[Round 1, Game 1] Houston Rockets @ Portland Blazers

[TMU]

Houston Rockets @ Portland Blazers


SEASON SERIES
Rockets lead 2-1
Nov 6, 2008: Rockets 99 @ 101 Blazers
Feb 24, 2009: Blazers 94 @ 98 Rockets
Apr 5, 2009: Blazers 88 @ 102 Rockets

PLAYOFF HISTORY
Previous Meetings
'87 NBA Western Conference 1st Round: 3 - 1 Rockets
'94 NBA Western Conference 1st Round: 3 - 1 Rockets

Championships
Rockets: 2 ('94, '95)
Blazers: 1 ('77)



Date: Apr 18, 2009
Time: 10:30 EST
Where: Rose Garden, Portland, Oregon
Channel:

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TEAM STATS
Season Record: 53-29, 2nd in NBA Southwest Division
Pace Factor: 90.3 (19th of 30)
Offensive Rating: 108.3 (15th of 30)
Defensive Rating: 103.9 (4th of 30)

STARTERS
PG: Aaron Brooks #0


SG: Ron Artest #96


SF: Shane Battier #31


PF: Luis Scola #4


C: Yao Ming #11


BENCH
G - Von Wafer #11
F - Carl Landry #14
G - Kyle Lowry #7
G - Brent Barry #17
F - Chuck Hayes #44
C - Dikembe Mutombo #55


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TEAM STATS
Season Record: 54-28, 2nd in NBA Northwest Division
Offensive Rating: 113.9 (1st of 30)
Defensive Rating: 107.8 (13th of 30)
Pace Factor: 86.6 (30th of 30)

STARTERS
PG: Steve Blake #2


SG: Brandon Roy #7


SF: Nicolas Batum #88


PF: LaMarcus Aldridge #12


C: Joel Przybilla #10


BENCH
F - Travis Outlaw #25
G - Rudy Fernandez #5
C - Greg Oden #52
G - Sergio Rodriguez #11
G - Jerryd Bayless #4
F - Channing Frye #44


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LET'S GO ROCKETS!!!

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PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING SIG.
GET ON THE CHUCKWAGON!!!

[ShaY]

If we don't steal one of the 1st 2 games it will be hard for us to win this series.

Scola has got to do a better job on Aldrige than he did on Nowitzki.

I wanna see how we do against the fronting defense.

Roy will get his , don't let Outlaw and Rudy burn us too much.

[YoungMoney23]

Yao has to step his game up to keep Ron from wasting shots

[bubba]

think we'll see more of hayes on la if scola cant stop him? chuckwagon is smaller but he's "country strong" according to bill worrell

[ShaY]

think we'll see more of hayes on la if scola cant stop him? chuckwagon is smaller but he's "country strong" according to bill worrell

The problem is that if Chuck Hayes is on the floor with Yao , no way we gonna beat the fronting defense.

[bubba]

think we'll see more of hayes on la if scola cant stop him? chuckwagon is smaller but he's "country strong" according to bill worrell

The problem is that if Chuck Hayes is on the floor with Yao , no way we gonna beat the fronting defense.

ok, but how long do you let la abuse scola in the post? last game, scola couldnt handle him at all.

[smapor]

Scola getting abused was one of the issues........but I seen several issues we had yesterday

1. Artest offense
2. AB running the offense
3. Fronting and the inability to want to take a chance to pass the ball AKA LOB (we did it twice in the 1st half and it resulted to 4 points)
4. Terry (who is a Rocket Killer)
5. Rick's rotations (not bringing in Deke or playing Barry any minutes)
6. Not running the Rocket Offense
7. 3 touches for our big man..........24 minutes in the 2nd half.

I mean come on 14 points in the 4th quarter.......................................................we ain't winning any games like that.

[Baller 24]

Defense, just play it well and the game flow will be in our hands. If we can take out Roy's overall effectiveness on the offensive end, this is a game we could pretty much win, but it has to start and finish with DEFENSE.

[Iggyemu]

Well a couple hours have past. And truthfully this is the best match up for us. The only problem is the home court advantage on their part and how we will react as a team if we go down 0-2 which is very likely. We are going to have to sweep our home games to have a chance. I think if you asked me if Dallas and NO are capable of winning a game in Houston I would have said yes and the home court really wouldn't have mattered. While I think it is possible...its very unlikely that Portland can beat us in Houston. Although if they win the first 2 games the mo will be on their side going into game 3.

I have no expectations for the Rockets this post season. I think our late game execution is not where it needs to be to win close playoff games. Our best player can't get the ball...our second best player only knows to take long 3s and our PGs are young. To win this series this team will have to show us all something they haven't this season and that may be too much to ask...even for a team that's dealt with so much this season.

[moofs]

I have no expectations for the Rockets this post season. I think our late game execution is not where it needs to be to win close playoff games. Our best player can't get the ball...our second best player only knows to take long 3s and our PGs are young. To win these series this team will have to show us all something they haven't this season and that may be too much to ask...even for a team that's dealt with so much this season.

