Although Portland’s plan was to treat Brandon Roy with caution, by the fourth quarter against Golden State it was clear that no special treatment was necessary.

Roy had 19 points in his return from a hamstring injury to help the Trail Blazers beat the short-handed Warriors 113-100 on Saturday night.

Roy, Portland’s leading scorer, missed four games because of his sore right hamstring. The team went 2-2 in his absence.

He played only about 6 minutes in each of the first three quarters against Golden State. But then, unexpectedly, he started to feel stronger. His second wind kicked in, and he played a full 12 minutes in the final quarter.

“I actually surprised myself and played a little bit better than I thought I would, and maybe a little bit longer,” Roy said.

Roy’s return clearly inspired Portland, which trailed by 12 points in the first half, then led by 18 in the second. LaMarcus Aldridge led the Blazers with 26 points.

Corey Maggette had 25 points for the Warriors, who lost their fifth straight game. Golden State cut it to 99-94 on Maggette’s 3-pointer and Kelenna Azubuike’s jumper with 4:26 left, but couldn’t get any closer.

Warriors coach Don Nelson said his team struggled with rebounding, turnovers and second-chance points.

“We’re just not good at it,” Nelson said. “It’s not that we don’t try, we’re just not good at it.”

Travis Outlaw added 19 points for the Blazers, who had six players in double figures. Greg Oden had 10 points and eight rebounds.

“I was really pleased with Brandon’s performance after the layoff. I said earlier that we would only play him 20 to 25 minutes, but as the game wore on he said he felt better and wanted to play more,” Blazers coach Nate McMillan said. “We gave him the ball down the stretch and he helped up close the game out.”

Portland was coming off an 84-83 victory over Detroit on Wednesday night, sealed by Outlaw’s fadeaway jumper with 8.9 seconds remaining.

The Warriors lost 114-106 at home to the Lakers on Wednesday, and it was costly. Starting forward Brendan Wright left the game with a dislocated right shoulder and did not play against the Blazers.

The Warriors also were without Stephen Jackson, the team’s second-leading scorer, because of a strained right hamstring. He has missed two games.

But rookie guard Anthony Morrow was back after missing the team’s game against the Lakers for personal reasons.

Golden State, 4-20 on the road this season, has lost seven straight away from home.

The Warriors took a 34-22 lead in the first half on Azubuike’s 3-pointer and two free throws from Maggette.

The Blazers came back to tie it at 41 on Roy’s dunk. The teams wrestled over the lead until Outlaw scored the half’s final seven points to give Portland a 55-49 lead at the break.

The Blazers led from there. Roy and Outlaw brought the biggest cheers of the night with back-to-back dunks that made it 90-76.

The Blazers caused a stir off the court in recent days because of an e-mail sent to executives across the league that suggested Portland could take legal action against any team to sign former forward Darius Miles.

Miles was waived by the Blazers at the end of last season, after an independent doctor said a knee injury was career-ending. However, Miles has tried to make a comeback and has played in eight NBA games. If he plays in 10, some $18 million that the Blazers owe him would count toward the team’s salary cap.

Blazers president Larry Miller said the team sent the e-mail warning because of talk that other teams were considering signing Miles with the intention of hurting Portland financially.

Even without All-Star guard Brandon Roy, the Portland Trail Blazers earned an impressive win Tuesday night.

Steve Blake had 21 points, LaMarcus Aldridge added 20 and the short-handed Blazers beat the Boston Celtics 91-86, giving the NBA champions their third loss in four games.

Missing Roy because of a pulled hamstring, the Blazers snapped a seven-game losing streak against Boston and pulled into a tie atop the Northwest Division with Denver.

Finding a way to win without Roy was a confidence boost for the Blazers.

“It was huge for us,” Aldridge said. “He’s our go-to guy but guys really stepped up and played good tonight. Today we really had to come together.”

Reserve forward Travis Outlaw had 17 points for Portland and Greg Oden added 13 points and 11 rebounds despite injuring his ankle in practice Monday.

Paul Pierce scored 28 points, making 14 of 15 foul shots, and Kevin Garnett had 17 points and eight rebounds for the Celtics (28-5), who were at the end of a four-game road trip and have more losses since Dec. 25 than in the previous two months of the season.

“Down the stretch we just made bad plays,” said Ray Allen, who scored 12 points. “That’s been the theme of the last three games we’ve lost.”

Boston had a franchise-record 19-game winning streak stopped by the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas and lost to Golden State the next night. The Celtics bounced back with a 108-63 win over Sacramento, but they hadn’t lost to Portland since Dec. 9, 2004.

Rajon Rondo had 13 points, seven assists and six rebounds for Boston.

