Blowout tonight at the Rose Garden

Tonight you’re guaranteed of getting 1000% effort from a great home team in an elimination situation.  What more could you people possibly ask for?  The Blazers are going to go out there and kill themselves and bring absolutely everything they have.  If they want to live to fight another day they have no other choice.  I’m sure the Rockets won’t exactly roll over, but it’s hard to match the energy and effort of the team with they’re backs against the wall (who can ride the wave of the home crowd) when you know you’ve got Game 6 back at home to seal the deal again if Game 5 doesn’t work out.

Although the Blazers came up short in Game 4, they can carry many positives from that loss into tonight.  The second half of that game was really the first time all series where the Blazers got aggressive and really went at the Rockets.  Portland started attacking off the dribble, taking it to the basket and initiating contact to draw fouls.  They're level of physicality picked up considerably.  It was a far cry from most every other game where they had consistently been way too passive and had settled for way too many outside shots.  I look for them to continue this increased level of toughness in tonight's game.

I’m seeing a Herculean effort here from Portland in what is hopefully a wire-to-wire blowout victory.  And if they win Game 5, don’t preclude the possibility of them pulling Game 6 in Houston out of the hat which would set up a do or die Game 7 back in Portland.   

Blazers 1H -3          1.5 units

Blazers -5.5            2 units

Blazers ML -235     1.5 unit