Yeah. Outlaw and Frye had trouble deciding whether to provide help on the backside of Yao or stay home, which often resulted in them being in " no man's land". While fronting Yao early limited his touches, we couldn't keep Yao off the the offensive boards at all. Joel or Oden have to help out LMA here, because there is no way he can get around him, especially early when Yao still is fresh. I think the best strategy would be to have Joel or Oden guard him with no front, wings doubling down at times. Then front him in the 4th, when he has little gas left.
How is that relevant? If you want to use that logic, you could talk about how Portland hasn't gotten past the first round since 2000, and how we've only advanced past the first round twice since 1992. I prefer to focus on this current season, not past seasons that are no barometer for what will happen now. -Pop
It is relevant because there are certain teams that when the playoffs come, they are unable to elevate their game to another level. A prime example of this is Miami under Pat Riley in the 90's. They always could get in the mid 50's in wins at least. But the problem was they played at the highest level they could during the season to attain their record, but were unable to elevate their play to another level in the playoffs. Other teams that could elevate their play, knocked them out of the playoffs year after year. Secondly, your argument about Portland not getting out of the playoffs since 2000 (or 1992) is invalid, because no players here were even on the team then. The Houston team on the other hand, has many players who have been to the first round and out on it. Yao has had the "First and out" monkey on his back for his whole career, as did McGrady before he was out. They have established a record to "run on". That record is losing in the first round.
Houston did not have Yao in the playoffs last year, and they took Utah to six games. This year, they don't have T-Mac, and most people are making the argument that Houston is better without him in the lineup since his style of play does not contrast with Yao and Artest. Different teams. I'm not saying that Portland can't beat Houston, but I am saying that if you are relying on Houston's recent history in the playoffs, that's not very wise. -Pop
Why would I be relying on anything? I am just looking at the matchup. Houston doesn't scare me. I think Portland can play much better than they have during the regular season against them, and from what I read of the Roy interview after the game, he didn't really feel that Artest and Battier bothered him much, he just felt he let the team down by missing shots. Let's put it this way. I can look at every game against Houston this season, and see more problems with what the Blazers didn't do, than with what Houston did. If Portland elevates their game, and gets some production out of the bench, they can beat this team. The keys being: 1. Getting some production out of the bench. 2. Hitting free throws. 3. Lamarcus dominating at PF as that is one of the Blazers advantages. 4. Roy getting comfortable against Houstons defense. 5. Attacking Yao Ming to get him in foul trouble. 6. Instead of planning the defense to stop Yao and let the supporting cast get theirs, go the other way around. Let Yao score like mad. Stop the supporting cast from killing you.
Honestly, i'm not scared of any team, and don't think we should purposely try for any certain matchup. I like our chances vs anyone from San Antonio, Houston and Denver to Utah, NO and Dallas. That being said, I do think houston would probably be the one team (outside of LA of course) that i'd prefer not to play, but it looks like that is proably where we will end up unless (and its very possible) they pass SA for 3rd and we take on SA in the 4/5 matchup which would be fine as well, imo. Houston has almost all the ingredients that kill us... well coached, good D, unstoppable big man, quick PG, tough PF, and great perimeter defender. All of those things don't bode well for us, imo. One of the only thing they don't really have is a C who can step out to the 3 point line (Hawes, Miller, Okur) and an undersized big guy that flops and draws fouls on our bigs (Magette for example or Stephen Jackson). In our 3 games verse Houston this year, we haven't done very well. We hardly won 1 of 3 at home by a pretty amazing shot (but they also hit a good shot and got fouled at the end soo...). So yeah, i'd prefer San Antonio, honestly, even though they have a lot of those factors as well.
The one thing that doesn't scare me about Houston is they don't have a great superstar perimeter player who can create his own shot. Aaron Brooks is their best, and he's still a young guy and we don't know how he'll respond to a high-pressure playoff situation. But if we let Houston score 100 points on us, we're toast. No way can our D allow them to score that much. We'd have to go back to old-Nate style ball, ugly it up and make the game in the 80's or 90's.
Fuck Houston. Fuck Canzano. Fuck whoever we play. They should be worried about how they match up against us, not the other way around.
