To be honest I felt we'd get our asses handed to us against anyone but Portland. I just got this feeling that we own them. Afterall if it wasn't for that last sec 3pt by Roy (that shouldn't have counted btw) we'd be 8 for 8 in the last 8 games against them. I can understand that people won't think we'll sweep them but for us to loose the series just seems impossible.
The Rockets are under a lot more pressure to win than the Blazers. Yao and Co have been beaten in these conditions whereas the Blazers have nothing to lose and all to gain despite their inexperience. The homecourt advantage that the Blazers have works in their favor as well.
http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/art_garcia/04/16/10questions20090416/index.html 5. Is this the year Houston finally gets out of the first round? For a franchise that hasn't advanced past the opening round since 1997, this could be the streak buster. The Rockets are stout defensively and possess a high basketball IQ -- two qualities that will serve them well in the Playoffs. Yao and Artest never had a chance to get it going with Tracy McGrady, but Houston has come together around a group of hard-working role players led by Battier, Luis Scola and Carl Landry.
chris paul is a top 5 player. our weakest position is pg. portlands strengths are met easily with ours. portland and NO are equally inexperienced. iiiiiii just dont get it. although i definitely think we'd beat both port and NO.
ROCKETS are the Underdogs and that is to our advantage! Portland is being favored because it finished the season on an upswing, the Rockets went the other way. PORTLAND is not an easy team to beat! It is big and has several quality scorers and they get away with foulling Yao Ming throughout the game, which prevents the Rockets from getting into its game. Rockets must bring its 'A' Game and it's 'A' attitude which it failed to do in its last game against Dallas.
How did we finish the season the other way when just last month Rick adelman was coach of the month and we beat denver and new orleans and the spurs on the road. We beat the magic and the blazers with losess to the suns and lakers. While the blazers beat the thunder,clippers,lakers team at home,injured spurs team without manu and without Tim duncan for the second half a tanking denver nuggets and a L to us. How di they finish so GREAT compared to our scheduel which was more brutal.
The Rockets lost the last game to the lowly Dallas and Portland beat LA the top team.AS simple as that!
We had a tougher balance of games down the stretch while the blazers had a weaker schedule and they barley beat the spurs on the road and if duncan would have played in the seond half they would have lossed that gamee as well. So what you are saying is they beat the lakers we lossed to the mavs so they get the edge as finishing up the season better because they beat the lakers who they match up with and have their number only at the rose garden. Just because they beat the lakers doesn't mean they finsihed up the season strong. It's about match ups this time of season and with that going into the playoffs they didn't seem to solve the match up diffculty we brought to them just 4 or 5 games ago when we gave them their last L of the regular season.
Anyone kwho knows how both teams play and matchup will not see the Rockets as the underdogd, HOWEVER we are the underdogs in the media. This is how I see the playoffs panning out. One of three ways. 1. We win the first game and sweep the blazers because they panic 2. We don't win the first game but win the series in 5 or 6. 3. It comes down to game 7 and we lose. The Rockets of this decade have been known to choke on the final game. It Could happen again. I think that The Rockets definitely win only if they close it out in the 5th or 6th.
it's funny what one half of basketball does to you. if the game ended at halftime against the Mavs we would be the #2 seed and favored to win our first two rounds. we lost that game, and now we're being dismissed by everyone out there. rockets in 6.
Yeh. So true. It hurt to let that lead slip away in Dallas but there's no shame in losing there. The Mavs have won 18 of their last 20 games played at their place. The Rockets just have to stay together. If we play smart and composed, the way we played in the first half against Dallas, we could easily steal a game from Portland and rattle them.
no, our last worthy road win was against the spurs, the hornets. they are pretty good team at home, but remember they barely beat us. if we can lock down roy(which we are capable) it shouldnt be hard for us to win.
If we play smart and stay composed we will win,but which Rockets team will show up? We have had so many 4th quarter collapses including the very last game of the season. This causes me to doubt our guys.
We managed to steal road games against Dallas and Utah, and those were our Achilles heels. Now suddenly we're supposed to fold against Portland because...? Not to say that Portland couldn't defend their home turf, just that it's not as sure a thing as most people seem to think.
