You’re the higher seeded team and you come out in a Game 6 and give that kind of effort? I don’t even know what to make of that. Losing is perfectly acceptable. No problem with that. But the effort … that’s going to be difficult to explain. Seriously — does getting older suddenly make you mentally tougher? Well, it can. But that mental makeup stuff is hard to change. Most of the time, you’re either mentally tough or you aren’t.

But that’s the last time I’m going to say anything about that part of it for a while. I’d rather talk about things a little easier to pinpoint. And before I do, let me say this, just so you understand where I’m coming from:

THIS IS NOT A “FAN SITE.” Do you understand what I’m saying to you? This isn’t the spot where 28-year-old guys wearing their replica jerseys come to say, “We had a great season” or “We lost” or even “I love this team.” Nothing against those sites at all. Many of them are great.

It’s just that I spent too many years in the news business to operate that way. I’m here to try to analyze or break things down. I call it the way I see it and have all season. By now, you should understand that. But if you don’t like that, if you want some rah-rah “Oh, our poor kids had a great season, let’s all hold hands and serenade them” stuff, feel free to now quietly leave the room.

Yes, they had a good year. But yes, what we saw in the playoffs wasn’t pretty. And I want, over the next several days, to take a look at why this happened and what it means for the future. Where do they go from here?

I made a point on “Talkin’ Ball” last night and I really didn’t have much time to amplify it. I believe the Trail Blazers need to take a very hard look at their style of play during the regular season. I believe it led to many of the problems they had in the playoffs. Some of these things must change for the team to get to the next level.

Prior to the opening of this series, I had a chance to talk to a few NBA scouts who had prepared for the possibility of playing Portland in the first round. The only promise was that I couldn’t quote them directly or give any hints as to the teams they worked for. Most of them didn’t want their stuff printed until after the first-round series was finished.

I can tell you the one thing that stood out from what all of them told me – Portland is very easy to prepare for. The reason: “They run so many isolations.”

One scout said, “It’s really just about all they do — particularly in the fourth quarter. You know how they play, everybody does. They’re going to give Brandon Roy the ball at the top and just stand back and watch him play. They may run a little screen for him, but it’s window dressing — he’s going to try to take you.”

Well, he’s pretty good at that — what’s wrong with Brandon going one-on-one?

“Nothing, once in a while,” one scout said. “But he’s not going to go one-on-one against Houston in the playoffs. He’s going to go one-on-five. They just won’t let him get to the basket. They’re going to lock him up.”

Said another scout, “What he’s done a lot of this season is go left. That’s fine, but he tends to put his head down, head to the basket and jump into somebody, expecting a foul call. He isn’t going to pass, he’s going to go hard to the basket, looking for a whistle. In the playoffs, you don’t always get that call.”

I think those assessments were on the money, particularly in the Game 4 situation at the end of the game that may have decided this series. And it’s not unlike what we’ve been writing all season. The fact is, people talked all the time prior to the series about Houston having two players — Ron Artest and Shane Battier — who could defend Roy. Fact is, neither did much of a job. Artest, in particular, was easy meat for Roy all the time. Problem for Brandon, though, is that there were always two or three other guys standing there ready for him after he beat Artest off the dribble. That’s called “team defense” — a concept the Trail Blazers themselves have not entirely embraced yet.

I will say many other things in the future about the way the Blazers play but there’s one more thing that fits right in with what we’re talking about. Roy has the ball in his hands in one-on-one situations way too often. In fact, he has the ball in his hands, in general, way too much. He has the ball more often than Michael Jordan used to have it for the Bulls.

He’d profit from playing more often without it in his hands and so would his teammates. Much will be made about how little help Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge had in this series but a lot of that is a product of the team’s lack of offensive structure. Really, they don’t run a lot of team offense. Roy has the ball all the time, just looking to create stuff that’s mostly for himself. Others can go several trips up and down the floor without even touching it. Making no excuses for Rudy Fernandez last night, he was awful — but really, he didn’t get a lot of opportunities to get going in the first half, either.

