If the Rockets get away with manhandling Roy, Rudy and Outlaw what is our counter? We need to force them to double and pass to the open guy. The only way we do that is either have players lighting them up, or get some penetration. Frankly -- I think we got to go with who's hot and clicking. If that means Blake gets less minutes or Oden gets less minutes or even Roy, so be it. I am not worried about defending Houston, I am worried about scoring on them. As good as Sergio was last night, Nate needs to be quick to go to him if we are having trouble getting open looks. Sergio, if he is driving down the lane, can get the Blazers open looks. What's your game plan to score on Houston? The conspiracy theorist in me believes the NBA wants to see a Lakers-Cavs final but also wants to see a Lakers-Blazers 2nd round matchup. I am hoping we get a little bonus from the refs. I really want to get out of the 1st round so we can see the Lakers in the 2nd round.
I think we'll see what we always see. When we're at Portland, the Rockets WILL NOT get away with manhandling our playmakers. When we are in Houston . . . might be another story. Thankfully, we have home court. If it were the other way around, I don't think we could beat those guys.
After the last game against Houston, brandon Roy said he picked up on something on there pick and roll derfense that he wasn't going to reveal to Quick, in case we had to face them in the playoffs. Roy found a weakness, and he is going to exploit it. We take the first two of this series.
I sure hope so. I seems imperative to get the first 2. I expect a little playoff shock in the first quarter of the first game but after hopefully the HCA will kick back in.
1. Force an up-tempo style. Try to get some easy points and fast breaks going, to get the crowd involved. 2. Be physical with Yao. With Joel, Greg, Frye and LaMarcus, we've got 24 fouls. Don't be afraid to use them all. 3. Bench play. Sergio/Rudy/Travis/Frye/G.O. need to come in and provide a spark and be able to bridge the gap from when the starters go out to when they return. 4. And protect home court!
We need to push it. Make Yao run. Tire him out. Create mis matches where Yao has to step out and guard players 12-15 feet from the basket. Utah beat them the last two years because they got Boozer isolated on Yao and he was able to use his quickness. Pryz and Oden are not Okur type players so getting a mis match will be tough. But Nate needs to find a way. Frye will be important.
I've offered several of my hoops friends a play on the Tiger bet where I win with a Lakers-Cavs finals and they get the field. No one has taken it. With the economic clouds looming over next season Stern will make sure his main cash cows match up. Anyone think that final has a chance of going 7 games? STOMP
Run, run, run...... Make Yao a defensive liability, not too mention Ron Artest doesn't get up and down the floor as quickly as he used to. If Portland plays a half-court game with the Rockets, that's when Houston will be effective!
Seriously though. Portland gonna do just fine. Every aspect of their game is clicking. Personally, as long as they have HCA, there isn't a team that I'm scared of other than the Lakers and Cavs.
not to be cocky im not as scared as the cavs and or the lakers as much as i was at the beggining of the season. after the two home beat downs im sure we could steal a few in LA and the way we played the Cavs the second time without having key players was nice. Im not to worried about playoffs at all if we get out first or second round whatever our goal was playoffs and weve done it now its just a matter of how far we go and its all gravey anyways!
I agree, but it will be hard against the Rockets. Must keep at it, but be careful. No crazy, lazy passes. No hail mary outlets to covered guys. No leaving Joel/Greg all by themselves to rebound. Two or three to secure the board, two or three break early. Guards work to make themselves a safe target for the outlet. Run the current offense: over the timeline by 20 secs; early offense (layup or mismatch) and if not their work for a late clock play. Make them work on defense. You want them to have to run back hard, and then have to fight through multiple screens before a typical shot goes up. I agree somewhat. Depends how the game is called. If they let the guys play, then Joel and Greg should try to play Yao to force tougher shots rather then send him to the line where he shoots a high percentage. But when they do foul, get your money's worth. They should know they have been fouled. Try to avoid And-1 situations. I don't think we can beat the Rockets without solid bench play. They have been mostly solid the entire year, and against the Rockets tough D we will need the bench to score some points. If they can't, the Rockets can put all their attention and energy on stopping Roy and Aldridge and it will be all over.
