It's official: Houston Rockets vs Portland Trailblazers in the first round

I don't care as long as we win!! Bring on the Spurs!!!!

 

So what? It's about matchups. Nobody's underestimating SAS, they just recognize that their game is slightly more prone to being upset by our style than OKC's or LAC's.

 

Blazers talk about playoff matchup VS Rockets


LaMarcus Aldridge– “It's going to be tough. They're a really good team. They have some dynamic players. They have James Harden, Dwight [Howard], we just have to take care of business on our end. See what happens.”

“[The key to the series will be] definitely trying to take the three-ball out of the game. They're great at driving-and-kicking, shooting threes. [Jeremy] Lin, [James] Harden, all those guys can make threes. We're trying to take one thing away -- because they're really good at getting to the rim and really good at shooting threes. Trying to take one away.”

Wesley Matthews – “[The key to the series will be] turnovers. Transition. Turnovers and easy points. Who can win that battle? We both get out in transition, we both shoot threes, we both have someone that we can throw it to inside. We both shoot free throws. Who can do it better? Who can be more disciplined?”

Batum - People will say [the key to the series will be] me against [Chandler] Parsons. I think so. We've got two stars, they've got two stars, so we're the number three option. We can be the key of the series

Freeman - In the playoff environment we'll be pretty good against them.
We've got to stop James Harden. James Harden is one of the biggest keys, being able to slow him down. Dwight [Howard], obviously -- we've struggled against big centers. Trying to get the ball out of his hands.
It's just going to be a dog fight. That's the playoffs. From what I've seen, that's the playoffs. I think we're ready for those types of games.

 

Kind of reminds me of that year we played Utah in the first round. I have the tendency to underrate this Portland team the way I did with Utah. TMac & Yao were clearly better than Utah's two stars (DWill & Boozer) on paper and showed it in the first game or two, but we ended up losing the series. Nevertheless, I have more faith in Harden than TMac, because Harden is clutch. I think Harden is the real deal. Not just a great player, but a great player when it counts. So, I think we win the series.

 

Also, watching the GS-POR game last night really illuminated how inefficient of shots LMA takes. Everything is a loooooooooooooong two or a fadeaway. I could see him being neutralized in a series.

 

Whoever plays defense will win the series.

 

The difference-maker that series was AK47, he really stepped up, after a subpar regular season.

 

If you watch ANY Rockets vs. Blazers game, stretching even back to the 2009 playoffs, the Rockets dare Aldridge to beat them as their gameplan. Aldridge rarely gets doubled unless he gets deep post position and they dare him to shoot.

It's a huge reason why Rockets fans are so enamored with him, because his counting stats against us has always been pretty huge. Efficiency wise? He's been crap against the Rockets. .519 TS% in the 2009 playoffs despite a gaudy 19.5ppg. This year, a horrendous .499 TS% on a gaudier 26.8ppg. 7-3 record overall these 10 games.

The Rockets defense play the Blazers perfectly. Aldridge's 20 footers are the best shots the Rockets defense can give up against Portland by far.

 

Beverley/Lin - Lillard advantage Portland but expect Beverley to play excellent defense and Lin will fill in nicely too his best games come against portland

Harden - Matthews advantage Houston by a wide margine but expect Matthews to hit a lot of open threes, a lot of threes.

Parsons - Batum advantage Houston, Parsons is a better player in every aspect just by a little even defense. Batum is horribly overrated especially on defense

Asik/Jones - Aldridge advantage Portland by a good margin, Aldridge will dominate the boards against Jones and Jones will struggle in half court offense, Asik will help on defense with length but Aldridge will still get his as he does against Houston

Dwight - Lopez advantage Dwight, Dwight will be the most valuable player in this series, Lopez can't stop him. Lopez will get 8-10 open dunks on Houston b/c Dwight will need to bring Help Defense on Aldridge as he will be taking full advantage of Jones. Expect 30 point games and 20 rebound games from Howard he will be the biggest, strongest and most athletic player in the series. 22pts/14reb/2blks

 

The problem was Tmac and Yao had no help whatsoever. When Battier is your #3, you got a problem.

 

I don't like the state of the Rockets right now. Don't know what we're going to get from Jones. Don't know what we're going to get from any backup wing player. Don't know how Asik plays after being re-demoted.

But the Rockets are a tough matchup for Portland, and reasonably well equipped to keep Aldridge shooting jumpers and bottle Lillard. So despite my misgivings, Rockets in 7. And that's with an allowance for rust. If things come together better than my pessimist outlook, could easily be 5.

 

I'm picking Rox to win this series. Like I said earlier in thread, Rox "should" win this series. I'm very interested to see how this team responds though after another disappointing close to the season. I'm banking on overall talent taking over in this series to save the Rox, that's the main reason why they've had a 50+ win season. Blazers have better coaching however which could be a key factor as well. Even though Rox have better talent, Blazers will finish with a close record to ours. That's a key indicator of better coaching. Coaching, strategy, and adjustments are so key in the playoffs, but like I said, I'm banking on our talent to hopefully get this series win.

 

Should be a sweep but I have a feeling we or the refs might let a game slip out of our hands. I'll be camping out at the AT&T center waiting to buy tix for our rd2 game 1.

 

This exactly. The best thing that can happen to the Rockets is for LMA to make his first 20 footer in a game. Then he'll fall in love with it, and end up missing a bunch of them.

 

More doom and gloom! Keep it coming!

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Chandler Parsons on Rockets playing Portland in the 1st round: &quot;it will be an exciting matchup where ever it is.&quot;</p>&mdash; Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/statuses/455739093989601281">April 14, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Perhaps having 2 of our best defensive players, as well as nagging injuries to Parsons and maybe Lin have something to do with that.

 

Portland has a mountain of momentum heading into the playoffs while we're limping in a bit. Hopefully we get it figured out.

 

Difference: Utah could, well, "Utah" their way out of trouble. They knew how to get easy hoops (like my pops used to say: "two you to death"), get stops on D.

POR's D leaves a little to be desired (near the bottom of the league in PITP allowed; Jazz 10th), and they are a jump shooting team (not much for team PITP: 28th; Jazz 7th in 2006/07).

 

Houston wins games 1, 2, 4 and 6.