Blazers stun Yao and Rockets in overtime

November 7, 2:45 AMAsian-American Sports ExaminerMichael Street

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Just yesterday, David Hartnett, the Houston Rockets Examiner was wondering what all the hype was about the Portland Trailblazers. And rightly so; they'd started the season 1-3 and their star big man, Greg Oden, was hurt. Again. 

Granted, the first four teams they'd played were the Lakers, Spurs, Suns, Jazz. Not really a cakewalk beginning to the season, and they'd dropped all three road games. Their only home win was against San Antonio, a 100-99 squeaker--but it was still a win against the Spurs, and perhaps David should have noticed that tonight's matchup against Yao Ming and the Rockets was in Portland.

Certainly, Rick Adelman and Houston should have paid attention.

The Blazers didn't seem intimidated at the start of the game, scoring two quick baskets, including a dunk by LaMarcus Aldridge on a play begun by Joel Przybilla blocking an attempted Yao layup. 

Huh? It's Yao that's supposed to do the blocking, not no-name Przybilla. But Portland fans know Joel is horribly underrated, and he kept Yao in check the entire game. Despite giving up eight inches to Yao, the Vanilla Gorilla held him to 13 points on 4-13 shooting and just 6 rebounds, his second-lowest output of the season in points and his worst performance on the boards.

Yao really wasn't a factor for most of the game, but he didn't need to be, as power forward Luis Scola carried the team in the first half with 10 points, and McGrady caught fire in the second half with 24 of his 30 total. McGrady also dished out 8 assists, twice as many as point guard Rafer Alston.

The two teams battled back and forth, with the Blazers leading by no more than 5, and they finished the first half ahead of Houston 52-51. This continued through the third quarter, until Portland appeared to pull away with a ten-point lead with under eight minutes to play. The Rockets put together a run at that point, finally tying the game with 1:01 to play. The teams traded missed shots for the rest of the quarter, and regulation expired with the score still tied. Yao had made one shot in the fourth quarter, with LaMarcus Aldridge blocking another Yao shot.

In overtime, Yao's futility continued, as he missed his first two shots, and Brandon Roy stopped and popped a 21-foot jumper to give the Blazers a 98-96 lead with 1.8 seconds left. The Rockets looked sunk, but they inbounded the ball to Yao who, in spite of being ice-cold for the past half hour, calmly knocked down the game-tying shot through double coverage, drawing a foul in the process.

Yao, a smooth and consistent free-throw shooter, nailed the free throw, giving Houston a lead with 0.8 seconds to play. Portland would have one final chance, and Adelman chose to leave Yao guarding the inbound from Steve Blake. Brandon Roy blew past his coverage to take the ball, turn and fire in an easy motion, hitting a rainbow three-pointer from thirty-one feet out that brought the Rose Garden to its feet, and sent Houston home losers.

Yao was close to being the game's hero, but Roy took that opportunity from him. Joel Przybilla's smothering defense kept him from making a difference before that point. It's early in the season, but Houston will clearly have to learn not to underestimate its opponents. Particularly the young team in Portland.