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As Marc Stein points out in the Daily Dime, just about every game on the NBA schedule last night was ridiculous. Jerry Sloan's big night and the Cavaliers' setting records took a back seat to Dallas and San Antonio in double overtime, the Kings' big upset of the Lakers, a taste of the old Shaquille O'Neal, misery for Detroit, and so much more.

As a Portland fan, though, of course, to me the story of the night was Orlando scoring the last nine points of the game to win 109-108, handing the Blazers their first home loss of the season.

Hedo Turkoglu's banked, step-back, long 3-pointer over decent defense -- that bothered me none. You can see it as the kind of thing that happens sometimes. You can see it as a fluke. Or you can see it as karma after how the Blazers' won from about the same spot, with a similarly broken play, in Toronto on Sunday. You win some and you lose some.

Usually, Brandon Roy makes decisions like a 34-year-old veteran. For just one play last night, however, a reminder that he's just 24. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

But what I'll remember: This new idea that every once in a while Brandon Roy might make a poor decision in crunch time.

Say it isn't so.

He was having one hell of a night.

From roughly the five-minute mark, until about a minute-and-a-half left in the game, essentially every one of Portland's possessions consisted of Brandon Roy creating everything. Here's how they turned out:

• Made layup.
• Missed layup, own offensive rebound, non-shooting foul, followed by a shooting foul. Roy makes one of two free throws.
• Made 22-foot jumper.
• Fouled, hits two free throws.
• Made 18-foot jumper.
• Assist to LaMarcus Aldridge, who drains a jumper.
• A perfect set-up for a wide-open Travis Outlaw, who is second in the league in 3-point field goal percentage. Outlaw misses.

Roy is in the habit of taking over close games down the stretch without being predictable. His mix is good. He passes a lot. He pulls up. He goes right. He goes left. He splits the double. He curls. He fades. He evades contact. He seeks contact. He shoots 3s. Meanwhile, everyone most fears the fact that can very often find layups, even in crunch time against great defense.

But last night looked a little different. The mix was more Roy-centric. His teammates were touching the ball less, and Roy was alpha-dogging more. It was looking a little like Cleveland's "everyone watch LeBron dribble" play from crunch time of yesteryear. Was it some kind of ascension to a new level of stardom for Roy?

Not on Stan Van Gundy's watch. Having seen Portland make all the right moves on offense for several minutes, Van Gundy went hail-mary. He tanked all the normal schemes and just sent two defenders at Roy every time he touched the ball.

Like everyone else in the stadium, Roy saw the double team on Portland's last meaningful possession, up a mere two points with a half-minute left.

Roy also must have seen his four teammates who have all a history of hitting big shots: LaMarcus Aldridge was having a great night and had just scored, Steve Blake won a game near the buzzer on Sunday, Rudy Fernandez can create for everyone on the floor including himself, and Travis Outlaw is known as Portland's big-shot guy -- having won a handful of games already in his young career.

And on Portland's biggest possession of the night, Roy ignored them, opting for solo hero mode.

Here's the dilemma of being a leader: You have to acknowledge obstacles. But you can't care about them too much. You have to say to yourself: Climbing Mt. Everest is a big challenge. But it's nothing, to me, with my resolve, preparation, and skill.

That line of thinking, of course, can make you look really good or really bad. Sometimes the obstacles win.

On this play, the four Blazers stood around looking wide open while Roy dragged his tenacious and well-executed double team in the direction it was pushing him ... to the corner? Where he could be hemmed in by not just the two defenders, but also the side and end lines? Brandon, no!

Portland needed a single point to ensure overtime at worst. Two points, essentially, to force Orlando to star fouling for possession.

And sadly, Portland had no timeouts left to address Van Gundy's new scheme. Which Van Gundy no doubt knew, as he deployed his tactic after Portland had used its last timeout.

Roy did something special by managing to even launch a turnaroud 3, in traffic, from the corner. But it was so off-target, and so late, that when it didn't even touch the rim, Portland's offensive rebound was waved off by a shot-clock violation.

The stage was set for the Magic's final-play magic.

Does it mean anything, in the big picture? No. Not really. In fact, on some level, I like that it happened. Brandon Roy and the Trail Blazers are built for long-term playoff success. It's a blessing to have this tough learning experience in December, and not in a 7-game series, when a single loss really does matter.

What will Brandon Roy do next time he sees this kind of defense in crunch time? (And as John Hollinger points out, you can bet he will.) I don't know. But I sure don't think he'll do that again. 

UPDATE: There's more to the story of this play. Roy was, apparently, waiting for Travis Outlaw to cut to the middle, but confused by the Magic's defensive trickery, Outlaw stayed on the opposite side, and is accepting much of the blame for that broken play. Me? My expectations for Roy are so high -- he has spoiled Blazer fans so many times in the past -- that I want him to find a way to be successful even when the play breaks down.