Most everybody in the orbit of the Portland Trail Blazers knows that tonight’s game against the Denver Nuggets, previewed here by Peter Sampson, will play a big role in determining the fate of the season. The Blazers own the tiebreaker over Denver. Denver’s schedule is murder. They need to beat the Trail Blazers tonight or they’re going to have a hard time justifying optimism in the race for the 8th seed in the Western Conference.
The playoff implications attending this game have eclipsed one of the more interesting stories in it: the grudge match between nearly every center involved for both teams.