Typical Rosen article, that is to say, not really well-informed. He writes pretty well though. I don't think he knows that the Blazers don't match up very well with the Rockets. Pryzbilla and Oden can help contain Yao? LOL. I hope Yao just dominates and shows why he's the gatekeeper for NBA centers. Click the link for the entire western conference preview. http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/9463468/West-playoff-previews:-First-round
yao better dominates these fools. these are the traditional centers he usually feeds off against and none of them are even star-caliber players, and vastly experienced, one is a rookie. this is his series to shine. this is his series to prove if he belongs in the superstar conversation. he needs to put his imprint ALL OVER THIS SERIES, even if we lose. i don't care if we lose if yao goes ballistic this series and puts an imprint in EVERY single game. even if you lose and go down fighting with your best player busting out, that's all you can ask for.
to me it all depends on how fairly Yao is officiated. If the refs are calling some bs on Yao while allowing him to be hacked and attacked, RA will pull Yao and the blazers will make a run......
Yao needs to scar Oden for life, just like how he has left a permanent mental rape on Dwight. I think the reason for Dwight playing like crap against Yao everytime mental (same with Fakers losing at Rose Garden for the 500th time in a row)
or maybe b/c yao is taller and he can't just jump over him and dunk over him like he does all the other centers in this league who are undersized. and yes, he doesn't have a post game.
But when Dwight thinks about he has been outplayed in every single game that they have met, and about how the Magic have lost to the Rockets most of time, I am pretty sure it affects his game.
For a second, I thought Rosen was picking the Rockets to win. Then I clicked on the link and read the rest, and all is right in the world again.
http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2009/matchup/_/teams/rockets-trailblazers here is the preview from espn.com.. and they call themselves experts
Huh?! Somebody should remind the old man that Steve Blake is almost primarily a spot up shooter. No really, we're talking about a player that took HALF of his shot attempts from downtown and got to the line roughly ONCE a game. That's pitiful! Who couldn't "contain" a player like that?! No, we're not talking about Tony Parker's driving ability with Steve Nash's outside shot here. We're talking about Portland's equivalent of Rafer Alston. I would hope Brooks could contain him. After all, how hard is it really to "contain" a spot up shooter? You either keep a hand in his face and contest every shot or you don't!
If rockets win, it should finish in 6 games or 5 games. If need to play game 7, it look blazers will win.
Yeah, I caught that too. Rosen is a Phil Jackson nut hugger who doesn't bother to do research and analysis. The bloggers over at Ball Don't Lie and NBA Fanhouse are much better than him in terms of in depth analysis and reporting. Rosen is just a funny read to me, that's why I always read his stuff. He might be an old fart who gets paid to blast teams, but at least he's funny. He's like a better Blinebury.
