Apr 29 2009
Post: Rockets at Blazers, Game 5
That was a surprisingly subdued and relaxing elimination game win. That was some of the least urgent play I’ve seen out of the team all year. It was just businesslike and sanitary (save for Brandon Roy’s flu). Not once all night did it really seem like this team was going to lose. Sure there were lingering doubts when Houston took a brief lead in the fourth, and guys started missing free throws, but it wasn’t anything to get your jersey in a twist. The game was fully taken over by midway through the fourth, and guys started figuring out what they would be putting in their suitcases for a trip to Houston on Thursday.
Now on to the biggest Blazer fan story of the series: the officiating. The officiating was fair tonight. Even more so in the first quarter. It was a welcome change from Greg and Joel being in immediate foul trouble. It wasn’t that the Blazers got calls and the Rockets didn’t either; everything was fair. Borderline calls went to the right team. I could only count a couple of calls that went the wrong way, and it happened for both teams. It was easily the best called game of the series. However, take that compliment lightly; it’s a Barack Obama approval rating comment - sure it’s high praise, but a lot of it is just because the last guy authorized torture, choked on pretzels, and destroyed the economic well being of millions.
Last night was an incredibly solid defensive performance, too. It’s always fun to see the Blazers play good defense, because they do it in one of the prettiest ways possible. They don’t hang on guys like the Rockets; they move their feet well and rotate well. We saw that last night. It seemed like the only player to get an open shot was Luis Scola, and he burned the Blazers for it. Otherwise, things looked good.
Special credit to the center corps. Newly freed from the referees, Joel and Greg brought it. Yes, Yao Ming had a double double, but the defense these two had stalled the Houston offense whenever they looked into him. Both were very solid at fronting him. Greg Oden was everywhere. His defense on Yao through the fourth quarter is a big reason why the win looked so easy. He was out in front of him every time. At points, when Yao was open, Houston players didn’t even look down to him, because they figured Greg had it covered. Then of course there was the block. Von Wafer was going for his NBA Jam-style crowd silencer with a reverse one hander under the basket like he did in Games 1 and 3 (fan of odd numbers, I suppose) and instead was blocked into oblivion by Oden. If you looked on top of his head, you could see “Spalding” imprinted into his mohawk.
Take it, Wafer
And yes, this blog is shutting down the Batum Man Crush Bandwagon for the season. He had a brilliant season, but it’s clear that the Blazers are moving on to a more effective offensive playoff lineup with Rudy Fernandez playing much heavier minutes. This is not bad news. Batum was great during the regular season, but has disappeared in the playoffs. Rudy has stepped up in the ways we expected him to when he came to us before the season. He’s clutch, he loves the big moment, and he has an aura of chaos wherever he goes. It was strange last night when he came in. It wasn’t just our offense that became better, it was our rebounding. Rudy set the tone by crashing the boards and showing how important it was that everyone do their part. When the team gets 37 rebounds and not one person got more than 7, that’s a good thing.
Anyway, we got the next one tomorrow. We have the momentum, and we absolutely know we can beat these guys on their floor. With a fairly called game, we could bring this back to Portland.
