It wasn’t ill advised. There were about 29 seconds left in the quarter (or half, I can’t remember quite when it was). Anyways, he had an open look and made sure the Rockets got the final possession, which I believe was the one where Brooks went coast-to-coast. Obviously you wish he was a few feet closer, but I think it was a smart play.

but you also have to realize that if some or all of those improvements happen, other things that went extremely well tonight won’t repeat themselves. It is very very rare for a “perfect storm” to happen with all players playing their absolute best in the same game.

Yeah, Landry and Battier could play better. You could keep us off the boards more. Yao could pick up less fouls, Wafer could hit some shots. But at the same time, it’s unlikely to expect Yao goes 15-15 combined again, or that Brooks can’t miss, or that Artest plays as controlled and smartly as he did tonight, or that Portland decides again to play 1 on 1 offense all night and nobody hits a shot.

I’m glad you guys allow swearing over here at dream shake cause……

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

I’m also a Ducks fan and always knew Brooks would be the man if he got the chance. He embraces a challenge like no one I’ve seen. And congrats to Yao for hitting ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. Too bad teacher doesn’t offer extra credit.

I’m not going to complain about refs because you guys are excellent at giving just enough contact and played almost the perfect game.

Again, thanks for allowing me to swear. BEdge can have kind of tight assholes about it sometimes, I’m glad yours are more loose.

PLEASE DON’T BAN ME FOR THAT. IT’S ALL IN GOOD FUN. NOTHING BUT RESPECT.

Quite a lot of these reasons don’t add up if you think about it.

1 and 2: One of the reasons Yao took only nine shots was because he was so dominant. First, because he made everything he took, Portland had to overplay him, making it very difficult for him to get shots off. This isn’t a bad thing, of course, since overplaying him means needing to underplay others, thus freeing them up. In fact, I think that if Yao played a worse game, he wouldn’t have been covered so tightly and he would’ve been able to get more looks and thus more shot attempts. Second, yes, he was in foul trouble, but since the game was such a blowout, he didn’t even need to play in the fourth quarter. Yao having to play 36 minutes would mean that the game wasn’t a blowout, and as such would be worse than Yao only needing to play 24 minutes.

7. If it’s a close game, that would mean Houston didn’t play as well, either on the offensive end or on the defensive end), as they did in this game.

8: Portland is the best offensive rebounding team in the NBA by a sizable margin, and they shot poorly yesterday. Since them shooting poorly is is what you want, it’s going to be difficult to prevent them from getting offensive rebounds.

10: Portland is the second-slowest team in the NBA in terms of pace, slow and patient. The combination of such a slow pace and their pretty good care with the ball (eighth in the league in fewest turnovers adjusted for pace) means that you’re not going to make able to force many turnovers. On the other hand, Houston did indeed commit an awful lot of turnovers yesterday considering the pace, and that certainly can be improved upon.

Ok so we didn’t steal homecourt but rather took it by force. Now it’s time to stay humble and knock down the blazers in game 2 with dominance.

1. Yao didn’t play extended minutes or shoot a lot because Yao dominated in the time he got. While he will do more damage with more time, that will also indicate a much closer game and many less opportunities for others, not simply additional points for the Rockets. Can’t account for this improvement in a vacuum.
2. While various Rockets may have played below average, the Blazers would also dominate using this reasoning. Every Blazer except for Roy (very inefficient) and Oden (garbage time) struggled. Are they all expected to do better too? There’s no way to tell for either team. Any player can heat up or go cold next game due to changes or luck.
3. A low turnover rate and a high offensive rebound rate are two trademarks of the Blazers this season. Therefore, it’s unreasonable to expect that the Rockets will be able to easily disrupt the Blazers in game 2. That would be like us saying: “The Rockets played good defense. What if we don’t allow them to do that next game?”

The bottomline is, it’s not logical to argue this way because your points are all theoretical and can apply in reverse as well. I’m not saying they will. With all the game adjustments, new psychology, and random chance, game 2 is going to be completely different, regardless of which team wins. This sort of observation about the previous game helps little in prediction.

I can’t believe poor officiating, even for just the first 5 minutes, can throw your players off so much.

If that is true what I have read over and over in this thread, then we will feed scola the ball and let him flop away. After 5 minutes you will be so frustrated that we can throw in Barry and the chuckwagon as our main offense and still win.

PS. I told you Blazers the other day that Yao would play great because you guard him with big men. Now you know why.

Reasons to believe the Rockets can play even better in Game 2:

1 – Earlier in the day Saturday Yao had to deal with the removal of a pesky eyelash from his left eyeball
2 – Aaron Brooks’ coffee was only luke warm Saturday morning
3 – Rick Adelman’s internet connection was slow the night before

Come on Houston!! Your team just beat down the Portland Trailblazers by nearly 30 points in a thorough wire-to-wire asskicking before a deafening crowd in hostile territory…And you still think you can play better? And you are accusing Portland fans of wishful thinking when we suggest that perhaps you overachieved a bit?

Let’s be honest. Based on the way the Rockets played Saturday night any reasonable observer could conclude that they are the best basketball team ever assembled. That they are as dominant a force as ever stepped on the hardwood. And that they will likely sweep their way through every series on their way to the Championship.

On the flip side, the same observer could conclude that the Trailblazers will never win another game and that they do not deserve to be on the same floor as the Rockets.

However, based on my experience (and yours too if you are honest), the NBA playoff winds can shift on a moment’s notice turning what appeared to be a juggernaut into a demoralized litter of whipped puppies in a heartbeat. And vice versa.

Only time will tell if that will happen in this series but one thing is for sure. Yao Ming will miss a field goal attempt or two; Aaron Brooks will prove himself to be Aaron Brooks; Someone other than Brandon Roy will become more than the shadow of himself that made an appearance Saturday night…and this will become a competitive series.

To expect your team to improve upon that performance is not fair — or reasonable. If they can even approach that level of play again during this series I would be extremely surprised. So Houston fan, enjoy the victory your team earned Saturday night. Indeed, bask in it’s glorious warmth. Because starting Tuesday, your team will go back to being the Houston Rockets and my team will once again become THE PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS. And we will grind this thing out in 6 or 7 games.

(Notice, I did not mention the refs even once. They helped set the tone of this game in favor of Houston, but they were not the reason Houston kicked our asses.)

Anyone remember the last time Yao went 9/9 from the field?

Perfect from field this year: 2 for 12 agasint Miami January 17
He also went 13 of 15 against Cleveland on Feb 26.
I both those games he missed free throws however.