09 Playoffs- Rockets vs Trailblazers series thread

[Ronin]

Blazers in six

 

[cly2tw]

I root for Rockets to sweep. This way, Blazers will be eager to acquire Nash for next season!

Well, 11-2 Yao with 9, it's a good start to make Blazers believe they need Nash!

 

[Ronin]

Yao on pace to score +40 points
Roy getting to the rim at will

 

[Ronin]

17 point lead for the Rockets.

 

[Lorenzo]

the rockets are playing well early. I think the blazers may struggle due to lack of playoff experience. but before it's over they should make it interesting. with the rockets losing in the first round every year....despite their youth the blazers aren't exactly facing a huge uphill battle.

 

[cly2tw]

Blazers will have to realize that they don't have anyone outside Roy who can create shots against good defense. That's not gonna get it done for them with youth and athletism alone. So, they will have to offer a lot to get someone like Nash now! heheh

 

[Bufalay]

haha TMac is a loser

 

[Darth Llama]

I don't understand why the Rockets don't feed Yao more often. That guy is unstoppable, he's too big to guard and has a sweet shot from just about anywhere mid range. The guy is a monster and Portland has no answer for him. If Houston is smart they will just feed Yao game after game and get rid of Portland in 4 or 5 games tops.

 

[95pro]

port got killed tonight. im rooting for the rockets.
rockets are so much better without tmac.

 

[Bufalay]

port got killed tonight. im rooting for the rockets.
rockets are so much better without tmac.

haha your sig seems highly appropriate right now. Rockets appear to be ready to get out of round 1 possibly due to TMac's absence, Paul Pierce missed a potential game-winning FREETHROW and Iverson has been benched for the playoffs.

 

[Ronin]

Blazer 28
Rockets 26
Ron Artest with 15 points
Roy has 10 points

 

[Ronin]

Blazer 53
Lakers 51
Dikembe had to leave the game on a stretcher.

 

[Darth Llama]

Rick Adelman is an idiot that should be fired. You have a player that's 7'6 that no one on the other team can even think of stopping, and he takes 6 shots the entire game? Seriously, what the hell are the Rockets thinking? They should be looking for Yao on every trip up the floor. Pass into him and let him dominate. But no, we have to let Ron Artest jack up 20 shots he can't possibly make, brilliant plan.

Adleman has always sucked, and he always will.

 

[Bufalay]

Rick Adelman is an idiot that should be fired. You have a player that's 7'6 that no one on the other team can even think of stopping, and he takes 6 shots the entire game? Seriously, what the hell are the Rockets thinking? They should be looking for Yao on every trip up the floor. Pass into him and let him dominate. But no, we have to let Ron Artest jack up 20 shots he can't possibly make, brilliant plan.

Adleman has always sucked, and he always will.

haha this is awesome. This is exactly the argument that I was using against Kobe in the Detroit series. Swap Yao for Shaq, Artest for Kobe and Adelman for Porn Director looking guy.

 

[Darth Llama]

haha this is awesome. This is exactly the argument that I was using against Kobe in the Detroit series. Swap Yao for Shaq, Artest for Kobe and Adelman for Porn Director looking guy.

Well, judging by how that series went for the Lakers, maybe you were right.

 

[cly2tw]

Rick Adelman is an idiot that should be fired. You have a player that's 7'6 that no one on the other team can even think of stopping, and he takes 6 shots the entire game? Seriously, what the hell are the Rockets thinking? They should be looking for Yao on every trip up the floor. Pass into him and let him dominate. But no, we have to let Ron Artest jack up 20 shots he can't possibly make, brilliant plan.

Adleman has always sucked, and he always will.

Well, that's easier said than done. After Yao dominated in the first game, Blazers spent 15 fouls among their bigs Oden/JoeP/Aldridge to contain Yao. The problem is that Rockets have no other real scoring threat to step up when such situation occurs. Roy to replace anybody on Rockets, they'd be a hot contender. Too bad TMac just doesn't mesh well with Yao, in that he needed too many touches to be effective.

