Game 1, I don't really wanna talk about it

Last night I went to the first Playoff game in the Rose City in six years. I took a solid chunk of my paycheck and popped my playoff cherry with my father. We had awesome seats. We sat so close that I could see the back of Paul Allens head. But thats all I'm going to say on that subject.

Yup, we got our ass beat, and I don't want to talk about it.

I don't want to talk about how Yao scored 16 in the first quarter, or 24 in the first half. I don't want to talk about how he never missed a shot (literally, he went 9-9 for the game). I don't want to talk about how we were so demoralized in the second half that we made Oregon Duck product Aaron Brooks look like the greatest thing since sliced bread. Yeah, it's a little tender, so we're just gonna skip over it.

Don't even think about asking my opinion of our lack of defensive intensity. It's the playoffs. Anything and everything becomes more intense. You need to get aggressive. You need to by physical. Shoot, if you're doing it right you should probably be brought up on assault charges after the game. Right Robert Horry?

Teams that don't even have a 20 point average player (Yao averages 19 a game) should not come into the rowdiest stadium in the league and have a field goal average of 68 percent in the first half ( and damn near 60 for the entire game). I don't care if you're the 98 Bulls, you're not winning many games when that is happening for the other team (bad analogy, Jordan would've personally killed someone on live tv if his team was putting out that kind of effort in the Playoffs. Then David Stern would've had him play Baseball for two years while he buried it).

I know I'm not an expert but it just seems that if you have the loudest crowd in the NBA, and that is a clear advantage, you want to keep them in the game. So when 45000 plus fans get quite you have to do something to pop them back up. For the love of God put someone on their ass. Yao would've been perfect. He is 7'6" and weighs like a buck sixty, put him on his ass for shooting so good, and then knock him out if he comes back at you. Hell, give me a contract and I'll fight him. He has got to be the least intimidating man in the world, despite being a giant.

Or better yet, get in Crazy Ron Artest's head. There are some major points to remember when dealing with Ron. One, this dude has got to be a parking ticket away from the electric chair, so YOU KNOW he is charging at you after a hard foul. NUT UP PORTLAND! OK this is depressing, we need to change the subject.

I feel a vomit inducing sensation at the thought of our offensive production last night. During the regular season the combination of Blake-Roy-Outlaw-Aldridge average 64 points per game. Last night those same four barely cracked the thirty point marker. Roy got his 21, but it was a very ugly 21. Very ugly. Typically this is where I would make a "Brandon got sodomized everytime he drove into the lane." But I won't. In fact  don't want to talk about it, stop trying to bate me.

Oh and those referees were, well they were just, uh... uh.... well lets put it this way: about the second quarter I started getting flash backs to Black Sunday (when the Seahawks famously dueled the Steelers in the Superbowl and in a twist that would make Vince McMahon proud, the referees turned on Seattle giving the Steelers another run as Champ). Yup, every blown call made me quiver. When members of the Rockets came on the floor hit Roy with a chair I recalled phantom false starts. While the refs were "looking the other way" I remembered Darrell Jacksons phantom OFFENSIVE pass interference that took away a touchdown. Lets just say by the second quarter I was on par with Vietnam War Vet's, who think they're back in the rice patties shooting at Charlie when they hear their grandsons video games from the other room. 

All I'm gonna say about the game is it was a bad game. Thats it. Bad officiating, lack of intensity all that fun stuff that equals to me thinking, " I can't believe I spent money on this."  We looked like a young team who didn't belong, and we got our ass beat by a veteran squad.  Plain and simple. Thank God this is a seven game series and we more then capable of rebounding. Game 2 Tuesday, still in the Garden, so we have a chance to take this series. And I think we will.

 

But thats still two days away, and I'm still pretty crushed. So forgive me if right now I don't really feel like talking about it.