FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A7
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • TUEsday, aprIL 27, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
NBA | Playoff push
HIGH SCHOOL
SPORTS
OHA changes
mask mandate
for outdoor sports
The Oregon Health
Authority has finally
changed its mask rule
for outdoor noncon-
tact sports, announcing
Monday that masks do
not need to be worn by
athletes “competing in
non-contact sports out-
doors and maintaining
at least 6 feet of distance
from others and the
other virus protective
protocols.”
The change comes
less than a week af-
ter Summit’s Maggie
Williams’ school-re-
cord-breaking 800-me-
ter-run on Wednesday.
Williams broke the
Storm girls 800-meter
record in 2 minutes, 8.45
seconds, while wearing
a mask. She collapsed at
the finish, in complete
oxygen-debt, accord-
ing to Summit track and
field coach Dave Turn-
bull.
“I am concerned with
the mask rule,” Turnbull
said after the race. “This
is what I am worried
about and I said this at
the beginning of the
season. You get a kid
running the 800 with a
mask on, it is actually
dangerous. They don’t
get the oxygen that they
need. This rule needs to
change.”
Summit cross-country
coach Kari Strang called
for a change to the mask
rule for distance run-
ners at the start of the
cross-country season in
early March. But OHA did
not act until long after
the cross-country season
had ended and the track
season was in full swing,
four days after Williams’
record-breaking effort
and subsequent collapse
were reported by The
Bulletin.
—Bulletin staff report
WOMEN’S
BASKETBALL
‘WE NEED TO PLAY WITH
DESPERATION’
Trail Blazers’ season — and playoff hopes — unraveling after fifth-straight loss
Craig Mitchelldyer/AP
Portland Trail Blazers forward Norman Powell, center, shoots between Memphis Grizzlies center Xavier Tillman, left, and forward Brandon Clarke during the
first half on Sunday in Portland. Memphis won 120-113. It was the fifth loss in a row for Portland.
BY AARON FENTRESS
The Oregonian
T
he Portland Trail Blazers season
is circling down the drain at an
alarming rate with no end in sight.
The Blazers fell 120-113 to Mem-
phis on Sunday two days after losing 130-
128 to these same Grizzlies, who clearly
looked more athletic and hungrier than the
Blazers.
The result is that seventh-place Portland
(32-28) is now just a half game ahead of the
eighth-place Grizzlies (31-28) in the West-
ern Conference standings and the two teams
will meet again on Wednesday in Memphis.
Sixth-place Dallas (33-26) now has a 1
1/2 game lead on the Blazers, who have lost
five in a row and 10 out of 13 with 12 games
remaining. Four of the team’s last six losses
have come by two points or less, offering a
glimmer of hope that maybe the team can
turn things around before it finds itself in
10th place and having to go on the road in
the play-in round.
“I think we’re a little frustrated right now,”
Portland coach Terry Stotts said. “You look
at some of these games, the one-point losses.
I don’t think we were out of sorts against
Boston or against San Antonio, or Denver
or the (Los Angeles) Clippers, so I think re-
cently we’ve been playing good basketball
and came up short in some close games.”
True, but that’s little consolation consider-
ing that the losses are piling up at an alarm-
ing rate for a team that on March 31 was 29-
18. Making matters worse, the Blazers are
5-14 this season against the teams they will
face in their final 12 games.
When asked if frustration has turned into
desperation, Stotts said: “We’re getting close.
We need to play with a sense of despera-
tion. There’s no question. I think we’re better
when we play like that. But, at this stage of
the season with 12 games left and looking at
the standings, there has to be a certain mea-
sure of desperation when you play, and that’s
not necessarily a bad thing.”
See Trail Blazers / A8
Ducks’ Mikesell
enters portal
Oregon women’s bas-
ketball is losing its most
veteran player — again.
Taylor Mikesell, who
averaged 9.3 points, 2.4
rebounds and 1.8 assists
in 24.9 minutes over 24
games with 20 starts
this season, has entered
the transfer portal, ac-
cording to a source with
knowledge of the situ-
ation.
Mikesell, who has
two years of eligibility
remaining, came to UO
last summer from Mary-
land.
She shot 44.4% from
the field, including
33.3% from three-point
range, and a team-high
92.5% from the foul line.
The Massillon, Ohio
native is the third player
to transfer from the
Ducks this offseason,
joining fellow guards
Taylor Chavez and Jaz
Shelley, who left for Ar-
izona and Nebraska,
respectively, earlier this
month.
Mikesell’s departure
leaves Oregon with eight
returning scholarship
players and two incom-
ing signees, including
four guards.
Kelly Graves was not
planning to pursue a
transfer this offseason
but is now expecting to
add a via the portal, as
the Ducks return Te-Hina
Paopao, Sydney Parrish
and Maddie Scherr and
add freshman Taylor
Bigby at guard.
— The Oregonian
NFL DRAFT
TOKYO GAMES
With just 3 picks, Seattle hopes
to produce late-round magic
More tests, no
quarantine in
updated rules
for Olympics
BY GEOFFREY C. ARNOLD
The Oregonian
The Seattle Seahawks have un-
earthed a number of solid players
during the late rounds of recent
NFL drafts. They’ll be challenged to
find those type of players again as
they enter their most unusual draft
in team history.
The Seahawks currently have just
three picks in the 2021 NFL draft,
which begins Thursday. They have
picks in the second round (No. 56),
fourth round (No. 129) and seventh
round (No. 250). The three picks
are the fewest for the Seahawks in
a draft since 1994. The Seahawks’
paltry number is the fewest for any
team in the 2021 draft and the few-
est for any team in the draft since
2009.
The Seahawks find themselves
in this position after making trades
during the past season and current
offseason to acquire established
players in exchange for draft picks.
The Seahawks sent their first and
third-round picks in the 2021 NFL
Draft to the New York Jets in ex-
change for safety Jamal Adams in
July. They shipped their fifth-round
pick to the Las Vegas Raiders in ex-
change for guard Gabe Jackson in
March and they traded their sixth-
round pick in the 2021 draft to the
Miami Dolphins in exchange for a
seventh-round selection in the 2020
NFL draft.
BY STEPHEN WADE
Associated Press
virtual interviews because of the
coronavirus pandemic.
Carroll and Schneider have man-
aged to draft good players in the
late rounds in the past.
Defensive back Ugo Amadi, a
fourth-round pick (No. 132) in the
2019 NFL draft, has appeared in 30
games with five starts in the past two
seasons. Travis Homer has become
a valuable special teams player and
backup running back after being a
sixth-round pick (No. 204) in 2019.
TOKYO — Tokyo Olympic organizers
and the IOC are to unveil new plans this
week to explain how 15,400 Olympic and
Paralympic athletes can compete in Japan
when the games open in three months in
the midst of a pandemic.
The rollout of the second edition of the
“Playbooks” — an IOC guidebook explain-
ing how the games can be pulled off —
comes as Tokyo, Osaka and several other
areas have been placed under a third state of
emergency as coronavirus cases surge.
Japan, which has attributed about 10,000
deaths to COVID-19, has also been slow
with local vaccination with about 1% so far
getting shots.
Organizers are expected to announce
daily testing for athletes. They are also ex-
pected to drop a 14-day quarantine re-
quirement, allowing athletes to train when
they arrive. Athletes will be required to stay
within a “bubble” consisting of the Olympic
Village on Tokyo Bay, and venues and train-
ing areas.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency, citing un-
named sources, said athletes and staff will
have to be tested twice within 96 hours be-
fore leaving home. They will also be tested
upon arrival in Japan.
See Seahawks / A8
See Olympics / A8
Wilfredo Lee/AP file
Seattle Seahawks running back Chris Carson runs the ball against the Miami Dol-
phins in Miami Gardens, Florida, in October. Carson was a seventh-round pick (No.
249), just five picks from being “Mr. Irrelevant,” the final selection of the 2017 draft.
The Seahawks’ last three first-
round picks have been in the mid-
to-late 20s overall. Under head
coach Pete Carroll and general
manager John Schneider, their
highest first round pick was Bruce
Irvin at No. 15 in the 2012 draft.
Selecting players late in the first
round is always a gamble, and it’s
even more of a guessing game in
2021. NFL decision-makers must
choose players without the bene-
fit of the NFL scouting combine or
in-person workouts and conduct