http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-39-101/Losing-Game-1–Inside-the-Numbers.html

Couple things:

1. I agree with fronting Yao. I was expecting Nate to try to throw them off with Aldridge fronting him, bringing help when he gets the ball, and forcing others to beat them.

2. I agree that the officials did not cost the Blazers the game, but after watching the first half again, I still think the game was called unevenly at a crucial time. The Blazers were being aggressive, LaMarcus and Brandon both were taking it to their defenders (Joel too) and not receiving the benefit of the doubt. The Rockets on the other hand got those calls. The Blazers should have kept the pressure on the refs to even it out instead of backing out of the fray at the end of the second quarter and into the second half.

1. Front Yao. This is obviously the better way to defend him. When he gets the ball bring weak side help and rotate better to prevent the easy bucket.

2. Push the ball up the court hard every time. If you can get to the rim before he gets back or as he is rushing back you are better offensively. This will also make him less effective on the offense end of the court.

3. Play more physical defense specifically on Brooks and Yao. Use Bayless and Frye to take some hard fouls late in the quarter when they have fouls to give. Brooks doesn’t have

I also think they should sporadically trap Brooks near half court with Aldridge. You are going to occasionally give up an easy bucket or open 3 when you do this, but with Brooks size, it should create some turnover / fast break opportunities as well. This should also pick up the pace of the game and making Yao less effective.

However, for all you Blazers fans out there, don’t worry too much. As a Rox fan, I’m very weary and I’m not going to get cocky because of one game. The Rockets are known to blow big Playoff leads and have crumbled after a great start to both the Jazz and the Mavs in the past 4 playoffs.

Good Luck guys.

I am season ticket holder in the 3rd row and can say that the refs were blatantly bad on a number of occasions. The crowd started getting on them. They were harassed like I hadn’t seen all season. my wife was in the hallway where the refs walk off the court, she said they were extremely angry as they left the floor. One ref tried to kick out a fan that yelled at him (I didn’t hear what was said) but he pointed at the wrong fan. Telling that they couldn’t even get that call right. That same ref threatened to toss a fan sitting in front of me in the 4th quarter. Couldn’t blame him for that one.

On the one hand, you would think refs would be professional enough not to get rattled by the crowd. They weren’t however. Did it change the tenor of the game? Yes. Did it cause the Blazers to lose? Probably not, we were down 10 points in the first 5 minutes. However what little chance we had was snuffed out by the touch fouls on Oden and Pryz and the non-calls on Roy and Aldridge. Have to give Houston credit though for establishing a higher level of physical play out of the gate. The refs used that as their baseline on that end of the court.

On the other hand, I worry that Portland fans are increasingly getting a reputation with the league. The way those refs were being razzed, they weren’t going to make any call in our favor unless they had to (and even when they did, people still yelled at them, “thanks for getting your head out of your ass on that one… etc”). This doesn’t help our home court advantage one bit.