Yao can only win the battle if the refs let the bigs play,otherwise he's in foul trouble and he knows this.
it's all about Scola, Landry, Lowery. It's typical "canceled out" playoff basketball. go rockets! winner of game 4 wins series.
whew...glad we hold off the blazers...Greg oden is a good defender but he is a bit dirty and cheap...always grabbing, holding or pushing with his forarms and hands... i bet yao must be frustrated at times. refs gotta look at greg oden that guy is a foul machine
My first post here on ClutchFans! Great win, but a scary one though. Thanks to that airball. By Blake. Dang. LOL'd at it. It was hard-fought win - I was on my heels until the very end. Simply nerve-wracking. But I believe Rox could have done better. Yao could have done WAY better. 7 points, 2/7 FGs? Getting manhandled down there against that dirty 7-and-270 fouling *a**a**. Darn, he's in dire need of adjustment. If not for Scola backing up Yao's arse for that, the outcome might have been different. And we can't expect Scola to carry the scoring thru the next games. Yao must need to battle thru the officiating if the refs let Oden battle Yao like that, but doesn't necessarily mean being physical, smarts are enough. One way or another, he (or RA for that matter) has to think of something against the pesky defense on him. And fast. On a different light: Wafer = Look at the 4th Q, he was forcing the issue like there's no tomorrow - 3 or 4 possessions in a row he wasted?! Why run the clock for 20 secs, attack the basket, and shoot a prayer? Unacceptable. Probably, he was Brooks that night. And Brooks was Wafer. Man, Wafer needs to eat his wafer. As always, Artest (0-0 FGs in the 1st half) still has his urge to score. Nonetheless, he didn't jack up the wild shots - and good thing he attempted only 1 trey for the whole game (which he made, thank goodness) On the defensive end, Roy got his 20 PTS against Artier, but painstakingly earned it - 6-18 FGs. Except for some Roy getaways, I'd say a decent job on him by those two. Lowry's a beast. He's untouchable! Haha. And Battier on offense, FTW! Stepped up big time! Loved it. Rox win!
The Blaze are gonna pay for being too physical on Yao. And they'll also pay if they let Yao own the paint. Book it. Yao himself is the first thing that will set the Blazers FTL, I say.
It should be noted that the ball movement was really pretty good in game 3. The team assisted on 21 of 32 made baskets, and every player who got into the game got an assist. When the Blazers are expending so much of their defensive efforts to keep Yao from getting the ball, moving it around quickly to find the open man seemed a pretty solid strategy.
the last game should have been a W for houston, they just failed at FT shooting and rebounding, those where the things that were "broken" and had to be fixed. They fixed it and came out with a W. You counter Yao's double teams by finding the open guy, this game it was scola/landry and they came through.
These team are even, their ppg and points allowed, records, etc. Very very similar. Its going to be difficult for either team to blow out the other or keep a comfortable lead the whole game unless they shoot out of their minds (like we did in game1). You have to expect portland to counter and come back and given how low scoring the game was, it's a lot easier to do it.
Its funny cause you can tell if Von will win or lose you the game in 5 minutes... He's either hot, or he's not....its no in between
Truthfully, as much as it was Yao's fault, I will credit the defense (dirty as it occasionally was) shown by Portland's centers. Yao was moving all over the place and they stayed on him pretty well. It is no mistake that Portland had to bring out their third string center early in the first half, because aside from Yao getting Oden to constantly foul him (or the refs finally calling it) Yao was tiring Pyrzbilla and Oden out from all he was doing to try and get into the game. I agree Yao should still try to figure out a way to get into the game though, but I can't put all the blame on Yao or Adelman, the Blazers team defense was real great, especially in the second half.
Welcome to the forums! The game last night really was intense! You have to give props to Artest for not doing the wild shots he has done the past other games. Scola & Landry did well taking shots while Yao wasn't open. Though, Scola needs to watch out on his fouls. You hafta give Yao some credit, he's basically being double teamed throughout the entire game. Cut him some slack. And, I also died laughing at the airball and how we shut brandon roy down towards the end of the game! x) Can't wait for tomorrows game. GOTTA HAVE FAITH! 3-1 DEFINITELY! GO ROCKETTTTS!
Thank you. Yeah, major props to artest. None of those wild flurring shots. I'd have him taking it strong to the basket. Scolandry did their job of covering for Yao on O, only that Scola got two calls in the 3rd, which are BS calls I think. Other than that, I believe Luis will be able to cut down on his fouls. He's a guy with court smarts. Yeah, Yao's working extra hard on the defense being imposed on him. I'm just concerned about how he's faring so far on offense. Can't move well, (much more, can't breathe well with Oden sticking up on him), can't receive entry passes for 3 1/2 quarters, can't square up well on the shot because of some guy coming to shove (help, I mean) on him from the back. Instead of crediting him for the entirety of his presence in Game 3, i'd give him lots of credits on the glass and D in that game. So, if that's the way the Blazers play Yao, I'll leave it to the Blaze then. Pick their poison anyway. Yao will still hurt them in two ways: letting him run wild, or letting others run wild. With all that said, I'm thankful there is a 7-foot-6 C named Yao Ming in the team who caused so much headache to McMillan in the first place. McMillan has his two bigs committed on him on the double when fronting him with one guy is enough? And leaving the weakside for Yao? They paid the price. They are just scared to death after Yao put up that 9-for-9 performance. This Blazers' strat on D is nuts and if this keeps up, they'll have their a**es handed out to them. Good for us, McMillan will have this strat series long, because this is (what they think) their best shot at the Rockets. Which won't work, not by a long shot. Hell yeah, after that airball I was relieved - until Blake made another three about 5 ticks to go. --- I still bank on this. Yao, Brooks and Test having offgames, and the Blazers could only take a 4-point win and a loss that could've been a blowout if not for the persistence from the Blaze guys. Rox for 3-1.
