Also, they finally went out and took a game in this series.

Its Aldridge who deserves a ton of credit for his performance tonight. He could have disappeared and everyone would have written their best ‘Blazers good but  just a year away’ piece. Nope. Instead he stepped up to the plate and welcomed the challenge. He was solid as a rock for the Blazers all night in a way that the team clearly needed. Without his consistency throughout the first three quarters, the Blazers more than likely don’t win this ballgame. And I doubt you’ll find anyone who will disagree with that. I point to his 10 points in the third quarter when I look at his value tonight. Odd to point to a quarter where the Rockets went to work for the most part, but he scored 10 of Portland’s 14 points that quarter at a time when Houston had the momentum. At a point when the Blazers’ offense was sputtering between turnovers and stagnancy, Aldridge found a way to make plays. Big-time players make big-time plays and that’s Aldridge did tonight. He doesn’t make some of the plays he did and the 15-0 run may not have had a chance to happen. I may be sitting here a little tipsy trying to make sure all my words are spelled correctly. To show up in an elimination game with the type of performance he delievered was good stuff. More importantly than anything is the fact that he didn’t back down from a challenge. Over this season, Aldridge has sometimes just altogether disappeared in situations. But with his star sidekick clearly ailing, he decided not to go out without a fight.

Speaking of the star, Brandon Roy had himself quite the ballgame. On the outside looking in, 25 points on 9-for-20 with 3 assists and 2 turnovers might fall into the meh category. But considering he may have had a variation of the swine flu coming into this one and needed an IV just to go out there…it was where amazing happened. Kanye would be proud. It was good to see him get a ‘sick game’ under his belt, every superstar has one eventually. Roy struggled through three quarters, never quite looking like himself. Occasionally he’d have flashes where he could get to the bucket, but it just never felt like he quite had it. It didn’t help that his jumper was off as he got good looks but just could not convert them. But in the 4th quarter he seemed to have found some sort of second wind. It was like he was Mario and he got a magic mushroom and became Super Mario or something. Either way #7  drew a line in the sand and said enough was enough. 14 of his 25 points came in the final period, including some huge shots to make sure the Rockets knew they had at least one more battle with this Blazer team. Another instance of a big-time player making big-time plays when his team needed him too. Isn’t that what the Playoffs are about?

Equally as big as Aldridge’s performance? The 15-0 game-winning run the Blazers went on from a little over the 8 minute mark of the 4th quarter to a little under the 5 minute mark. It was almost a sort of bizarro world as the Blazers did the exact opposite of what took place in Game 4. They were the ones playing defense, getting second chance opportunites and making big shots. Setting the stage, things were looking mighty dreary for the Blazers at what would be the beginning of the run. Von Wafer had just nailed a jumper to put the Rockets up 68-64. There was just an awful feeling surrounding the game after that shot. It genuinally felt like the season was slipping away. Portland had seen all of the momentum they had built up by controlling the game through the first half go out the door. The Blazers watched as their 56-45 lead from midway in the third quarter has now turned into a 4-point disadvantage. They failed to take advantage of a Rocket lineup that featured Kyle Lowry, Von Wafer, Chuck Hayes, Carl Landry and Shane Battier. Not to mention that fresh in the minds of Blazer fans was the horrible lull attached with the 4th quarter of Game 4. If Outkast were to ever make Stankonia II, it probably could have been based on the feelings surrounding this moment. With their season on the line, the Blazers responded with heart and gutsy play. Not only that but they actually went out and made plays. More importantly, Brandon Roy found a way to fight through his sickness and go to work. He scored 8 of the 15 points during the run. Greg Oden made the biggest free throws of his career. Travis Outlaw hit the biggest shot of his career to put Portland up 7. The defense however was what won the game. During that stretch the Rockets had 2 turnovers (including a shot clock violation), a blocked shot, two forced three’s from Artest and Brooks and only 2 shots from Yao. Speaking of which, Yao wouldn’t put up a shot in the last 5 minutes of the ball game. He can be taken away in crunch time people.

Statistically, a few things jump out at me. Houston only collected 3 offensive rebounds, which means of their 40 misses tonight they only got 3 of them back. A complete 180 from the debacle known as Game 4 where Houston seemingly got two shots everytime they came down the court in the 4th quarter. If Portland wants a chance to win this series they will have to continue to control the boards. Also jumping out at me was the Blazers attempting 23 free throw attempts to Houston’s 10 attempts. That’s unlikely to be duplicated in Game 6 but a welcome statistic in my eyes. I won’t touch the referee debate, thats like asking white people about politics…just asking for trouble. Houston’s 16 turnovers should jump out to me…but Portland could not take advantage of them. At all. Houston had 9 turnovers in the first half and were only down by 7. Meanwhile we turn it over 6 times in the 4th in Game 4 and end up getting torched. Their transition D just doesn’t allow for Portland to take advantage and run. It hasn’t all series which is just a really underrated point because we’re generally having to earn everything in the half-court.

Another reason why Portland was able to win this game is that Houston’s role players either didn’t show up or finally remembered who they were. And by that they didn’t look like worldbeaters out there for once. Aaron Brooks not only shot an abysmal 6-for-20 but at times looks genuinally rattled. The thing about Brooks is that his aggression is both a positive and a negative. He can burn you but he can also burn his team. His decision to shoot a three or drive into the trees instead of going to Yao in the 4th quarter illustrated that. Ditto for Ron Artest. I’m at a cross roads with Ron Ron. He’s 11-for-37 over the past three games. On the surface you obviously don’t want him scoring because he is their #2 offensive option. What you do want him to do is shoot. Tonight was a prime example. He absolutely, positively ignored Yao Ming in the 4th quarter opting to put up jumpers instead. Wafer/Landry/Lowry combined for 12 points, much less than the 28 and 20 they put up respectively in the two games in Houston. Luis Scola however continued to play unreal basketball. It would have been a blowout if you take away his performance in the first half. He has yet to have a poor game, averaging 17.6 PPG and shooting 58.5% from the field. Portland continues to say ‘Hey, we’re going to take away Yao now you beat us’ and he keeps saying ‘Yes’ in between combing his hair. He may have the best mid-range jumper in the league.

For Portland, everyone played their hearts out. Joel Pryzbilla in particular left it all out there. His defense was great but also consider that Yao Ming did not get a single offensive rebound. Greg Oden gave some huge minutes in the 4th. Rudy stepped up and played a major role, something he is going to have to get used to for the duration of the year. To nitpick…they are still having some of the same problems offensively. Not trying to rain on a parade, just trying to be honest. One of the things I felt good about at halftime was the offensive balance the Blazers had. LMA had 15, Roy had 9, Blake had 10 and Rudy/Travis both had 7 of the bench. It felt like the offensive woes may have been cured. Well LMA and Roy finished with 25 but everyone else kind of limped. Travis’ big three in the 4th was the only points him or Rudy put up in the second half. I’ll get to this before Game 6, but to get to Game 7, Portland is going to need for Rudy and Travis to step up huge. It’s hard to depend on two guys on the road, we’ve seen that in Game 3 and 4. I feel like a broken record and Rudy played a well-deserved 35 minutes…but this team needs more production from those guys.

The only guarantee is that there will be a Game 6. How would I rate tonight’s win? I’d say this was as good of a win other than a blowout that the Blazers could get as far as momentum is concerned. Houston’s going to feel like they gave this one away, it’s only a natural feeling. They hit 3-for-15 from behind the arc, Artest and Brooks struggled, maybe something about the refs and so on and so forth. However, for the first time this series, their biggest Achilles’ heel was exposed. The inability to keep it together in the 4th quarter. If you didn’t know before tonight, you know now that the Rockets struggle to get Yao the ball late. Often times they look him off. I expect Game 6 to be a close one. There might be a little bit of doubt creeping into Houston’s mind. Add in the pressure of having to win and not wanting to back to Portland…and yeah. I might be dreaming, but you can see where I’m going. And you know there is some truth in it. You think Houston wants to come back here for Game 7? Exactly.

