http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...g=ys-blazersrockets042709&prov=yhoo&type=lgns It's our old friend Fran Blinebury writing about the heroics of Chuck Hayes yesterday.
Chuck Hayes drew the charge on Roy and that was the game. I am glad he's a Rocket. I still remember the 10 page Hayes-Howard debates durvasa and Rock4Life had during the playoffs in 2007. Good times.
I was reading that thread last month. Good times indeed. I was a bit befuddled when Hayes was in for Yao on that last possession. Knowing Portland would take it to the rim, having a shotblocker in there would have made sense. Also, as good a rebounder as Hayes is, you'd have thought Yao would have secured a miss. Turns out it was a great move. Kudos to Adelman.
Last year it was Landry with the game saving block in Game 3 vs. Jazz. This year it was Hayes with the game saving charge! I just love the way our bench guys step up when they are needed to.
For some reason Landry's block gave me more enjoyment. I guess it had more to do with saving our season rather than the actual plays. The Rockets were gonna go down 3-1 but instead made the series 3-2. Hayes helped put the Rockets up 3-1.
That block happened in game 3, right? I think we were down 0-2 after 2 games, so we went from going down 0-3 to being down 1-2. Landry's play was a bigger, though, because even if Chuck didn't step in Battier might have gotten the block anyways. Landry blocked Williams, and he secured the rebound. That was huge. Chuck did have a similar drawn charge in game 5 of the 2007 playoffs. We went from being down 2-3 to being up 3-2. In the end, it didn't matter.
My mistake. Landry came up with the block and secured the win in the waning seconds of the game. I wish Landry and Hayes could merge into Chuck Landry - athletic defensive stopper with a mid range jumper. He would be better than Carlos Boozer.
