Rockets Shift Momentum In Series With Blazers

The Portland Trail Blazers had a shot to end their series with the Houston Rockets 4-1 on Wednesday night and they could not get the job done, losing 108-98.

While the games remained close, Portland had all the momentum in series.  They had home court advantage, James Harden started the game horribly and Patrick Beverley, who had been a thorn in Damien Lillard’s side defensively, was playing with a 101 degree fever. Yet the Rockets pulled of the victory, keeping their Championship hopes alive.

The Blazer will be returning home on Friday but will be playing a much more focused and confident Rockets team. Squandering the opportunity to beat an offensive powerhouse like the Rockets when all the balls were in their court, so to speak, may prove to be the nail in the Blazers’ coffin.

Perhaps, though, we are speaking too soon for the Blazers. The game, after all, is still the Rockets to lose.  They are down 3-2, but they sound more determined than ever.

“I don’t want to go on vacation. I want to win. I want to give everything I’ve got. Every night, put my heart into it and sacrifice my body and do whatever I can to help this team win.”

Howard had an impressive 22 points in the comback victory in Game 5, however, it was Jeremy Lin, who came off the bench to put up 21 points to finish off the Rockets rally, after the Blazers had built a lead off of Harden’s poor first-half performance.

The most important stat for the Rocket, though, comes from the Blazers. LaMarcus Aldridge had carried Portland through this season. Aldridge has averaged 35 points in the first four game.  The Rockets solved the Aldridge Rubik’s cube and limited him to just eight points.

Aldridge shrugged off his eight points, saying it was not the Rockets’ defense that stopped him.

“No, that was just how the game went. The ball didn’t come to me as much tonight. Our guys were making shots and we were playing off them and that’s how the game went. It wasn’t about how Dwight guarded me or anything like that.”

If that is the case then the Trail Blazers should have no problem going back to the original game plan of getting the ball to Aldridge.

Despite being down, the Rockets feel like that they are the favorites in the series again.

Only eight NBA teams have recovered from being down 3-1 in a best-of-seven series. The last time it happened was 2006.

The sportsbooks have the Trail Blazers as the favorites with a –3.5 point spread. The game starts at 10:30 p.m. ET and you can watch it on ESPN.