As expected, Travis Diener signed with Portland today and will be on hand in the Rose Garden tonight when the Trail Blazers host the Pacers.
The Blazers are Diener's third NBA team but could offer his first chance at postseason play. Portland (36-27) is eighth in the Western Conference, four games ahead of both New Orleans and Houston, who are tied for ninth.
He was drafted No. 38 overall by Orlando in 2005 and signed by the Pacers as a free agent in 2007. He was waived Monday, and thus will be eligible for the Trail Blazers' playoff roster.
The only time one of Diener's teams reached the playoffs was Orlando in 2007 but he was not on the postseason roster.
“We're very happy to have Travis on our roster,” said Blazers General Manager Kevin Pritchard. “He is a veteran point guard who will be a good complement to our existing backcourt.”
Diener is expected to be Portland's third point guard behind starter Andre Miller and backup Jerryd Bayless.
O'Brien's "irrelevant" quote off the mark
Sometimes, post-loss frustration gets the better of Jim O'Brien, and that certainly was the case Tuesday night. When asked about Josh McRoberts' career-high 15-point outing, O'Brien said, "It’s irrelevant. Try to do it in a winning effort so it’s really irrelevant."
McRoberts scored nine of his points in the first quarter, when the Pacers held a 28-27 lead, so he was performing at a high level at a time when the team was contesting the outcome. This was not some guy coming in for the final few minutes of garbage time and making a few buckets. McRoberts played a key role in the Pacers' strong first-half performance.
If there's anything truly relevant about the final 22 games of this season, it should be developing young players like McRoberts, who has performed well when given the opportunity.
In six games in which he's played at least 15 minutes, McRoberts has averaged 9.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and made 24-of-40 shots (60 percent).
Failure to finish half cost Pacers
The third quarter was the end. But the final 20 seconds of the first half were the beginning of the end for the Pacers in their 122-99 loss to the Lakers Tuesday night.
They had the ball and a chance to go into the locker room tied with the defending champions if they made the last shot of the half. Instead, they trailed by six at the break, thoroughly deflating an otherwise robust first half performance.
Troy Murphy's 3-pointer cut it to 56-54 with 32.6 seconds left.
But then came a sequence of mistakes.
The Pacers got a stop and Brandon Rush pulled the defensive rebound with 20.9 seconds left but failed to protect the ball and was tied up by Lamar Odom, who won the tip.
Defending Kobe Bryant in isolation at the top of the key, Danny Granger poked the ball loose but then committed an obvious foul in the follow-through. The Pacers did not have a foul to give in that situation, so Bryant went to the line for a pair of gift free throws with 4.2 seconds remaining.
With time enough still to set up a last shot, T.J. Ford instead drifted to the sideline and stepped out of bounds in the backcourt, giving Bryant the opportunity for the buzzer-beater.
It wasn't quite Reggie's 8 points in 8.9 seconds, but it was a potential six-point swing in 20 seconds. And it foretold what was to come in the second half.
The Lakers probably would've won even if the Pacers had avoided those miscues. But any chance the Pacers had to make a game of it in the second half evaporated in those final seconds.
Follow Bruno on Twitter
