Rockets-Trail Blazers Preview

By MATT BEARDMORE
Posted Feb 07 2012 8:48PM

The Portland Trail Blazers were on the wrong end of a blown call in their last game. Still, coach Nate McMillan feels his team has bigger concerns than the referees.

The Blazers look to rebound from a rare loss at the Rose Garden on Wednesday night when they close a three-game homestand against the Houston Rockets.

With Portland leading by two in the final seconds, LaMarcus Aldridge was called for goaltending as Oklahoma City All-Star Kevin Durant drove to the basket. Aldridge and the Blazers (14-11) vehemently argued the call, but the result was overtime and an eventual 111-107 loss to the league-best Thunder.

Portland, 11-2 at home, had won its previous five against visiting teams.

"It's tough. We definitely played well enough to win this game," Aldridge said after hitting all 11 free throws and scoring a season-high 39 points. "We had some tough calls and then we had some bad bounces late in the game. We have to learn from it."

The NBA announced on Tuesday that Aldridge made a good block and that there shouldn't have been a goaltending call, but McMillan isn't going to dwell on the play. What bothers him even more was his team getting dominated on the boards by 20.

"Regardless of that call, we've got to rebound," said McMillan, whose team also missed 15 of 20 from 3-point range.

The Blazers were outrebounded 54-46 in a 107-105 overtime loss in Houston on Jan. 14. Aldridge sent that game to overtime with an 18-footer with 23 seconds left in regulation, but Rockets leading scorer Kevin Martin closed out a 28-point performance by scoring his team's final six points.

Martin, though, enters this contest with just 10 total points on 2-for-19 shooting in the last two games after scoring eight in Monday's 99-90 victory at Denver.

The Rockets (14-11), though, improved to 1-1 on a season-high six-game trip behind 25 points from Luis Scola and 20 from Kyle Lowry.

"Anytime you can get a win on the road it's huge," Chase Budinger told the Rockets' official website after scoring 14 of his 16 after halftime.

Houston snapped a four-game losing streak in Portland in its last visit, posting a 103-87 victory on March 1.

Lowry, who had 21 points and 11 assists in that game, could be matched up with Jamal Crawford to start Wednesday's game if Blazers starting point guard Raymond Felton misses a second straight game with a sprained left foot.

It's uncertain if Portland center Marcus Camby, who had 15 rebounds on Monday, will be ready after missing Tuesday's practice with bronchitis. He was sidelined last month in Houston with a sprained left ankle.

Nicolas Batum, a Rockets first-round pick in 2008, hit six 3s and scored a team-high 29 points off the bench for Portland in that matchup. The French forward has 46 points and has hit 10 of 21 from long range in two games after missing two with an injured knee.

The last time the Blazers lost two straight at home was Feb. 27 to Atlanta and March 1 to Houston.

Bench leads Rockets to 103-96 win over Blazers

By ANNE M. PETERSON
Posted Feb 09 2012 2:06AM

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) Houston's bench was doing so well that it allowed coach Kevin McHale the luxury of resting his starters on the front end of a back-to-back.

Chase Budinger led the way with a season-best 22 points for the Rockets in a 103-96 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.

Courtney Lee added 16 as the Houston reserves accounted for 66 points.

"They deserved to be out there because they played well," McHale said. "It's just one of those things where if they're rollin' we're going to let them go."

Lee played nearly 31 minutes and Budinger was just over 29.

"The chemistry level is up for us right now," Budinger said.

The Rockets had a scare late in the third quarter when starting guard Kyle Lowry injured his right elbow and left the game. The team later said it was a strain.

"It's a little bit sore but we're just going to treat it," Lowry said. "I don't want to sit out any games, so I'll see how it feels in the morning."

Lowry had 12 points when he left.

On the other side, Portland forward LaMarcus Aldridge said he was fighting an illness. Averaging 23.7 points going into the game, Aldridge finished with 13.

"It was just me," he said. "I didn't have the energy tonight."

Houston led by as many as 19 in its second straight win on the road. The Rockets were coming off a 99-90 victory at Denver on Monday night. They continue a six-game road trip Thursday night in Phoenix.

Jamal Crawford came off the bench to score 21 points for the Blazers, who rallied to tie the game at 77 on Aldridge's dunk in the fourth quarter. Portland hung close for a while before the Rockets had an 8-0 run to go up 90-82.

It was Portland's second straight loss at the Rose Garden and its third at home this season.

The Blazers were coming off an emotional 111-107 overtime defeat at home against Oklahoma City on Monday. Portland led 103-101 with 6 seconds left when Aldridge was called for goaltending on Kevin Durant. That tied the game, which went to overtime, and the deflated Blazers were outshot by the Thunder.

The next day, the NBA posted a statement on its website that officials in the game had made an incorrect call.

Crawford said he wasn't sure if that loss had any bearing on Portland's showing against the Rockets.

"You hope that emotional games don't have lingering effects," he said. "We'll have to figure that out."

Crawford's 3-pointer pulled the Blazers to 39-38 in the second quarter, but the Rockets pulled away, going up 58-44 on Lowry's 3. Luis Scola was 5 for 5 from the floor to start the game, but spent a lot of the second quarter watching while the Rockets' reserves built the lead to as many as 14 points.

Houston led 60-46 at the break before Scola hit a 3 that put the Rockets up 71-56 midway through the third. Late in the quarter, Lowry headed for the locker room holding his right arm.

Portland pulled within 77-75 when Crawford hit a 3 early in the fourth, and Aldridge tied it with a dunk that made it 77-all with 9:57 left. But the Rockets quelled the rally and extended their lead to 90-82 after Budinger's jumper and Goran Dragic's layup.

"He (McHale) is the kind of coach where he runs with players that are playing well," Budinger said. "We got it rolling in the first half and he left us in there and didn't panic when they tied it up."

Lee's 3-pointer with 4:13 left made it 93-86, and Portland could not make up ground.

"We've just got to come together collectively and figure this thing out as a team. That's all there is to it," said Blazers guard Raymond Felton, who returned to the starting lineup after missing the game against Oklahoma City because of a left foot strain.

The win was Houston's third straight against the Blazers.

"That's always a good thing, whenever the second unit can give the starters a rest when we have a game the next day," said Patrick Patterson, who finished with 11 points in nearly 24 minutes. "I think each person should be pleased with their play, and overall this was a team win."

Gerald Wallace added 20 points and nine rebounds for Portland, which goes on the road for a game at New Orleans on Friday.

Notes: The NBA announced that Houston will host the 2013 All-Star game. ... For Military Appreciation Night at the Rose Garden, the Blazers honored 91-year-old Carl Deiz, who served with the famous Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. ... The Rockets signed 6-foot-10 center/forward Greg Smith. He was averaging 16.8 points and 8.3 rebounds with the D-League's Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

Notebook: Rockets 103, Trail Blazers 96

Posted Thursday February 9, 2012 1:36AM

By Kerry Eggers, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: Chase Budinger scored 22 points off the bench as Houston sent Portland to its second straight home loss Wednesday night at the Rose Garden, 103-96. The Trail Blazers (14-11) roared back from a 19-point third-quarter deficit to tie the score several times early in the fourth quarter, but made only four of their last 14 shots to help the Rockets (14-11) close out the win. Portland got 21 points from Jamal Crawford and 20 from Gerald Wallace.

QUOTABLE: "Part of the challenge is to figure out the right combinations of players, motivating these guys, getting them to play both ways. We play in spurts."
-- Portland coach Nate McMillan on the way his team has performed of late.

THE STAT: Houston reserves combined for 66 points on 24-for-43 shooting (.558) ... The Rockets shot .526 as a team and outrebounded the Blazers 39-29 -- 26-16 in the second half. ... The Rockets won despite 23 turnovers and making only 11 of 19 attempts at the line.

TURNING POINT: Houston outscored Portland 21-8 over the final 7 1/2 minutes of the first half to go into intermission 60-46. The Blazers spent so much energy catching up, they looked spent at the end.

QUOTABLE II: "Our bench was fantastic. You have to reward the guys who are playing well. They deserved to finish the game."
-- Houston coach Kevin McHale, who played reserves Budinger, Goran Dragic and Courtney Lee the entire fourth quarter.

HOT: Houston's Luis Scola was 5-for-5 and scored 10 points in the first quarter. ... Budinger and Courtney Lee were a combined 6-for-6 from 3-point range in the first half.

NOT: LaMarcus Aldridge was feeling under the weather, and he played like it. Portland's probable All-Star selection -- who came into the game averaging 23.7 points and 8.6 rebounds -- managed 13 points on 5-for-14 shooting to go with five rebounds in 39 minutes.

QUOTABLE III: "In the first half, we were a step slow. Not just one or two guys; everybody was a step slow. In the second half, I could tell right away we had some more pop. But when you play catchup, you have to almost play perfect."
-- Jamal Crawford.

INSIDE THE ARENA: It was Military Appreciation Night, and Trail Blazer players pledged a combined $20,000 to buy tickets to donate to local military families.

GOOD MOVE: Early in the fourth quarter, Portland's Nicolas Batum blocked Dragic from behind on a fast-break dunk attempt, leading to a 3-point shot by Crawford at the other end. It turned what would have been a 79-72 Rockets' lead to a 77-75 advantage.

NOTABLE: It was the first time Portland has suffered back-to-back home losses since Feb. 27 and March 1, 2011. ... Houston guard Kyle Lowry left the game in the third quarter with a hyperextended right elbow and did not return.

UP NEXT: For the Blazers, at New Orleans Friday, at Dallas Saturday, Washington Tuesday. For the Rockets, at Phoenix Thursday, at Golden State Sunday, at Memphis Tuesday.

• Rockets: Morris, Smith
• Trail Blazers: Johnson, Oden

• Rockets: --
• Trail Blazers: --

• Lead Changes: 4
• Times Tied: 8

• Arena: Rose Garden, Portland, OR
• Officials: #38 Michael Smith, #63 Derek Richardson, #61 Courtney Kirkland
• Attendance: 20350
• Duration: 2:13