It's not over

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Apr 27, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

MICHAEL WORKMAN

Nicolas Batum (middle) and Greg Oden (right) deter Houston's Luis Scola from getting to the basket during the Trail Blazers' Game 4 loss on Sunday. Game 5 is 7 p.m Tuesday at the Rose Garden.

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HOUSTON – Is it over, or is it over?

No, the Trail Blazers aren’t done in their first-round playoff series with Houston, which swings back to the Rose Garden for Game 5 Tuesday night.

But Portland is down to its final lifeline after Sunday’s solar-plexus shot at the Toyota Center.

A Blazer win would have made things interesting in this series between the Nos. 4 and 5 seeds in the Western Conference, who – as Houston coach Rick Adelman puts it – “are completely dead even” as teams.

The Rockets won the opener in a blowout. The three games since then have been indicative of how evenly matched the teams are. Each has gone down to the final moments, with Houston pulling out two of them on its homecourt.

Portland is getting sensational play out of Brandon Roy, who is proving he is one of the best players on the planet. His teammates have often shown their youth and inexperience, which is costly in the postseason.

LaMarcus Aldridge is averaging 16.5 points and 8.3 rebounds – not bad numbers, but not the step-up performance needed by the Blazers’ No. 2 guy.

Inside the final minute of Sunday’s loss, with Houston clinging to an 87-85 lead, Aldridge passed on an open jumper to move the ball to teammate Steve Blake, saying he felt “a little fatigued” and figured Blake had a better chance to make it. Blake missed as the shot clock was about to expire.

Portland’s No. 3 option, Travis Outlaw, was better Sunday but is still shooting .341 from the field in the series and averaging 8.8 points, four points below his regular-season number.

Outlaw missed an ill-advised 3-point attempt with Portland trailing by three late in Sunday’s game. There were 8.3 seconds left – an eternity at that point in the game – when Outlaw received the inbound pass, turned and launched a trey that had no chance to go in. Outlaw had time to take a couple of dribbles and create something for himself or a teammate.

It was nearly as bad as Blake’s decision to pull up and fire a lurching 3-pointer late in Game 3.

But really, Outlaw should never have been put in that situation – not with the way he had been shooting in the series. The ball should have gone to either Roy or Rudy Fernandez – who, seconds later, drained a 3 when it was all but too late.

Fernandez was sensational in Game 3 and has averaged 9.0 points while shooting .571 from the field and .583 from 3-point range in the series. Coach Nate McMillan says he has limited Fernandez to 21 minutes a game because of the Spanish rookie’s defensive liabilities.

I’d still put him on the floor more and take my chances.

Greg Oden can’t stay out of foul trouble long enough to make a difference. Joel Przybilla has his hands full battling 7-6 Yao Ming, who has had two big games and two ordinary ones.

Adelman is being disingenuous when he says, “We know we’re going to be undersized out there.” Not with Yao on the court, they won’t. Houston’s mountain of a man takes up half the key area, does a nice job of blocking out and owns the defensive boards.

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