Rudy Fernandez and Nick Batum Make NBA Debuts

Portland is officially one of my favorite teams. They're young, exciting and have two of the most exciting European players in the league - guard Rudy Fernandez and Nicholas Batum.
Here's a description of their first two NBA games:

Oct. 28 Portland vs. Los Angeles

1st Quarter
2-4, 4 points

• 3:50 Rudy's first shot, a three, was a clanger off the right of the rim.
• Later, he's thrown to floor by Derek Fisher, four inches shorter but much stronger, while going after the ball.
• 1:50: Flashes by Jordan Farmer just north of the free throw line and throws in a beautiful 10-foot running teardrop.
• 1:18:Fernandez curls around a Pryzabilla screen and drains a 16-foot swisher.
• 1:01: Bricks a 16-foot fadeaway over Gasol

2nd Quarter
1-1, 5 points

• 10:22 Portland guard Sergio Rodriguez attempts to lob an alley-oop to Fernandez over his Spanish teammate Gasol. But it falls short, and Odom picks it off.
• 9:50 He drains a three over the Slovenian Vujacic, accounting for 7 of Portland's 17 points.
• 6:16 He slices through the Lakers' defense like a Ginsu knife, gets fouled, and nets two.

Third Quarter
0-2, 0 points

• 2:02 With the Trailblazer down 46-69, and in dire need of a jolt, he misses a three.
• 1:20 Nice, quick jumping swing pass from Bayless to Roy, which turns into an assist for a three
• :27 Rudy shows some of his seven years of European experience by passing on an open 11-footer and passing back to Bayless for a three, which leads to a foul.
• :19 He clangs a 19-footer from the corner
• :02 Corrals a rebound, ending his worst quarter

Fourth Quarter
2-2, 7 points

• 11:03 He makes a technical foul shot after a technical foul on Lakers forward Ariza. Portland Coach McMillan obviously has confidence in him early in the season.
• 8:42 The most exciting sequence of the game: Ariza the Acrobat erases a Bayless lay-up, the Lakers advance the ball to mid-court, where Roy steals it, then dashes back, hits Rudy at the elbow and swish ... 3-ball!
• Roy's unselfishness is a good sign. He trusts Rudy already, and this will pay big dividends later in the season.
• 6:50 He claps for the ball to trigger a fast-break, receives it at mid-court, takes two dribbles and delivers a fine bounce-pass to Outlaw for a deuce
• 6:12 Fernandez steals an in-bounds and drills a triple from the same spot he'd hit from 2 1/2 minutes before. Somebody's suddenly lookin' seriously sharp...

Rudy finishes as Portland's best player in a 76-96 loss. He scores 16 points on 5-10 shooting, makes all 3 free throws, and gathers 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 rebounds in 29 minutes.
Despite talk that Batum would start, he doesn't enter the game until late, but makes his presence known in 4 minutes: 2 points, 3 rebounds, and a steal.

Courtesy of BRUNAMONTI




Three days later, Rudy and the Trailblazers (second-youngest team with an average of 23.9 years) took on the San Antonio Spurs (the the oldest team in the league with an average age of 29.9 years)

1st Quarter

• 2:28 When he enters the game, the crowd swells: "Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!"
• "Did you hear those chants," ESPN's color commentator Jon Barry asked. "I thought I was at Notre Dame!"
• 1:44 Portland swingman Nicholas Batum grabs an offensive rebound, tears down the sideline, goes airborne and unspools the ball to Aldridge for a dunk
• :01 Fernandez misses a three after a sick B-Roy crossover

2nd Quarter

• 11:47 WOW! 6-8 Batum meets 6-11 Duncan at the rim and swats his stuff seven ways to Sunday!
• Now that's the way to greet a hall-of-famer... afterward, it takes the crowd about 15 seconds to calm down.
• 11:05 Rudy snaps a three from the corner.
• 10:01 SWEET LORD Almighty! Batum takes the ball outside of the elbow, holds it like a hot pizza box, swoops through the lane, knocks it off the backboard, and delivers two with a silky-smooth lay-up.
• Replays show that as he released the ball, he barely looked up.
• 7:24 Batum strikes again, stealing the ball at mid-court, and streaking to the bucket for another sweet lay-up.
• Color commentator Jon Barry notes that there's "no timidness to this guy ... he playing so aggressive, he's in guys' faces, he tried to dunk on Tim Duncan earlier, he's taking the ball to the basket." A far cry from the Batum I saw last year.
• 7:01 Rudy skys over the Spur's Udoka to snag a defensive rebound, gets fouled, then hits 2 free throws.
• 5:32 Is this the greatest quarter of Batum's career so far? He drains a three and stands there, hand upraised in a follow-through, a la MJ in the 1992 NBA Finals versus, you guessed it, Portland. The 19-year old's got 8 points now..
• :06 Batum, 6-8 and 200 pounds, guards the Tony Parker, 6-1 and 180 pounds, and does a nice job - using his length to prevent his ultra-quick fellow Frenchman from scoring a lay-up.

Third Quarter

• 3:29 Once again, Batum scores off a fast-break lay-up employing what Jon Barry called the "euro two-step. You slow down, you let two players go by." Whatever it is, it's two points.
• 00:30 Thank you, fast-break dunk. You just gave Monsieur Batum a baker's dozen.

Fourth Quarter

• 10:40 Batum misses a wide-open straightaway three. Once he can nail those consistenly, he will be scary.
• 7:55 Parker scorches Batum on the perimeter and leaves a tasty 2-point treat for Duncan: Spurs now down by four, 80-84.
• 6:17 With Portland up 87-84, Rudy bricks a deep three off the front rim. You get the sneaky suspicion the veteran-laden Spurs, even without Ginobili, are going to tie it up soon.
• 4:23 With a Portland four-point lead and 19 seconds into the clock, Rudy fires up another brick from long. Not a good shot at all.

Blazers win 100-99.
Rudy only scores 6 points on 1-6 shooting, but corrals 8 rebounds and plays 30 minutes.
Batum, as you can see above, had a mighty impressive debut: 12 points on 5-9 shooting, 2 blocks, and a steal, assist, and rebound in 22 minutes. I think he should be able to contribute fast-break points all season long, but the question is: what else can he give you?

Courtesy of Wuithier: