I think the Rockets have more talent but have fewer "potential" guys than Portland does. Most of our guys are at or near their ceiling. Portland has 3-4 guys who could become special players. The main difference I see is that their franchise player has the ball all game long where ours does not. It's a lot more difficult to take a SG (who has PG skills) out of the game than it is a 7'6" 300lb dude that must catch the ball within 12 feet of the basket to be most effective.
Its no accident Portland won 54 games this year. They are a very talented team. It was no accident that we won 53 games this year either though. We are a talented team too. Now certainly they are overall younger with a much bigger potential but in the here and now that doesn't make them the better team. At best they are even. I'm not going to discount the Blazers but lets not discount the Rox either. Roy is obviously better overall than Battier or Artest one on one will beat them most of the time. Aldridge playing Scola or Landry one on one will probably win but beyond that Brooks and Blake at best is a tie and Brooks has greater potential. Even with Fernandez sharp shooting and Outlaw's potential explosiveness I will still take our bench over Portland's. Finally it is no contest between Yao and Pryzbilla or Oden. One on one Yao dominates them totally. If you notice there's a reason why Portland doesn't play Yao one on one but has a made a team effort to stop him because they know Yao would eat them alive, as he did in the first half of game one. That isn't a tribute to Pryzbilla or Oden's great ability that's a tribute to just how good Yao is. You say Pryzbilla or Oden are top ten centers and so match up well to Yao. Now consider if we played either of them like they are playing Yao with Scola or Hayes fronting them with Yao behind. They would probably barely scratch the stat sheet. We don't do that because even though in an age of a dearth of talent at the center position these guys might be top ten they aren't worth the effort to even try to shut down. Leaving aside the talent on the court there is one area where we are clearly dominating talent wise and that is at coach. Adelman is clearly outcoaching McMillan. He seems to be almost anticipating McMillan's moves before hand. It seems to me if the Rockets can just hit more free throws we would've swept or at least won games 3 and 4 with a much more comfortable margin. Its a testament to the talent of Portland's players they are keeping this thing close but I don't think this is any fair matchup coaching wise. IMO we are lucky that Adelman is on our sidelines. If Adelman was coaching this year's Blazers they would be devestating as outside of Pryzbilla and Oden that is a team that is built for Adelman ball.
I guess I'll keep it up, though this is getting tiring... Wow, way to conveniently forget the fact that Yao is dominating Pryzbilla/Oden. That while Fernandez is a better shooter than Wafer, Von is more athletic, can actually dribble penetrate, is a better scorer, and a decent shooter himself. That it doesn't matter how athletic Outlaw is, Battier will always be the better defender and is a pretty decent and better spot-up shooter. You've also completely left PG out of the equation. Where ours are more athletic (and for some reason, this seems to be pretty important to you guys) and despite playing only mediocre on the whole, are better than the Blazers PG. You completely ignored the fact that they're starting a kid named Batum everygame...and yes, maybe he'll be better next year...which means nothing. I mean seriously, Nicolaus Batum isn't just getting 14 minutes a game, he's starting games and halfs. Frankly, he shouldn't even be out there on the floor at all. You've completely overlooked, as I've already pointed out, that as tall and athletic as Aldridge may be, he has proven to be relatively inefficient, for a PF - shooting below 50% and not being a great rebounder for his size...where as Scola, while shorter and less athletic, has proven to be very efficient for his size, a 53% regular season shooter (shocking, he's shooting 54% in this series) and doing a solid job on the boards. You're being about as selective as possible. Next.
Read what I stated JayZ750, the Blazers have basically lost due to inexperience in the last 8 to 5 mins of the game.... They have beaten themselves. Look at last night game They had a 6 point lead going into the 4th, they lost lead not because of a lot of pressure from the Rockets, but basically because of bad shot selection, rushing and not having any poise on the offensive end and basically just being out of position on the defensive end and not controlling rebounds when they got them. At this point the inexperience has hurt them because they have not figured out how to close out on Close games. I'm not saying the Rockets are playing bad and if you read the OP he's not saying that. What i'm saying is that the Blazers have a GREAT YOUNG TALENTED INEXPERIENCE Team and the Rockets need to win this next game before they figure out how to win in the last closing minutes of a close game.
their top 4 guys are more talented than any one of our players: Roy Aldridge Fernandez Outlaw goodness Outlaw is a beast. he can shoot and dunk from the free throw line. but what we lack in talent we make up for with defense and effort. that's our calling card, effort. we're lucky we're facing such an inexperienced team that shot themselves in the foot multiple times last night. i usually dont expect effort to win playoff games, but it does against young teams who dont understand what theyre into. unfortunately we aren't going to beat the lakers by effort. we'll make it close but the lakers are too talented.
