Rudy starts 2nd half and hey ho what do you know? we win bye double digits

Houston is a good matchup to start Rudy and Roy together. Face it, Battier is not much of an offensive threat outside of him hitting spot up 3-pointers. It doesn't take a great defender, and Rudy is close enough in height. That means that Roy is a bit undersized against Artest, but Ron Ron has questionable shot selection and often falls in love with chucking it up from outside as well...not to mention he is streaky as hell. Batum's nice, but he's young and inexperienced, and is sort of like a Battier-in-training (although hopefully he'll be better...I'm talking right now he plays D and takes 3's).

If you can occupy both Battier and Artest, that means they aren't resting to take their shots against Roy one after each other. It also means those guys can't try to cheat and double or plays the passing lanes. For excellent defensive players like Artest and Battier, having to respect the shot of the opposing player really is a huge thing. So I too am in favor of this lineup for Houston.

Against a team like...Cleveland...I wouldn't want Roy having to start with guarding LeBron, that's too much to ask. Most team's with big strong 3's I wouldn't do it against. But Artest, despite the physical tools, doesn't take advantage of them and thus makes himself easier to guard.

 

I would think Houston is going to expect Rudy to start, and I would be shocked if they don't try to post Battier and/or Artest early against Roy and Rudy. They'll post against Roy to try and wear him down, and against Rudy to take advantage of their strength advantage. It will be interesting to see what Nate does if Houston goes to this strategy.

 

so if roy had made two of those WIDE OPEN 18 footers than the line-up would have been a success? sometimes the end result doesn't match with what the box score tells you. open shots are open shots and roy is going to knock those down much more often than not.

 

I thought the Blake, Roy, Rudy, LMA, Joel lineup did very well. In fact, I'm pretty sure we had a 10 point lead until Roy went out and Outlaw came in. At that point, the lead diminished.

 

Because it makes the opposition's defense work harder and gives us a better chance at winning? Greg draws fouls, he draws double and triple teams which leaves our guys open.

He doesn't need to do that, nor does he have to. We've seen it on numerous occassions, find Greg off some pick and rolls and let him score a few buckets on the offensive end, and he really gets energized and makes great plays. If you would rather not utilize the type of advantage Greg Oden brings to the team, then don't. Although, it gives us a much better chance to win. I'd certainly rather have him get more shots than more fade-away bullshit Travis Outlaw throws up. Sorry. It's hard to get any type of offense going with 3 field goal attempts.

I wouldn't say it's crappy, although many times it is. I'd say it's inconsistent. Sometimes his hook is falling and he's making nice plays with his footwork, sometimes he's not. Regardless, he draws fouls pretty consistently as well as double teams. Greg took 1 shot on Chuck Hayes and automatically he's a piece of garbage on offense? That's fucking retarded. He killed Dikembe Mutombo who is a much better defender than Chuck Hayes. This notion that Greg shouldn't be getting the ball on offense just doesn't hold up.

 

I watch the games, Blake was playing piss poor in the first game in Houston. He played better in the second game.

 

Wrong. In Game 3, Blake had 16 points, 10 assists, and only 2 turnovers while holding Aaron Brooks to 3-11 shooting. I'd say Game 3 was his best game. He made ONE mistake, taking the three when he should've found Rudy, but that doesn't erase how well he played up to that point. 16 & 10 is not "piss poor" by any definition.

Learn the game, then post.

 

Learn the game? You constantly say Greg Oden sucks yet you have him as your avatar. Please, take your bipolar meds before you put up threads on the board. There is no middle ground with you. Either Greg Oden sucks or he's going to be the best center in the NBA. I've heard both those statements from you, pick one and stick to it instead of bouncing back and forth like a 51/50 patient.

 

This thread is made of win.

 

Even though I've broke it down for you, it appears you are still failing to understand what I'm saying. I said I expect the outcome with that lineup against Houston to be successful in to future, and I've taken note of the looks it go us. However, to determine if that lineup outplayed their opponent, I do have to look at points scored and points given up. Defense is also a factor, and quite honestly, points scored is what matters most when the score clock reads 00.0.

I also love how you say Roy's shots were WIDE OPEN, which I only recall 1 of the 5 being. The other 4 were clean looks coming off of a pick and roll, where Yao backed off. Houston has been giving him those looks throughout the series, so there is no need to make extreme statements just to try and prove a point.

If you still don't understand that I've now said 3 times, that this lineup gave us better opportunities to outscore them, but did not help us win, you won't get it. We got outscored with that lineup in the game, so unless you want to make a case that getting outscored helps us win games, you don't have a leg to stand on.

