Houston= Choke City

[KingSpeed]

Let's not forget that two seasons ago, they took a 2-0 lead in Houston and still lost the series.

And even WORSE...

In 2005, the Rockets won Games 1 AND 2 in DALLAS and they STILL lost the series. In fact, they ended up losing Game 7 by FORTY POINTS!!! (And Yao scored 33 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in that game!)

http://www.nba.com/games/20050507/HOUDAL/recap.html

We're dealing with proven losers here, folks. We can beat these guys.

Go Blazers

 

[Umair1]

That was one of the series that was cheated by fucking Donaghy. There were soooo many bad calls consistently throughtout the series.

 

[The Sebastian Express]

Nothing good can come from this.

 

[KingSpeed]

That was one of the series that was cheated by fucking Donaghy. There were soooo many bad calls consistently throughtout the series.

116-76???? All the refs' fault?

 

[KingSpeed]

Nothing good can come from this.

The point is..... it's possible to recover from losing a home game in the playoffs. You can lose even two and still bounce back to rout the guys in Game 7.

There's hope.

 

[J_Ray]

Utah have match-up problems for Houston by having Memo and Boozer, while Houston is the match-up problem for Portland. Totally different story, and now Houston are rid of the road block formerly known as T-Mac.

 

[BlazerBeav]

That was one of the series that was cheated by fucking Donaghy. There were soooo many bad calls consistently throughtout the series.

Love it - you're the one just telling us not to blame the officiating for tonight's loss.......

 

[Run BJM]

Different teams completely. The first round virgin, T-Mac, isn't there to fuck it up for Hou. They play better without him. Add Artest, Brooks/Lowry at PG instead of Rafer, a much improved Scola (most underrated player in the league IMO), Von Wafer as a decent role player off the bench. They're a hell of a defensive team with 3 legit stoppers in Artest, Battier, and Lowry (Dikembe can still play too BTW). They rebound very well. Their offense is better than in the past. Their depth is quite good.

They're just a very solid team. It doesn't surprise me one ounce to see them kick an inexperienced Portland team's ass on their home floor. They're better at PG, better at SF, equal at PF (I'll get shit for that but IMO it's true and thus far Scola has been better), better at C. They have a better bench. They play better defense. Por was the best rebounding team in differential I believe but I wouldn't be surprised if Hou beat them on the glass in most games this series. Roy is great but hes gotta deal with Artest and Battier all damn night. Still had a nice game tonight but where does everything else come from if he can't be normal BRoy?

 

[igotask8board]

Lets look at the roster of that team four years ago.

Yao Ming - ONLY PLAYER LEFT
Ryan Bowen - out of NBA
SheMac - Out of NBA
David Wesley - Out of NBA
Bob Sura - Out of NBA
Mike James - Out of NBA
Juwan Howard - injured/scrub in Charlotte
Jon Barry -Out of NBA
Moochie Norris - Out of NBA
Clarence Weatherspoon - Out of NBA
Scott Padgett- Out of NBA
Vin Baker -Out of NBA
Dikembe Mutombo -SECOND PLAYER STILL ON ROCKETS

Jeff Van Gundy - Out of NBA
--------

Yao
Scola
Battier
Ron
Brooks
Von
Landry
Lowry
Deke
Hayes
Barry

Rick Adelman

 

[OddEnormous]

That was one of the series that was cheated by fucking Donaghy. There were soooo many bad calls consistently throughtout the series.

There were bad calls both ways in that series....

 

[igotask8board]

There were bad calls both ways in that series....

I love when people try to act like they know. This series along with game 6 of the 2002 WCF put a man in jail for many years to come.

 

[OddEnormous]

I love when people try to act like they know. This series along with game 6 of the 2002 WCF put a man in jail for many years to come.

Honestly, there were bad calls both ways.

You really need to get over it. You lost.

Big deal.

 

[KingSpeed]

Different teams completely. The first round virgin, T-Mac, isn't there to fuck it up for Hou. They play better without him. Add Artest, Brooks/Lowry at PG instead of Rafer, a much improved Scola (most underrated player in the league IMO), Von Wafer as a decent role player off the bench. They're a hell of a defensive team with 3 legit stoppers in Artest, Battier, and Lowry (Dikembe can still play too BTW). They rebound very well. Their offense is better than in the past. Their depth is quite good.

They're just a very solid team. It doesn't surprise me one ounce to see them kick an inexperienced Portland team's ass on their home floor. They're better at PG, better at SF, equal at PF (I'll get shit for that but IMO it's true and thus far Scola has been better), better at C. They have a better bench.?

Um no. Blazers have the best bench in the league. Scored 72 points the other night. Just had a bad game tonight.

