Inside Advantage: Blazers?

I think Quick raises a very good question in this morning's article in The O. Does Mutombo's injury give the Blazers a new and formidable advantage inside against the Rockets?

 

The question to me is this: does this amplify what the Blazers' game plan is already - to go inside against the Rockets - or is it going to shift away from another possible strategy, of getting up and down the floor? In other words, will the Blazers change tactics to chase a mismatch (inside to Oden and Frye against smaller defenders) at the expense of going with what the Blazers are accustomed to doing (pushing the ball and relying primarily on ball movement and player movement to get the defense to open up)? Or am I creating a dilemma where there isn't one?

Either way, I'm sorry to see Mutombo go. He's a class act, wagging finger and all.

 

I wouldn't say "formidable," but it might help us. Imagine if we could get Yao in foul trouble. Now THAT would be a formidable advantage!

 

Was Mutombo playing many minutes anyway? I thought the only time he played AT ALL this season was when Yao was out entirely.

But yes, Greg is going to see a lot of short people on him. Hope he stops trying those wild 12-foot hook shots and keeps with the backing down and dunking.

 

I sure hope it gives us an advantage. I want to see more of Aldridge, Greg, and Outlaw taking it hard to the rack and Rudy shootin' a few more 3's.

 

When Yao is in the game, the Rockets still have the inside advantage. When he's out, that advantage shifts to the Blazers. The question is, how many minutes can Yao play and be effective. If the Blazers can neutralize him, wear him out and/or get him in foul trouble, the Blazers will win the series.

They need to keep fronting him and not let him catch the ball with deep post position - just like in game 2. They also need to attack him when he's on defense and draw fouls - and I don't just mean Greg and Joel. The whole team needs to drive at Yao and draw contact, like other teams do to Greg.

BNM

 

Easier said than done, BNM. How many times was Roy slammed down to the ground by Yao with no call? Had all those been called, the Blazers would have had another 5 or 6 points in free throws and Yao would have fouled out.

 

Good point.

Losing Mutombo costs them height - but they have other big men with the same toughness and dedication to defense. (hells bells, Landry was SHOT by carjackers at midseason, and he was back in uniform within weeks!) Losing Yao would disrupt them at *both* ends of the court.

 

Yep, the refs protect Yao, but you still have to keep doing it. Make him work at both ends of the court. Use his size and lack of foot speed against him. They drew enough fouls on Yao in game 2 to limit him to 31 minutes of playing time.

That means 17 minutes where the Blazers have a huge advantage in the paint. With no Mutombo and Yao on the bench, the Rockets don't have a shot blocker on the court that can protect the rim. This gives Aldridge and Oden a huge advantage in the low post, and also means Roy (and Outlaw and Fernandez) and drive the lane without anyone back there to defend the rim.

BNM

 

Toughness is nice, but without Yao or Mutombo, they can't match the Blazers length. Chuck Hayes is a tough defender that makes the most of his 6'6" size, but at 6'11", Aldridge can simply shoot over him all day long. If you have Hayes (6'6") and Landry (6'9") in the game against Oden (7'0") and Aldridge (6'11"), the Blazers have a huge advantage they need to exploit.

BNM

 

Take the ball to the hoop every time and put pressure on the Rockets' D. If I see us settling for jumpers, I'm going to tear my hair out. Yao will certainly be hesitant defensively, and other than him, they don't have any shot blockers. This could be the one small break we need to get one game in Houston.

 

I mostly agree with this, however, I have a nagging doubt. I remember watching the Knicks-Rockets finals and the Knicks
had a lot of success because Ewing didn't guard Hakeem. They put a much shorter but much more stout (forgot his name)
of Hakeem, and Hakeem had a lot of trouble. Indeed the shorter Hayes HAS given LMA trouble. However, Oden should
dominate. Here's hoping he will!!

It was a good strategy by the Knicks. (But in my mind it showed that Ewing wasn't in Hakeem's class).

 

What losing Deke does to them mostly is to mess up their rotation. Just like when we didn't have Oden, the loss wasn't so much GO as it was having to play Frye or LMA at the five. Neither Landry nor Hayes are natural centers. We can certainly make them pay, as long our bigs make their free throws.

The one advantage they do have is that Artest and Battier are both big for their positions and play great help defense. We're going to need to pull them out on our wings by hitting some threes. If we can, Yao will be exposed when he's in the game and the middle will be wide open when he's not.

 

Yep. Even if they aren't calling fouls are Yao, we need to make him work HARD and make them pay for having to play him so many minutes. Keep attacking him. Even if he doesn't pick up fouls, he will slow down from fatigue.

 

Yup, this is a big key. A few people said, "We can't expect Yao to shoot as few shots as he did in game 2." We can expect that (or something similar) if Portland is aggressive in fronting. It's been an issue all season for Houston: they don't deal well with fronting. Portland barely did it at all in game 1, and Yao was absolutely dominating. Portland did start doing it in game 2 and Yao was much less of a factor.

Bodying him up in the post is not an effective way to defend Yao. He can't be pushed off the block (he has huge lower body strength) and he has such an arsenal of low-post moves once he has his position. But a defense can deny him the ball surprisingly easily, so that's what Portland must do.

 

How true! Yao gets Shack and Moses Malone calls all the time. Roy could get kilied if he isn't carefull.

 

It would help if we could put a little more pressure on the ball. Some body on this team has to step up and do this.

 

deke didn't play alot this season but from game 1 we saw he could be the big man they needed to get rebounds and do some dirty work on their second unit. the biggest advantage i see for us isn't dumping the ball into the post everytime but more that our guards should be able to attack the paint, and rebounding. oden should be able to rebound much easier over some 6'9" guys than mutombo.

 

Yes! Please, I'd love to see them do that!

 

I'm honestly a little concerned about Deke going out. Oden murdered Mutombo. The biggest disadvantage of playing Oden against the smaller Houston lineup is that they will flop. We all know they will. Mutombo wasn't flopping against Oden. I don't know if it's pride, but he was trying to play Greg straight up. I doubt we will see Hayes, Scola, or Landry try to play Greg straight up. It will be a flopping exhibition in the paint, and Greg will find himself in foul trouble yet again... unless the refs let him play (and they probably won't.)