Portland (20-12) is off to its best start since 2002-03, its most recent playoff season. With Roy out, Portland was missing its captain and leading scorer, but the Blazers were the more aggressive team, outrebounding Boston 44-29.

Led by Outlaw, Portland’s bench scored 29 points. Boston lost the lead in the third and didn’t get it back.

The Celtics intimidated and held Portland to its lowest point total of the season in a 93-78 win in Boston on Dec. 5. Even so, and even without Roy, the Blazers thought they could win at home, where they are 12-3 this season.

“We had to step it up a notch,” Blake said. “But if you’re going to win a championship, you’re going to have to step it up. We have a lot of talented guys that come to play each night and tonight wasn’t any different.”

Pierce made five free throws to get Boston to 85-83, but Outlaw drove the ball and jammed it over Garnett on the other end. Pierce completed a three-point play for Boston, but Sergio Rodriguez and Rudy Fernandez each made two free throws to put the game away for the Blazers.

They say the holidays bring out the kid in everyone, and for a self-proclaimed kid at heart, it’s not a big stretch.

We haven’t seen a lot of that side of Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden this season, as the goofy, whimsical newcomer of a year ago has become a bit more glum in his second year here — at least when he’s around the game. In fact, Oregonian beat writer Jason Quick set off a mini-brouhaha in the Rose City recently when he said on a radio show that Oden wasn’t much fun to be around.

But put a Santa hat on his head and stick him in a theater full of kids to watch a movie and give out gifts, and the other Oden comes back out. That’s where he was Saturday afternoon, hosting a private holiday party for over 200 youths and their mentors from throughout Oregon at McMenamins Bagdad Theater.

It offered a striking difference from the Oden that we’ve seen in the locker room (or not seen, given the speed records he’s set in getting away after games). Instead of uncomfortably answering questions about his play on the court, there was Oden chatting amiably with youngsters about basketball and video games.

The event was part of his association with Oregon Mentors, an organization dedicated to raising awareness for the need for male mentors throughout Oregon. They’re an umbrella group working with more than 100 organizations statewide, running the gamut from Big Brothers and Big Sisters to college prep to assisting the children of incarcerated parents.

While mentors of both sexes are always in demand, the need for male mentors in Oregon and throughout the nation is particularly acute — wait lists for youths to enroll in these programs can be as long as two years. (Oregon residents interested in becoming mentors can click here for more information.)

“Mentoring is something I wanted to get into, and the people, the organization — it’s been a good thing,” Oden said. “So I got involved and everything has been great so far.”

It’s a cause that’s important to Oden because mentors have been such a huge factor in his own life — in particular a man named Jimmy Smith, the director of the Boys and Girls Club in Terre Haute, Ind., when Oden was growing up.

“I was at the Boys and Girls Club every day starting in fourth grade,” said Oden, who also was best friends with Smith’s son Travis before his tragic death in a car accident in January 2007. “I didn’t have anything else to do. My dad was far away from me in Buffalo, so [Jimmy Smith] was always there, anything I needed, and he still is. I still talk to him every week.”

Oden’s cousin, Chris Cothran, who lives with him in Portland, also participates by mentoring a local boy. That type of involvement isn’t as plausible for Oden given the demands and travel of the NBA schedule, but he said he often makes it a trio by joining them.

“They come to the games, and I hang around when Chris takes him out,” Oden said. “But I can’t buy them anything because [it's against] the rules.”

As part of his commitment to the program, Oden donates 30 tickets for youths and mentors from throughout the state for every other home game. Additionally, Oden and Smith have created a public service announcement for the group that will air later this season.

It’s guaranteed to be only the second-most famous piece of video work he’s produced on this group’s behalf. His last benefit event for Oregon Mentors was called Summer Slam, and it produced one of the signature Oden moments — this now world-famous YouTube clip of his singing karaoke to an *NSYNC song.

Oden told me his karaoke days are done, but he still loves to talk to the kids — in fact, he seemed much more comfortable with them than with the adults in the room.

“He gets involved,” said Christina Mullin of Oregon Mentors. “At Summer Slam he was on the karaoke machine, playing pingpong with the kids, playing video games with them. He loves to enjoy the kids.”

Perhaps that’s because he has a playful side that is tough to indulge in the grown-up world he now inhabits. While he looks much older than his years, this was a good event to remind ourselves just how young he is — the Bagdad Theater also operates as a brewpub, and if he had returned about two hours later, the 20-year-old wouldn’t have been allowed to order anything with major hops.

Which helps explain why he was happily chatting with a lot of the teenaged and preteen kids; they were practically his peers. They watched “Home Alone 2,” which Oden described as his favorite Christmas movie. “It’s just funny,” he said. “I just love when they’re getting beat up.”

