this legendary fastbreak dunk over Isaiah Thomas<\/a> ), with Terry Porter sinking a clutch franchise playoff record of 15-15 at the free throw line, the Blazers took down the Pistons in overtime, 106-105. The series was tied 1-1, with the next 3 games to be played in Portland. Porter ran into the locker room and yelled out \u201cWe takin\u2019 it back to the crib baby!!\u201d<\/p>\nBack then the NBA Finals had a 2-3-2 format, so the excitement was at an all-time high coming back to Rip City. Why did this feel like destiny?<\/p>\n
The Detroit Pistons had not won a game in Portland since December 21st, 1974!!<\/p>\n
16 years, and 20 total games had passed with Detroit taking a L in Portland. It should be noted that the Pistons were in the Western Conference during the 1970\u2019s, and during that decade the two teams played each other 4 times a year. 2 home and 2 away.<\/p>\n
As a young teen in 1990, just hearing about this drought by Detroit in Portland, made my friends and I very optimistic about the Blazers\u2019 chances of winning the championship. As kids we didn\u2019t consider \u201cbattle tested, mean and nasty championship experience\u201d a major thing back then, even though it took the Pistons two Finals attempts to beat the Lakers for the Larry O\u2019Brien in 1989. After that Game 2 win, and Detroit losing in Portland for almost a generation straight, emotions were riding high!<\/p>\n
The Blazers woke a sleeping giant, and then got cooked\u2026.by a Microwave. While the Blazer starters did what they could, their anemic bench scored a total of 27 points across Games 3,4,and 5. Meanwhile, on the other bench, was Vinnie \u201cThe Microwave\u201d Johnson. A stocky 6\u20192\u201d guard with an unorthodox jump shot, Johnson\u2019s play inspired the ideal phrase for instant offense off the bench. It didn\u2019t take long for him to heat up. He averaged 18.5 points in Games 3-5, and ripped the beating heart out of Blazermania with a crazy last second jump shot in Game 5. The final score: Detroit 92 Portland 90.<\/p>\n
My friends and I could only slump to the ground with our heads in our hands, as the Piston bench ran and celebrated on our court. 3 straight losses in Veteran\u2019s Memorial Coliseum? How? Inconceivable! And wouldn\u2019t you know it? The Pistons lost in Portland 113-101 early the following season. They\u2019d finally break the 17-year regular season losing curse in 1991.<\/p>\n
Now after a lengthy run of being a downright abysmal team, while still paying a former head coach $7 million a season for the next 5 years, the Pistons come to town with an East leading 21-6 record. Go figure! They\u2019ve found their superstar in Cade Cunningham, and have some other intriguing young talent that is sure to be tested come playoff time. The Pistons currently hold a 2 game winning streak against the Blazers at the Moda Center.<\/p>\n
On the flip side, the Trail Blazers are still trying to find their way out of the wilderness. The once feared homecourt advantage they enjoyed is nothing but a distant memory. They\u2019re currently 5-6 at home and haven\u2019t had a dominant year at home since the 2018-19 season when they finished 32-9. But enough of that! Let\u2019s see if we can stick this landing on a fun note.<\/p>\n
Paul Allen bought the Blazers the season before that magical 1989-90 team. He inherited a 26-year-old superstar in Clyde Drexler averaging 27 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists, plus a few other good complementary players. After finishing 39-43 and being swept out of the first round, Allen fired head coach Mike Schuler. He then signed off on the franchise altering trade that brought the legendary Buck Williams to Portland. The rest is some of the best in Blazers history.<\/p>\n
Next season Tom Dundon takes over as the new majority owner. He\u2019ll inherit a 26-year-old burgeoning superstar in Deni Avdija averaging 26 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists, along with a bevy of solid role players. The current coaching situation can be best described as \u201cextremely fluid.\u201d Could history be repeating itself? Portland could do a lot worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Portland Trail Blazers are about to host the Eastern Conference leading Detroit Pistons Monday night, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,42273,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-489255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers","10":"tag-history-of-the-portland-trail-blazers","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-portland","13":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","14":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","15":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115764564149427712","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}