(Rockets Game) Same Story, Different Game

Ouch… this game hurt. But, I guess at least we have an excuse: they had to cancel Thursday’s practice.

You could say we got T-Mac’d in the third quarter… but the Blazers are equally at fault as they only scored 14 points in that quarter. Was the Rocket defense really that bad?

Nate McMillan is also not to blame. In the third quarter, when the Rockets were pulling away, Nate continued his stubborn ways. He was right in that he needed to substitute Jarret Jack at point-guard. But his error was that he moved Brandon Roy to the point-guard spot instead of the obviously correct choice of Sergio Rodriguez. When Roy moved to point guard, Blazers were down 13… by the end of the third we wouldn’t score again and were now down by 20.

Sergio finally entered the game when we were already down by 20 points. Now Sergio can definitely work with a 13 point deficit, or maybe even 15 points. But 20 points is asking a little too much for the rookie.

This same story has repeated so many times. Nate McMillan stubbornly refuses to put Sergio Rodriguez in the game and makes his team, and the fans, pay the price.

On the bright side, we did get to see Raef LaFrentz and Dan Dickau play again. And we got a good and strong reminder of why they are not in the Blazers rotation.

Now, I this was a bad loss for the Blazers, but I think it was just a hick-up, or growing pains if you will. The Blazers need to just learn from their mistakes and move on from here.

Go Blazers,

-Blase31