They have to front Yao and frustrate the Rockets' attempts to get him the ball. That's the been the only effective way to guard Yao. He's a really great player, but he and the Rockets are remarkably bad at defeating an aggressive, fronting defense. Putting the ball in Artest's hands and putting it on him to create would also be advantageous to Portland. He's a good shooter if left open, but when he tries to "take over," he generally kills Houston's offensive efficiency.
You start with a 6 game winning streak... make the win margin over 20 per... add the best finisher in the game... and a bit of HCA. Presto.
That pretty much sums it up. If the Blazers can front Yao instead of trying to body him up on the blocks (where he'll kill us with his length and height advantage) and force Houston into being a perimeter team it should have the effect of producing lower percentage shots, wherein our guards and small forwards are going to have to pay especially close attention to the defensive glass, denying second chance opportunities (it's likely Aldridge, Oden and Przy will be pretty well occupied trying to contain that Chinese mutant). Hopefully these stops will lead to some fast break opportunities and some easy buckets; without those 'easies' we're going to get bogged down and play right into Houston's strength which is physical, aggressive wings like Artest and Battier hounding Roy in the half-court while Yao plays goalie. If the Blazers can stay composed and focused they've got a decent shot, but in my mind I see the key to the series coming down to LMA being aggressive on both ends and exploiting the mismatches he creates ... hopefully Chuck Hayes is less effective than he was a month and then two weeks ago. (Greg dominating the paint on the offensive and defensive end would be sweet too, but I think that's too much for him at this point, I'll settle for him just staying out of foul trouble and rebounding like a monster)
Yeah, while I'd love to see Oden bust out offensively in the playoffs, this isn't the series where I'd expect that. Yao is a tremendous defender and has the lower body strength to prevent being pushed around and height to avoid being simply scored over. This is a series where I just want to see Oden play strong defense and be a glass-cleaner. Scoring on cuts to the hoop and put-backs would be gravy.
Houston is only effective when they play one way: through Yao. Whether he's actually touching the ball, or being used to decoy defenders away to open shots and driving lanes, Yao is always the key. To our credit, we've done a great job of making him play badly (he shot 42%, 16 ppg and 9 rebounds against us). But it's been too much of a focus for the team. Hopefully Nate plans things differently, where he sometimes he has the team concentrate on stuffing Yao, and other times let him do his thing in single coverage, but stop everybody else. If we can confuse Houston on what to concentrate on, maybe Artest will just decide to do his own thing a little more. The nice thing about Portland is the versatility. You contain Roy, we go to Aldridge. That gets stale, we start running Rudy off screens. There's always Outlaw creating for himself. And running Oden on a pick and roll is becoming an increasingly effective option. Portland is just a much tougher team to game plan against. Call me crazy, but I'm going out on a limb right now and calling this one a sweep. I think we win the two at home. The first one will be torture. The second will be an ass kicking. We'll go to Houston, and their team will be pointing fingers and sweating once again the misery of being a first-round-and-out team, down 0-2. Artest increasingly goes off the reservation, and Yao, after playing practically every day since he was drafted, just gets tired of banging against those big Portland centers. They come close in game three, but by game four the fight is over and it's a rout. A few days ago I said we'd need HCA to win a single playoff series, so I guess it seems pretty crazy to now predict a sweep. I just think the psychology involved in this series, particularly for Houston, makes it really likely that if Houston loses both games in Portland they'll panic and it's over. But hey, I predicted a 55 win season this year. So I tend to be an optimist about these things.
If this happens, Portland is a legitimate title contender. The only thing causing me to have trouble believing Hollinger's ranking of Portland is that they've yet to beat a healthy Western playoff team on the road. Their offense has been elite all year. Their defense has been elite in the last quarter of the season. If they can win on the road, in the playoffs, they're elite.
