That’s right, heavy rain and some flooding right now in Houston. Portland weather. Perfect setup for Game 6 Thursday night.

And the Blazers, as we saw Tuesday night, are unlocking the secrets of playing the Rockets. You saw better ball movement, you saw Yao Ming being moved around, you finally saw some interior passing, you saw Brandon Roy looking for his teammates more.

And of course, you saw more of Rudy Fernandez. And in the case of Rudy, even if he doesn’t score much, it changes the dynamic of the Houston defense a lot — because you have to pay attention to Rudy. You have to defend him at all times because he can cut your heart out with a three-pointer or a dunk off a lob. When Nic Batum is on the floor, you can leave him and go help on someone else. Not so with Rudy.

Here are a few other things from Tuesday’s game:

– Greg Oden was awful for sections of this game. Giving him the ball with his back to the basket at this point is almost totally a waste of time. His footwork just isn’t there yet. Best give it to him off a pick and roll when he’s already on the way to the basket or just let him get his points off the backboard. The point is, he can really help on the defensive end and he did in the fourth quarter of this game. He’ll rebound, block shots and can bother Yao a little. He’s oozing potential and he needs to play. Obviously. Just be judicious in the way you use him.

– Best game by Steve Blake in quite a while. Some outstanding passes and some nice shooting. He’s not so panicky now when he gets the ball inside. The entire Blazer roster is more comfortable playing against Yao now, just as we predicted.

– How much longer does Luis Scola need to prove he can make that open shot? Man, the Blazers might try to get out on him a little quicker.

– I’ll say it again, if a guy starts, but isn’t good enough to ever return to the game, why does he start?

– Danny Crawford and Bill Spooner are two of the best officials on the planet. You barely knew Leon Wood was out there. The guys stuck to the old NBA Playoff formula Tuesday night — you can’t make a bad call if you make no call at all. It got pretty physical at times.

– Aaron Brooks seems to have a little more trouble shooting the ball when his team is behind than he does when it’s ahead.

– LaMarcus Aldridge got better as the game went on. Again, he’s finding his comfort zone. Brandon Roy overcame whatever medical malady was bothering him and was tough down the stretch. Thursday shapes up as a real war.

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Tags: Brandon Roy, Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, Houston Rockets, Luis Scola, NBA playoffs, Nic Batum, Portland Trail Blazers, Rudy Fernandez, Yao Ming

It just keeps going on and on. Over at Blazersedge.com they’ve been bouncing off the walls about it and then there’s Mike Barrett’s blog post concerning the officiating in the series. Among other things, Mike said this:

Portland is not a physical team, and outside of Greg Oden, we almost never see the Blazers in foul trouble. Houston is one of the more physical teams in the NBA, and are known for possessing a suffocating defense that survives on hard fouls, rough play on the perimeter, and absolutely pound you down low. Yet, in this series, the Blazers have been called for 101 fouls. The Rockets have been called for 83. That’s a huge disparity. Houston has attempted 96 free throws, and the Blazers 79.

I like Mike a lot, he’s one of broadcasting’s great guys and a very smart man. But I take issue with some of what he said. First off, I’ve heard people all season say Portland isn’t a physical team. Let me tell you, their opponents do not say that. I’ve heard all year from opposing coaches how physical they think the Blazers are — and the fact is, you simply cannot lead the league in rebounding and not be a physical team. It just can’t happen.

And then there’s the assertion that Houston pounds you down low and because it plays great defense, it certainly must commit a lot of fouls.

The fact is, during the 82-game regular season, the Rockets comitted 118 fewer fouls than did the Trail Blazers. That’s part of what makes Houston a good defensive team — the Rockets don’t foul. I don’t think, then, it should be surprising to find Portland fouling more frequently than Houston in this playoff series.

The mistake the Blazers have made is over-correcting, defensively, in defending Yao Ming. Because he killed them in Game 1, they adopted a strategy of playing in front of him and behind him — which was the right thing to do. But they’ve simply gotten carried away. Rather than mix their coverage, or allow Yao inside position once in a while when he earns it, they’ve continued to wrestle with him to get in front. Many times during that scrum, Yao is just as guilty of a foul as the Blazers, but to officials it appears Portland is committing the first foul because of its desperate effort to get in front of him.

(While over-correcting on Yao, Portland has also allowed the other Rocket players too many wide-open shots. Luis Scola has profited the most from this strategy but so have many other Houston players.)

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, fouls, Houston Rockets, Luis Scola, NBA playoffs, Portland Trail Blazers, Referees, Yao Ming