1. Houston cannot play any better. They brought their A+++++++++++ game tonight and tore the Blazers apart from the opening tip. 2. The Blazers can't play much worse. Nerves, overconfidence, whatever. They played like shit and don't think Nate won't tell them that from now until tipoff on Tuesday. I expect a much different result in Game 2.
There's nothing good to take from it. If I'm the Blazers, I burn that tape and just tell them to play their games on Tuesday, and lay down some law on them (i.e. get physical). There's no way you can beat the Rockets playing soft or timid, they're too tough defensively.
Yah, the best thing about game one is that Houston is done scoring and the Blazers are done "shooting". That might seriously be the worst game they played all year. Maybe second if you want to say the 1st game of the season was worse. It was a lot like the last home playoff opener the Blazers had (game 3 of the series vs the Mavs). Blazers came out flat, and inept and got HAMMERED. The only difference is that it's unlikely this team can come back and make this a series.
When you've been out of the playoff picture for so long, its easy to forget just how high of an intensity level it can get to. I hope they remember this over the summer regardless of the outcome, so they can push themselves and hopefully grow up mentally.
The best thing is clearly that Greg can actually touch people without getting a foul and can actually score in the post which apparently only he and Roy can do if it continues to be reffed like this.
You know, I can't even get upset. The only issue now, is what (if anything) the Blazer braintrust learns from this series. Tonight exposed a harsh truth - the Blazers have wandered down the same dead-end path as the Suns, Nuggets, and various other teams over the past 20 years. They are built to win games in the regular season, but not in the play-offs. They need to get tougher, smarter, and more experienced.
My recap: 1) I'm so glad I didn't ditch the birthday party for this. Burgers, cupcakes, beer, little girls smashing their hands into frosting...good times. 1a) That game was hurtful to watch. 2) Outrebounded 44-30. Looks even worse when you take out Ruffin's 5 in 5 minutes of garbage time. Outlaw, Frye and LMA combined for 7 rebounds in 76 minutes. Not the best effort there, it seems. 3) As miffed as I was that we weren't getting many calls early (I heard Roy's "uugh!" more than I care to without whistles) I was much more upset that it wasn't even the end of the first quarter before he was flailing his arms around after a shot while staring at the refs going back on D. That's not his call to argue--that's on Nate to get into the ear of someone (see J*ckson, Phil and Popovich, Greg). 4) Someone said it earlier in the thread, but there wasn't a lot of ball movement going around after the first quarter. There's a chart (trying to remember where) that charts offensive efficiency and eFG% based upon number of touches per second in the possession. We were on the low end all night, and it bit us. 5) Greg seemed to be the only dude strong enough to keep Yao out of the lane. More on that later. 6) I'm sure it's classy not to lay someone out when you're getting embarrassed at home, but at some point you can't let guys wag their finger at your team while we're getting called for something like 5 and-ones at the other end. Drop a forearm on someone, especially after Roy got hit. 7) We were 5-29 from 19 feet out. We were 1-11 from 3, so that means we were 4-18 on jumpers from 19-23 feet. Someone tell me the last "efficient" offense you saw that shot 21% of its game shots from 19-23 feet, and shot 22% while doing it. 8) I'm trying very hard not to be all on Oden's jock, but the man went for 15 and 5 on 6-7 shooting and only 3 fouls in 22 minutes. I get that we pulled him during garbage time, so this isn't a "bag on the coach for not playing him enough" thing. It's a "literally...HOU has no one that can contain him, and I didn't see Yao getting many good looks or shots when Oden was in the game" thing. HOU needs to be absolutely abused if Dikembe Mutombo comes in the game. Abused hard. Oden was doing it. He needs to do it more. 9) Kick a chair, punch a water bucket, throw a basketball to Mars...whatever Blake needs to do to get himself psyched up to play against Brooks, I hope he does it. That, or Bayless get into the game. Blake's not doing us much good if he's taking only 1 shot every 5 minutes he's in the game, and not shooting it well when he does. 10) I can think of very few winning scenarios that involve Channing Frye getting 20 playoff minutes in a game, or shooting about as much as Oden does. How about this?? Anytime you think of putting Frye in, Nate--do us all a favor and put Batum and Outlaw in at the same time instead of that. With LMA/Outlaw/Przy/Oden as our bigs, there should be no way Frye gets one minute, much less 20. Perhaps I'll stop now. I reserve the right to write more later. That said, we're nowhere close to out of it right now.
Why would you say that? I think they've clearly established that they are a team which will always adjust, adapt, and annihilate. It's what they do.
Because the 03 team had players that had been to the WCF's twice (Sheed, Damon, Sabonis) and one who had been on a finals team (Davis) and one who had been to the finals 6 times (Pippen). This years team has Michael Ruffin.
Michael "48 rebounds per 48 minutes" Ruffin, thank you very much! Time to react. Play Oden a bit more against Yao (who won't go perfect from the field again), play Bayless a bit more against Brooks (who doesn't go for 27 again), play Frye a LOT less, and get LMA's behind closer to the basket. And if our J's aren't falling (5-29 from beyond 19 feet) either stop taking them or send more guys in to rebound. Time for Nate to earn those millions.
If you guys attack Yao consistently with that pick and roll, you could get Yao in foul trouble easily. Also I didnt see any fronting on Yao?
Przybilla wanted the challenge and responsibility of guarding Yao one-on-one and didn't want the team to front him. As we can see that failed in epic fashion and for some inexplicable reason we made no move to change strategies at any point in the first quarter.