The most important thing is that Portland will live to fight another day. Rip City can stand proud of a team that continues to fight even with their backs against the wall. Soon enough another elimination game will be coming. Only time will tell if the Rose Garden will get the chance to host a Game 7.

Let’s all hope so. That would be…say it with me…..SCINTILLLATINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG! (fast foward to :20 and enjoy.)

Both of the Blazers young stars showed up in a major way tonight, having breakout nights on the biggest stage and leading the Blazers to a huge victory. The first playoff victory in the Rose Garden since a 2003 must-win against Dallas. LaMarcus Aldridge deserves a ton of credit (and he’ll get his later)…but there is no way these re-thoughts get started without talking about  Brandon Roy. What was that Kanye? Bow in the presence of greatness. What more can you say about Brandon Roy? It’s sad his performance got stuck on NBA TV, I feel like it could have used one of those Charles Barkley ‘he is ballin’ type endorsements. I also feel like a lot of people missed out on something, but then again they’ve been missing out on Roy’s game all year. One of the bigger question marks surrounding this Blazer team coming into the post-season was whether Brandon Roy would be able to follow in the footsteps of CP3 and Deron Williams and bring his game to the big stage. Some people pointed to the fact that he would be guarded by Shane Battier and Ron Artest and tossed around the words “shut-down” and “slow down”. To anyone who had any of those questions or doubts… Tonight was your answer. Roy officially took his game to another level in Game 2 with a phenomenal 42-point effort. That effort tied Clyde Drexler’s 42-point performance in the 1992 NBA Playoffs for the second most in Blazer history. Anytime you get your name up there with that man you’re doing something right. And in this, a must-win situation, the performance could not have come at a bigger time and on a bigger stage.  The series is even mainly thanks to Roy. His quarters read 10, 9, 11 and 12. He adjusted from Game 1. There were 12 free throw attempts tonight compared to 1 on Saturday night. But he also realized the type of buckets he would have to score. He went toe-to-toe with Artest and Battier and said ‘I’m winning this battle tonight’. Cross-overs left Battier helpless. Jumpers in Artest eyes.  Finishing through Yao. In simple terms, he went off.

Right by his side was LaMarcus Aldridge. Everyone and their mom knew he put up a stinker in Game 1. Tonight he responded in a huge way. We are talking J-Lo’s booty back in the day type huge. 27 points, 12 rebounds on 11-for-19 shooting. Nice enough. Even nicer when you consider that without Aldridge’s 12 point second quarter, the Blazers more than likely don’t win this game. He deserves just as much credit for Portland’s win as anyone else. He dropped nearly half of Portland’s points that quarter (25) and helped the Blazers stem an unreal push from Houston’s bench. Take that away and….yeah. Like Roy, he also made adjustments from Game 1 to Game 2. Not only an increase in free throw attempts as well (8 compared to 2) but he took what the defense gave him. He didn’t force it and his shot selection was much better. He found ways to get into the paint and nailed big jumpers. He played like he had something to prove and did exactly just that.

The third player I want to get to before I talk about the game. Ron Artest. Portland survived a few things tonight. The main event they survived was Ron Artest’s unreal performance in the first quarter. If you missed it, as Coup said in the Live!-Thoughts….he went B-A-N-A-N-A-S like Gwen Stefani. 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting…it was tough to watch on multiple levels. Everything was contested and the Blazers were playing well but because of Artest’s play they had nothing to show for it. It was also like deja vu with a Rocket superstar playing out of their mind to push them to the lead. On the other hand, said superstar was Ron Artest. The minute he started shooting fadeaways I smiled and knew the Blazers would be ok as long as they could whether the storm and keep it close. Why? Because Ron Artest is certifiably nuts. I knew if it got tight and he felt like he had it turned ‘on’ he was going to take some questionable shots and make some questionable decisions. More importantly he wasn’t going to think about looking at Yao Ming. Sure enough, in that first quarter he looked to score everytime he had the ball. Like Coup said he started dribbling forever, looking like Corey Maggette in a blowout. He wasn’t looking to pass unless he absolutely had to. No surprise that he went 1-for-12 the rest of the game. Also no surprise that Yao Ming finished with 6 field goal attempts. Credit an improved effort from the Blazers D but if you have 5 reasons why Yao only got up 6 shots, 3 of them are Ron Artest. Also no surprise that as Von Wafer was slicing and dicing the Blazer D in the fourth quarter I was begging for Adelman to put Ron-Ron back in to disrupt the offensive flow. Sure enough he did and the Blazers went on their game-winning run.