It appeared Roy is just starting to go through what all the superstars go through. Kobe Bryant went through it, Larry Bird did and so did MJ. It’s all about learning to trust your teammates. Both Kobe and Jordan found out that scoring a whole bunch of points themselves didn’t really do anything to improve the team’s chances of winning. Only until they started turning responsibility over to their teammates did they begin to have meaningful success as a team and a team leader.

Roy appears to trust Aldridge. He trusts Outlaw because they’re buddies. But you don’t see him dishing much to anyone else. This is going to have to change.

So is the team’s tempo. It was unable to generate enough running game to get the Rockets out of their slow-paced waltz. But what do you expect? Portland itself played at an agonizingly slow pace all season. The team didn’t run much and didn’t get the ball inside much. In the second quarter Thursday night, Portland was missing jump shots with Yao Ming on the bench and Kyle Lowry, Carl Landry and Von Wafer out there killing them.

I said this the other day but I’ll repeat for what I’m sure is far from the last time: When every commentator on every television game, when every person you know who knows anything about basketball, when people you know who don’t know much about basketball, ALL say, “They take too many jump shots” — why do they keep taking all those jump shots???

It’s all way too overwhelming for a one-day conversation. Feel free to weigh in on today’s post — but try to confine your comments to just today’s stuff. There’s a lot more to come and we’d like to try to do this in an organized fashion. Eventually, we’ll get into some player evaluations and an off-season wish list. But not yet.

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First thing about this game: The Trail Blazers are going to have to find out right away how the game is going to be officiated in the post area. Each officiating crew is different. I don’t think you need to automatically assume it will be called tighter than the last game — that’s not necessarily true. The farther we get in series, the more lax the officiating often gets.

All I’m saying is that it’s the job of the post players to adjust to whatever way it’s called. That’s what professionals do — they don’t keep doing the things that referees are calling as fouls. It’s simple — stay out of foul trouble, no matter what it takes. No excuses. This one’s not on the referees, or the fact the game is on the road, fatigue — anything.

By now, each team knows what it takes to win and if it doesn’t do that, well, see you next season.

I’m convinced Houston is going to get Yao Ming more touches tonight than he’s been getting. His frustration, not only on the court during the game but in comments afterward, was apparent. The Rockets must get him the ball more frequently.

In a way, that’s fine. The Blazer centers need to be patient. He’s going to get it a few times. He’s going to get some dunks. What Joel Przybilla and Greg Oden need to recognize is that Yao is not a volume shooter and he’s not used to playing long minutes. Rather than give up a cheap foul to keep him from getting the ball, it’s OK once in a while to allow the basket. In the big picture, Portland’s bigs must stay out of foul trouble.

That’s because the longer the game goes, the more tired Yao is going to get. He’s working on back-to-back 40-minute games and he’s having to play this time with only one day’s rest and a long plane flight. The commute in this series with only one day off is brutal, by the way. I believe you can work a little rope-a-dope with Yao. Let him have shots but make him work — and I think he might just punch himself out after a couple of quarters.

I should also mention that I expect Ron Artest to be a factor. He’s not played well for most of the series and probably has his mind made up he’s going to impact this game. Whether that’s a positive or negative impact remains to be seen.

I’ve said from the start the Blazers will get better as the series drags on. They’re adjusting to playing the Rockets. They’re getting better, Houston is starting to sputter. Portland’s young legs have an advantage — as long as Nate McMillan uses his bench enough to keep the starters fresh.

I fully expect Portland to break through tonight. This is a big game for both franchises but Houston’s recent history of playoff flameouts will be a heavy burden if the Rockets fall behind. The Blazers have a very big opportunity here to make a statement about themselves and where they’re headed in the future.

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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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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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Hard to figure out where to start, but here we go, analyzing yet another opportunity wasted:

– This may be the only spot on the Web analyzing this game and not saying Portland’s struggling because it’s “young and inexperienced.” Come on, that’s such a lame alibi. This team lost by a single point. And it made enough mistakes to lose five games — and just wiping away a couple of them would have meant a win.