 

[Darth Llama]

Well, that's easier said than done. After Yao dominated in the first game, Blazers spent 15 fouls among their bigs Oden/JoeP/Aldridge to contain Yao. The problem is that Rockets have no other real scoring threat to step up when such situation occurs. Roy to replace anybody on Rockets, they'd be a hot contender. Too bad TMac just doesn't mesh well with Yao, in that he needed too many touches to be effective.

Fouling Yao does little good, he's not a guy like Shaq that can't hit Free Throws. Yao only took 5 free throws in the game (made all 5) so they weren't sending him to the line either. You can't just contain him with fouls because you have to be afraid of sending him to the line. The only way to stop Yao is to deny him the ball and force the Rockets into turnovers while trying to force the ball inside. The problem with the Rockets is, if they commit a turnover trying to get the ball inside, they'll abandon the strategy for long stretches of the game. They have done this all year, they'll come up the floor, look for Yao, if they can't get it to him, they won't try it again. The bottom line is, Yao is the franchise player there, he's the guy the offense has to go through. He's by far their most (only) player that can dominate a game. There is no reason at all to give him only 6 touches in a playoff game. It will be interesting to see the Rockets game plan for the next game, but if they want to win the next game, they'll work on ways to get the ball to Yao in the post. Once he has the ball in the paint, there is no Blazer, or combination of Blazers that can stop him.

 

[cly2tw]

Fouling Yao does little good, he's not a guy like Shaq that can't hit Free Throws. Yao only took 5 free throws in the game (made all 5) so they weren't sending him to the line either. You can't just contain him with fouls because you have to be afraid of sending him to the line. The only way to stop Yao is to deny him the ball and force the Rockets into turnovers while trying to force the ball inside. The problem with the Rockets is, if they commit a turnover trying to get the ball inside, they'll abandon the strategy for long stretches of the game. They have done this all year, they'll come up the floor, look for Yao, if they can't get it to him, they won't try it again. The bottom line is, Yao is the franchise player there, he's the guy the offense has to go through. He's by far their most (only) player that can dominate a game. There is no reason at all to give him only 6 touches in a playoff game. It will be interesting to see the Rockets game plan for the next game, but if they want to win the next game, they'll work on ways to get the ball to Yao in the post. Once he has the ball in the paint, there is no Blazer, or combination of Blazers that can stop him.

Agree with you in principle. Just as you said, the Blazers did make it tough to get the ball into Yao's hands. They do a lot of no-shooting fouls and bigs are in foul trouble partially because they are out of position due to Yao. But, Rockets should be able to do better job at that for sure.

 

[Darth Llama]

So Dikime Mutumbo's career is over.

I was really sad to hear the news, Mutumbo is a class act and one of those guys I just always find myself rooting for. I agree with Van Gundy, the NBA needs to create a humanitarian award named after him, he deserves it.

 

[LV-Suns]

Rockets win after shooting below 40%.

 

[Ronin]

Rockets had 16 offensive rebounds
Greg Oden had 5 fouls, 0 points and 3 rebounds

 

[Bufalay]

The only chance Portland has of winning this series is if TMac comes back.

 

[cly2tw]

The more Blazers fail in the first round, the more likely they might seek to offer good packages to take an aging top-5 PG off our hands.

 

[95pro]

Well, that's easier said than done. After Yao dominated in the first game, Blazers spent 15 fouls among their bigs Oden/JoeP/Aldridge to contain Yao. The problem is that Rockets have no other real scoring threat to step up when such situation occurs. Roy to replace anybody on Rockets, they'd be a hot contender. Too bad TMac just doesn't mesh well with Yao, in that he needed too many touches to be effective.

they cant be sending yao to the line, he'd make most of his f/t's.
in fact he so good at f/t, the rockets almost allow yao to shoot tech's too.

So Dikime Mutumbo's career is over.

I was really sad to hear the news, Mutumbo is a class act and one of those guys I just always find myself rooting for. I agree with Van Gundy, the NBA needs to create a humanitarian award named after him, he deserves it.

man that was bad news. i really liked his game, very underrated.
i get sick of the "old" jokes about him.

The only chance Portland has of winning this series is if TMac comes back.

lmao...

 

[mojorizen7]

Rockets had 16 offensive rebounds
Sam Bowie the sequel had 5 fouls, 0 points and 3 rebounds

FTFY