Marion is interesting, but to me....it is Bibby, we need a floor general something fierce..... Maybe Brooks and Lowry can become one, but Bibby is one....... I said before the season that I did not want Artest because he was a destroyer of chemistry, particularly on the court, he just does not play within a system and it screws the team over. And the Rockets were a team without a clear leader, and having someone like Ron whose personality is so strong come into the locker room it could be trouble. That is exactly what has happened, Ron has no one checking him....telling him to STOP shooting or dribbling.......he has become a defacto leader...and Ron Artest will never lead a team anywhere, he is just not good enough. And, he thinks he is......one of the best traits anyone can have on any team sport is recognizing your strengths ....AND your weaknesses, Ron has no clue on his weaknesses. Ron Artest helped this team get to where it is with his toughness, but with him as the leader, this is ALL the team will ever be.....he has to go...IMO. DD
This whole none sense about Portland fronting us is BS. They don't have the personnel to do it and the Centers they have couldn't defend Yao Ming this season. Scola will have great numbers and someone has to kidnap Ron...just saying
Aldridge is borderline soft. I'd worry about Pryz and Oden. Two bigs that can be thrown at Yao and dont have to score.
This series will go 7 and the home team will win every game. And then we will sit there and say, "If only we had held on and beaten Chicago or if we had beaten the Wizards at home or if we had beaten the Pacers at least once this year, etc..."
I know right......you just wonder why players don't get that point.....a lot of players did not start really competing until January or February.... The way you advance in the playoffs is to get a high seed.....The Rockets should have locked up the number 2 seed.....but because they were lazy and non competitive far too often they are probably going to lose in the first round again. DD
The only thing I keep seeing when I close my eyes now is that Roy 30 footer with .8 left. How fitting.
Good analysis and its true that we might've gotten our best matchup out of the West teams. Not having homecourt hurts but we have beaten them at Portland and we are in a good position to take at least one there. Still this is going to be a tough series but out of all the West teams no series is going to be easy. GO ROX!
And Tmac all alone in the lane watching.....I am still pissed that he didn't even move out to at least make a little effort, if he is in the same ZIP code as Roy the Rockets probably win that game. DD
Silver Linings 1.Best matchup to give Broowry confidence - PG is our weakest playoff link right now, and it should not be exploited in this series. (No Paul, Deron, Terry, Parker) 2.Adelman owns Portland, and AB doesn't dislike it there either. 3.Portland playoff inexperience. 4.ShaneRon can take Roy out of the equation. 5.Best chance to sweep/have a short series - lose the first one, and they will crumble. 6.Get to closeout at home in a sweep. If not, I'm betting we'll go back to Portland up 3-1. 7.Get rest while UTA takes LAL the distance, and beats up Kobe. 8. No pressure underdog status.
I have to say the hornets was our best match-up. we would win a series against them. now we have the blazers... they aren't a good match-up. if pple think we have the advantage on them cause of their lack off play-off experience then think about the first time we played the jazz in the playoffs. everyone said the same thing. they have an advantage on us with height(besides Yao) and athleticism. They also have a good low post play in Alridge and two great post defenders in oden and pryzbilla. I didn't even mention their shooters and slashers. I don't like this match-up at all and I hope we can make it past the 1st round this year but this ain't looking good for us. :=(
What really pisses me off is you can go through the Rockets' schedule and point to the games that were really bad losses. I came up with 16 and these were games that we either had leads in the 2nd half (usually in the 4th quarter) or we just lost to bad teams. Now granted it is unrealistic to expect the Rockets to have won all 16 of these games. Guys do have bad nights but if you were playing the odds, you would expect the Rockets to have won those games as well. And what hurts the most is that when the seedings are that close to each other, just winning one, definitely 2 games would have made all the difference between being the 2nd seed and where we are now. And honestly with the talent level on this team, there is no reason not to expect the Rockets to win over 60 games and challenge the Lakers for the best record in the west. Here were the bad 16 for the Rockets: 1) 11-6 at Portland, 99-101 (OT) 2) 11-14 at San Antonio, 75-77 3) 11-26 Indiana, 90-91 4) 12-8 at Memphis, 97-109 5) 12-13 at LA Clippers, 82-95 6) 12-29 Washington, 87-89 7) 1-2 at Toronto, 73-94 8) 1-6 at Philadelphia, 96-104 9) 1-23 at Indiana, 102-107 10) 1-26 at New York, 98-104 11) 1-28 at Philadelphia, 93-95 12) 2-4 at Memphis, 93-104 13) 2-9 at Milwaukee, 112-124 14) 2-28 at Chicago, 102-105 15) 4-1 at Phoenix, 109-114 16) 4-15 at Dallas, 84-95 Now some of these games I could dismiss such as the Portland game (because they are a damn good team) and the San Antonio game. However I included those 2 because the first one we would have won if it hadn't been for Roy's miracle 3 and the other because we didn't score in the last 3 minutes or so of the San Antonio game (a recurring theme for the Rockets, especially on the road). Then there were the games that we just got our asses handed to us like the Raptors game and the Bucks game. Even though those teams were poor ones, we really didn't play well enough to win despite being the better team on paper. So, maybe there were really 12 bad losses instead of 16. Nonetheless, the Rockets definitely had some games that they are kicking themselves for losing (the 2 Pacers games, the Wizards game, losing to the Grizzlies twice, etc.) and it is such a damn shame too because it could have caused us to avoid the Lakers bracket AND have HCA.
Joel Pryzbilla will do it and flop every time. Yao might foul out before the third quarter if Violet Palmer is working any of our games.
I think Portland really has the personnel to play with anyone, but their style holds them back. They have so much length and athleticism that's it's pretty weird that they're such a slow paced jump shooting dependent team. They have the tools to be a better Phoenix with a suffocating pressing defense, but they don't do it. They're just a solid, balanced team that plays slow and packs it in on defense. Even when they're playing well, the game isn't out of reach because it'll usually be a grinder. The defenses are pretty similar on both sides that I think this may come down to a jump shooting contest if Yao's post production is nullified by Aldridge's post production.
Portland would be a very SCARY team if they did open their offense up and tried to play more in the run and gun style like the Suns play. However, I think the reason why they play the halfcourt, jumpshooting style is because of the philosophy of their coach, Nate McMillan. He was known as a player for his defense and he has instituted that style into his players. It has happened but is rare to see a former player become a coach and have his team play the exact opposite style that he was used to playing as a player. EDIT - Er, I should say that Portland is a work in progress when it comes to being a defensive team. They are not quite there yet but that is because of the youth on the team. Give them another season or two and they will be one of the best defensive teams in the league.
They do have the talent to play anyone and they proved that by beatin the Lakers. They are probably the one team the Lakers would not wanna face at all in the playoffs.
Yeah, those Sonics were pressing up and down bastards. Now this Blazers team does defend, but it's really just half court. The more I look at it, this series isn't necessarily a great match-up for the Rockets as much as it is a similar match-up. Some series would be a contrast in styles (like if they played the Suns or the Lakers), but this series is the opposite. Both teams will run selectively, but neither team is going to try to dictate the pace nor push tempo. The Rockets must be mentally strong because every possession will much more important than an open game. It's not going to be up and down, but Portland is very efficient, so if you're not focused and not crisp with your rotations, then Rudy, Outlaw, Blake, and even Batum can knock down a few treys and all of a sudden you're facing a double digit deficit. The Rockets are similar in the sense that they have Battier, Artest, Wafer, and Brooks doing the same thing. These teams have different personnel, but it's pretty interesting how similar a style they play.
