That's what Rudy Fernandez had to say after the game about the prospect of going to Houston: "We know Houston is a difficult arena, but we believe. We believe." (That's in Joe Freeman's recap at The O, but you should check out the profile/news piece on Rudy that's also in today's editions.) After a game like Game 5 in the Garden Tuesday night, how do you not believe?
How can you not become vested in these games, your heart pacing with the rhythm of the ups and downs, hoping for the flash of brilliance from these new young guys who like being here and play so hard they remind us of the magic--small m--years of the Blazers? (Don't look at me for sanity; my developing mancrushes are becoming so disconcerting that I squeal like a 14 year old girl when Rudy hits a three).
So when the Olympic half of the Spanish Armada says he believes, who's to argue? It's not so stupid a belief, despite the long struggles for Portland there--after a regular season where they never threatened the Rockets in Houston, in the playoffs they've had at least a couple chances to win each one, and in the last game actually took control late for a few moments before collapsing in a heap of mistakes.
There are some solid reasons to favor the Blazers just a little in Game 6, not least of which is a momentum shift that places much more of the performance pressure on the Rockets than on Portland. Several recent first round exits have got the fans and local media a bit spooked, to the point where a loss in Game 6 automatically cedes the series back in Oregon. And then there's that whole how-many-minutes-can-Yao-play-before-he-turns-to-salt question, after yet another 40-minute performance.
Blazer fans for their part take some of the same liberties in their assumptions about a Game 7 sure-win scenario, but if Portland falls it will be the end of an enormously successful season, in which every playoff game was gravy to start with. Our fantasies are just that--what-ifs that aren't unreasonable, just way too much to expect. The threat of losing shouldn't be hanging over this team, threatening to discolor the effort of the whole season. It's ALREADY a huge success.
Houston fans, on the other hand, aren't satisfied with another first round exit, nor should they be. To begin with, the Rockets should have been 2nd seed and mauling the Hornets right now, instead of locked in this matchup that gets uglier and more unsure for them by the game. And they've got plenty of experience and defense to be showing well in the second season. In sum, Blazer fans can be loose and accept whatever outcome occurs in the end. Houston's players and coaches will not receive quite the "ah well, great try!" welcome come salarly negotiation time over the summer.
So this Game 5 win was (natch) pretty freakin' huge. Shall we talk about it a bit? Sure, why not. Let's start below...
Put on your best crazy prospector voice as you say with me, "Reckon we got er-selves a humdinger of a pistol shootin', rootin'-tootin' SERIES now!" If you like hoop at all and that game didn't have you up out of your seat half the time, reach over and give the heart monitor machine a whack--you might not still be alive.
Back and forth it went, from one run to another, one momentum shift to the next. It took some superhuman play from some seemingly superhuman ballers, and a whole lot of overcome adversity, but the Blazers now have what they came to get, because honestly--when you listen to them talk, they're not thinking about championships or WCF appearances or even beating the Lakers in Round 2. They came to get playoff experience, and an understanding of what it takes to win.
They now have that understanding, but I think it still suprises this young team just how much intensity is required to compete for and win a playoff game in the NBA. After the game Brandon Roy joked, Bush-esquely, that it was "hard work to win playoff games." All I ask the team is no "Playoffs Accomplished" banners before they leave for Houston, OK?
Seriously, even if the Blazers lose both games in Houston and then can't stay alive in Game 5 (tickets available 10AM tomorrow, but ONLY through trailblazers.com), this will have been an eminently valuable season for the team's future. Not only do they now grasp just how easy it is to get blown out if you're not loaded for bear from the git-go, they know it's possible to regroup, retain a high level of energy and mostly just go out and play.
That said, I think this team now not only has the tools to win a road game in this series, but the moxie and focus of determination. Houston, while being a beast at home in the regular season (who in the West isn't?), has struggled recently in some key playoff games, which might help explain the number of first-round exits they've had. I actually think with current circumstances the chances are actually better than 50-50 that the Blazers will get that homecourt recovery accomplished.
Before I get all rhapsodical over everything, let's make sure the facts don't get short shrift: The Portland Trail Blazers completed their best regular season since 1999-00, and made the playoffs for the first time in six years with the crucial (homecourt) fourth seed. They finished by beating the Denver Nuggets 104-76, in a game where the Nuggets appeared to learn midway of the game's seeding meaninglessness to Denver, who was locked in as #2 by virtue of Houston's loss and San Antonio's OT win (damn that James Posey!)
The Blazers will open this Saturday eveneing against Houston, the fifth seed, in Portland at the Garden. Tuesday night will also be there, and then two games will go down in Houston before (presumably) they'll come back here for Game 5 and alternate as necessary for the next two.
You up to speed now? Fully briefed? OK.
There's a deeper reason I've been covering the Blazers this year, although not a hidden one; I've said before that I sensed this season was building to something special. I got excited during the 13-game run last year, and I did the first Blazer coverage at Loaded Orygun during that time. Enjoy it or wish there were more politics, there's no way to deny the Blazers as a notable Oregon story, not just by virtue of their being the only game in town.
I expected a great story--the rebuilding of a team that had lost its way and in the process its community and fanbase, but admitted its faults and started fresh, from players to coaches to management. And how about that, this scrappy young team managed to sneak into the playoffs to get waxed by the Lakers in 5! That's awesome, I thought. Good story, worth following.
