The Portland Trail Blazers (1-2) battled back from 17 down, but in the end could not overcome the Houston Rockets (2-1), falling 86-83 at the Toyota Center on Friday night.
Houston jumped out to an early lead Friday, taking a 17-8 lead on two made free throws from Yao Ming with 1:21 remaining in the opening quarter. Rudy Fernandez hit his first three-pointer of the night with 10 seconds left in the first quarter closing the gap to 21-15 in favor of the home team.
The Trail Blazers went without a basket for almost five minutes in the first quarter.
“Right from the start it seems like the team that establishes themselves at the beginning of the game has been the team that has won the game,” said Nate McMillan. “The first game and tonight’s game they came out right away and established themselves on both ends of the floor and we never got a rhythm.”
The Rockets extended their lead in the second quarter by keeping Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge from scoring. Aldridge scored his only bucket of the second quarter on a jumper with 1:06 to go before halftime and Houston leading 45-34. The Rockets finished the first half leading 48-37 holding Roy to eight points in the opening half and Aldridge to four points.
Fernandez supplied much of Portland’s offense in the first half. Fernandez finished the first half with 11 points, nine coming from behind the three-point line.
“I made some three’s but it doesn’t really matter because we lost the game,” said Fernandez. “I felt good. We lost the game but now we have to look to Sunday.”
Portland continued to fall behind in the third quarter. Luis Scola hit a driving lay-up with 9:22 remaining in the third quarter, putting Houston ahead 54-37. The Trail Blazers turned on the offense from that point, and jumped back into the game, sparked by Aldridge and Greg Oden. Aldridge and Oden combined for eight points in less than two minutes. Aldridge dunked home a feed from Steve Blake with 4:39 remaining in the third period, cutting the Rocket’s lead to 57-50.
The Trail Blazers outscored the Rockets 22-18 in the third quarter, entering the final quarter of the evening behind 66-59.
Roy closed the gap to 78-74 on a tip shot with 1:25 to play in the game, but Houston countered on their next offensive possession with a jump shot from Scola with the shot clock winding down and just over a minute remaining in the game.
Portland came up with two big offensive rebounds on their next possession, but where unable to score. The Trail Blazers had to call their last full timeout with only 32 seconds left to play trailing 80-74.
Portland managed a three-pointer from Aldridge with 23 seconds on the clock, cutting the Houston advantage to 80-77. Aaron Brooks missed one of two free throws, and after a 20-second timeout Fernandez nailed his fifth three-pointer making the score 81-80 with 17 seconds left. Portland fouled Brooks again, and he converted both free throws, putting the Rockets up 83-80.
Blake was inbounded the ball with 16 seconds on the clock, but his three-point attempt from 27 feet fell well short. Shane Battier put the game out of reach from the free throw line.
The Trail Blazers outscored the Rockets 46-38 in the second half.
Roy struggled all night, hitting only 6-of-18 from the field, finishing with 19 points to lead Portland.
Fernandez hit 5-of-7 from deep on the night, finishing with 17 points, Blake added 16 points, and Aldridge contributed 13 points. Aldridge also struggled from the field, managing only 6-of-15 from the field.
Scola led the Rockets with 19 points, followed by Battier with 16 points. The Trail Blazers held Yao to seven points, and Brooks to 11 points.
Portland continues their first round series in Houston on Sunday.
NATE MCMILLAN
"We're going to need a team effort. It's been that way pretty much all season long. We haven't been a team that has had a lot of success if both units haven't played well for s. We need everybody to be productive out on the floor. I thought it felt kinda helter-skelter out there. Just no rhythm.
“I thought Brandon saw the same defense (as he did in the first two games). I don’t think we set good screens. Our execution wasn’t as good as our last game. They pretty much just fought through the screens. They got more aggressive, they got tighter on the ball. The change was double-teaming LaMarcus (Aldridge) on the post. They mixed up their post defense and went with some goes early. They played Brandon the same way. Artest and Battier tried to stay close to him. They got through some screens. Occasionally they got aggressive with the four man but that wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen.”
BRANDON ROY
“It was game 3. Both teams made a lot of adjustments. We felt like we did a good job of slowing them down, but we felt like our offensive execution wasn’t good enough at all. You’ve got to give them some credit. They did a good job, and we have to do a better job of being patient, offensively and getting better shots….better movement.”
“They really tried to take the paint away. Anytime I was penetrating, it didn’t matter, they were going to collapse. Late I was maybe trying to force it a little too much, but they were setting up to take charges. Next game I’ve got to look to get my teammates involved a little more.”
GREG ODEN
Yao is always going to put you in foul trouble. I have to figure what I can do around Yao. I have to move my feet and limit his touches inside the paint. We have to bring it all when we play on Sunday. Things just weren’t going down for us tonight.”
TRAVIS OUTLAW
“We’ve got a chance to get another one on Sunday. We just didn’t execute down the stretch. We have to jump out early on them. We have to pick up our aggressiveness. It’s not over, and we still have a chance.”
