Lock down defense, half court game. 1. Double team Roy, take the ball out of his hands, harrass him. Brandon Roy needs to be disrupted. Use fouls if needed. 2. Get physical with Aldridge, he needs to be pushed away from the basket, he is a rhythm shooter. Don't let him catch the ball in space. 3. Box Out! yes they cannot give up too many offensive boards 4. Half court execution. If Yao is not fronted this is a no brainer run the offense through Yao. If Yao is frustrated or out of sync rest him a few minutes and exploit mismatches, our bench is stronger than their bench. 5. Avoid turnovers that keep the game close, without turnovers we can keep the momentum. If the games in Portland are close they have scorers who can close the game. We lack a go to presence, we need to be up at least 5-7 points in the last couple minutes. If we get back to down and dirty hard nose Rocket defense we can beat Portland in 6.
What if we do the same thing we would of done with Chris Paul and the Hornets. Let Roy score as many as he want and worry about the rest of the team?
They have a more balanced scoring team than the Hornets. And I think we have done a very good job of disrupting Paul the same way we need to disrupt Roy. Both teams depend alot on those 2 players. The problem with Roy and Aldridge is they both can get in rhythm and really kill you. It is alot like TMac, when he got zoned in he was murder, but if he was disrupted he disappeared alot also. Just play strong defense, rebound, protect the ball and steal a game in Portland.
please, please, please....PLEASE do not do this. Brandon Roy is one of the best playmakers in the league. His teammates will get way too many easy opportunities.
If we cut down the turnovers and protect the perimeter I book the Rockets in a sweep! yeah I said it and I'll be the first to criticize the haters.
good point, it has to start with good hard one on one defense and then bring help if he starts to get out of hand... should revise it to say - don't let Roy take over late in the game.
Execution on offense and defense rebounding. Portland is first in the league in offensive rebounding the last couple years against utah we couldnt secure a rebound in the 4th quarter when it mattered most.
My suggestion: Don't let Artest take more than one shot in any two minute span in the fourth quarter.
- FEED YAO. Don't shy away from Yao. Keep going to Yao. - NO SECOND CHANCE OPPORTUNITIES! - The Whole team needs to crash the boards. - DO NOT I repeat DO NOT Double team Brandon Roy. Blazers have snipers galore from beyond the arc. - Don't just get physical with Lamarcus Aldridge. Get Physical with EVERYONE. - Battier on Roy. - Artest on Fernandez. - Heavy doses of Hayes on Aldridge. - I'm expecting Outlaw to be guarding Artest. Tall lanky sf's like Outlaw, Kirlenko, Brewer, T. Young have given Artest some trouble. Artest needs to take his time and post and use his man strength against Outlaw and not force up crap and get rejected. - HUSTLE - Keep the crowd out of the game. The Rose Garden is gonna be Nucking Futz. Expect an Oracle Arena atmosphere from a couple years ago with the Warriors. Blazers are my second favorite team and so I watch all their games. If there's any weakness to their team it's that they're soft. Their hardest guy is Joel Pryzbilla and he's one of those fake tough guys. He's still a beast on the boards and can give Yao fits... expect him to be physical with Yao and hopefully he will get into early foul trouble. We must come out STRONG from the get go and keep the crowd out of the game as daunting as that task will be. The Blazers are riding high on emotions and confidence right now as they should be. They're the hottest team in the league right now and they believe they can beat the world and their fans are going to be CRAZY. We've got to make them think otherwise. Game 1 will be a good indication on how the rest of the series will go. GO ROCKETS!