Afterward, he went to a Christmas tree and handed out gift bags to all the youths, autographed items from the bags — the Spalding basketball and the 2K Sports “College Hoops 2K6″ video game with Oden on the cover were the most popular choices — and smiled for photo after photo while chatting with the youngsters.

Oden recognized one youth from his Summer Slam event and brightened up — “Hey, aren’t you the kid I dunked on?” — and immediately stopped to chat with him for nearly 15 minutes. This wasn’t a show, either; the cameras had been off for a long time. And when the cameras are off, apparently, Oden’s inner kid still comes out.

Zach Randolph doesn’t harbor any bad feelings toward his former team. He just doesn’t want to lose to the Trail Blazers.

Randolph scored a season-high 38 points to lead the Los Angeles Clippers to a 120-112 double-overtime victory over the Blazers on Friday night.

Randolph, who was booed at times by the Portland crowd, also had 11 rebounds.

While the Rose Garden fans’ reaction suggested that many associate Randolph with the so-called “Jail Blazers” era, Randolph clearly has a soft spot for Portland.

“I miss the rain,” he said. “I miss everything. I came here at 19 and I still have a house here.”

But the brief trip down memory lane was also a motivational factor.

“I played here, so it definitely is motivating to try and get the win,” he said. “Plus, we needed the win anyway.”

The Clippers (5-17), with the second-worst record in the Western Conference, sure did. Baron Davis contributed 27 points and made a 3-pointer that sent the game into overtime.

Brandon Roy scored a career-high 38 points, but the Blazers (15-10) dropped their third straight game. Rookie Greg Oden had 15 points and 15 rebounds.

After Roy’s jumper tied it at 108 in the second overtime, the Clippers made four unanswered baskets to go up 116-108 and cruise to the victory.

Randolph was drafted by the Blazers in 2001 and played six seasons in Portland before he was traded to New York. He was acquired by the Clippers in a Nov. 21 trade with the Knicks, a deal that also brought guard Mardy Collins west.

The Clippers sent forward Tim Thomas and guard Cuttino Mobley to New York. Mobley on Thursday announced his retirement from the NBA because of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic heart disease. Tests done after the trade indicated the condition had worsened.

After sending the game into overtime with his 3-pointer, Davis opened the extra period with another one. Roy’s second consecutive fadeaway jumper tied it at 106 with 15 seconds left in the first overtime, and Davis missed on a long jumper at the buzzer for a second OT.

The Clippers went on an 8-0 run to open the second quarter and went up 50-44 lead on Davis’ layup before taking a 57-54 lead into the break.

The Blazers went back ahead at 70-69 on Oden’s dunk. But the Clippers kept it close and the teams traded the lead back and forth through most of the second half.

Randolph was blocked and then fouled by Oden with 3:13 left, and Randolph postured by bumping the 7-rookie with his shoulder.

On the other end, Randolph was called for fouling Oden, despite his repeated appeals to the referees that Oden had traveled.

Oden’s second free throw tied it at 92 with 2:50 left.

“Oden is tough,” Randolph said. “He’s solid.”

Roy hit a pair of free throws to give the Blazers the lead, and both teams went scoreless until his jumper with 28 seconds left.

Roy’s short jumper bounced around the rim before falling to make it 96-92. But Al Thornton narrowed it for the Clippers with a long jumper.

Steve Blake went on to miss four of five free throw attempts for the Blazers before Davis’ 3-pointer. Blake went into the game having made 31 of 33 free throws over the Blazers’ first 24 games.

“Yeah, I’m taking it personally, of course,” Blake said. “The game was on my shoulders and I let them down.”

The Blazers were without reserve forward Travis Outlaw, who bruised his tailbone when he took a hard fall in a loss to the Utah Jazz the night before.

Greg Oden is not shy about who he supports in the presidential race.  Check out the latest photo of our guy in his Obama gear!

We cannot wait! Greg Oden in uniform, ready to play during the 08-09 season. Look out NBA!

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Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden should be ready for the start of the preseason, according to the Portland Tribune.

The No. 1 pick in last year’s NBA draft, Oden missed all of this past season after undergoing microfracture knee surgery in September.

“I totally expect Greg to be able to play in the preseason,” Blazers trainer Jay Jensen told the Tribune in a story published Thursday. “The knee looks fabulous and his body is unbelievably powerful. His lower extremities are ridiculously powerful.”

The Blazers are not expected to rush the 7-footer back onto the court full-time and will “gradually build him up” during the preseason, according to the report.

“He’ll play maybe every other day, and every other game,” Jensen told the newspaper.

Oden averaged 15.7 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.3 blocks during his one year at Ohio State, helping the Buckeyes reach the National Championship game before losing to Florida.