I would have preferred Wafer in the game instead of Ron.. Battier played great defense on Roy, but the refs bailed Roy out. 2 plays I remember: Battier contends the shot, Roy falls down and trips Battier - they give the call to Roy. Another time, Battier with the clean block on Roy, yet it's a foul. Momentum killer was when it looked like Aldridge knocked the ball out of bounds, but they said Hayes knocked it out. They didn't show the replay, so I don't know if it was a bad call. It gave them a second chance and Roy knocked down a 3. Rockets in 5.
Lol RA is so clueless, at least try to get Yao the ball. They front a little and they go away from Yao and jack up a stupid three.
Anyone else notice how they ran the clock in the last minute?: Foul whistled @ 20s Clock stops at 19.5s Clock runs *again* down to 18.4s I think Battier saw it as he was talking to the refs. Very weird that it wasn't caught and rectified.
This guy is the big culprit... Jacking up shots in the 4th. I rather have Wafer jack up shots than this fat clunk.
Artest had problems, but Battier was giving Roy problems. Roy just had a hot night - even MJ couldn't score 41 points a night consistently, and he'll fall back to earth on Game 3.
We knew they're gonna front Yao, whist we didn't have a way to counteract it. I'm worried that fronting will be the story throughout the rest of the series. However, the Rockets fight to the end. If Brooks' miracle 3 pointers could come earlier. I believe we will take care of our home courts in the next two games.
This team has too many super stars, Artest thinks he is Kobe or even better, Brooks thinks he is CP3. No execution at all.
I will never understand why Adelman had Wafer rolling but then at the end of the game put Ron in instead of him. Ron should have been benched. I would have also preferred Lowry because Brooks had some bad TOs that put the game out of reach. Some threes at the end won't make up for the 2 turnovers that led to Blazers scores.
Wafer had started cooling down. It might have been better at that time to put both Brooks and Lowry together despite the fact we would have been going too small. Brooks gains my respect,he isn't a PG but he fought hard. Yao and Battier were the most disappointing,Ron,Scola and Landry as well. Once we lost Deke everything changed. How are going to respond at home? Are we going to fight or just role over? It will require a huge effort,Yao and co have got to get it done at home or we are going fishing.
hmmm...who effect Yao's game more Blazers or Refs....yao coundn't be agressive cause he was afraid of a flop or ticky tack call
What do these guys do in practice? I'd focus on THREE things. 1. Solving the fronting problem 2. FREETHROWS 3. Knowing went to go over or under a screen. AB had a great game for us, the game was done when Roy hit the 3. We lost the game because Artest cannot gaurd Roy. Question: Who will we activate now that deke is gone?
The home team gets the benefits of the callls. Now with that said we are in excellent position. Just think about it our guys barely lost and we weren't even spectacular. It took the blazers to have roy and Aldridge to score 70 points just to win by 4. When we get back to houston it will be domination time.Props to portland for making the adjustments in Game 2 but after the Rox coaches tweek their game plan it will be on to the lakers in round 2
Well...we achieved what we came to Portland for -- steal one on the road. Now we need to hold the home court advantage -- win the next two at home. As long as we do that we will win this series.
Artest can't check Roy. Don't know if RA wants him to guard Roy or if it's Artest wanting to guard him. But RA, as the coach, needs to tell him that the team don't want him to waste a lot of energy on defense so they can use him on the offensive end and letting Battier guard Roy majority of the game. FTs FTs FTs were huge tonight. Scola and Landry were MIA, especially Scola with all those missed FTs and wide open midrange jumpers. Finally, Yao only had 6 attempts. That's pathetic. Players need to be patient and get him the ball if we want to win this series. Seems like the players don't have enough patience. They try for couple of seconds and then go away from him. You can't take out your best offensive player and expect to win the series. Yao is the best offensive player on the team so everyone else needs to feed him the ball. That's the way they will win.
Mutombo went down, Yao only took 6 shots (and made only 2), and Roy and Aldridge both had BIG nights. And we only lost by 4, on their home floor? DON'T PANIC. Everything went Portland's way tonight, and we still kept it close at the end.
