "It's hard guarding anybody who gets a lot of shots," Marion told the Dallas Morning News. "But, sometimes you can put pressure on them and get a hand in their face. If you take away a few easy buckets and they hit 10 or 15 jumpers on you, more power to them. But if you take away one or two things, they have a hard time."
C: Marc Gasol, Grizzlies -- A season ago, who would have thought the Grizz would draw up a game-clinching pick-and-roll play for Gasol? Yet that's exactly what happened Monday against the Magic and Gasol delivered on his end of the play. With Memphis nursing a 96-94 lead, Mike Conley hit Gasol for a layup that locked up another big home win for the Grizz (who have won 11 straight in Tennessee). The shot was the capper on a huge night for Gasol, who finished with 19 points, eight rebounds, four steals and three of Memphis' four blocked shots. He gets the nod here this week for that game and a solid performance against the Thunder, whom he victimized for 15 points, 13 rebounds and a pair of blocks. He and rookie Hasheem Thabeet were crucial to Memphis' interior defense as the Grizzlies needed a Rudy Gay buzzer-beater to knock off the fellow playoff hopeful.
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