– Too many jump shots. You’ve heard it from Charles Barkley, Doug Collins, Jeff Van Gundy and the guy who picks up your garbage. Everybody knows it. But do you think that’s just a playoff problem?

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s been a problem all season! We’ve talked about it over and over. The Blazers, once in a while, have made consistent efforts to get the ball inside. But even when they have, it’s been mostly from dribble penetration — not a reliable method of inside scoring. And since the Blazers get virtually no fastbreak points. The result is that in a series like this one, they’re left outside because the Rockets won’t allow dribble penetration.

Portland’s playbook may have plenty of postups in it, but those plays aren’t being called. And haven’t been called all season. I still think running Roy off a couple of cross screens and posting him up is a great play that’s never called. He’s probably the best post player Portland has.

– Travis Outlaw shooting the biggest shot of the game? Seriously, not when it’s a three. A two, sure, that’s fine. Hell, when Michael Jordan needed a three, he didn’t shoot it himself — he passed to Steve Kerr or John Paxson, proven clutch three-point shooters. Once again, for the second game in a row, it should have been Rudy’s shot.

– On another huge shot, Portland does what it always does — runs a clearout for Brandon Roy. The Rockets did what they have done all series — run to the spot where they know Brandon will be. The Rockets block the shot AND get an offensive foul from Roy. Regular readers of this blog will quietly note how many times this season I’ve written that with big games on the line against good defensive teams, they’re simple not going to allow Roy to play one-on-one. It’s ridiculous to even attempt such a thing. Or if he does, he’s got to drive knowing he’s going to have to dump the ball off — drive and kick, Brandon.

– Yup, the Blazer post defenders aren’t getting a fair chance to defend Yao. I believe they are paying the price for beating him up in the first two games of the series. I would guess the Rockets sent tape of those beatdowns to the league office and officials were instructed to clean up the post play. And Greg Oden gets the usual Greg Oden fouls. It’s too bad but it started months ago. So much of the next offseason depends on Oden’s development. I hope he’s up to the task.

– Honestly, I don’t know if this would do any good or not. But Rick Adelman doesn’t leave the officials alone. Ever. Never has. Either does Gregg Popovich or Doc Rivers or Phil Jackson. I’ve covered coaches from both extremes — Adelman, Jack Ramsay and Mike Dunleavy never stopped yapping at them. Mike Schuler, P.J. Carlesimo and now Nate McMillan never said much to them. My thought is this: If it seems as if the other team is getting all the calls, yet they’re on the refs all the time — you better go get your saddle and mount up. You better start riding them, too. It seems every time there’s a cheap foul on Oden, the camera shifts to McMillan, who is just sitting there on the bench without a peep. At some point, I think he probably ought to take a technical foul.

– What’s up with the rebounding? It’s not as if Portland is a team that can’t board. It led the league. When you’re being outhustled for the ball, though, it has to do with effort and personnel. Who is on the floor? In critical times, are your best rebounders on the court? Are they giving full effort? If they aren’t, they better not continue to be out there.

– Yes, I guess I’m a real homer because I still fully expect the Blazers to beat the Rockets Tuesday night and send this thing back to Texas. It might even be a rout. And if that happens, my money’s on Portland to win at Houston, too. Just make a couple fewer mistakes — I don’t think that’s asking a lot.

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Honestly, I know the playoffs are all about adjustments but at this point, the Trail Blazers probably ought to focus on just playing. Playing with intelligence, skill and intensity.

I don’t think the starting lineup means much, but total minutes do. Sure, Rudy Fernandez needs to play more, particularly if he’s making shots. Certainly, unless he nails some shots early, Travis Outlaw needs to sit more. Yes, Greg Oden needs to play more minutes — but hell, that should have been going on all season. It boggles my mind to think that Oden didn’t play more in regular-season games. How ridiculous is that? Yes, of course, he had foul trouble. So what? They should have played him until he fouled out.

Playing Oden more minutes in the regular season possibly could have cost the team a game or two. Probably not, but maybe. So what? Chasing those wins at the expense of playoff wins is ridiculous. And now that the team is in the pickle it’s in, everyone is looking at Oden to rescue them. I’m not even sure that’s fair, given the fact they couldn’t figure out a way to get him into regular-season games more often.

