A few thoughts:
1. I thought Rudy made a hell of a defensive effort on that last play, and it didn't get mentioned a lot. Rudy and defense don't usually get a lot of mention together. But he made a hell of a play there and did a great job staying on his feet and not buying the fake.
2. The Houston announcer (Clyde being one) were hilarious. They completely ripped on the Rockets for melting down, and were lamenting and marvelling at Aldridge, and the inabilty of Houston to deal with him. At the end, it was as if they had lost their minds. Even though it is early in the season, I believe everybody recognized the playoff implications with Portland winning at home and on Houstons home court. We now own the tie breaker with 2 of the teams we may fight with for those last 2 spots.
3. Lamarcus Aldridge - We are not worthy of your performance.
4. Front line: Our front line starters have been averaging over 20 rebounds a game for some time now, and have even had games where between Camby and Aldridge they got over 30 rebounds. That is glass domination pure and simple. Now, if we can somehow get the offense clicking more efficiently, that is the recipe to a lot of wins. If you shoot a high percentage and win the rebound war resoundingly, you will win most of your games.
5. Bench - Thanks for stepping up last night. It is obvious the bench players are still getting experience, but I can tell they are absorbing knowledge slowly and surely. You could tell the difference between their game closure against Dallas and the one against Houston was night and day. Instead of looking confused at the end, they looked like they knew exactly where they wanted to go, and executed.