This may seem obvious to many of you and I pray to God that it is obvious to the Blazers tonight but if Landry is out tonight then the Blazers need to feed the ball the LaMarcus tonight till he spits up like an overfed baby. If the Blazers can get Scola in foul trouble this would give us a huge advantage. Combine that with the fact that LaMarcus is playing really well right now this should be a no-brainer.
what is obvious to me is that Portland's Bigs usually get the short end of the calls on the road. If Portland is force feeding LA on the block early, I expect the refs to protect Scola and honor his flopping with charge calls on LA. STOMP
I hope I'm wrong, but I expect Lamarcus to struggle tonight. He usually doesn't play well against smaller defenders who like to get low on him and push him around. Scola will do that, and even if he gets into foul trouble, I wouldn't be surprised to see Houston put Artest on Aldridge at times (also a matchup nightmare for LMA). -Pop
This would be OK, IMO. Roy seems to have trouble when Artest guards him. I think Artest would affect LMA less than Artest affects Roy.
It's all about the initial positioning. If Aldridge does what he should, and runs to the rim, and establishes his position close to the rim, he will have much less of a chance of being called for charges. It is that simple. If he has Artest or Scola down there, for him that is almost "Mouse in the House" with the size difference.
I am guessing that Battier gets Roy and Artest gets LA. Houston is a tough place for ANY team to win. That being said, this is the game I think Portland could steal. The second of a back to back in SA is a near impossible victory.
I disagree. I think the San Antonio game is more winnable than tonight's game. We match up much better with the Spurs and always seem to hang around until late in the 4th quarter against them. Plus the Spurs play Dallas tonight, so they'll be on a back-to-back as well. Not to mention they won't have Manu. -Pop