Let’s get real simple here:

– Contest EVERY Rocket shot. Get a hand up.

– Get to the basket. Or at least try. Quit settling for 20-foot jumpers.

– Yes, keep the ball away from Yao, but not at the expense of easy shots for others. Folks, you can double team and still get back to your man — or haven’t you been noticing what Houston’s doing?

– Play Oden or Przybilla when Yao is NOT on the floor and get the ball in there to them — make the Rockets pay for lack of size rather than just going small with them.

– Get off to a better start. Duh.

– If you want to play “big” with Oden and Przybilla together, go all the way and play Aldridge at small forward with them. He can handle it. Otherwise, there’s really not much difference between Oden/Przybilla and Przybilla/Aldridge, is there? Especially because Joel can’t score like the others.

– Brandon Roy needs to find that playmaker thing he had last season. If he’s going to be the backup point guard, he’s going to have to play like one a little bit.

– Move the ball, move bodies. Make Yao move around the court. This is a recording.

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Sorry this post is going up a little later than I would have wanted. I just get so tired of writing the same things about the Trail Blazers I’m not as motivated to sit down and do it.

Just a few of the great many irritating things about Friday night’s three-pont loss at Houston:

– In the first half, Portland was playing so ugly it was incredibly fortunate to be within 20 points at the half. Jeff Van Gundy, doing analysis on ESPN, second-guessed several things we’ve been talking about all season long, including a pointed comment about why the Blazers don’t quit shooting “jump shot after jump shot” and throw the ball into Oden; and also a suggestion that even though Oden drew a couple of quick fouls, it’s difficult to play when you only get two or three-minute bursts and that the Blazers ought to leave him in with those two fouls.

Amen, brother.

– Do people understand why Oden should have played more minutes and been given the ball more during the regular season? You simply have to have an inside game — particularly if you play as if you think fast-break baskets are illegal.

– How in the world do you call a timeout, draw up a play and then get a shot-clock violation with three minutes to play in the game?

– Sometimes I seriously wonder about Brandon Roy. I mean, Portland’s down by six with a minute to go and he’s out there dribbling around for 20 seconds before launching a shot. What’s that all about? Play with some sense of urgency! Of course, it might be because at times, Houston has completely taken Portland out of whatever offense it is supposed to be running.

– Taking Ron Artest off the dribble is not difficult for Roy. He can do it just about whenever he wants. But beating the next three guys who pick him up on the way to the basket is difficult. Portland’s going to have to either figure a way for him to dump the ball off to open teammates or do something else but just have him play one-on-one. Hey, what about posting him up? Well, I don’t think they have that play.

– It didn’t matter WHERE this game was played. It was there for the taking for the Trail Blazers, particularly late.

– Don’t even get me started on attacking the basket. Yes, Yao will block a few shots. But the Blazers seemed petrified of him. Folks, there are better shotblockers than this guy. He WILL let you shoot and he has very little lateral mobility. All you need is to pull him out just a few feet and then go around him — he can’t move!!!! Oden dunked the ball on him twice in the third quarter when he had running starts off pick and rolls. Steve Blake and LaMarcus Aldridge had moments Friday when they had the ball in the basket area and just slammed on the breaks, put it in reverse and bailed out on scoring opportunities.

– At the defensive end, same old story there, too. Guys, contest shots. Get a hand up. You’re not supposed to be giving up open jumpers, layups and dunks in the playoffs. Ugh.

– I’ve made this point about a thousand times. For three straight possessions at the end of the third quarter, when it seemed Portland was finally convincing itself it could get back in the game, the Blazers scored on dunks — two by Oden, one by Aldridge — off the end of the pick and roll. It was Blake orchestrating those pick and rolls. If only Roy would make that pass off HIS pick and rolls, the whole makeup of the game would change — but he just won’t look for it. It looked like Stockton to Malone on those possessions, folks — with Oden thundering to the hoop like a runaway train and Aldridge slipping the pick the way Karl often did.

