(Not real sure that this shouldn't be posted in another thread so Im open to rebuke.) I like that the Blazers are complaining about the officiating. It’s a sign of desperation and I think it works against them Think about it. What do the Blazers get if the ploy works? How much would the officiating have to change in order to help them erase a 3-1 Rockets lead? Yeah it might get them the game in Portland, but three in a row? Mentally the Rockets have had to deal with poor officiating for a long time. I mean is there a team that legally defends Yao in the post? For the Rockets that’s just an expected part of the game. Many Rockets’ fans are even tired of discussing it. Its a dead horse. It is what it is. Yao Ming is officiated unfairly! Yeah, yeah, and the sky is blue, play on. So, I really doubt how he is officiated is going to mess with the Rockets mental focus. The Blazers, on the other hand, may have set themselves up. They’ve made their complaint. Now in the Blazer and Blazer fan’s minds floats the idea that the refs are partly to blame for their woes. They have placed the responsibility for winning or losing on something they can’t control, officiating. So what happens now if the officiating doesn’t change? Oden or Pryzbilla get their second foul early in the 1 qtr. Battier and Artest continue to make Roy work. The Rockets are in the penalty early. The Rockets open a lead. The calls aren’t going the Blazers’ way. What does the young Blazer team do now? What do their fans chant at home? Are the Blazers mentally strong enough to handle that, or do they use the officals as and excuse to lose. Even worse, what if they get the calls they want and they are still down by seven in the fourth?
Only thing I'm scared of is the officials for the next game will call it real tight and starting looking for ticky tack calls on Yao to comfort the whiney Portland fans. Like when Mark Cuban whined in the Mavs series against us, and then everything changed. I have a feeling that is the reason game 2 was called so tight, because David Stern was at game 1 in Portland, and the stadium were chanting "These Refs Suck!". Yao got in foul trouble the next game.
You do know that since they are gonna whine about it eveything is going to get called tonight... Repeat of game 2 tonight... Just hopefully with a different outcome
I wouldn't worry about it too much. Even when the game was called tightly in game 2 to satisfy the Blazers fans, they still called fouls on Yao. I don't think they are going to suddenly start calling everything heavily on their players. As long as we can keep Roy away from the basket, he's not going to get to the line too often and he's really the only player that can consistently get to the line.
What kind of a signal is it when YOUR coach is dependent on the officiating and not HIS coaching abilities to get you guy a win? to me it make the team think they can't get it done so they need a little help from the refs. I bet Roy is telling him team, "come on guys, the refs have to help us now"...peeeesh, please.
Its a sign that they are pathetic and have given up. Looking for the refs to bail them out. But it will work, we will get horrible calls tonight.
I expect the Blazers to receive some serious home cooking tonight from the officials. Between that and what I expect should be a seriously fired-up Blazer team the Rockets better bring a lunch because it is going to be a long, long night. The unbiased fan in me thinks this series is coming back to Houston and will be ended here.
Just to clarify. I tend to agree with the thought that they will get homecooking tonight, but I don't know that it means they win. I also think if they don't get it and we keep the pressure on they may well fold. Regardless of toinights results, if the Blazers are depending on the officials to help them overcome a 3-1 disadvantage then they don't have the right mind set to comeback. I don't think the Rockets worry about officials anymore. The Blazers seem to and their coach is reinforcing it. Its an act of desperation that might backfire reguardless of tonights results.
This game will be decided in the last few minutes by the coaching staff, and based on last few games. AD is clearly a smarter experienced coach then Nate. We need to set the tone coming out of the gate, where teams that lead in the first quarter end up winning the game. therefore we need to be prepared.
Honestly, Rockets are not looking good. Next game in Portland, it will be a complete blow out loss. Back to Houston, the referees will give a close game to them. game 7 in Portland, Rockets lose another close game. 3: 4, Rockets out. Keywords: Mavs, Cuban, referees, Yao, Finely, game 7, lose.
Unless the refs somehow make Portland start going to the rack instead of shooting jumpers all night, the foul discrepancy won't change.
Don't get to confident...we still have to win one more game and in the NBA anything can happen. If the rockets lose tonight, then all portland has to do is stay close in game 6 at houston and maybe pull of a win. Well if that happens portland has all the momentum going back to the rose garden and the rockets may just end up losing the series. We have to come out tonight and play like we did in game 1. We just have to want it more on EVERY POSSESSION. We need to end it tonight b/c I have seen the rockets choke way too much in the past 7 years.
Jeff Van Gundy in 2005 complained for Yao Ming and the Rockets still lost that 1st round. Shouldn't play any role at all. The only reason why the Blazers don't get as many calls as the Rockets is because everybody on that team is a jump shooter except Roy. Their big men aside from Aldridge don't do anything except rebound on offense anyways.
i hope you're kidding.. the blazers are complaining because they got away with all the pushing and shoving on yao in games 2 and 3... in game 4 the refs started making the calls.. let's see how they call game 5.. it may very well be like games 2 and 3... but we can't complain about the refs.. i think we'll blow them out in their own arena
back in my mind i cant help concerning that the ENDLESS complaints in Portland from fans to media to coach may get into the referees' minds, and give us a major disadvantage in game 5.
I went back and looked at every single Przy and Oden foul. Every single one of them was a legit foul. They were hooking Yao across the torso of through his arms almost every single time down the floor. A couple times they swiped his hands as he was shooting. Fernandez played clean fronting D on Battier for a brief span. They should look at how he did that and compare. He fronted without wrapping his arms around Battier. As for Yao not getting many fouls, that is because he didn't foul very much. He doesn't have to guard Przy and Oden...ever. The few times he did he played straight up post D without wrapping or slapping their arms. Also very rarely did he and Roy even get close to each other as Roy drove to the basket. There were a couple times there was contact, but Yao was straight up and down and Roy started the contact to begin with. As I rewatched the game I was amazingly surprised at how clean Yao was from fouls throughout. I thought that had to be bad refing for him to only have 1 foul, but he literally didn't foul. Benefit of not having to play 1 on 1 D I guess.
I think the real problem is the inconsistent refereeing of Yao. Of course, in the last game they called everything on Oden and Gorilla, but if they had just started the series with these calls then Portland wouldn't be so flustered.
I kind of understand what your saying, but come on, don't say things aren't looking good when were up 3-1 in the series. This is going much better than many rockets fans anticipated. Were in a very good position right now, but we have to take care of business. I think it all comes down to the attitude that the players have right now. How will they treat this game? If they come out and treat it like they are up 3-1 and don't feel much pressure, we'll lose. If we come out like it's a 0-0 series, it ends tonight.
