The Portland Trail Blazers and the Houston Rockets have had some spectacular games in this series. Games filled with drama, crazy broken scrambles, insane comebacks, power dunks from Dwight Howard, three-pointers and above it all, hard, spirited play from both sides.
The Portland Trail Blazers are somehow pulling out these wins as Portland beat the Rockets 123-120 in yet another overtime game. Portland is now ahead in the series 3-1 and has a chance to win their first playoff series since 2000. Three out of the four games in this series have gone to overtime. That sets a franchise record for Portland and the fans are loving every minute of it.
It seems that each of these games follows a new script and it is just a matter of who makes that one extra play or that one extra defensive stop. In game three, it was Troy Daniels hitting the big three to pull away from Portland. In game four, it was Wesley Matthew’s defense. This series has reached a point where each team knows what the other team is going to do. It is just a matter of execution, efficiency and a little luck.
Game four started in a similar fashion as game three as the Rockets jumped out on Portland early outscoring them 29-23. The Rockets shot a blistering 55% from the field and 44% from three in the quarter. The wheel spins back around as Chandler Parsons had a huge game for the Rockets. He went 5-for-7, 2-for-3 from three and shot 71% from the field in the first quarter. Portland, on the other hand, only shot 44% and could not bury six of their attempted eight three-pointers. Troy Daniels, the hero of game three, is a heck of a shooter. In the first quarter he made his first two shots and had six points in the quarter. Portland seemed slow once again. Houston came out aggressive again and really hurt Portland early. Still, much like in game two (the Howard show), the Blazers were a lot closer than the Rockets probably wanted. This seems to be a constant issue with Houston. They have insane quarters where they shoot a ridiculous percentage, but then they are only up by six. I’ll talk more about this in a minute, but the defense for the Rockets is horrid.
The second quarter was a shooting fest. Portland shot 52%, while Houston shot 55% from the field and 50% from three. A saying I like to use is “Not a single lick of defense was seen that day”. Let me just say that Portland was playing some decent defense as a team, but Wesley Matthews especially was playing some great defense. Houston was just making some very difficult shots. However, there were a few instances of Parsons, Harden or Lin just waltzing in the paint and taking an easy jumper. At one point, it felt like Portland could not get a stop. If Houston did miss a shot, Portland could not corral a rebound, which was a point of concern from game three.
Houston outscored Portland 32-28, but held onto a ten-point lead for some time. Portland would make a little run and then promptly be thwarted by a well-timed three-pointer or one of the many lay-ups that occurred in the quarter. With all the battling back and forth, Portland took a ten-point deficit back to the locker room.
The second half and, eventually, overtime, Portland controlled. Portland found their offensive stroke once again by shooting 52% from the field and 43% from three. LaMarcus Aldridge continues to impose his will on this series and went 5-for-10 from the field and finished with 13 points, four rebounds and one block in the quarter. Furthermore, the Portland bench helped out by combining to go 3-for-6 and providing 11 points. Houston was still shooting at an insane clip as they finished shooting 47% from the field and shooting 50% from three. However, one stat started slowly creeping in. Houston went an awful 3-for-8 from the FT line in the first quarter and went 7-for-11 in the third. If Parsons, Harden or Lin are not at the line, then this team has a hard time converting on FTs.
Portland clawed their way back as Lillard made a buzzer-beating three-pointer to help Portland only take a five-point deficit into the fourth quarter. This was right out of game one’s book. The number of times that Houston has given up big leads in this series has been astounding. In all of the games, except game one, Houston has jumped out to a respectable lead and looked very much in control from the start. However, there is always one point in the game where Houston just mental-lapses as a team. They start dribbling a lot more, taking bad shots, depending too much on Howard to get them going and careless turnovers. While all of this is happening, Houston continues to play some of saddest defense that I have seen. Not a good combination to keep a big lead.
The spark for Portland this time around was Thomas Robinson. Robinson had not played at all up until the third quarter and only played six minutes. However, in just those six minutes, he grabbed three rebounds, had one steal, one block and had two points. Most importantly, though, he re-energized the Portland engine. He got the crowd back into and was the only person, at the time, able to grab some offensive rebounds. One impressive and athletic play was Robinson jumping over three Rocket players and literally ripping the ball of an opponent’s hand.
Then the drama finally started (as if there was not enough anyway). Portland outscored Houston 27-22 and the most memorable play of the quarter was a mad scramble as I talked about above. To set the scene, Portland had fought their way back to actually have a five-point lead with 2:49 remaining in the fourth. Houston started dropping the ball to Howard in every one of their offensive possessions. Like Howard tends to do against Portland, he made 3-of-4. Harden, in his foul-drawing ways, got to the line twice and actually gave the Rockets a two-point lead as the Blazers’ offense abandoned them once again.
