Though there have no doubt been several evenings in which members of the Portland Blazers could be accused of taking the second half off, Darius Miles did so quite literally last night against the Clippers.

From the Oregonian’s John Canzano.

Darius Miles traveled here by private jet and chartered bus. And spent the night at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and was given $98 in meal money and somehow couldn’t find the strength to keep himself dressed for the second half.

Now, how Miles ended up in his street clothes for the second half of Wednesday’s loss disappointed coach Nate McMillan, because the coach instructed Miles before the game “to dress and be available.”

Miles dressed. He warmed up. And he was available in the first half, especially when nostalgic Clippers fans were calling to McMillan, “Put in Miles.” And McMillan ignored the cries.

So at halftime, Miles decided to change out of his uniform, making himself unavailable.

Said (Clippers fan) Bill Morse: “For whatever reason, Darius never did realize his potential here.”

Lance Uppercut of Blazers Edge infamy may or may not be a fan of the motion picture “Major League”, but he’s more than a little suspicious of Paul Allen’s intentions.

Does anyone know if there are rules regarding how soon an owner can acquire another franchise after selling his or her previous one? While I’m not saying it’s happening in the case of Paul Allen and the Blazers, but it doesn’t seem too far fetched to assume that an owner might run a team into the ground in order to give his or her new team an advantage. So (and I’m not saying this is happening) it’s conceivable that an owner of, say, the Portland Trail Blazers, makes moves counter-productive to said team in order to give another team, lets say the Seattle Supersonics, a competitive advantage if and when said teams change ownership.

Dallas (59-20) currently trails San Antonio (60-18) by 1 1/2 games in the race for best record in the West, with 3 left to play for the former. The first of the trio occurs later tonight when the Mavs travel to Phoenix, but regardless of the outcome, there’s no one on the Suns roster who makes beautiful music like this.

No one on the Mavericks roster, either, probably.