Rockets off to a great start, getting contributions from many players. Not sure if its a change in defense, but the Blazers are giving Yao more post up opportunities, and the Rockets are gladly taking it. They lead by 8 after one quarter, 30-22.
Landry falls down in consecutive possessions and contributes to the Blazers scoring 5 straight against us. GET IN THE GAME, CARL. And I don't know how many times our guards have turned it over passing the ball to Chuck Hayes this year. He gets the ball so rarely, I guess they don't have the proper timing of it down. When Chuck goes to the basket, he has to be looking for a pass when his ball-handler is covered.
Beastly move by Artest. His post ups when he has Roy on him has to be a bigger part of our offense. Roy can't handle him down there.
Yao has done a great job of beating Oden and Przybilla down the court, and making them tug at him to slow him down. It's gotten both in foul trouble. Once the whistle started blowing against Portland, they were a lot less eager to front Yao. The calls are going our way, but I'll take it.
Oh boy, Portland pulled a fake timeout. We can't be relaxing before the whistle like that. 8-point game now could be 3.
Well, Portland outscores us by 12 in the third quarter. The Rockets have not been a good team at coming back from 4th quarter deficits, and right now their offense looks completely out of sorts. Give Portland credit for battling back. Rockets are in trouble ... this quarter is absolutely the biggest of the season.
Yeah. I thought the offense was tentative. Scola passed up numerous midrange jumpers. They need to figure things out quick.
I'd thought the Rockets were done heading into the fourth quarter, with our history of choking down the stretch and all. But Landry has been crucial.
Why do we keep going to Brooks for end-of-game free throws? He's shown he can't hit them down the stretch.
Holy crap ... what a nerve-racking ending. But the Rockets get it done, thank god. Chuck Hayes and Shane Battier with the big defensive play on the last possession!
One reason is that he's really fast, so the Rockets can easily in-bound it to him. But you're right, he seems to get tight on those end of game free throws.
I'm finally feeling it now, we need to close this out in GAME 5! These guys know they're gonna lose, they aren't going to be playing as hard. Great game, I was scared as hell towards the end. Why does Brooks choke on his freethrows towards the end? I mean he did shoot 87% in the regular season. Awesome game for Battier in the 4th quarter! Ron Ron - you're a dick, you're not TMAC!
It's been a while. But being up 3-1 with 2 games left on the road isn't nearly as advantageous as being up 3-1 with 2 games left at home. Tracy McGrady can vouch for that. Odds are this will go to at least a 6th game, and the series history thus far is the Blazers have played us really tough at home. I'm just not comfortable with this series until the Rockets win that 4th game. All year, they've always seemed to make things difficult.
True, Rick Adelman said the Rockets always make things harder for themselves. Story of the season. Roy, Aldridge, and Outlaw had their moments today. If they all play well on Tuesday, the rest of the Blazers will come to play. The Blazers aren't going to accept losing 4-1.
