http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/or...ex.ssf/2009/04/houston_we_have_a_problem.html I just posted in another thread that i hope we get the spurs cause we just don't match up well with the rockets. if we got home court, obviously we would have a better shot but at this point it will be tough. I agree with Canzano.. if we can get anyone but Houston, we will have a chance to advance.
Winning a playoff series this year would basically = winning a championship. At least relatively speaking. It would be a major, major accomplishment.
its funny, i just posted the exact same thing a minute ago in the "folks playoff thread" if the blazers win a series.... its a remarkable season
How to tell when you are wrong about something: When you find yourself typing "I agree with Canzano on this". barfo
sorry but we just dont match up well with them. just like utah has problems with us. it is what it is
We don't match up well with 75% of the league. But at home we sure do somethin' right! Let's get that home court advantage so we don't have that prob.
so this is the 'positive' posts of mixum? "if we dont play Houston team, we have a chance of advancing.." WOW, please tone down the optimism....
pfft. Houston has nothing on us. We just need to come prepared. I also think that playing Greg and Joel until they foul out is a must against Yao. None of this Aldridge or Frye on Yao bullshit. And fuck, put a fore-arm in Artest's face or something, can't be scared of his crap, he's not THAT good. He can defend, but his offense is nothing to be scared of.
give it a rest guys... lets talk hoops not posters. Does anyone here really like the way the Blazers match up vs Houston? Especially if they've got home court advantage? Spurs schedule... at home vs Portland, Utah, and New Orleans on the road vs Olk. City, Sacramento, Golden State. Unless Timmy is really limited I see a pretty favorable finish for them. Rockets schedule... at home vs Orlando & New Orleans, on the road vs Sacramento, Golden State, and Dallas. Blazer schedule... at home vs Olk. City, the Lakers, Denver, and on the road vs Memphis, San Antonio, and the Clips That Spurs road game is huge and unfortunately Parker has been pretty rough on the Blazers. If they finish in a tie with Houston the Rockets own the tiebreaker...it looks like Houston on the road to me. STOMP
I still don't fear Houston. I think whomever gets them in a 7 game series will wear them out, due to their lack if go-to scoring sans Yao.
Meh, I keep hearing that Portland doesn't match up well with them, but truth is they don't match up well with Portland either. Canzano refers to Brooks like he's some impossible puzzle. The guy shoots 43% against us this season. And all he does is shoot. Artest is "too big and strong." Well. Roy seemed to have a decent night against him. If it comes down between who has the better night--Roy or Artest, I'll put my money on Roy every time. Yao is the problem. But he's a problem for everybody. He's really tough to prepare for in one day because he's so much taller and more skilled than any center in the league. You ask Przybilla and Oden to guard Nenad Krstic one night and then Yao two nights later, and it's going to be tough to do. It's like warming up to play Michael Jordan by practicing against your little brother. But Yao isn't like Shaq, a guy who is impossible to prepare for. He has tendencies you can work around. You can scout how teams handle him. And if you look at the stats, we've held him to 42% shooting and 16 ppg in three games. If you can hold the other team's best player to those numbers, you stand an excellent shot of beating them. Meanwhile, they have absolutely no answer for Aldridge. Houston is a smart, veteran team that plays great defense and really good half court basketball. History says that Portland doesn't stand a chance against them, but how much stock can you really put in the history of a team as young as ours? Canzano says Portland has 4 wins in its last 17 games against them, but at the start of that bad streak Batum and Oden were 15 or 16 years old. To me it boils down to role players. For whatever reason, their role players play us better than ours play them. They're much better defenders, and as a result our usual bench advantage just doesn't happen against this team. That's why Aldridge and Roy get the best stats in the game, but Houston gets the win. I remember in the late 90's Utah was the one team Portland always hated playing. Stockton and Malone were horrible matchups for us. That was right up until that epic series where Rider destroyed them and Grant contained them, and after that nobody really worried about the matchup anymore. I look at how this team is built, how role players like Oden, Fernandez and Outlaw go off on other teams but not yet against Houston, and how well we contain Yao, and I think we stand a good chance of beating this team. But like all the other matchups, we have to have come court advantage to do it.
If we play them, we should front Yao..I saw a game at chicago and they came back down from 20 in the 2nd half and yao had very little touches in the 4th, because they can't throw entry passes when he is fronted.
I was impressed that Portland really started off doing this right from the beginning with Aldridge. And it worked. Houston really doesn't have the best ball movement because they don't really have a point guard. And Ron Artest tends to do his own thing at times. The key is that while our C and PF are busy doing this, the other defenders rotate to the open PF. That's a big part of what killed us.
The key, IMO, to beating Houston is to shadow/trap Aaron Brooks in the backcourt with Aldridge and Blake. Force them to fight the clock to get the ball over half court. Who's going to bring the ball upcourt outside of Brooks? Battier? Artest? Yao? Scola? I don't think so. I think if we do that, we force them to play out of their comfort zone and negate the quickness advantage that Brooks has over Blake. We also probably force some more turnovers and get some easy baskets off of those turnovers. This is the exact formula we used to destroy Chicago (shadowing/trapping Derrick Rose) and Miami (D-Wade and/or Chalmers). Brooks is a young point guard in his first season of meaningful playing time. Lets make him panic a little bit. -Pop
I don't see why everybody is so focused on this. Houston is beatable, if you watched the game the other night: 1. Take the horrible stretch with Frye on the floor out. 2. Shoot decent from the line. 3. Make some shots the Blazers normally make. 4. Think Von Wafer is going to play like that every night? = win vs Houston. They aren't scary. They match up pretty well.
Totally disagree with this. We were a miracle three point heave from near half court by Brandon Roy away from being swept by them this year. They are able to negate or somewhat neutralize Brandon, since they can rotate Artest and Battier on him (two of the top wing defenders in the league). They can neutralize LaMarcus with the kind of defender that bothers him in Scola. And they have the protype "quick point guard" that seems to bother the Blazers. Not to mention they have a significant size advantage with Yao. Houston is a horrible matchup for us. -Pop
From reading Quick's "Behind the Locker Room Door" piece it's clear to me that B-Roy thinks he has Houston figured out. He wouldn't give away what the secret is, but I think he thinks they will beat them. I believe he has recognized something they're doing wrong on the P&R. I'm not too worried about the Rockets and I think we would beat them in a playoff series.
