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--> --> While Rasheed Wallace's technical fouls are down, so are the victories for Portland. AP Can anyone save the Blazers? PORTLAND (AP) - The Portland Trail Blazers are 9-9, which is a perfectly fine record for the Los Angeles Clippers, but not for a team that has made the playoffs 19 straight years. More distressing for Portland is the way it has lost the last two games, both at home. The Blazers blew a 16-point first-half lead and lost by 14 to Phoenix on Saturday night. Despite four days off and three hard practices, the Blazers came out with a listless effort against Charlotte, scoring 31 points in the middle two quarters and losing 95-89. "I don't understand it. I really don't," coach Maurice Cheeks said following Friday's practice. "It just disturbed me. I told them the same thing: It disturbed me that we could not transfer our practice habits to the game floor." During the first 11 years of Cheeks' playing career, the Philadelphia 76ers averaged nine home losses a season. The Blazers already have dropped four of their 10 home games, and Cheeks tries to urge his players on by yelling, "Come on! Come on!" Nineteen seconds into the fourth quarter, Charlotte's David Wesley made a jump shot to push the Hornets' lead to 19, and an exasperated Cheeks immediately called a timeout. The Blazers got the lead down to five, but they couldn't come back all the way. The losses dropped Portland into a tie with the Clippers for the 7-8 spots in the Western Conference, 7 1/2 games behind the Lakers in the Pacific Division. The Blazers are 3-6 against teams with winning records, and three of their losses have come against Golden State, Houston and Charlotte, who are a combined 23-34. "The same thing would happen to us in Seattle," says reserve forward Ruben Patterson, who spent the previous two seasons with the SuperSonics, another underachieving team. "We would lose to teams like the Chicago Bulls, and that hurt us down the road." The fans are beginning to express their displeasure by not showing up. After a string of 104 sellouts going back to 1999, Portland has failed to fill the Rose Garden for six straight games. Thursday night's crowd of 18,102 was the smallest of the season, 1,878 below capacity. Injuries have forced Cheeks to use seven different starting lineups this season, and starters Damon Stoudamire, Scottie Pippen and Derek Anderson have spent significant time on the shelf. The result has been disorganization on offense. "We really need to get a better feel for who we are, and it's just hard to do that when you don't have everybody there," said Steve Kerr. "So I think it'll be good to get Derek back next week. Hopefully at that point we can keep healthy and start to get a sense of what our rotation should be." Anderson has missed the last three games with a sprained right ankle, and said he'll play Saturday only if he's free of pain. But Cheeks said the injury situation is no excuse for the team's performance. "Injuries are part of an NBA season, and one guy's injury is another guy's chance to play," he said. Cheeks also has struggled to decide which players to put into the games and when, and the new rules allowing zone defense have been a challenge. "I think he's having it a little rough right now," Patterson said. "This is his first year, and there's a lot of new faces. We've still got to come together." The excitement level missing the past two games should return Saturday night, when Portland plays the Sonics for the first time this season. Patterson, who had a stormy relationship with former teammate Gary Payton until he signed with the Blazers as a free agent over the summer, said he's told Cheeks he wants to guard Payton. "The guy can play, but he's just got a lot of mouth," Patterson said of Payton. "I told him, `You don't (scare) me,' and he knows that." Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing