Some notes on Houston vs Portland in the post-season for the sake of history, should it turn out that way: Portland has played Houston twice in the playoffs, less than any of the other historically major Western Conference franchises. Both times were in the first round (1987 and 1994), and both times ended up as losses for Portland. Not a lot of chances to have developed a rivalry in the past (Seattle and Utah were more frequent for them, and of course everyone had the Lakers). Houston has missed on their last six chances to get out of the first round (1997 was their last advancement), so there might be a mental edge there. And of course, Houston won the season series 2-1, that one loss coming with 0.8 seconds left in Portland. The home team has won every game.
Which begs the question, shouldn't head to head be thrown out as a tie breaker when there are an odd number of games? All the other tie breakers are intended to even out over 82 games...
