01-28-2010, 07:08 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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God
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Chile
Age: 21
Posts: 4,581
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[Regular Season Game 46] Houston Rockets vs. Portland Trail Blazers
 vs.
(24-21)/(27-20)
When/Where:
Friday, January 29, 8:30 PM ET
    
Brooks / Ariza / Battier / Scola / Hayes
    
Bayless / Miller / Webster / Aldridge / Howard
Preview
Quote:
Brandon Roy will represent the Western Conference at next month's All-Star Game in Dallas, but he won't be suiting up for the Portland Trail Blazers in their two games in Texas this weekend.
With Roy still bothered by an injury, the Blazers look to bounce back from disappointing loss Friday night against the Houston Rockets, who try to avoid losing four consecutive home games for the first time in nearly four years.
Roy leads Portland (27-20) in scoring at 23.1 points per game and has helped lead the team into the thick of the West playoff race, but the Blazers have slipped a bit without their starting point guard.
Roy, selected to his third All-Star Game on Thursday, has missed four straight games with a strained right hamstring and six of seven. Portland has lost four of those games he has missed, and Roy is also expected to sit out Saturday at Dallas, which hosts the Feb. 14 All-Star Game at Cowboys Stadium.
The offense struggled to get in sync without its floor general in Wednesday's 106-95 loss to Utah, missing 15 of its first 16 shots while falling behind 21-2 six minutes into the game.
"They just attacked us and we had no answer for that," Portland coach Nate McMillan said. "Offensively, we missed our shots and I thought that probably affected us on the defensive end.''
LaMarcus Aldridge is doing a decent job of picking up some of the scoring slack in Roy's absence. The 6-foot-11 forward had 25 points and nine rebounds Wednesday and is averaging 21.0 points in his last six games - 4.5 better than his season average.
The Blazers likely need Aldridge to come up with similar production against Houston (24-21) after relying heavily on Roy in the earlier meetings.
Roy averaged 30.0 points in Portland's three games against the Rockets this season, with the Blazers winning two of those contests. Their lone loss was the only meeting in Houston, 111-107 on Oct. 31.
Portland hasn't had much success in Houston, losing five straight and 11 of 12 there, but the Rockets have been having their own problems at the Toyota Center.
After winning at San Antonio 116-109 last Friday, Houston has opened a season-high six-game homestand with three consecutive losses.
Following seven-point defeats to Chicago and Atlanta, the Rockets fell to Denver 97-92 on Wednesday. Houston led the Nuggets 74-72 after three quarters, but missed 10 of its first 12 shots in the final period and was unable to recover.
"I believe there were good things in this game," said Luis Scola, who finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds. "There are things that we can feel good about ourselves about, but we're still having our problems and we need to fix them. If we don't fix what is making us be so up and down the whole season we're not going to win."
The Rockets had won nine of 10 at the Toyota Center prior to this slide - their longest at home since Nov. 14-21, 2007. Houston hasn't lost four consecutive home games since a five-game skid from March 13-26, 2006.
Trevor Ariza led the Rockets with a career-high 33 points on 11-of-17 shooting in the win over Portland in October, but has struggled to find his shot on the homestand, averaging 11.7 points on 32.6 percent shooting.
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__________________
HoustonRockets
Quote:
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The Rockets keep winning, because they want it more than you.
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[Regular Season Game 46] Houston Rockets vs. Portland Trail Blazers
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