Our first three games have been more physical than any other playoff games played thus far this year. I really sat down yesterday and watched 4 games in a row with the intent of watching for the physical grabbing pushing and general hard fouls like we have seen in the Portland/Houston series. So far I haven't seen it. Is it just me or are our games significantly more physical then anything else out there? Even teams that have been known for their defenses haven't seemed to smother bodies on top of people like Portland and Houston have. Everyone talks about how the playoffs are more physical, but I keep getting the feeling that that is a myth that we perpetuate. Kinda like a self fullfilling prophecy. We talk about how physical it's going to be and everyone gets it in their mind and then the refs let it get more physical. Which leads us to talking about how physical the games are and the refs continue to call it that way. What is frustrating for both teams is that it tends to get called unevenly. The Aggressive team to start seems to get the lion share of the calls and are allowed to be more physical leaving the other team to try and match it only unable to because the refs wont let them. What are your thoughts? Have you seen the same level of contact and toughness in other series that we have in ours?
I haven't seen a physical Blazers game in nearly a decade. Certainly not in this series, which has seemed almost polite in comparison.
So in other words you haven't watched any playoff basketball this year? The guards might be letting anyone through but the bigs certainly aren't being pushed over.
My point exactly. In my definition of a "physical" game, bigs are pushed over, stepped on, squaring off to throw punches... Houston has not been very aggressive, and the Blazers have only a few players who have shown toughness. Rudy has gone to the floor several times for loose balls, as has Joel who also got in Houston's face a couple times, and Sergio grabbed Yao's leg and pulled him to the floor. I think Blake went down on one knee after a loose ball too. Other than that, both teams have been incredibly docile for a supposed playoff game. Roy has been extremely disappointing on defense, and Channing has been the toughest big off the bench. I've watched more physical WNBA games.
Physical playoff basketball is not a myth. It was pretty common back in the 90's. Teams like the Pistons and Knicks were known for their extremely physical defense. The Rockets are a throwback to that style.
You watch a lot of games at Rucker Park or something? What you just described there was the mayhem in Detroit between the Pistons and Pacers a few years ago. Maybe it was like that way back in the 80's, but that certainly hasn't been the norm this decade.