 

[KingSpeed]

Lets look at the roster of that team four years ago.

Yao Ming - ONLY PLAYER LEFT
Ryan Bowen - out of NBA
SheMac - Out of NBA
David Wesley - Out of NBA
Bob Sura - Out of NBA
Mike James - Out of NBA
Juwan Howard - injured/scrub in Charlotte
Jon Barry -Out of NBA
Moochie Norris - Out of NBA
Clarence Weatherspoon - Out of NBA
Scott Padgett- Out of NBA
Vin Baker -Out of NBA
Dikembe Mutombo -SECOND PLAYER STILL ON ROCKETS

Jeff Van Gundy - Out of NBA
--------

Yao
Scola
Battier
Ron
Brooks
Von
Landry
Lowry
Deke
Hayes
Barry

Rick Adelman

My point is that a series can change. A team can go up 2-0 (even on the road) and still lose the series.

 

[pakman22]

My point is that a series can change. A team can go up 2-0 (even on the road) and still lose the series.

Ofcourse, but damn - the title was uncalled for!
Especially after the beating they put down, give em some respect and hope your team plays better next game.

 

[oldmangrouch]

Ofcourse, but damn - the title was uncalled for!
Especially after the beating they put down, give em some respect and hope your team plays better next game.

I have to agree.

 

[drexlersdad]

Lets look at the roster of that team four years ago.

Yao Ming - ONLY PLAYER LEFT
Ryan Bowen - out of NBA
SheMac - Out of NBA
David Wesley - Out of NBA
Bob Sura - Out of NBA
Mike James - Out of NBA
Juwan Howard - injured/scrub in Charlotte
Jon Barry -Out of NBA
Moochie Norris - Out of NBA
Clarence Weatherspoon - Out of NBA
Scott Padgett- Out of NBA
Vin Baker -Out of NBA
Dikembe Mutombo -SECOND PLAYER STILL ON ROCKETS

Jeff Van Gundy - Out of NBA
--------

Yao
Scola
Battier
Ron
Brooks
Von
Landry
Lowry
Deke
Hayes
Barry

Rick Adelman

wow they were a joke 4 years ago, i guess that really shows how good yao and tmac were playing.

 

[durvasa]

116-76???? All the refs' fault?

Game 5, in Dallas, there was a horrible call late in the game that could have cost us the series. He was clearly standing out of bounds and knocked the ball away from Barry in the closing minutes of a tight game.

But you're right -- game 7 was a choke job. Much worse than what the Blazers did in game 1 of this series, considering the stakes. The Blazers will bounce back and make this a series.

 

[durvasa]

My point is that a series can change. A team can go up 2-0 (even on the road) and still lose the series.

It's possible, but I don't recall that ever happening other than in that Dallas series. And as someone else pointed out, this is a very different team.

 

[Nikolokolus]

Ofcourse, but damn - the title was uncalled for!
Especially after the beating they put down, give em some respect and hope your team plays better next game.

I have to agree.

Seconded.

 

[huevonkiller]

Yeah the title is rude, no need to dig at them like that.

No need to panic, the Blazers just need another season or so to develop further and they're young.

 

[MARIS61]

I love when people try to act like they know. This series along with game 6 of the 2002 WCF put a man in jail for many years to come.

And it's quite possible Houston profited from the same kind of illegal game-fixing, probable even, that some of the refs involved were officiating the game last night with Stern there to make sure they followed orders:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...exreferee_tim_donaghy_blows_whistle_on_n.html

Ex-NBA referee Tim Donaghy told the feds two officials fixed the outcome of a playoff series - and that refs were told not to eject star players from games for fear of hurting ticket sales.

The bombshell allegations are in a court document filed Tuesday by Donaghy's lawyer that describes how NBA execs allegedly used referees to manipulate games.

Donaghy has pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court to betting on games he worked.

According to the document, he told FBI agents, "League officials would tell referees they should withhold calling technical fouls on certain star players because doing so hurt ticket sales and television ratings."

Donaghy claims he was told two refs who were "company men" acting in the interest of the NBA conspired to extend a playoff series in 2002 to a seventh game.

The referees allegedly ignored flagrant fouls committed by one team and "made up fouls" against the other team, which led to two of its players fouling out. The team favored by the refs won that game and the next to win the series.

Donaghy also claimed that a supervising referee told refs than an unidentified NBA executive did not want them to call technical fouls on star players or boot them from the game.

Donaghy told the feds the league reprimanded a ref who disobeyed that edict in January 2000 by ejecting an unnamed star player from a game in the first quarter.

 

[MrJayremmie]

Ofcourse, but damn - the title was uncalled for!
Especially after the beating they put down, give em some respect and hope your team plays better next game.

word.