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04.30.09 TRAIL BLAZERS (4) VS. ROCKETS (5)
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BY CASEY HOLDAHL
The Portland Trail Blazers learned a lot about themselves this season.
They learned they have one of the preeminent players in the league in Brandon Roy. They learned LaMarcus Aldridge is well on his way to being a force at power forward for years to come. And they learned Rudy Fernandez’s game was much more NBA-ready than anyone could have guessed. But on Thursday night, the Trail Blazers learned their final lesson of the season: that they’ve still got a long way to go in their quest to eventually win an NBA championship. That lesson was delivered courtesy of a 92-76 series-ending loss to the Houston Rockets in Game 6 Thursday night at the Toyota Center.
“I wasn’t really prepared for this because I thought we had a chance,” said Head Coach Nate McMillan, “but they gave their all tonight. I thought they fought hard. They gave everything they had and it just wasn’t enough.”
McMillan got enough from his two cornerstones, with Roy finishing with 22 points, four rebounds and four assists and Aldridge adding 26 pints and five boards. But as has often been the case in this series, no one else on the Trail Blazers bench could offer up much in the way of offense.
The starting back court of Steve Blake and Fernandez, who was inserted into the starting lineup in place of Nicolas Batum, finished with a combined four points on 2 of 11 shooting. The bench unit, which basically consisted of Travis Outlaw and Greg Oden, didn’t fare much better, ending the night with a combined 21 points; much of that coming after the game was well out of reach.
“I was frustrated (with the offense), but my biggest thing was I wanted to keep playing for my teammates on the defensive end,” said Outlaw. “Just be some type of spark off the bench.”
The Trail Blazers got off to one of their best starts on the road in this series, going into the second quarter down 21-19. But the Rockets turned up the intensity in the second quarter on both ends of the floor, outscoring the Blazers 31-18 and extending their halftime lead to 15.
“Their defense was pretty much tight and aggressive and they were the more aggressive team tonight,” said McMillan. “Even in the first quarter we made some buckets but there were hard buckets and nothing was really easy. In the second quarter they broke it open. I think they had a 30-point quarter. Each time they had a 30 point quarter they have gone on to win the game.”
Portland was unable to put together any kind of extended run in the second half as the pressure and fatigue of playing in their first playoff series began to take its toll. Foul trouble, a reoccurring theme in all of Portland’s losses in this series, compounded an already daunting task of overcoming a double-digit deficit on Houston’s home court.
“It was tough,” said Aldridge. “I was in a real good rhythm. They were starting to double and I think I was getting guys open shots. I got that third foul and I think that kind of threw off the rhythm a little bit.”
Oden, who finished with four fouls in just over 16 minutes, echoed Aldridge’s concerns.
Said Oden: “I can’t speak for everybody else, but I know for me, with the fouls, I definitely couldn’t get a flow I started to get into it a little bit in the second half.”
Despite the loss, the overriding sentiment in the Portland locker room seemed to be one of pride and optimism. The players and coaches, while obviously disappointed at their final performance of the season, opted to focus on the positives of the season and the promise of the future.
“We had a great year,” said Roy, “but we felt like there was more that we could do this season. I’ve got to give the guys credit. We played extremely hard. This was a good experience for us.”
‘They had an unbelievable year and I loved what they did this season,” said McMillan of his young team. “They showed potential to be a great team, to be a playoff team, to be co-champions (of the Northwest Division.
“But we need to take another step. We look at this moment tonight and we move forward to getting ourselves better for next year because the playoffs was the goal for us this season. It is expected for us next year and we should be looking for bigger and better things.”
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STEVE BLAKE
“It was really a tough loss for us but you have to give Houston a lot of credit. They played great defense. We couldn’t get our rhythm going. When it got into the fourth quarter, midway, they had the game in hand. We kept fighting. We believed throughout the whole game. It was their night and not ours. Ron Artest made some really tough shots. He is so strong and very hard to stop.”
GREG ODEN
“Houston came out with more energy and Ron Artest really got them going. They played harder than us and they hit their shots and our defense wasn’t there. With my early foul trouble I definitely couldn’t get into the flow of the game.”
LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE
“Houston made all the hustle plays and that made all the difference. When they made the run to get up by 15 or 16 we knew it was going to be tough to come back. They made all the plays and got big offensive rebounds.”
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