Three of a kind?

On the NBA • As Blazers assert themselves, Houston’s only edge is at center

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Apr 30, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

JAIME VALDEZ / TRIBUNE PHOTO

The Trail Blazers came together and won Game 5 and have been making Houston’s Yao Ming less of a factor in their first-round playoff series.

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HOUSTON — When the Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets meet here tonight (6:30 p.m. PT) for Game 6 of their first-round playoff series, it will be an exercise in familiarity.

The teams have squared off eight times this season, including five times in the last 12 days.

The home team has won seven of eight — all but Houston’s 108-81 devastation of the Blazers in the postseason opener April 18 at the Rose Garden.

But that doesn’t mean the Blazers won’t win this one — and go on to win a third straight game Saturday at Portland and claim the series.

They were within a whisker of prevailing in Games 3 (86-83) and 4 (89-88).

“We’re going to go back with more confidence,” says Portland’s Brandon Roy. “Game 4 was the best we’ve played as a team in that building. A couple of bounces or turnovers and it could have gone our way. We feel like it’s a place we can win. We just have to go out and do it.”

The Blazers are getting closer. It’s not as if the Rockets will be able to pull many tricks out of their collective bag.

“When you play a team this many times, there aren’t too many surprises,” says Portland forward LaMarcus Aldridge. “This game is going to be about who can execute their plan better and who is going to be the more physical team.”

There are plenty of signs that favor Portland in this one. There will a sense of urgency among the Rockets. They desperately want to wrap up the series on their homecourt and avoid having to return to the Garden for a decisive Game 7 — where Portland would be a clear favorite to complete a three-game sweep after falling behind 3-1 in the series.

That desperation may mean the Rockets will be on the top of their game tonight. Or it may mean there will be a thread of panic in the home team.

When the chips were down in Tuesday’s Game 5, with Houston ahead 68-64 and little more than eight minutes left, the Rockets were as steady as a three-legged chair.

“You have to play with composure,” Houston coach Rick Adelman says. “We didn’t do that, the fourth quarter especially. We have to have more control and patience than we showed (in Game 5).”

TRIBUNE PHOTO: L.E. BASKOW • The scoring and defense of Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy have helped quiet the Rockets and Houston forward Luis Scola.

Houston has the advantage over Portland at center with Yao Ming, and power forward Luis Scola — the Rockets’ best player in the series thus far — gets no worse than a standoff with Aldridge.

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