playoffs, but to the 2010 NBA championship, saying, "I think it's

time for us to take the next step. We have to take it serious now."

After bitter loss,

sweeter visions McMillan

says playoffs

are expected

JASON QUICK

Even before the Trail Blazers' season ended Thursday night in Houston, the beginning of next season had in essence already started.

Sitting on the bench as the final minutes ticked off during the Blazers' 92-76 defeat by the Rockets in Game 6, Brandon Roy started embracing what he refers to as "his grind."

The grind, he says, is the mental and physical preparation to trick your mind into accomplishing a goal. And Roy's goal, starting with those bitter final minutes of this season, is for the Blazers to win a championship.

Not down the road.

Not in a few years.

Next season.

By the time he had reached the locker room after the game, Roy had set that as his goal. Speaking in a pointed and emphatic manner, he declared that his work ethic was no longer to achieve personal progress, it was for this team to win a championship.

On Friday, after time to cool off and reflect on the Blazers' 54-win regular season that included a division co-championship and the franchise's first playoff appearance since 2003, Roy held his ground.

"I still feel that way," he said. "I was thinking, 'Why doesn't anybody talk about us winning a championship?' I thought about it, and it's because we don't talk about us winning a championship, so why would anybody else?

"I think it's time for us to take that next step. We have to take it serious now."

What made it click for him was harking back to this year's All-Star Game in Phoenix. Before the opening tip, he asked Lakers star Kobe Bryant how he was going to approach the game. Flatly, Bryant told him he only plays one way . . . hard.

"It's like you have to psych yourself out to do it," Roy said. "Like this year, I think we set our goal as the playoffs, but I don't think we psyched ourselves out to 'Let's win a championship.' But you have to really mentally and physically gear up for that. That's the grind I want to have and I want the team to have."

Coach Nate McMillan doesn't know if the Blazers are ready to compete for a championship next season, but he likes Roy's attitude. After all, McMillan said he was the one who planted the championship seed in Roy's ear.

"The playoffs are expected for us now," McMillan said. "Now, we go from there. Not that we have to start talking about the championship, but from this offseason going into next season and from here on out . . . we are building toward that. Because once you get (to the playoffs), you are playing for the title."

Players look back

As the Blazers cleaned out their lockers at the practice facility Friday, many of them looked back at what they had accomplished.

Travis Outlaw remembered Roy's last-second heave in overtime to beat Houston in November. Sergio Rodriguez remembered the regular season's final 11 games, during which the Blazers won 10 times, calling the stretch the most fun he has had in his three seasons in Portland.

And LaMarcus Aldridge remembered how for the first time in his three NBA seasons, he became touched by the Blazers' fan base when he was out in public.

"The atmosphere here in Portland, it was more like a college town," Aldridge said. "I went to Texas and that's a big sports town, and this city just embraced us and got behind us so much that it was fun to go out even to the store. People would see you and be all lit up and excited. . . . It was love."

The Blazers never lost more than three games in a row this season, and had a winning record in each month. They went 34-7 at the Rose Garden, the fourth-best home record in the NBA, and the most wins in the arena's 13-year history.

All of it was accomplished with the NBA's second-youngest roster that had to play through extended injuries to Martell Webster (81 games missed), Greg Oden (21 games missed) and Steve Blake (13 games missed).

"I'm mad because the season is over, but I'm definitely not down," Outlaw said after the loss Thursday night. "Because I felt like we had a lot of players develop: Nicolas Batum, Rudy (Fernandez), and next year we get Martell back. I think it was a great year for developing."

In the end, though, the Blazers lost control of their first-round series with a crushing, 27-point loss to the Rockets in Game 1 at the Rose Garden. They could never recover, as a season-long problem --winning on the road against good teams --played out.

But as the Toyota Center crowd in Houston went wild in the closing minutes of Game 6, Roy sat on the bench and soaked it in. He became angry, determined and hopeful.

"I'm sitting there as they are cheering, and I'm thinking we can play for a championship sooner than people think," Roy said. "We can really do it."

Jason Quick: 503-221-4372;

jasonquick@news.oregonian.com

Read his Behind the Beat blog at

blog.oregonlive.com/

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