 

I love that you brought facts to backup your point, because I feel AmirIcon's only "proof" that Blake didn't play well, was him saying so, and that doesn't cut it. Blake make half his shots, had a 6.3:1 assist to turnover ration, and didn't get torn a new one on defense, so I don't understand how one bad 3 at the end of the game makes his play in Houston horrible.

However, your "Learn the game, then post." comment is something I hate to read. I let it slide when people say it to me, or tell me I only look at box-scores (when typically I watch every game live and one replay as well). Just because AmirIcon is making statements that appear to be false and is providing no specifics to justify his claims, doesn't mean he doesn't know the game, it just means he most likely let his dislike towards a certain player cloud his mind, causing him to make an uninformed statement. He might know a lot about the game, but just like our players and coaches, he isn't perfect. Let's call him out for his specific mistake, but there is no need to make general, sweeping, put-downs about his overall knowledge.

 

There's almost no downside to benching Batum and starting Rudy. Batum's a guy you want against scoring wing men. Houston doesn't really have any. Well, there's Artest. But frankly, if Houston runs their entire offense through Artest, they're done for and they know it.

Rudy spreads the floor, and he'll take the high pressure shot every single time, unlike Aldridge or even Blake at times.

And I really like having Roy guard Artest. You can just see in Artest's demeanor that he wants to fight with Roy on both ends every possession. Which is fantastic. Roy will win that matchup much of the time when he's on offense, and the Blazers will win that matchup much of the time when Artest is on offense because the ball isn't going to Yao.

The Rockets' inability to use Yao properly is the single biggest key to why Portland has won two games in this series. I'm amazed at how unwilling they are to throw any even slightly risky pass into Yao. They'd rather chuck up a 40% jumper than take a 10% risk on a turnover that gets Yao a 60% shot. There were times last night where Yao looked like he just gave up on trying to get the ball, and decided to be Joel Przybilla, just setting screens and waiting for offensive boards.

Anything we do to make Artest more confident in hogging the ball himself is a good thing. Because it means Yao will continue to only get 12 shots a night.

 

If Houston tries to post Battier or Artest, just front them. Brooks, Wafer and Lowry have proven they can't get the ball into the low post to their 7'6" 350 lb. superstar center when the defense fronts him. I doubt they'll have much luck getting it in to their 6'7" and 6'8" small forward and shooting guard if Rudy and Roy front them and deny the entry pass.

BNM

 

If only he was a little better at catchphrases... he might still be on Bones.

 

Absolutely correct, but my favorite player is Batum and it's very, very important that he be the starter in the next.......Series with the Lakers!!!

 

Hell yeah. If their game plan is to run the offense through Battier against Rudy, I'm all for it. Battier is usually on the far end of the court from Yao, which means Przybilla will be underneath and in better rebounding/shot blocking position. Besides, Battier hasn't had a 20 point game all season. What are the odds he does it now?

I'm a big fan of anything that keeps the ball out of Yao and Scola's hands.

 

Ah, but... who's mother?

You're right, I'm sorry Eric. That was over the top.

 

tince i guess we are just seeing the same thing from different angles. of course the roy shots were off picks, buy yao hasn't been coming up on those because he's had a wing there to help off of batum, battier can't do that anymore. i wouldn't blame rudys defense for that though, the dude doesn't play the best one on one d and he gambles alot but he creates plays. sometimes this kills us because nate hates that style of d but when it works it works. it is alot like travis' jumpers, when he hits it's a thing of beauty when he misses it ugly as shit.

i'm still trying to figure out why we took out pryzbillia at the end when we were going to be on defense? it created an easy dump in to yao and our centers weren't killing us on the offensive end. i'm all for offense/defense subsitution but those situations come at the end of the game when fouls are usually taking place. i just don't understand his subsitutions, like putting in the twin towers in houston.

 

Battier posting up Rudy I am not afraid of, Battier has done nothing to show that he can be a threat from a post up position and it is not like he has a huge size advantage over Rudy....Close out on Battier and make him put it on the floor, he is not nearly as effective then...we cannot give him open shots in HOU...

I do agree that if Artest sticks to the probable game plan, we will see Artest posting up Roy, and he does have an advantage there, but I will take that matchup b\c IMO Roy is a good defender....Artest will get some scores by posting up but they won't be automatic, and that is IF he sticks to that game plan...it also leaves Yao out of the offense, which is a good thing and the offensive plusses of having Rudy in the lineup are too good to give up just b\c Artest can post Roy...and its not like he couldn't post Batum or Outlaw as easily as Roy...because he could...