Where has Nate's emphasis on "pushing it" been for the last decade? Has every player in his NBA coaching career ignored him, too? It's easy for Nate to suddenly talk about it during a timeout in the middle of a playoff series, but after a few years of not running with a team, and seemingly benching guys because they turn the ball over too much while trying to push the tempo, expecting them to suddenly be willing to run and potentially turn the ball over more frequently seems unfair. Ed O.
Yep, I knew we were in trouble before the series started.. Nate made comments that alluded more to giving the players rest after the last regular season game than getting serious about preparing for the first round opponent. Basically, it sounded as if they went into Game 1 thinking they could keep playing the way they did down the stretch, with no need to re-strategize.
They were only better in the ways that they were better. In all the other ways, they weren't better. barfo
"Better" in what sense? Do you consider the Rockets clearly more talented than the Blazers? I don't. Are Blazer players lazier? There is no evidence to support that. Smarter? Yes - and experience was/is a big part of that. Tougher? Yes - and experience also contributes to mental toughness. Better coached? I'll give you that. The loss wasn't 100% on the players.
I think the Blazers and Rockets were largely evenly matched. I think inexperience cost Portland game 1, and games 3 and 4 could have gone either way, but happened to go against Portland. Some of it may have been lack of poise, but most of it was probably just the nature of close games between evenly-matched teams. Now that Portland has experienced playoff intensity, I don't anticipate that being an issue again.