If someone you know is saying they predicted home court in Round 1 back in November, slap them for lyin'. I called 50+ wins a solid likelihood on December 4th, and a month later pegged it at 51. But friends would have slapped me stupid (not a long journey, I know) if I'd gone on about the Blazers getting one of the top four seeds. Utah? NO? Dallas? Houston? Portland's gonna finish ahead of them?
And what about the division? I don't know if people have fully grasped this, but the Blazers are 100% within their rights--and will have a banner--to declare their Northwest Division (co) Championship. The seeding only happens for the playoffs; for purposes of winning the division it's a tie. Heck, if the NBA wised up and used something like point differential, the Blazers would be the #2 seed instead.
So I had a hunch, and hoped that something really good was happening, something that would not only recapture the town's heart no matter the result, but which might even stretch beyond the Rose City and generate discussion across the country.
The appeal of the story has exceeded any fan's wildest dreams. There are perhaps greater achievements yet to come for this franchise and this core group of guys, but this year is like seeing the Beatles in Hamburg, or knowingly scoring tickets to THAT week of Ed Sullivan. You can say you saw them when, you saw what they might do, before they did it.
And now it's penetrated: the rest of the league is talking about "nobody wants to face Portland," and their potential to be a serious sleeper in the West in trying to get past the Rockets and then the Lakers. Brandon Roy was Player of the Week, and Oden is being recognized at least for being a solid post defender, having graduated from being a total bust to simply not being Patrick Ewing or Bill Russell.
The cute little team that could, in short, did. Their story is going bigtime, and I wanted to be there to cover it as it broke. That's worked out pretty well, eh?
I've been putting off and putting off the Rockets recap for a variety of reasons--sleep, work, family, it was a loss....but I'm also still not sure how to process the sequence of events Sunday. Sure, the dominant mood SHOULD be celebration, because the young Blazers did something by rights they shouldn't have been able to do, and which most pundits and basketball scribes subscribed to--make the playoffs. And make them from the West, and not squeaking in on the final day, but two weeks early, fighting not just for extra games but for THE extra home game you get by being seed #1 through #4 in the first round.
But was it coincidence that the team they were playing the day they discovered the Suns had erased the final magic number, was the Houston Rockets? The team that was behind them in 5th, now ahead of them in 4th, and with the Blazers loss a more assured first round opponent no matter what? The very same.
And so watching the game as it unfolded, beyond the win or loss, the need to establish quality road tallies, and the obvious interest in pulling tighter in the standings with those above (like the Spurs, Wednesday's opponent and another very similar opportunity), I was watching the game thinking, "How are the Blazers going to deal with 7 games of this...if they're lucky?" Or more saliently, "How are the Blazers going to win even once here, if they're the 5th seed?"
And so that's what I've been thinking all day yesterday: Hells Yeah! but also Oh crap, is it going to be over that quickly? And well it might, based on that last game. Perhaps the most disappointing thing about it wasn't the loss but the fact that Portland didn't really play badly; they just came up small--in some ways literally. If they'd just totally screwed the pooch you might be able to write it off and look forward with a clear optimism. But the hard fact is that Portland was OK, Houston was better.
You knew there was going to be SOME comedown from the Clippers, right? It was not going to be all beer and skittles on the road against a strong conference opponent, not when that opponent was on its own 8-game home win streak, and have been brutal on the Blazers in the "Toyota Center" for some years now.
Still, it was hard not to be disappointed by the loss, despite knowing it would be a tough game for any team to play, much less one without a key piece like Oden that would have added a significant boost against the Rockets in particular (and the Spurs tomorrow as well, a game Oden will also not play in). If you look at the boxscore, the totals are nearly even--Portland actually outshot the Rockets by %.1, 44-43.9, and they're just inches behind in 3PT%, FT%, OREB, TO, REB, AST...it's not that they were dominated by any stretch.
What made it most difficult for me was the way the game started--beautifully. The Rockets--particularly Yao Ming, on a 1-6 start--were not going to shoot that badly the whole game, but the Blazers were very high energy to begin with, and were moving the ball smartly and going right after the painted area. It looked like LaMarcus Aldridge was on his way to another really super game offensively, totally overmatching Luis Scola. They weren't running per se, but they were moving quickly and keeping Houston from getting totally set.
And Brandon Roy was abusing Shane Battier like a puppy at Mike Vick Charm School for Dogs. He had 9 points with about 5 and half left in the first quarter, and the Blazers up 17-11. He had buckets on three straight trips, including a great O-reeb and putback on Yao of all people, and an And One on Aaron Brooks.
Maybe you saw the writeup in this morning's O about the Blazers' home victory over a tough Houston Rockets team. Or maybe you heard about it elsewhere, or perhaps--Barkley forbid--it's too early in the season for you to care about individual games yet.
Whatever the reason, if you haven't seen the final 1.9 seconds, you gotta see it. Courtesy YouTube and the TNT broadcast, I give you those final 1.9 ticks--in which an amazing EIGHT points were scored. Of course the rule that allows a team to inbound from half-court after a time out helps that happen, but still...count out two seconds in your head and imagine three baskets being attempted in that time.
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