To tell you really I've expected a loss although deep inside I really was hoping for a second win. But the good news are that Rockets were still in the game while playing horrible which means they can pull up and win the game two and three learning on their mistakes. And Yao played horrible tonight, you expect more from a player like that and don't make any excuses, it's plain and simple - Yao NEEDS to dominate.
We didn't lose because of officiating, there were bad calls both ways. I actually thought we took better shots than them - lots of driving to the hoop and open jumpers. Roy and Aldridge just shot too well. Besides putting Battier on Roy more often, I'm not sure what else we can do. Are Roy and Aldridge good enough to keep hitting those shots? I think that's the biggest worry
very depressing lost, but since I wasn't anticipating a sweep and they are a strong team at home, it's good that we won a game there
are u a portland's fan??? i dont know ur just seeing the game from their point of view. the refs were in favor of us ??? hmmm
If Portland can recover after losing by almost 30 points on THEIR home court, then us Houston fans could sure chill out and realize that we lost by 4 points on a night where Yao had 6 shot attempts and Brandon Roy had a career night. We are freaking out over a four point loss, it's all right folks!
Won game one by 30 pts, lose game 2 by 4 ( both on their court) Don't worry roy and aldridge are not gonna keep up with this shooting after this game
I agree, dude. We won the first game in Portland and now we are playing the next 2 at home, honestly I don't see the Blazers win a game in Houston. We have home court advantage now, we should be able to win the next two at home! 3-1 ... Gooo Red!
Anyone else notice that almost every time down the floor while fighting for position Yao gets fouled repeatedly by the fronter, i.e. slaps on the hand, pushing down on him, pushing on every part of his body, but these fouls are NEVER called? Seriously this is the only reason fronting works on Yao, because Yao doesn't flop and when he fouls somebody it gets called but when he is fouled during fronting it's never called. There's no way Yao can get the ball in that situation and that is unfair. I think the only reaction drastic enough to get this rectified is if Yao starts pushing back on them with the force being used on him, get fouled out in the 1st quarter, gets a huge uproar from the fans, and David Stern finally tells the officials to change their ways.
Quote from blazersedge, Several factor to have portland get a W. 4. They kept the offense from running through Yao. Part of this was the Portland defense. Part of it was Houston forgetting how they blew the Blazers out on Saturday. Yao attempted 6 shots tonight. When he goes less than a shot per foot the Rockets aren't going to win. I was sitting with my friend Photographer Dave watching this game and every time Ron Artest hit a shot in his blistering first quarter run I said, "That's alright. Keep it up. That's good for the Blazers." Poor Dave probably wanted to backhand me across the couch. However, look what happened. Pretty soon Artest started missing those one-on-one looks, finishing the game 8-20. Aaron Brooks got hot too, though his final total of 23 was padded by some last-minute heaves. Nevertheless, he had those 23, Artest had 19...where was the Houston blowout? Oops! No Yao, no win. The whole recap is available HERE
I have watched both games, but like I said Houston should be able to win the next two games at home! That's my opinion ... do you think Roy will have a career night every game of the series from now on? No, so (i hope) we 'will' win the next two games!
The blazers played harder than game 1 and better, I hope rocket fans don`t panic because the presure is on them now to win a game in houston which i dont see it happening, if the rockets win games 3 and 4 this series wont go more than 6, might go 5 also
We shot 50% from the field, not a bad collective offensive effort regardless of who took the shots. If our defence had worked as well as it did the 1st game when we made the Blazers shoot 41.7%, we wouldn't be complaining so much now about the other things which didn't go too well for us. But it wasn't just their 51.4% FG shooting which hurt us this time. Roy and Aldridge went 15-20 from the FT line today compared to 2-3 the last time out. What does that tell us? They were just getting more calls - legitimately or otherwise. Roy's 42 was boosted considerably by 10 of 12 from the foul line and the Blazers had 36 Fts, making 72.2% of them. Over the 3 regular season matchups, Roy had identical 4 of 4 FTs each game, with the Blazers given in total 17, 21 and 24 FTAs, making 76.5%, 71.4% and 66.7%, respectively. Their FG% over those games were 46.1%, 44% and 45.2%. In comparison, the Rockets had 23, 22 and 27 FTAs and made 82.6%, 86.4% and 81.5%, respectively, over those games. Our FG% were 47.4%, 43.9% and 51.4%. So whilst their FT% was about right considering their average in this matchup, they had inordinately more FTAs than they normally would get. If the refs didn't have any effect in this regard, then I suppose someone else must have been making the calls. Still, we can't really blame anyone but ourselves when we were given 32 shots from the foul line and made only 68.8% of them - way below our above 80% average. So yes, it would really not be too far-fetched to arrive at the conclusion that our defence and FT shooting could have been better. Additionally, having watched the game intently, I can't help but agree with some posters here who felt that Yao should have had more touches. Sure, he had 4 fouls but he also had 2 to give. This is the playoffs and I was expecting a to-hell-with-the-consequences attitude over the final 12 minutes. We could have done with less dribbling to run down the clock from 2 of our starters and more ball movement all-round. We also need more drives to the basket which meant having Lowry and/or Wafer on the floor. However, I don't by any means think that I'm a better coach than Adelman. So I'd have to believe that he had his reasons for not doing what many of us thought were obvious. With that, I've to be content in the knowledge that the Blazers have used all their ammo in this close win whilst the Rockets still have some to spare going into the next few games. It's early days, so let's leave the end-of-the-world fretting alone until we're really facing it.
