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Trail Blazers shake off rust in scrimmage The Associated Press PORTLAND -- Considering that the tickets were free, the fans who turned out for the Portland Trail Blazers' first open scrimmage got more than their money's worth. The team gave out 25,000 tickets for Sunday's intrasquad game, and a crowd of 17,449 watched the Blazers play their first organized game since the end of the six-month-long NBA lockout. About a third of the fans left in the fourth quarter, but those who stayed got to see a scrimmage-winning shot at the buzzer. The man who sank the shot was hardly a household name -- Michael Hawkins, whose jumper gave the Blazers No. 2 team an 88-86 win over the No. 1 team. "It's a good feeling. I've never had that feeling before," said Hawkins, a Continental Basketball Association player who's among about eight free agents in camp looking for a spot on the roster. "For myself and a lot of other guys, this is not a scrimmage. This is reality. This is for a job." The Blazers weren't inclined to play a lot of defense early on, but the intensity picked up, mostly because of the play of backup point guard John Crotty. He and starter Damon Stoudamire went at each other most of the game, and their level of hustle made it feel more like a real game and less like a glorified practice. "I think everyone played real hard," said Crotty, who had nine points, seven rebounds and six assists. "It's the first time we've played in front of people in a while. It gets the blood flowing." "It felt pretty good," said Rasheed Wallace, who scored a game-high 19 points for the No. 1 team. "That shows us and the coaching staff the kind of fans we have." The No. 2 team consisted of four Blazers starters: Stoudamire, center Arvydas Sabonis, power forward Brian Grant and shooting guard Isaiah Rider, plus Walt Williams. The No. 1 team included Wallace, the other starter, Crotty, Stacey Augmon, Kelvin Cato and Monte Buckley, another non-roster CBA player. Wallace, wearing sweats and early 1980s-vintage Nikes, looked disinterested at times, but made several strong moves. Carlos Rogers had 13 of his 17 points in the second half, and Augmon and Stoudamire each had 15 points. Sabonis also played well, scoring 13. Jermaine O'Neal, who has a new tattoo proclaiming this his "Year of the Resurrection," shot the ball whenever a chance presented itself. He made 6-of-16 for 13 points. "I was really, really nervous before the game," said O'Neal, a 20-year-old who spent most of his first two NBA seasons languishing on the bench. "I was nervous before my first NBA game, and this was pretty much the same." Other non-roster players also had their moments, including Buckley and Art Long, who had six points, three rebounds and two assists. Bonzi Wells, a rookie guard acquired from Detroit last week, had not signed with Portland yet and didn't play. And Nikita Morgunov, a Russian small forward, suited up but did not play because he's working out a visa problem. Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford,