PORTLAND -- It's an ongoing theme of the Blazers' season: Every piece of bad news has been greeted with an unexpected bolt of energy that seemingly came out of nowhere. When they lost Greg Oden for the season, they rallied to beat Houston. When they lost Joel Przybilla just 18 days later, they beat Dallas on the road. They lost Brandon Roy three times, and responded by beating San Antonio, Orlando and the Lakers.

So Monday, when the Blazers found out Roy's "bone bruise" was actually a torn meniscus in his knee that would probably end his season, we shouldn't have been surprised how they reacted. Portland started slow but stormed back from en eight-point halftime deficit with reserves of energy that didn't seem possible, and won a crucial playoff seeding battle with Oklahoma City, 103-95.

"The rest of our guys are raising their level of play," said Blazers coach Nate McMillan. "It's been a total team effort."

Wait, it gets better: 36-year-old Marcus Camby had game highs of 30 points and 13 rebounds. To put this in perspective, his last 30-point game came on Dec. 2 -- that would be Dec. 2, 2005. He couldn't even remember it.

And yet the numbers sell Camby short. His biggest contribution wasn't his scoring but his near-constant effort at the defensive end. The signature play came midway through the fourth quarter when he picked up guard Eric Maynor on a switch, knocked the ball out of Maynor's hands, and then dove on the floor to corral the loose ball and flip it back to Andre Miller. The play ignited a 17-4 run that Camby bracketed with a dunk and a tip-in.

The Blazers' crowd roared its approval at the end with a "Mar-cus Cam-by" chant, something that's common in New York but I've never heard in Portland -- and I've been going to Blazers games since 1995.

"I haven't heard anything like that since I was at the Garden," said Camby. "But they should have been chanting the whole team's name. They weathered the storm without B-Roy tonight, being down eight at halftime."

By winning, the Blazers banished the Thunder to the No. 8 seed and a first-round matchup against the defending champion Lakers. Of course, in a season full of irony, the Blazers' most likely reward is a first-round meeting with either Denver or Utah, a pair of teams they've beaten just once in eight tries. Portland may have the No. 6 seed clinched before they take the court on Wednesday, as they'll own it if San Antonio loses to Dallas in a game that starts 2½ hours earlier.

They'll deal with that another day, however. For now, the story is how the Blazers once again stared adversity in the face and prevailed. Camby led the way, but veteran guard Andre Miller was nearly as important. He dominated his matchup with Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, scoring 22 points and twice picking Westbrook to set up transition baskets. Westbrook committed five turnovers and finished without an assist for the first time this season after producing at least three in every other contest.

That, in turn, takes us to the underrated story about Camby's arrival: his impact on Portland's defense. The Blazers are now 16-3 in the last 19 games Camby has played, and in those 19 games only three opponents have hit the century mark; seven of the last 10 have failed to hit 90.

"I think our defense the last month-and-a-half has been tremendous," said Camby. "We've been holding teams way below their scoring average and their field goal percentage."

For the Blazers, the road ahead doesn't get any smoother. They'll have to soldier through the playoffs without Roy, most likely, and without home-court advantage. While Roy talked bravely about postponing surgery on his knee and trying to play at some point during the postseason, his injury normally requires surgery and 4-6 weeks of recuperation. His returning to uniform seems a long shot; his being able to perform anywhere near his former level seems even longer.

"It's just something we've had to deal with all year long," said Blazers coach Nate McMillan, whose team has lost a whopping 307 games to injury. "We'll rest him this week and see if he can do something."

For now, however, they'll savor one more sweet victory that defied the odds and, in the process, clinched a 50-win season -- an important goal that Blazers staffers had been talking about for a while. The Blazers may yet go down as a result of all these injuries, but they sure aren't going quietly.

John Hollinger covers the NBA for ESPN Insider.

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