That's what I'm hoping for too - that the win last night will loosen the noose around the necks of Outlaw, Blake, & Rudy (our 3rd, 4th, 5th leading scorers) They combined to average 34.2 PPG in the reg season, but are averaging 23 PPG in the first two games. Not only that, but they are 3-14 so far on 3's. I'm going to go out on a limb and say Houston is going pull out all the stops to shut down Roy and make these guys beat them. I think they will focus so much on Roy (and LA) that they will concede some better looks for the other guys than we've seen so far. So Travis, Steve, & Rudy . . . welcome to game 3 of the NBA playoffs. We're glad you could finally make it!
Well Rick Adleman is a great coach. Whoever is being guarded by Rudy, they are attacking him. Houston has been trying to exploit match up problems every time down the floor. As for us, everything still revolves around Roy and Aldridge. We don't have a PG to take advantage of Aaron Brooks (whom is their weakest defender). This series is going to be a chess match all the way until the end. It's just a really tough match up for us. The only silver lining in all of this is that Von Wafer and Brooks have been playing great. Let's hope they come back down to earth, but I'm not sure that will happen on their home floor. I say we try to make Artest beat us. That guy takes terrible shots and we should be daring him to beat us. Don't let Yao touch the ball, and don't let their role players get involved. If our bigs can stay out of trouble, we've got a chance.
I have to agree. Roy was out of this world and LMA was amazing. But Steve Blake & Rudy were so so. Oden and Przybilla were OK; their job was defense, not scoring. They did that. Travis has just not been in the games, either on offense or defense. He did have the one big play late on the steal and dunk but overall I'd bet his PER is pretty bad. Sergio has also been sub par. IMHO if the bench can play like we KNOW they can, this series is a win. I agree with the concern because we can't expect Roy to score 40 every game - or can we?
The only player I'm truly disappointed in is Travis..don't know if it's just nerves or the superb D of Houston (and I mean that sincerely). I kept thinking last night when the announcers were talking about attacking the basket that Travis would be perfect to attack the basket and pick up a few fouls but I only saw that a couple of times...
Outlaw held Artest to 4 points. He hit a huge shot late in the 4th and had the steal of the game. Can Outlaw play better? Yes. But I'd hardly say he was "below par." As for the rest of the series, I think we can definitely play better. Roy and LMA's efforts last night showed the rest of the team that we can beat Houston. Now that that has been established, the rest of the players will follow suit. But the efforts of Rudy (3-4 FGs, 4-4 FTs), Oden (game tying put back dunk), and Travis (already went over that) are being underrated.
Artest scored 15 on Batum. Outlaw held him to 4 the rest of the way. He also blocked Von Wafer on a drive.
Apparently, you missed the game. We had a 1 point lead when Outlaw hit a huge clutch shot with a hand in his face. We got the ball back and Roy hit a three. Up 6, Outlaw stole the ball and dunked to put the game away. Mr. Clutch, indeed.
I'm as big an Outlaw supporter as anyone, but let's be real. For much of the game, Trout either couldn't get open, or threw up horrible, huried shots. I can't even give him too much credit for defending Artest - who has a history of stopping himself with poor shot selection. I'm glad he showed up in the 4th quarter....but these are the play-offs. We need him to play the entire game.
Definitely. While they all played HARD, they didn't move the ball very often, never had much rhythm going, and never took control even at the end. The effort was there, but very little semblance of the push it up the court and ram it down their throats offense that we finished out the last dozens games with. I expect we'll see it soon though.
When this series was announced I knew this was the one team I didn't want. The reason is the same today as it was yesterday, as it will be tomorrow. We are an AW shucks team playing a bunch of bully's. This is a street fight, and last night Brandon all but showed it. YES he knows he played a great, great, game but he wants no more of these Rockets this way. He's being beaten the crap out of physically, and he had to be amazing with LA to sqeak that one out! Every Blazer fan on this board knows that if that game had gone another 3 minutes we might have lost! The only way we win this series is if TRAVIS, RUDY and LA head to Houston without that aw shucks smile and put on a head hunting killer fucking attack attack attack face and TAKE THOSE WINS!!!! It's the only way!!!! This series comes down to are we men enough to take it and right now I stilll think our guys outside of Brandon are looking for mommy to come in and say play nice! NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!!! I hope they prove me wrong!
Too bad we can't get the busted down Spurs, the disinterested Nuggets, the hapless Thunder, or the inconsistent Grizzlies to sub in for Houston for a couple of games, then I'm sure we'd get just what we wanted out of the offense
I'm calling it. It's going to be a blowout. As in Blazers will blow the Rockets out. They did not play well in game 2. They simply made their shots, no matter how easy or hard they were and that's the only reason they were close. They can't keep it up 3 games in a row.
None of you think the Rockets are 5 points better at home?????????? Come on guys our boys need to be leading by 10 to15 going into the 4th to even have a shot at winning one of these on the road! That's just being honest!
I was proud of Rudy last night. The 3 he hit to start the 4th was huge, and he stepped up and hit 4 big free throws. And he appeared to be working the hardest I've ever seen him work on defense. But man he had two bonehead plays last night. The play he caught the ball with one foot OB and that wrap around pass he threw towards the end of the game last night that ended up in the stands. We just can't waste posessions like that.
Yes they can keep it up, they play great defense almost every night and do you seriously think Yao is going to have another crap-fest outing like he did the other night? I'm not saying we won't be able to steal a game in Houston, but calling a blowout ... not seeing it.
A week ago, Blazers were a 58% favorite in ESPN's poll. Now its 50-50. Not looking good folks. http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2009/matchup/_/teams/rockets-trailblazers I'm still concerned for our team. We need to contest Yao in Houston and cause him to do foul troubles. However Houston doesn't have a backup center now which is our advantage. Tire Yao out by the third and we have it set.
Come on... the Rockets can't possibly keep playing like this. They're shooting an insane percentage, and their role players are having the series of their lives. They will cool off. Bank on it.