Man, put Yao into that pick and roll and make him defend out on the floor! This isn’t Rocket science.

– If Blake found himself wide open with nine seconds left, yes — that’s an OK shot. But come on — that was RUDY’S SHOT! Everyone knows it. Rudy has to take that shot and there’s plenty of time to get him the ball. Except without a timeout, the Blazers were just standing around looking at each other, and not running that play with Rudy on the baseline running around picks. Why? I don’t know.

– Once or twice during the game, the ESPN mic caught McMillan telling his team to quit thinking. Fooled me. I didn’t see much evidence they were thinking.

– Roy and Aldridge couldn’t play any worse than that, yet Portland still nearly won. The Rockets do so many little things, stick to their defensive system, contest shots, block out on the boards, hustle for loose balls and work for good shots — that’s a big difference in this series, not talent, for sure.

– After that game, if the Blazers don’t think they can win at Houston, they really ought to come home and clean out their lockers.

– No, Sunday is NOT a must win. It’s only a must win when you have three defeats already. Portland will win Game 5 at home regardless of what happens Sunday night and then all the pressure in the world would be on Houston to close it out at home in Game 6.

– Sergio didn’t play a minute. Most of the season he’s the backup point guard and then he plays a total of about six minutes in the first two games, leading to a no-show in Game 3. Not sure that worked. Putting the ball in Roy’s hands even longer really isn’t much of an advantage in a game like that, when Roy’s struggling, anyway. He feels such an obligation to score these days, I’m not sure he’s the playmaker he was last season.

– Man, Travis Outlaw is pulling a Clifford Robinson. Get Rudy some of those minutes!

– Portland had a decent defensive plan, but didn’t execute it. Doubling off Scola is fine, but hustle back to him when he has the ball! Even Van Gundy was frustrated, imploring Aldridge to “close out on him” when Scola was open from 18 feet. These are professional players, they hit open shots — so don’t give them open shots. Not a difficult concept.

– I could go on and on. What a disappointing effort this one was. But it’s probably just best to stop right now.

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I would expect both teams would change a few things for the first game at Houston. In no particular order, here are the possibilities:

– I think everyone expects Houston to clamp down on Brandon Roy in some way – it must get the ball out of his hands a little more often. The Rockets do not like to double team but I believe we’ll see some of that tonight on Roy. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Roy doubled on every Blazer pick and roll. To counter this, Roy could actually pass the ball to the player who has set the pick and rolled off. I’ve been saying this for months now, but it would be a much more effective play if he looked for the guy rolling off once or twice a game.

– The Blazers seriously need to find another scorer tonight. Rudy Fernandez or Travis Outlaw are obviously the leading candidates but Greg Oden is a possibility, too. It is nothing new for the Trail Blazers to see Roy double-teamed, but when this happens, other players have to respond by hitting open shots. Obviously, when there are double-teams, there ARE open shots.

– With Yao Ming now the only Houston center, Portland can attack the basket with much more reckless abandon — even when Yao is on the floor. I would guess Yao will be taking extra care to avoid foul trouble now that Dikembe Mutombo is out. And certainly when Yao is on the bench, Portland ought to be relentlessly attacking the basket.

– People expect Oden to dominate during his stretches when Yao is on the bench and I think he will — but it may not show in the rebounding stats. Teams are increasingly using two people to keep him off the boards. People like Outlaw, Roy and Nic Batum are going to have to be more alert on the boards because they may not be blocked out very well.

– Oden needs to slow down. The playoffs have him all geeked up and if he’d just take a little more time, he’d be fine. These will be critical games for him because he’s going to be expected to accomplish some things. If he calms down on offense, there are 20 points out there for him tonight. And on defense, I’d love to see him trail Aaron Brooks along the baseline, rather than try to cut him off and take stupid fouls. He still seems to just give up on certain defensive plays — but rather than just allow the basket, he hammers somebody. That’s not a great option when you’re needed on the floor for about 24 minutes.

– Portland will continue to double-team Yao whenever possible. Any single coverage is like giving him points. Just make him work for what he gets and force the Rockets to find other scorers.

