Interesting point about Oden. He's only played against Houston once, and that one time he got schooled badly by Yao (four personal fouls in 11 minutes!) You gotta figure he'll give us more than that over the course of the series.
Especially since in the playoffs, they tend to let players be more physical. I would not be surprised to see Oden thrive in the playoffs.
People talk a lot about the regular season and what happened. What will be more important is what the players and coaching staff's do with all the scouting they can do from regular season film breakdowns, and look at the game's that the Rockets lost and see if they can glean anything from it. Looking over box scores, you will notice that in almost all of the Rockets losses, they got pounded by whoever was playing the PF position. I also noticed many of those were when they were facing a quicker, smaller PF type such as Gay, Villenueva, and even in one case, Grant Hill playing PF out of position. In all losses the PG position was attacked strongly as well, make Brooks a defender, and his game become much more limited.
In the five games he's played against Yao, Dwight, and Shaq, Oden has averaged 5.4 points, .98 rebounds, and 4.4 fouls in just over 14 minutes per game... Gonna have to step up in the playoffs.
It is no surprise Greg struggled the first time against Yao. Dwight still struggles against him to this day.
Ok but to be fair, for instance in one of the PHX games we kicked their ass so bad it was all scrubs in the late 3rd/4th quarter and Greg didn't even get off the bench in the 2nd half because he wasn't needed. Stats are that, just stats. Now that you have stated those stats, why don't you go look at the Blazer defensive statistics and rebounding statistics since he came back into the lineup this last time. When you go from Frye being your big guy in the 2nd unit to Oden, it is huge, no pun intended.
But you have to admit he's been a little intimidated during those 5 games, and with the amount of fouls he had I doubt he could have played much longer. I think he has given them a little too much respect but I don't expect that to continue. I think he'll definitely be better than that in the post-season, although I wouldn't be surprised if he had a sub-par game 1.
I do think he was intimidated but I'd like to point out the second time he played Shaq he didn't have great stats, and had five fouls, but entered with 8 minutes remaining in the 4th (with his five fouls) - and did not foul out. Infact I'm pretty positive he kept Shaq scoreless and reboundless in those final eight minutes, or very close to it. In the second half of his first game against Yao he played okay when defending Yao too. First half not so great. I don't expect Greg to put up eye-popping numbers against Yao in this series but I think he'll be able to defend him a bit and hopefully wear Yao out a tad because of Greg's strength.
It's a valid concern. But, I really think the team has progressed steadily throughout the season. This is not the same team that was blown out by the lakers at the beginning of the season. For some reason I keep thinking about the meeting between the Blazers and the Pistons in the finals. We swept the season series (2-0) and we split them in their place - then we got hammered. So, for both of those reasons, I think Blazers will win the series. BTW, 6 of 8 ESPN writers say Blazers will win.
here's the quote that gives me the most hope... "We're pretty healthy going in," Portland coach Nate McMillan countered. "I guess most teams want to face us because of our youth, but we play hard and have played the right way all season long. Frankly this is what I envisioned when I came here." STOMP
