Rockets vs. Trailblazers - The Finale

The Rockets travel to Portland to take on the Trailblazers tonight at the Rose Garden at 9:30PM CST. I would like to respectfully say FU to the NBA and to MLB for having so many West Coast games on with the Rockets and Astros. I've been sick and staying up to watch the games sure hasn't helped me get over it.

Portland Trailblazers: 38-37 (25-11 at home) 4-6 in their last 10

Houston Rockets: 49-25 (21-15 on the road) 5-5 in their last 10

Admit it, if I told you in January that the Rockets would win 50 this year you would have thought I was smoking some serious Whitney Houston style crack (I don't care what she told Barbara, she smoked crack). With a win tonight the Rockets would be 50-25, also known as 25 games over .500 with only 7 games remaining. It would also further their lead over Utah. My dream situation is playing Utah or LA in the first round with home court advantage but the lower seed. That would be perfect to me. LA because I honestly think we would beat them, and we'd win at least 1 at their place. And Utah because I so very much hate Utah and want revenge from last year and I believe Tracy would do everything he could to win that series.

On Tuesday we lost a game that we could have won. I say could have and not should have, because the Kings played really well. As usual Artest smoked the Rockets and Kevin Martin played as well as I've ever seen him play. With the way the game was "refereed" it was going to be the team that got F'd the least late that won and the Kings made a couple of plays at the end that did that for them. Dave has already talked about how pathetic the game was ref'd so I will leave it alone, but it was sad.

Houston has won all three meetings this year with Portland by 9, 10 and 12 respectively. Brandon Roy looks to be out again and that should tip the game even further in the Rockets favor, no one for Rafer to piss off with his trash talking that can actually do any damage at the point. I like the Rockets to turn it around like they did after the Philly debacle. Put the loss behind us and start a roll going into the playoffs. Let's go Rockets!!!

To Paraphrase Sam I Am

After winning his second NBA championship in 2 years, Sam Cassell yelled to the cameras "Two years, two rings, and we might get another one!" to which I steal:

7 Wins, 7 Games, and we are going to win 10!

With Dave and I in attendance the Rockets tried to blow it for us. They trailed by 6 at the end of one and I still have no idea how, but led by one at the half, despite being outscored in the paint roughly 3 or 4 to 1 and were being outrebounded, out blocked and out stolen(??) for the half. We weren't moving the ball, moving without the ball or going hard after rebounds. Well, let me clarify, no one but Luis Scola was. Scola was everywhere as usual. He does not seem prone to energy slumps like most NBA players or for that matter every other Rocket. Even with his energy the Rockets played terribly in the first half, if the Trailblazers had not contributed spurts of poor shot selection it could have been a 10 point Portland lead at half.

At halftime Dave looked up and said "How are we leading?"

My response? "We're leading?"

I had apparently missed this fact in my utter disgust at how poorly we played, we had spend so much of the first half yelling about poor decision making, the team not calling out the double or triple team coming to Yao, Tracy doing nothing but shooting dumb jump shots and playing absolutely no defense, that I had lost track of the fact that Portland had let us back in the game and the Rockets had ended the half on a 13-6 run. The Rockets would never look back from there.

Dave and I came out of halftime relieved we weren't down, the Rockets apparently did too. They outscored Portland 25-19 keyed by Rafer Alston's, yes, that Rafer Alston, 13 point quarter on 5-7 shooting. He was on fire, and was really helping to get the ball moved around. Yao also came alive at the end of the third, contributing 6 straight free throws in the last minute and a half, finally wearing down his defenders.

The team defense was spectacular as the Traiblazers were able to pull off a grand total of 3 uncontested shots that I counted up until the last 2 minutes of the game. We were rotating, playing excellent help defense and got a hand up effectively for anything Portland tried to throw up. There were 6 or 7 occasions after a Portland make that Dave and I both talked about how if they can make those kind of shots, good for them, because nothing was coming easy. This was one of the few times this season that we have seen the offense and the defense run in an entire quarter like they can.

The fourth started off where the third ended, the Rockets went on a 10-1 run and the game was effectively over. That led to an eventual 18 point lead with 2:10 left. Adelman emptied the bench and in a flurry of unorganized shenanigan the game was ended.

Overall the second half was great and the first half basically ended in a do over.

That's 7 wins out of ten in a row!!

Next up, the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday, February 13th at 7:30PM CST

Go Rockets!

Live and in Person - Rockets vs. Trailblazers

The Trailblazers arrive at the Toyota Center tonight and Dave and I will be there. I love all the ticket deals the Rockets do, though I'm not sure why they don't just lower the overall ticket price to make any game an affordable one. It's not like they are selling out, but I'm sure someone in the marketing group has the dollar maximization down to a science. I was able to obtain 70 dollar seats for 50 each tonight, so we'll be up close and personal with Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. This is my first foray back into the lions den since the beating at the hands of Philly and the slippery fingers of Rafer Alston/Luther Head. Neither the Rockets nor Rafer/Luther are allowed to repeat those performances or I might just snap.