Now that I’ve gotten all of  that out of the way….what a game this was. And I’m not just saying that because the Blazers won, more because it was truly a great game to watch. Pick a cliche analogy: chess match, 15-round heavyweight boxing match, UFC fight, steel cage match, drinking contest or slobberknocker. They all applied to this game. To me it just felt like a big game of tug-of-war. Everyone makes fun of commentators who call the game a “game of runs”…well tonight proved those guys right. It just never felt like either team fully ever had momentum. Ever. I mean all night it was run after run after run. Both teams had an answer for each other all night, right down to the wire. Everytime the Rose Garden exploded and you felt like the Blazers were going to pull away, Houston was right there to answer. And everytime it looked as if Houston was starting to pull away and the crowd was anxious, Portland answered right back. Playoff basketball at its finest if you ask me. My best example of what I’m trying to say is this:  Houston’s largest lead was 7 was 7:41 left in the third and Portland erased that with a 16-6 run over the next 6 minutes. Portland was up 72-65 with a little over a minute left in the third. The game was tied 72-72 at the end of the quarter. It was just a night like that.

One of the biggest keys to winning in the playoffs is the ability to make adjustments and take things away from your opponent. And luckily when you take a butt-kicking like the one the Blazers received on Saturday…you have a lot of things you can adjust. Portland made clear adjustments on both ends. Offensively, there was a concentrated effort on aggression, fluidity and ball movement. It was clear all game long that Nate was not going to put up with Houston dragging everything down. It wasn’t perfect but it was much improved. The first 4 field goals went Roy, Blake, Batum and Aldridge. Definitely more balance and movement which was lacking in Game 1. Defensively, they tried a lot of things. They keyed in on Yao Ming and Aaron Brooks. Yao got fronted, doubled, pushed and shoved. They switched a lot of screens on Brooks and concentrated on keeping him in front and out of the paint. They even tried a couple zone looks (which did not work at all, apparently Carl Landry = zone buster). They even went with Coup’s favorite tag-team, the Colossal Connection of Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla out there for defensive purposes. Some things worked and some didn’t, but you have to give Nate McMillan an A+ tonight. He wasn’t just going to sit back and let things happen, he went out and made things happen. He was going to give his team the best chance to win. He played chess with Adelman all night. And not only that but he also had this team ready to go. Hats off to the coach.

Sticking with talking about defense, things were a lot better tonight. Again, there was nowhere to go but up…but still. The energy and activity showed early and carried on throughout the game. Batum set the tone right off the bat by blocking Artest’s shot to start the game . Looking at the Rockets’ shot chart, it looks as if they got very few points in the paint which is an encouraging sign for Portland. There are still some holes that need to be worked on. I still am a little wary about Yao Ming. Sure he only had 11 points but he only shot the ball 6 times. Portland did a better job defensively but let’s be honest a lot of Yao’s low-point total had to do with lack of touches. I guarantee that doesn’t happen in Game 3. Also if anyone noticed the Houston offense before Ron-Ron came back in. It was throw it into Yao, watch the defense rotate and kick it out. We were at Houston’s will early there in the fourth. Wafer got at least a couple buckets because the defense had to rotate to him. Also, Aaron Brooks still scares me. I don’t want him touching the ball in the last 12 minutes in their building. His 23 points are a bit inflated because of his late explosion but the fact that we’re still going under ballscreens with him just makes me scratch my head. More than anything, Portland has got to work on not fouling. I’m not saying any words about the officials, but Portland can’t afford to let the Rockets be in the penalty all night long. Portland was in the penalty 5 minutes into the first quarter and  less than 4 minutes into the second quarter. Not to mention that 8 of Houston’s first 17 points in the 4th came from the free throw line. There is already enough of a challenge ahead, no need to give them easy buckets like that. Personnally I feel like the free throws had a lot to do with Kyle Lowry and Von Wafer’s ability to have success in the second quarter. They just put their heads down in that 2nd quarter and got to the line.