Then it happened. This was the play that was the coin flip. After a missed three-pointer by Batum, Jeremy Lin had the rebound and started dribbling up-court. Not seeing Mo Williams behind him, Williams knocked the ball out of Lin’s hands and Matthews had control. Wesley tried to score from inside the paint, but the ball popped out and into a feeding frenzy. Somehow, Lillard got out of the pile and ended up with the ball. The impressive perimeter passing game that Portland has was engaged and the ball found its way into a wide open Mo Williams. Keep in mind, Mo Williams had not made a shot from three all night and promptly swished a three-pointer with just 0:18 remaining. After missing a shot, Houston was forced to foul and sent Dorell Wright to line where he made 1-of-2. Houston answered by a Howard dunk and forced the game into overtime.
Honestly, I was shocked that Harden didn’t try the three-pointer from the top of the key. Harden has not shot well from three at all this entire series, but that is the kind of big time shot that Harden tends to hit. Give credit to Matthews’ defense that made Harden consider other options. However, I think Harden had a pretty easy decision.
Overtime was ruled by Wesley Matthews’ defense. To start, Howard and Matthews ended up on the floor in a mad scramble for the ball on the first possession of overtime. Wesley, somehow, managed to grab the ball and a call a timeout and give Portland a chance to strike first. Not only was the effort fantastic, but the emotion Matthews expressed afterwards ratcheted the energy up for the rest of the game.
Portland then ruled OT. With the game tied at 110-110 with 3:21 remaining, Batum rattled off five points on a jumper and a three-pointer. Seriously, Batum has this knack of hitting a three-pointer when you least expect him to. Afterwards, Lillard had probably the easiest lay-up of the game and the Blazers were up by seven. You have to give credit to Houston, they never went away. Troy Daniels, who finished with 17 points on 5-for-7 shooting, 4-for-5 from three, made an impressive three-pointer that cut Portland’s lead to four. With a bad pass and a missed shot, Portland was only up by two. Dorell Wright went to the line to make two free-throws to give the Blazers a four-point lead. Now, the one thing that you never want to happen with 0:10 remaining is foul a three-point shooter. Well, that is exactly what happened. Troy Daniels, again, a D-leaguer a couple of weeks ago, swished all three of his FTs and had Portland clinging to just a one-point lead. After a missed bucket, Houston sent Mo back to the line where he drained both FTs.
However, the play of the night was the final possession for Houston. With 0:08 remaining and no time-outs, Houston had to run the length of the floor to look for a game-tying three. Beverley dribbled up-court and attempted to use Harden as a screen. But, Wesley was lying in the weeds. He used Harden as a wall to bait Beverley into going around Harden. Matthews then popped out and swiped the ball out of Beverley’s hands. Matthews ended up on the floor and Portland just had to wait out the clock.
Wesley Matthews was MVP of the night in my book. He finally showed up offensively by scoring 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting, 2-of-6 from three all while defending Harden and putting together some spectacular and gritty plays. James Harden did finish with 28 points, but only shot 9-for-21 (that was better than some of his earlier games in this series if you can believe that), 3-for-11 from three. Harden has been abysmal from three in this series as he has combined going 11-for-41 from deep. Ouch. Harden may still be getting his points, but Wesley is making it difficult for Harden every game.
I mentioned that I would like to see Wesley scored ten points at least and he showed up in a big way. National media and fans are finally realizing what Portland has been seeing for the last couple of seasons. Wesley Matthews is one of the most underrated players in the NBA. Matthews is the first that comes to mind for Portland who really takes pride in his defense as well as his offense.
Stat-wise, it is scary how close these teams were. Both teams went 11-for-28 from deep and shot 39%. Portland shot 50% from the field while Houston shot 49%. Portland and Houston also both scored 44 points in the paint. That is impressive, especially for Portland. Portland scored a whopping 23 points off of Houston’s 16 turnovers.
Beside Matthews, the other player that carried Portland was obviously LaMarcus Aldridge. After coming back down to earth in game three, Aldridge followed that up by finishing with 29 points on 12-for-23 shooting, 10 rebounds and four blocks. Aldridge is obviously torching the Rockets on the offensive end, but his defense needs to get more praise. The blocks and his quick hands have scrambled some of the Rockets possessions.
Overshadowed by both of those players was Batum who finished with 25 points on 11-for-23 shooting, 2-for-7 from three, six rebounds and six assists. Not too often do you see Batum take that many shots in a game. However, in the past two games, he has really been a lot more aggressive driving to the basket, being comfortable taking more shots and becoming an offensive threat. His assist and rebounding numbers have gone down because of that, but he is providing a huge scoring punch that Blazer fans have been begging for.
Well, take your heart pills Blazer fans as you will have a nice couple of days before the Blazers take on the Rockets once again in game five at the Toyota Center in Houston. Tip-off is on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. PST. The series is looking good for Portland, but Houston continues to say that they are not done. However, this win has certainly made it very difficult for Houston to move forward. Stay tuned!