In terms of elegance, magnificence or the final box score, Eduardo Najera's day looked like a disaster. He missed all five shots he took against the Blazers on Sunday. He played a sort of reclining defense, which is to say he was flat on his back more often than not. His man scored a bunch of points and got a bunch of rebounds.

Looks, however, were clearly deceptive. Najera, getting his first start of the Dallas-Portland series, brought his unique blend of toughness, fearlessness and determination to the front line and fulfilled his assigned mission, which he said was to: "Just wrestle around with everybody."