– The Blazers just have to get better on their rotations and cut off the easy baskets for the Rockets. That last win at home was deceptive because of all the easy baskets Houston players missed. Luis Scola had at least three layups that looked to be dead into the basket, only to somehow pop out. That won’t happen again.

– Portland simply cannot allow Houston to continue to shoot in the 50 percent range from the field. That’s ridiculous. Now you can say that the Rockets have just been on fire and are due to stop hitting those shots. I guess that’s true, but they’re getting so many good inside looks and wide-open shots from distance, I’m not sure it’s realistic to expect them to miss many of them.

– Adios, Sergio. I figure this is his last chance to get that little three-minute look in the second quarter. If he doesn’t play well in that little bite of time, he’s probably done with meaningful playing time for the series. It’s too bad.

– I believe if Portland can stay in the game through three quarters, they’ll own the game. How long can Aaron Brooks keep hitting those monster, fourth-quarter three-pointers?

– The Rockets will actually try to run when they’re at home. Portland knows that and allowing them easy fastbreak baskets is a sin.

– Do not forget that Houston has lost six straight first-round series. Their fans certainly haven’t forgotten. If the Rockets fall behind in the first half of this game, the natives will get very restless and doubt will begin to creep into everyone’s mind.

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There is a lot of concern among Trail Blazer fans about having to win a game at Houston somewhere along the line in this series against the Rockets, because the Blazers haven’t had a lot of success winning there in recent seasons. But we’ve already seen more than half the visiting teams in playoff series come up with wins on the road.

One reason for visiting-team success in the postseason people don’t talk about much is one of the most powerful. Quite simply, in the regular season the visiting teams are at a much bigger disadvantage than they are in the playoffs in regard to preparation time. Really, it’s a huge deal.

But given proper time to prepare, the visiting team is going to do much better.

First, it’s important to understand that when teams go out on regular-season road trips, they play as many games as possible in as short amount of time as possible. They’re cramming a lot of games into not many days. This does not happen at home. You don’t ever play five games in seven nights at home — but you will on the road.

The Trail Blazers, for example, played road games on back-to-back nights eight times. How many times did they do that at home? Zero. Even when you have a day off in between road games, it’s usually a travel day and practice times are unsettled or nonexistent. That’s why almost all the Western Conference playoff teams have excellent home records. They are good teams and visiting teams don’t have a chance to get ready to play them during the regular season.

Sure, some buildings are tougher to play in than others. But NBA players get used to the hostile crowds and noise pretty fast. It’s just that on the road in the regular season, the games come at you so fast and furiously that half the time you can’t remember who you’re playing next until you get there.

Portland met Houston three times this season. The only home game was Nov. 6, when the Blazers had played Utah the previous night on the road — so Portland didn’t even get preparation time for a HOME game. Then in the Portland games on the road against the Rockets, the Blazers were fortunate enough to have a day off prior to the games — but both were travel days.

The point is, there is very little time for teams to do a lot of preparation in the regular season – especially for the road team. That leads to largely out-of-proportion home records. I think this helps a team like Houston at home more than most teams because the Rockets are radically different than the rest of the league. They have the most unusual player in the league, Yao Ming, and they play a different style — the slowest pace in the NBA. It takes special preparation to play them well.

The Blazers have had time for that preparation in the playoffs. It showed in Game 2, when they were more comfortable attacking the basket and getting into the paint against the Rockets.

I’ve said it all along, but I believe the longer the series goes, the better Portland will play. Part of it is the youth of the Blazers. They’ll grow and they’ll also probably stay fresher because of their young legs. But they’ll also be aided by their continued opportunity to become accustomed to playing against this very unusual team.

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A few thoughts about Tuesday night’s Blazer win over Houston:

– Brandon Roy can’t score 42 points every game. Well, actually maybe he can. But he made a real statement about the defensive prowess of Ron Artest — which isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

– LaMarcus Aldridge was terrific, back to his old self of mixing in some low-post activity with the 20-foot jumpers.