Portland Trailblazers: 28-22 (8-16 on the road), 4-6 in their last 10

Houston Rockets: 30-20 (14-9 at home), 9-1 in their last 10

The good guys are 2-0 on the season versus Portland. An 89-80 victory at home early on and an 89-79 win at Portland, handing them their first loss to a team in the West at home on January 25. Both 10 point victories came on the heals of hellacious defense by the Rockets. In the first game the Rockets held them to 12 in the first, 19 in the second and 15 in the third. They led by 18 and relaxed in the fourth of that game as did the Trailblazers as both teams mostly traded baskets. In the second game the Rockets took the opposite tactic, letting Portland out to a lead and then clamping down allowing 12 in the third tying the game up and 17 in the fourth to outscore them by 10.

The Trailblazers have struggled after their mid-first half hot streak. They've suffered from some players absences lately, most notably Roy has been out with a death in the family the last two games. I for one am hoping he does not decide that this needs to be a dedication game. Please save that for a home game Brandon. Since a 17-1 streak from December 3rd to January 9th, Portland has struggled to the tune of 6-9.

Portland has 8 road victories on the year: Memphis by 1, Utah by 8, Denver by 11, Minnesota by 11, Chicago by 6 in OT, New Jersey by 26, Miami by 7, and Atlanta by 2 in OT. Only the last two came while outside of the 17-1 streak. Beating Utah and Denver by those margins are great wins on the road, but beating Memphis by 1 (The Rockets actually lost there, so I'm not casting stones) and Atlanta by 2 in OT really evens them out. Utah was also struggling during that stretch and frankly I'm not convinced that Denver is that good (They have a ton of potential but too many wildcards on that team).

The Rockets should win this game. They really should. The Trailblazers only have warm bodies to foul Yao to keep him in check. Luckily for us Yao is an excellent free throw shooter, so that should eliminate any issue there. Portland simply does not match up well with the Rockets. If Roy doesn't make it back or Aldridge doesn't play that will just amplify the issue for them.

What is my prediction? Win number 7 of 10 in a row. With the win against the Hawks the Rockets are finally a better home team than a road team, let's keep it up gentlemen.

Go Rockets!

Dave over at BlazersEdge has a good preview of the game.

The Rock vs. The Trail

Tonight at 9:00PM CST the Rockets take on the Portland Trailblazers. And yes, I refuse to call them "Blazers" because Trailblazers is much more bad ass. The good guys beat the men in black and red 89-80 on November 3rd. We have won 12 of the last 16 meetings with 5 of the last 8 being on the road.

Portland has been extremely streaky this year up until the last 7 games. Here's a quick breakdown:
3 Losses - 4 Wins - 5 Losses - 1 Win - 4 Losses - 14 Wins - 1 Loss - 4 Wins

After that they have gone LWLWLWL in the last seven. That entire 3-4 stretch was on the road. Not a good trend going into their game with the Rockets as they are due for a win and are 17-3 this season at home. Those three losses came at the hands of New Jersey, Orlando and Indiana. Two bad teams and one pretty good but young team from the East (The Magic is who I'm talking about in case you haven't watched any basketball this year). So they haven't lost once at home to a West team. Oh, and they've managed to beat New Orleans (twice), Dallas, Golden State (twice), Utah (twice), and Denver so it's not like they haven't played anybody. One more point: They haven't lost at home since November 28th, also known as 2 months ago when they were 5-10. It all adds up to a 25-17 record, and the current 7/8 playoff seed, 2 games above the Rockets.

The Rockets have been on a pretty good run themselves lately, 11-5 in their last 16, and a current three game winning streak. On the road we've been a semi-respectable 6-4 , with 4 wins in a row.

What's my prediction for the game? I honestly don't have one, the Trailblazers could be hitting a wall and the Rockets could be coming in at just the right time. They also could be happy to be home and show it on the court. Team vs. Team I think the Rockets have the more complete package today, though in 2 years the Trailblazers have the talent to be the best team in the West. With a team average of 23.9 years of age the future is bright in Portland. Let it be noted that Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Channing Frye, Greg Oden, and Martell Webster all only have 2 years left on their contracts after this year. They will need to do something to keep those guys together and it remains to be seen if that is possible.

One good piece of information is that Raef LaFrentz at 12MM a year comes off the books at the same time as the others become restricted free/free agents. Seriously though, WTF was Dallas thinking when they gave him 7 years, $70MM? The NBA is luckily not as stupid with money anymore, but damn, that was dumb. He was averaging 12.9 points and 7.8 rebounds the previous year, why oh why would you sign that contract??? That's dumb on the level of parachuting without a parachute.

So, let's go Rockets, time to kick a little 23.9 year old ass!! Oh, and make up some ground on the playoffs while we're at it