okay, this is going to be the first thread i've ever started on this bbs, so don't be too harsh on me. there are no words that can describe my anger and disappointment right after the loss to the mavs. i still feel i may lose sleep tonight. i wanted to come to this board and vent a little (okay, a lot), but i kinda figured this place would be jammed at that time. so what did i do? i know this is a little childish as a 41-year old, but i drove my hummer out for some off-roading, in the middle of the night, for over an hour (and listening to sr610 fan feedback along the way). my wife was mad at me and amused at the same time, after she realized what i did. but after all we didn't lose another remote or it didn't cost us a tv set... i guess like many, my disappointment mainly comes from the fact that this loss has cost us a golden and easy path to the western conf. finals in god knows how many years. i had big hopes for our playoff run this year, yet now we find our team opening the post-season on the road. i am also disappointed at out veteran players. this is a crucial game, yet yao didn't quite raise his level of play, ron choked, shane was passive on the offensive end as usual. i know brooks played poorly and i've advocated that lowry should start at the 1, but for some reason i'm willing to give him a break tonight. same goes to wafer. and dirk is a tough match-up for scola (don't quite understand why adelman left him in for so long, especially when he wasn't contributing on the offensive end of the ball). yes, it's an execution problem as usual late in the game; yes, it's the same ol' fronting problem. all the bball technicalities such as how to beat the fronting can go to another separate thread or wait for another day, but i felt that after we got that 14pts lead, out mentality, toughness and effort were just not there, as if we were waiting for the mavs to quit on their own. what was the most used line by jvg (also my favorite)? - "in this league, you get what you deserve." /vent (i know there must be plenty of blame to spread around for the loss tonight.) now some positive vibes. we play the blazers w/o hca. a much worse scenario than what could've been. i say it's a 50-50 chance for either team. we played them well in the regular season and they're quite inexperienced; otoh they possess one of the best home records. but this is not a bad match-up for us. we can beat this portland team and get into the 2nd round. and this is still where i set my expectations at. if we achieve that, the next opponent in the 2nd round most likely will be the lakers. a less desirable situation compared to a say rockets-denver match-up. the odds are obviously not on our side, but you just never know. hopefully we finally catch some lucky breaks along the way. bottom line for me is, if we play smart and play all out against the lakers and lose, i'd still call this year a successful one. and what should we do in the off season? well, ... i'd not touch it until we have either gone fishing or won the whole thing. for right now, this team needs to focus and regroup. they need to only think how to beat the blazers and nothing else. they need to think about game 1 and nothing else. for we fans (those quitters and bandwagoners not included), we just need to continue to root for our team (and come here to either vent or cheer) as we always do. (okay, i've checked my spellings. hopefully there aren't too many typos.)
but seriously though, i was pretty angry too, just because of the possibility of having a cakewalk through the first round if we faced NO, but i think it's a good wake up call and some good should come from this. If this doesn't show them how important it is to establish Yao and go to him, then nothing will. Perhaps its going to make them more alert for the first round, keep them on their toes, make them hungrier, more angry, etc. I would feel alot better about this if we had homecourt, but i think we can steal one of the first two games. Rudy worries me a bit though, he shows up for big games, like in the olympics...might be the x-factor for the Blazers.
Do you guys really think the rockets can pass the mavs in the 1st round if they meet?! The 5th seed isn't that bad. low seed, low expectation!
I think tonight is a night where fans and players alike probably reflect on what could have been. It's only natural to sit there and dwell on the possibilities if we had done this or that, but I think after everyone has had a good night's rest, tomorrow will bring a new challenge. As a team, we're going to have to regroup quickly if we want to bring down Portland, and the fact that we're doing it on the road just means that we're going to have to be that much more focused. Guys like Artest and Brooks are going to have to get their act together if we're going to move on in the playoffs, because tonight's effort was nothing short of pathetic from either of them. I have faith that tonight's loss will work in a positive way for the team, but I also feel like it was emotionally draining to sit there and watch every single bad scenario play out one at a time.
i think it's the homecourt that stung the most since houston has been a great home team this season, as for the opponent, i was hoping for NO, SA, or portland, in that order...
also, can't dwell too much on what could have been, the spurs were practically handed the game against Sacramento, so technically we should have clinched HC prior to this game. Some things you just cant control.
with or without homecourt, this team should be able to beat portland atleast once at portland (and thats an understatment). If they can't even achieve that, then might as well go back to the lottery. Also the key is keep the game at a low tempo half court game, if you allow the blazers to run then hell can get unleashed.
Yeah but that was because Utah was almost perfect at home i believe, as good as the rockets were on the road, utah was a better home team. Portlands very good at home also so it was important to get 4 games in Houston.
rockets and portland have identical road records, just under .500, and at home Portland was one game better at 34-7. So it's fair to predict the home team will win every time, which again is why home court was so important.
The only good news against Blazers is Oden, Przybilla and Aldridge cannot front Yao effectively! But Oden and Przybilla do have size to bother Yao's shots!
Utah is a horrible road team, but they won the first two games on our home court last season! Matchup>>> HCA! Portland is our best chance!
Actually the better news is defensively. Neither Oden nor Pryzbilla is absolutely zero threat outside of about 5 feet. Neither are worth ish on the pick and roll. This type of matchup makes Yao look like the best defensive center in the game.