– A little too much one-on-one by Portland in the fourth quarter. Would like to see more ball movement because it appeared Roy was tiring down the stretch.

– Greg Oden made two great plays before fouling out in the fourth quarter — the put-back dunk of a Roy miss and knocking away the entry pass to Yao Ming that led to a Portland bucket.

– Yao was very reluctant to contest any of Oden’s shots. It’s a shame Oden didn’t get more touches in the regular season because he isn’t ready yet to be a go-to guy on offense. The team went into him three straight times in the second quarter — something that probably didn’t happen very often all season. NOW, they realize how important it is to get low-post scoring.

– When Yao was on the bench, Portland didn’t take the ball to the basket enough. It’s a must. I’m positive that will be emphasized as the series continues.

– When Dikembe Mutombo hit the floor with that knee injury, a very critical dynamic changed in this series. Either Yao is going to have to play much longer minutes or the Rockets are really going to struggle for about 15 minutes a game without a backup center. Often in the playoffs, 15 shaky minutes is enough to get you beat. Chuck Hayes and Carl Landry aren’t big enough to fill in at center and when Yao’s out Portland is going to punish the smaller Rockets.

– Portland has three chances to steal a win in Houston, but very often the first game is the best chance. The Rockets are trying to put a string of six straight first-round playoff exits behind them — jumping out to a lead on them Friday night would cause a lot of reminders of previous playoff failures.

– Nate McMillan really shortened his rotation. That’s fine, I just hope Roy and Aldrige can hold up.

– I fully expect Portland to get better and better as this series unfolds. At a certain point, the Blazers are going to wake up and realize that talent isn’t their problem against the Rockets. Execution is the only thing keeping them from winning the series. If the Blazers play the game the right way, bring the high energy level and don’t do stupid things, they’re going to win this thing.

– The Twin Towers, Oden and Przybilla, appeared for a couple of stretches. It worked fine, but I’d like to have seen more of it during the regular season. Sometimes you do things over the 82 games just for the sake of experimentation. Just to see whether it can work. More time could have been spent doing that and it would have paid off now.

– McMillan was using his coat to hide his play calls from the Houston bench most of the game. You don’t see that very often. Pretty soon in this league, we’re going to see players wearing wrist bands with plays on them, matched with numbers — and coaches will call numbers that players can check on their wrist bands for corresponding plays. Blue-32, red-44. . . HUT, HUT!

– A shame to see Mutombo’s career end that way. A great player, a great leader, a great teammate and by all accounts, a great man.

– Playoffs or not, the Blazers need to move that merchandise. I think that’s why we saw the team come out wearing those drab, gray, long-sleeved “Uprise” T-shirts instead of the usual warmup tops. When people see the players wearing them, they run to the counter and buy them. I guess.

– Portland must guard against a big emphasis on getting Yao in foul trouble. He’s probably not going to foul out of a playoff game, anyway. And seriously, if you just take the ball at him, he’ll often just throw his hands straight in the air and let you shoot it — he doesn’t want to foul. But a preoccupation with getting those fouls can lead to Portland getting away from what it needs to do on offense — spread the ball around and go to the boards hard. I think, over the course of this series, the fear factor of Yao’s defense will decrease.

– Something else related to that: It appears Rick Adelman didn’t want to play Yao long minutes, anyway. Even without foul trouble, he was on pace to play only about 34 minutes or so Tuesday. That will likely change with Mutombo out, but you have to wonder if there isn’t some concern about Yao’s ability to play big minutes. 

– At the start of this series, Adelman said, “Portland knows where it’s going to get its points in the fourth quarter. Brandon Roy will do that for them. We don’t have a guy like that. We don’t have anyone we can rely on to get his own shot. We’re never quite sure who that guy is going to be in the fourth quarter.” Man, so far they have that guy — it’s Aaron Brooks. Can he keep making those shots? I think he can if Portland keeps going underneath those screens and giving him open looks. That runner of his in the lane has been deadly, too.

– That was not a spring wind blowing through Portland last night around 10 o’clock. It was the entire population breathing a deep sigh of relief.

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