Scola doesn't take many long 3's at all? I'm confused.

[Baller 24]

If we had this guy on our team, it'd be a 16-0 playoff run for us IMO.

[BaYBaller]

LoL @ Bauer pic. If I were a betting man I'd say Blazers in 7 but they are the best match-up for us because of their pace. A lot of times we get blown out because our offense stagnates into long jumpers into the fast break but POR is (I think) the slowest paced team in the league. That combined with them having traditional bigs, mediocre PG play, and their star player being where our best defenders are at and you can see how we match-up well.

What this all means is that they are all going to be grind-it-out games which is the style we like to play and exactly the type of games where we could possibly steal a game in POR.

[texasholdem]

Battier > Batum
Scola = Aldridge
Yao >> Pryzbilla
Brooks = Blake
Artest < Roy

Wafer = Fernandez
Landry = Outlaw
Lowry > Rodriguez
Mutombo < Oden
Hayes > Frye
Barry > Bayless

[jzmagik]

Artest and Brooks are singlehandedly capable of ruining any chance we have at winning. Rick needs to keep them in check, especially Artest.

BTW, I haven't checked the stats but some guy on CF posted stats that Artest shoots 39% in the playoffs.... I know Artest will mess up our offense, the only question is whether we can get enough production out of everyone else to overcome that.

[AZ BLAZER]

Battier > Batum
Scola = Aldridge
Yao >> Pryzbilla
Brooks = Blake
Artest < Roy

Wafer = Fernandez
Landry = Outlaw
Lowry > Rodriguez
Mutombo < Oden
Hayes > Frye
Barry > Bayless

I don't want to troll your board, but you show me one GM that would take Scola over Aldridge, Wafer over Fernandez and Landry over Outlaw and I will show you an unemployed GM. I also see Lowry/Rodriguez as a push. The Brooks/Blake match up will be interesting. Frye and Bayless will not see the court. Should be a good series.

[TMU]

Battier > Batum
Scola = Aldridge
Yao >> Pryzbilla
Brooks = Blake
Artest < Roy

Wafer = Fernandez
Landry = Outlaw
Lowry > Rodriguez
Mutombo < Oden
Hayes > Frye
Barry > Bayless

I don't want to troll your board, but you show me one GM that would take Scola over Aldridge, Wafer over Fernandez and Landry over Outlaw and I will show you an unemployed GM. I also see Lowry/Rodriguez as a push. The Brooks/Blake match up will be interesting. Frye and Bayless will not see the court. Should be a good series.

I'll give you that, but Lowry is definitely better than Rodriguez. I also think Landry and Outlaw is a push. But overall, I'm not gonna deny that Portland has more depth.

[TMACFORMVP]

Positional matchups don't decide anything anyway, otherwise Dallas would have beaten Miami in the finals, it's an overall TEAM EFFORT.

Well, it's that time again, where I tend to be more pessimistic instead of spouting optimistic thoughts like some of our fans, but I'm going to go with a different approach this time around, and agree that this is the best matchup for us, and if we were to lose, it'd be more through our wrong doings. What I like in this series is:

- Our perimeter defense comes to use, in the past two seasons against Utah, Battier's perimeter defense has not been needed which makes him virtually useless since he's a poor playoff performer offensively. Same situation with Artest, they've had recent success with guarding Roy, but he's one the most poised stars under pressure so I wouldn't expect him to underperform in his first playoff series.

- One of the few matchups our PG rotation isn't completely exposed. Blake has had a nice season, but talent wise there's not a large difference between Brooks/Lowry and Blake/Rodriguez. The past two seasons we've played the 2nd best PG in the league, and PG has always been one of our weaker spots.

- In the past at least, they've been content single covering Yao with either Pryzbilla or Oden. As we know Yao is almost unstoppable when he's single covered. Saying this, the Blazers aren't stupid and they'll likely come with a front which is partly what they did the last game, but we did a good job of beating that. If they front I don't expect anything out of Yao because after 3-5 seasons of fronting and no answer, there will be no answer.

- Yao's defense doesn't get exposed (unless they go small ball and have Aldridge play C) on defense, like he did in the series against Utah. His inability to step out made it impossible to guard Okur, and Boozer then later MURDERED him with his mid-ranger in that series, which eventually was a large factor towards our demise.

- We're the better defensive team, and have to control the boards.

We have more question marks entering the series, but we have more advantages we can take advantage of if we play our cards right. I agree with Shay, I think we have to steal one at their home, otherwise our chances of winning look slim.

[Baller 24]

[texasholdem]

Also a plus for Houston, the only Blazer with playoff experience is Steve Blake (9 games).
edit: oops Pryzbilla has played in the Playoffs for the Bucks but only a total of 35 minutes in 5 games

[MaxRider]

we got screwed by the ref
we can actually get the #3 seed
spurs game #80
the game should send to overtime because stupid ref counted Finley's 3pts after time expired