The barely scratch the stat sheet now. The top 10 center premise is one of the most ridiculous comments posted on here in a while.
Top 2 centers?? what the hell r u talking about? Oden? Pryzibilla? Oden has proved nothing....hes way overrated. Maybe next year he will be better but so far he has proved nothing. Pryzibila? r u kidding me? Oden nor Pryzibila can defend Yao. If u have been watching the series, which i highly doubt it, all centers from Portland has been fouling Yao like crazy but getting away with it most of the time. Aldridge is good but i would take Scola over him any day. Scola's toughness, hustle, defense n smooth offense is better than Aldrige at this point imo. Maybe few years down the line Aldrige will be better. I would choose Battier over Rudy Fernandez because not only hes a dangerous 3 point shooter but also brings toughness n defense and average passing skills. Blake is a complete scrub. Artest is better than Outlaw without a doubt. The only player better in its position is Brandon Roy!!! This thread is ridiculous.
I understand your point. But I disagree. I think Oden is better right now than most of those centers you have on your list. If Yao went down and I had a choice between Oden or any of those other guys I would choose ODen in most cases. I am not talking about future I am talking about right now. He is the best option against Bynum in the next round and would give fits to Ilgauskus in the finals. So yes IMO Oden is a top ten Center right now. I will conced that I may have been hasy in picking Pryzbilla as a top 1o overall but as far as defensively he is a top ten IMO. So disa gree if you will. I want argue the point especially since it is just my opinion. Of course the one thing I am sure we can agree on is this Rocket team has heart. SO on that note I will say Go Rockets! Lets finish these bastards off on Tuesday!
I also like how it's Portland's inexperience that wins us games, not Houston's experience. Right. Rockets > Blazers.
Let me get this straight. If they lose, then they "beat themselves." And if we lose, it's because we're just the worse team. Ok. Gotcha.
They shoot a lot of contested jumpers. The only guy that can consistently go to the rim is Roy. Close out game is alway a tough. We blew twice two years ago against Utah. We have 3 tries this time.
What JVG said. Blazers are made for the regular season. We are built for the playoffs. There's a reason why the Spurs have won for so long on inferior athleticism.
I disagree. Only Roy is better at this moment at his position. Aldrige may be explosive but no hustle n toughness like Scola does. Scola also has above average offensive skills to bring to the table. Overall Scola is better and all around better player imo. Rudy Fernandez is a great shooter and thats about it. Battier can knock down 3's as good as Rudy Fernandez and we have seen it. Battier also brings defense n hustle which Rudy Fernandez lacks. And i dont think this needs any explanation, Artest is better than Outlaw! I would even take Landy over Outlaw.
The Blazers are indeed better than the Rockets top to bottom. The only reason why we are up 3-1 in this series is because of the genius that is RICK ADELMAN. He's literally squeezed every itty bitty ounce of talent from our role players and made the correct calls/adjustments but he can only do so much with the given roster. If Deke never went down this series would've been over last night 4-0. We need to treat game 5 as if it were a game 7 and wrap this series up ASAP. Game 5 is going to be nuts in Portland and closing out a team is extremely difficult. It can and must be done though.
I know what you're saying. What I'm saying is they've lost because they don't have enough talent, not because the talent they have is inexperienced. I've pointed out how the Rockets also have inexperience at very important positions...which you've regularly ignored. Not to mention, Game 2 was tied to start the 4th, and the Rockets took the lead early in that quarter, but then the Rockets let it slip away. It happens. Not surprising that in both cases the road team gave up the lead. you're focusing on the wrong things, imo. The Rockets got back into and won the game by rebounding. Both of Shane's huge threes came on second chances. Rebounding has very little to do with experience. I won't argue that they played poorly offensively, though. It wasn't shot selection, though, it was turnovers. They shot well for the quarter, but they had those 7 turnovers. I know what you're saying...I think you're wrong. I think the Rockets have more TALENT. Talent that wins NBA games. I think you're over-emphasizing athleticism. I think you're over-emphasizing experience - given the Rockets lack some in key areas, as well - and even where they have experience, they don't exactly have positive experience (Shane's...and Yao's, first Game 4 playoff win last night...freaking crazy)....AND that sometimes lack of experience is a good thing. I won't be amazed in the Blazers win 3 in a row to take the series. Of course they have good players and a good team. They won 54 games. I don't think they have the better team or talent though.
