--Greg Oden got off on the wrong foot, so to speak, in his NBA debut.
The rookie center, who missed all of last season following microfracture knee surgery, suffered what was labeled as a "mid-right-foot sprain" when he came down on Laker guard Derek Fisher's foot on the third play of the game. He stayed in the game through the first half, then had to shut it down for the rest of the night. X-rays were inconclusive and Oden was to undergo an MRI Wednesday morning. "It (stinks)," Oden said glumly, "but I'll keep on working. It's just a little setback. I'll be in the gym (Wednesday)."
Oden never found a rhythm, going scoreless. The 7-footer was 0-for-4 from the field, 0-for-2 from the line and had five rebounds in 13 minutes.
--As co-captain and leader of the Blazers, Brandon Roy wanted to have a good game in the opener. Instead, he missed his first nine shots from the field. Once he finally hit a jumper with 1:50 left in the third quarter, the issue was decided.
"I think I was just overexcited," said Roy, who finished 5-of-15 from the field with 14 points, five rebounds and three steals in 38 minutes." My shots were long early. Once I finally calmed down and said, this is just basketball, I was able to knock some shots down. Can't do that against a team like this. My team feeds off me.
"If I'm out there playing jittery, it's going to be tough for them to make shots. I have to do a better job starting off early in games."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Yeah. Us losing by 20." -- Greg Oden, asked if he could think of anything worse than him getting injured in his first game back.
