Just got back from the game. In my opinion, the Blazers won for one simple reason - LaMarcus finally, finally, finally, summonded some courage and took it to the paint. It still wasn't as much as he is capable of and he got away with travelling at least twice. Nonetheless, for at least one night, the timid stream of contested 20 foot jumpers came to an end.

When Rudy came in he flipped the Blazers switch to the On position. Oden was a tenacious beast against Yao. So where are we?

San Antonio and Utah are gone. The Hornets lost a game by 58 points.
Boston vs. Chicago is mind-blowing. Orlando-Philly is pretty good. Atlanta-Miami so-so.

The way I see it that makes Portland vs Houston the second best playoff match-up of the 1st round behind Boston-Chicago. Philly- Orlando could still heat back up.

Boston-Chicago is EPIC - the Blazers should watch those game tapes on the flight to Houston.
Heros showing up by the dozen.

My hope remains that the Blazers get a chance to dazzle the nation with a gutty comeback series win.

Comebacks in bad times are especially inspirational. On to Game #6. Go Blazers.

I feel that we made a serious breakthrough tonight. Brandon was sick, but other guys got it done most of the way. Nate showed major faith in Rudy, and even let Sergio take his sweats off. The substitutions did not look so programmed. Artest wasn't a big deal. Wafer, Lowry, Landry et al. were not factors -- and they should never be. Yao was held to just-o.k.-for-him, even with the refs throwing rose petals at his feet.

The Blazer flag is still out in front of our house.

Jack,

When are you going to update the Oden-ometer? I guess tonight was another Bowie.

Can't tell whether it should be a Bowie or a Natt. The team was +5 when he was in there, and he blocked 2 shots and had a steal. He wasn't pulled because he was playing badly. I'm leaning toward a Natt.

I think Aldridge going inside was the best game plan improvement. The Rockets looked like the jump-shooters gone cold last night.

Oden earned a Natt. He's still thinking out there rather than flowing with the game, but last night was better.

Given the critical importance of establishing and defending low-post position against Yao (and how inconsistent the refs have been with their whistles), both Oden and the Gorilla can have excellent games without doing anything that shows up in the stat sheet. If the Rockets come down and Yao is allowed to set up where he wants on the block, Yao goes for 30+ and we lose. I thought both of our guys did a good job - the Gorilla was absolutely terrific - defending the post last night.

3 things to repeat from this game:

1) Run early and often to exhaust Yao down the stretch.

2) Front Yao. Joel and Greg were shining on defense over many stretches in this game.

3) Use Rudy to defuse the double team on Roy. They can't leave Rudy standing behind the arch.

All in all some great adjustment work by Nate I'd say. (Must have been scared straight by Jack's threat to fire him.) Aldridge raining in the points didn't hurt either.

Does this mean Nate should be un-fired? And yeah, it was a crucial move to give Rudy the extra minutes, but let's not overlook Travis' huge 3 when they needed it at crunch time.

I thought Oden played extremely well in the 4th quarter when he was allowed to stay in with 4 fouls. He had key steals from Yao and blocked 2 shots in the quarter just as Houston was about to pull away with the lead. Oden also made the 2 free throws to tiet he game. Oden kept the Blazers close until the offense got back in the groove.

And about the 4 fouls, clearly the refs watch him differently than Yao.

Travis' huge 3 when they needed it at crunch time

"Crunch time" is the last 5 minutes, when fortunately Mr. Outlaw, 4 for 13 and a liability on defense, was on the bench.

I think a playoff experience for Oden is going to do really good things for his game in the upcoming years. Hopefully a second round appearance could do even more for him.

OK..so let's call Travis "Mr. Middle 4th Quarter."

Simply a great game! The level of intensity in the Rose Garden was way beyond any regular season game. Let's hope the Blazers can win one in Houston. If they do, the Rockets will not enjoy coming back to Portland or Saturday.

It's interesting.

Quite a few folks in the Houston Rockets blogosphere, including a lot of the guys over at Dream Shake, seem to be on Adelman's case--and calling for HIS head should the Rockets lose this one.

The NBA has long been a coaches' graveyard--but this series pits two very good teams, with two good coaches--and many think the losing coach ought to lose his job?

Somehow that seems out of whack....

Adelman gets saddled mid-season with a rookie point guard who doesn't know how to pass the ball and has a really weak bench, loses his back up center, and still gets his team into the playoffs. And they're going to fire him if he doesn't win this series? They need to fire the GM who traded Rafer Alston and relied on a 42-year-old relic as the only other big man besides Yao.