 Speaking of Von Wafer….sheesh. Portland survived him trying to get revenge like The Bride in Kill Bill. 21 points for Von Wafer? Portland can’t let him get in double figures, let alone get 20. It was a struggle to keep Wafer in front as he marched to the line. And of course that allowed him to get into a groove the likes of which no one could have seen coming. I guarantee that Wafer’s strong play and Yao’s lack of offense will be things that Houston Rocket fans lean on in the upcoming days. If it weren’t for LaMarcus, Wafer may very well have ruined our season. And I would have had the unbelievable task of writing “Von Wafer ruined the Blazers season”, a sentence I would have bet a pretty penny that I would never write in my life.

Really liked the resiliency of this Blazer team. Outside of Roy and LaMarcus, no one really had a spectacular game. But they all performed. Greg Oden’s box-score will not do him justice. Behind the 6 fouls, 4 points and 4 rebounds were 2 very important plays in the fourth quarter. The tip-jam and deflection/steal of a Yao Ming entry pass. Very big plays from the rook. Travis Outlaw struggled mightily but also came through in the clutch with that big jumper and his steal/breakaway jam that (should have) sealed the game. Obviously both Oden and Outlaw have things to work on. Oden has to stay on the court and Outlaw has got to find a way to be effective. But despite their struggles both found ways to contribute which is always important. Big Joel was active all night and had some key hustles (*ahem*andflops*ahem*). Steve Blake tried his best to keep Brooks in front and had that big layup in the fourth. Rudy Fernandez was able to get free and hit big shots, kicking the fourth off with that three after Houston had closed the gap. Just a great team effort and a way to respond down 0-1.

All of this being said, tomorrow this game will officially be in the books. So soak it in while you can. The reality of the situation is this. The series is 1-1. I can’t believe I’m about to quote Kobe Bryant but every game is indeed a completely new slate. The season lies in Portland’s ability to win a game in Houston and if you remember the road record against playoff teams…yeah. They have to win a game in the Toyota Center to win this series. We’ll see how they come out on Friday night. Remember, all they need is one win in Houston. And after tonight, you’d have to believe they have the ability to do it.

Last but not least….

“For me, basketball is over.” – Dikembe Mutombo

One of the tougher moments of the night was seeing Dikembe Mutombo go down, stay down and have to get carted off on a stretcher. He’s been playing in the L since I was 4…and never have I seen him like that. It’s a shame his career didn’t end on his own terms. I also found it interesting that we all know and love that moment of Dikembe in Seattle after Denver pulled the upset, lying on the court, holding the ball in his hands with the giant grin. And his career will end with the imagery of him lying on the court, screaming in pain and agony. You’re a legend and a great human being.

Yeah, it’s bedtime.

Resliency

The video is quite the truth if you mute or imagine an appropriate song. The song…is hot garbage. I’m sad that this song could be the equivalent of what Bust-a-Bucket and Rip City Rhapsody were to me. Le sigh. I will say something positive about it, at least it’s better than the last ‘team-specific song that goes with a playoff slogan’ that the Blazers offered up. I can’t be the only one to remember that one. If you remember 2003, you remember ‘One Town. One Team. One Dream…and we believe’ in what had to have been the corniest and awful sounding song ever. I know it’s nowhere to be found on YouTube but good lord I remembered they would show the video and play the song before those Dallas games and I wanted to scream everytime.

Thoughts?