To the surprise of no one, this is already proving to be a tough road trip for the Wizards. LaMarcus Aldridge and the Trail Blazers lead Washington by a score of 62-45 at the end of the first half.
Aldridge had 22 points, including shooting a perfect 8 of 8 from the line. The Blazers shot 13 of 15 from the line as a team in the half. As a result, the Wizards got into a bit of early foul trouble -- Kevin Seraphin and JaVale McGee each have three fouls at the half.
The Wizards have been out-rebounded by the Trail Blazers -- who had 17 second-chance points in the half off of 11 offensive rebounds. That disparity has allowed Portland to take 11 more shots than Washington.
Seraphin leads the Wizards with 10 points off the bench, including a monster flush off a feed from John Wall that could get some ESPN love -- especially given a thin NBA slate (just three games on tonight). Wall has eight points and six assists. He's shot just 3 for 10 from the field.
The Wizards trailed at half against the Nets before Flip Saunders gave his team a wake up call that got them going in the second half. That's the good news: the Wizards are capable of turning in a different effort in the second half. The bad news: that was against a New Jersey Nets team missing Deron Williams. This is against a Portland team jostling for playoff seeding in the Western Conference. Don't expect them to suddenly disappear at home against an Eastern Conference cellar-dweller.