Blazers vs. Rockets or Blazers vs. Hornets?

by homeallon20 on Apr 5, 2009 1:19 PM PDT

So now that the Blazers are well on their way to clinching a Playoff berth (knock on wood) I have been thinking about what matchup would be better: Blazers vs. Rockets or Blazers vs. Hornets. As of Sunday, the Blazers are in command of the 4th seed in the West. Unless I'm mistaken if the Playoffs started today we would be playing the Rockets with home court advantage. My thinking is that I would rather play the Rockets than the Hornets.Although the Blazers on-ball defense has improved drastically in the last 5 or so games, I still feel like their biggest weakness is PG defense. After trading Rafer Alston to the Magic, the Rockets don’t really have a dynamic PG. Aaron Brooks and Kyle Lowery don’t strike fear in my heart the way CP3 does. Sure the Rockets are a great defensive team but I don’t really see how they are going to put points on the board. The Blazers interior D is good enough that Artest, Battier, and Scola will have to settle for outside jumpers. Take into account how fast the Blazers play at home in the Garden, and how poorly the Rockets do in up-tempo basketball (Look at the Rockets 99-86 loss against the Jazz on March 24th as an example) and I’m feeling pretty confident about that matchup. Obviously the Blazers can’t choose who they will play in the Playoffs and they are going to try and finish up the season with as many wins as possible. My question to the BlazersEdge Nation is if you could choose a Playoff matchup with either the Rockets or Hornets which one would you choose?

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Hornets

Rockets have two guys to shut down Roy. Hornets are injured and playing like crap.

Karma

by Sabonis4Ever on Apr 5, 2009 1:25 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs

+1

we don’t match up well with the rockets at all. They just have too many capable defensive options to throw at both Roy and Aldridge (Both Battier and Artest are top-10 wing defenders, and as a bonus Artest is strong enough to slow down LMA somewhat as well)

Count me among those who believes Batum can slow down Chris Paul (or Deron Williams) considerably, and that the only reason he hasn’t done so full-time yet is because Nate is trying to keep this ability up his sleeve for the playoffs in case of a matchup with the Hornets (or Jazz). Anyone else notice how Batman completely shut down Deron Williams for a stretch against the Jazz 2 matchups ago (after which he never saw the matchup or even the floor IIRC again for the rest of the game), and then last time we matched up with em he barely guarded him at all (again IIRC)

also, people who point out we beat the rockets at home are forgetting that we needed Roy’s miracle shot to do so. It’s not like we’re slapping em around. We can beat NO

"When jumpers are outlawed only Outlaw will take jumpers"-LoadedOrygun

by DominicanAvenger on Apr 6, 2009 4:17 AM PDT up reply actions

No matter

with home court we beat either one in 6!

by Odenrising on Apr 5, 2009 1:33 PM PDT reply actions

I think I'd prefer New Orleans

by Rudy4three on Apr 5, 2009 1:48 PM PDT reply actions

exactly

Couldn’t agree more with the OP. I’ve seen people make the argument that we split the season series with The Hornets and thus we can play with them. Nonsense! That second game in New Orleans was a joke and remains the best evidence of why we should avoid Chris Paul at all costs. I am not sure we have been handled all season as convincingly as CP3 did in the first 3 quarters of that game. Sure, credit the Blazers for coming back from 20+ after Paul went down. But we can’t count on that in the playoffs.

Houston on the other hand, we have played competitively every time we’ve faced them. And they have the first round monkey on their back as well. The strategy of doubling BRoy is something we have to deal with anyway and we have the weapons on offense to do so. That is a puzzle that can be solved. We don’t have a PG with the physical skills to do anything about CP3.

So I’m with you homeallon!

by Blazin' on Apr 5, 2009 1:51 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs

Hornets

Artest/Battier tag teaming Roy all series is bad news, and I’m afraid Przy and Oden will get called for fouls all night long on Yao. As scary as Paul is, they have a lot of injuries right now and their depth was always poor.

That game in New Orleans where we were getting mauled until Paul went down came right in the midst of what in my opinion was easily our worst stretch of play all year. I think we are much improved since then.

How did you guys win that?
"We scored enough points. We scored 107, they scored 105.
-Nate McMillan Postgame, 3/4/2009

by douglast on Apr 5, 2009 1:55 PM PDT reply actions

But they also beat us at home

in January with Chandler ejected for the entire 4th quarter. Given that this was right after we beat Boston minus Roy, it’s hard to argue that we were playing poorly then.

I’ll take Houston solely for the fact that we’ve gotten a lot better at home recently, and they don’t have the “go to” guy that seems to be necessary to win in the playoffs, and they’ve still got that first round block. Admittedly, I only really like our chances against either team if we keep homecourt.

by Royster on Apr 5, 2009 2:06 PM PDT up reply actions

Hornets, and it isn't even close

Point differential and health trump any talk about matchups, plus even if we do want to talk matchups, Artest and Battier D’ing up Roy is scary.

by jksnake99 on Apr 5, 2009 2:52 PM PDT reply actions

Just How BIG is this game at Houston?

Right now it is looking VERY likely that Houston is going to be the Portland Trail Blazers first round opponent. Everyone knows that tonights game could be the deciding game as to which team, Houston or Portland, gets to enjoy the home court advantage for round 1. But what else is on the line?, well for Portland, a psychological edge that could catapult this hot team to an ON FIRE one.

If Portland wins tonight, the young Blazers will KNOW flat out that they can win on the road. Tonights game will have a playoff energy to it, and winning this game could transition the Blazers approach to this years Playoffs from “Try to steal one at their place” to “Lets beat them THERE so we can close this series out as quick as possible”.

If this game is intense, we will see the development of match-ups that will get lots of coverage during the playoffs… sneak peak of the playoffs!

by Portland Dynasty on Apr 5, 2009 4:17 PM PDT reply actions

Chest Bump

by Portland Dynasty on Apr 5, 2009 4:18 PM PDT up reply actions

Well....

Well, despite tonight’s result I stand by what I wrote. If the Blazers wouldn’t have missed soooo many free throws they could have kept themselves in the game. With that said I feel strongly that the final score was not indicative of how the game went. I will admit that one thing I didn’t account for was the potential for both Joel and Greg getting into foul trouble.

Blaze14ROY

by homeallon20 on Apr 6, 2009 1:09 AM PDT reply actions

I think the more realistic matchup is Houston but,

If we could finish in the 6 spot, and play San Antonio in our first round, who doesn’t like the matchup better than us versus the Rockets? Then, if we can make it to the second round, that would set us up against the Nuggets or Jazz, which could potentially get us to the WC finals. I know it is presumptuous to assume we can beat both teams, but if we can avoid the Rockets and the Mavs in the first 2 rounds, I really like our chances. Plus, last night all but killed our chances of getting homecourt, given the tie-breaker and the remaining schedule.

by Brandon684 on Apr 6, 2009 8:57 AM PDT reply actions