PORTLAND, Ore. — Somebody in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ locker room before Sunday’s 116-93 loss wondered why Portland is called Rip City, the longtime catch phrase the Trail Blazers are using this time around to celebrate their 40th year.
Excellent question.

And a bit prophetic, too.
The first word spelled out, it is the nickname the team’s broadcaster invented one night in an inaugural season long ago for the sound the net made constantly in a late, unlikely comeback against the mighty Los Angeles Lakers.
Initialized, it stands for a place of doom for the Wolves, who have lost nine consecutive games to the Blazers and haven’t won at the Rose Garden since Dec. 7, 2005.
Two nights earlier, the Wolves wilted in the third quarter at home and lost to Milwaukee by 15 points in a game they once led by nine.
On Sunday, the Blazers used an 8-0 first quarter to transform an early 6-3 deficit into a rout and the Wolves’ sixth consecutive loss after a season-opening victory.
The Blazers led by nine after a quarter, by 19 just before halftime and by 28 in the second half on a night when Wolves coach Kurt Rambis praised his team’s effort except for a six-minute stretch in the third quarter.
“I was fairly pleased with how our guys played, much more so than how we played for good chunks of time against Milwaukee the other night,” Rambis said. “Portland’s a really good team. They cause a lot of matchup problems. They’ve been together long enough that they understand each other as teammates and know how to get the ball to what people at the right time.”
With Kevin Love sitting injured in his hometown, Rambis turned to newly acquired Nathan Jawai to counter a long, athletic Blazers team that in three seasons went from 21 victories to 54 last year.
Jawai’s 16 points and nearly 20 minutes more than quadrupled his previous career highs, but most of them came long after the Blazers assumed command.
“It’s good to get a career high,” Jawai said, “but a win would have been better.”
The Blazers started the game small, opening with point guards Steve Blake and Andre Miller together in the backcourt. It was a lineup combination Rambis wouldn’t mirror until the fourth quarter, when he put Jonny Flynn and Ramon Sessions together for one of the few times this season. This time, it was for a four-minute stretch.
By then, the Wolves trailed by 25 points against a Blazers team that turned around its fortunes largely due to one astute draft. In 2006, the Blazers made trades to acquire LaMarcus Aldridge with the second pick, sent cash and the rights to Randy Foye to the Wolves for Roy and got Rudy Fernandez’s from Phoenix in a trade.
They found some big lottery luck the next year and won the No. 1 pick and the right to draft Ohio State center Greg Oden.
“We know you can turn a team around pretty quick. We know we’re a work in progress,” the Wolves’ Corey Brewer said. “But this is my third year in the league and it’s tough to keep losing. You say we’re young and this and that, but you can’t give an effort and come out and play like that.”