Channing Frye (Photo. Jeff Forney)

Jason Quick of the Oregonian says that the start of the Blazers‘ 13-game winning streak can be traced back to an explosive practice on December 1st in San Antonio:

The history books will show that the Trail Blazers’ winning streak started on Dec. 3, when Travis Outlaw made a last-second shot at Memphis.

But to the Blazers players and coaches, the roots of the streak really started two days earlier, at a community center in San Antonio, where an edgy and downtrodden Blazers team practiced.

It was where Martell Webster and Joel Przybilla fought. Where Steve Blake kicked and then threw a chair. Where Brandon Roy exchanged sharp words with teammates. And where Channing Frye spoke up and made a promise.
“I felt like everything changed that day,” Roy said before the Blazers ran their winning streak to 12 with a win over Minnesota on Friday night. “I can’t say that I felt it was going to result in this many wins in a row, but it was a big moment. We’ve been better ever since then.”

Coach Nate McMillan knew that Dec. 1 practice had a chance to be memorable. Tired of seeing his team play with a stagnant offense and a soft defense, McMillan implemented two practice rules that day. There would be no switching when screens were set, forcing the defender to fight through picks. And there would only be one dribble allowed by the ballhandler, a tactic designed to instigate more movement by the offense to get open.

“The practice was basically set up for a fight to happen,” McMillan said. “We were talking about pressuring. We were talking about being physical. We were talking about grabbing. And . . . we got into a fight, a couple tempers flared and a couple of other things happened.”

The Blazers played the next day and were drilled 100-79 at San Antonio, their ninth loss in 10 games, dropping them to 5-12. But in the course of the defeat, the Blazers were more physical — unintentionally knocking Tim Duncan out of the game with an injury — and by the time they arrived in Memphis later that night, many believed things were changing.

“We lost to the Spurs but we were physical and we played them; they just beat us,” Frye said. “But I remember thinking after that game, ‘We have a chance.’ I told some people, ‘Let’s just keep playing this way.’ ”

When Dec. 1 arrived, the Blazers were an irritable group. They had lost in Dallas the previous night, which came after back-to-back home losses to Orlando and Indiana, during which nothing seemed to be working. Roy was in a terrible shooting slump, the defense was being pushed around, and even easy attempts such as dunks were being missed by the likes of Przybilla.

“You could tell guys were tired of losing,” Blake said. “And you could sense guys were about to take their frustrations out on each other.”

Added Roy: “You could tell guys were upset. We were tired, and tired of losing, and it so happened that day that it was one of those days were nobody was in a mood to back down.”

When the team arrived for practice at the Antioch Sports Complex and Community Center in San Antonio, many thought it would be a light workout. But McMillan already had plans to incite his players with a physical workout, which turned out to be the equivalent of lighting the fuse to a powder keg.

“I’m telling you, that was one of the most intense practices I’ve ever had in my eight years in the league,” Przybilla said. “We got at it. And we got after each other.”

The first sparks were ignited early in the practice, when the team was in the midst of executing a three-man weave against defenders. Przybilla, the rugged, veteran center, set a pick on Webster, the third-year player out of high school. Webster cried foul, saying Przybilla set a moving screen. Przybilla, who later said he was in a foul mood that day, shot back and asked Webster why he complains about everything.

Flustered, Webster retorted with, “Why don’t you make a dunk for once?” inciting Przybilla’s bad mood.

With tempers simmering, the drills moved to a four-on-four format. Webster made a hard drive to the basket, where he was met by Przybilla. The center caught Webster in the air, bear-hugged him and threw him to the floor.

“That’s when your pride comes in and some ego gets in the way,” Webster recalled. “I started yelling at him, telling him, ‘If I get a shot at you . . . ,’ and I remember this: While I was arguing with Joel, I looked at coach, and he was just sitting there smiling. He was looking at me like, ‘Well, get into it then. Show me something.’

“And you know what, it seemed to ignite everybody, not just for me and Joel, but for everybody. The intensity of the whole practice changed.”

Soon, Frye said he was “talking trash” to his teammates. And the normally stoic Roy was cussing and snapping at the teammates guarding him. And Blake got so angry that he kicked a chair, prompting McMillan to chastise him in front of the team.

“We were there as guests, that was not our furniture,” McMillan said. “So I told him to pick up the chair.”

Blake did pick up the chair . . . only to hurtle it through the air again.

“I snapped,” Blake said. “I have no idea why, sometimes I just get mad. I kicked it, and threw it. . . . I was worked up. But then I played even harder.”

And so it went, players banging into one another fighting through screens, players grabbing one another to prevent them from getting open, elbows being thrown to create space. The practice had taken on a life of its own.

“There was this tense energy,” Frye said. “Dudes were . . . frustrated, and we needed to get everything off our chests. I started talking trash, (Jarrett) Jack started yelling, Blake started throwing chairs, everybody was about to fight. . . . It was like the ice had been broken. We had finally pushed each other to the limit.”

When McMillan finally ended the practice, he huddled the team and released some of his own frustrations. He told them he liked what he saw during the practice, but he was tired of seeing this only in practice. He couldn’t understand why the team would go at each other so hard, yet treat the opponent with such passivity.

Kind of funny picturing Steve Blake killing a chair and Channing Frye getting into it with people, but hey, whatever works.

You can read all of Quick’s great Blazers blog HERE.