Blaze of Glory - 1/12/09
Blaze of Love —
... The Blaze of Glory is your almost-daily link list of Blazer ridiculousness and info. If you ever have anything to add to it, make sure to drop us a line unless your name is Dwight Jaynes. (Kidding!)
Katie Shearer passed away last night. Please read this. [John Canzano]
How special is the Roy-Fernandez duo? [Hoop Doctors]
A deeper look at the Blazers and their road sleeping patterns. [Jason Quick]
David Aldridge questions the Blazers on this Miles dilemma. [NBA.com] ...
The Fundamentals
BallerBlogger.com —
... Jason Quick of The Oregonian: “Instead of the typical ‘get-to-bed-early’ advice, McMillan encouraged his players to stay up late. Really late. ‘He was like, ‘You all go out, curfew is 2 a.m.,’‘ LaMarcus Aldridge said. ‘We all had to laugh.’ By then, the players understood McMillan’s reasoning. He wanted the team to stay up late in order to keep their bodies, and sleep patterns, on Portland time. It was all part of the Blazers’ new approach to how they travel, and more specifically, how they sleep when they travel. Flight departures were altered. ...
Monday Bullets
ESPN.com - TrueHoop —
... A sleep expert tells the Blazers to stay up late when they are on East Coast trips. He tells the coaching staff to change the flights so the team can sleep in late, too. And the players rave about it, while getting much better results than in years' past. ...
Full Court Press
Blazersedge —
... I kept waiting for Jason Quick's take on Darius but it never happened. Instead, JQ delivered a really nice piece on the team's new sleep strategy. ...
To Sleep, Perchance to Win...on the East Coast
Loaded Orygun - Front Page —
... Fascinating article this morning by Jason Quick on the experimentation the Blazers are doing with their schedule for road trips. In a nutshell, they are modifying when they fly, practice and set curfew, particularly for games on the East Coast, in an attempt to maintain their bodily rhythms and thus not lose effort and capacity compared to their home contests. And they're doing it with a sleep doctor from (shhhhh) Boston. ...
R2MVP Daily: Jan. 13, 2009
Fan Voice: Recent Topics in The Court Reporters: The NBA.com Blog —
... be an All-Star. The only two members of the top 10 -- No. 4 Chris Paul and No. 10 Brandon Roy -- played last night. Paul put up 23 points, dished seven assists and grabbed five boards, but his Hornets fell to a Knicks team that had lost 10 of its last 13. Worse yet, the Hornets lost at home. Ouch. Roy scored 11 points in his second game back since injuring his hammy as the Blazers burned the Bulls by 14. Maybe it's because The King of the Pacific Northwest and his teammates got a good night's sleep . Fine work by The Oregonian's Jason Quick on this one and a hat tip to ...
Worth a read.
Thunderguru.com —
... and the unique situation he finds himself in. As your scrolling down the dime, make sure you get the link at number 6 on the innovative edge Portland has uncovered. I read the article and I was like…duh? I live in the Pacific time zone here in Oregon. I watched the Sonics deal with East Coast road trips for years. Now that the Thunder are in the Central, it might not be as much of an edge as it is for West Coast teams, but it is really worth a read. You can get the story right here . It’s especially funny if you know anything at all about Nate McMillan. Nate was our coach ...
Can Proper Sleep Patterns Give Teams a Competitive Edge?
Sports Business Radio blogs —
... The Portland Trail Blazers have their very own "Sleep Doctor". The results are more than coincidental. After going 7-14 last season in games played two or more time zones away, the Blazers are 7-2 this season. ...
D'Antoni Eliminates Morning Shootaround, Discovers the Future
The Baseline —
We've already seen one team tinker with their daily schedule in hopes of maximizing player output. That would be the forward-thinking Blazers, who were kept on Portland time all of last season. You can do the math and figure out what weird effects that had on the standard NBA team routine when the team changed coasts. ...
