The Houston Curse Continues for the Blazers

The Blazers played at the Toyota Center in Houston tonight. It was the first stop on on a back to back in Texas and after a horrible loss against Utah on Wednesday, Portland was looking for a big win to start this road trip. Houston was also on a three game losing streak and wanted a big win at home to get back on track.

Starters:
LaMarcus Aldridge
Andre Miller
Jerryd Bayless
Juwan Howard
Martell Webster

The big winning scorer of the night was none other than Rudy Fernandez! Felicitaciones El Machetero! Rudy tied a career high with 25 points, and 5 rebounds with 3 assists. Rudy shot 9 - 14 from the field and 5 - 6 from 3-point range. LaMarcus Aldridge has continued to step up with the absence of B Roy. He tallied 20 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a BIG 4 of the Blazers 5 blocked shots. LaMarcus has been showing more and more aggression in the paint as of late and that's something we can only hope continues. When LMA has a hot hand you can bet we will be playing well. After a forgettable performance Wednesday night, Steve Blake rebounded well serving up 14 points and 9 assists while shooting 6 - 10 from the field and 2 - 4 from 3-point range. Nicolas Batum is continuing to make a big difference for the Blazers. He tallied 12 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists while shooting 4 - 7 from the field.

After a horrific start Wednesday night, the Blazers were definitely looking to start this game strong, which they did. Portland led 28 - 18 at the end of the 1st quarter but after a weird referee foul call mistake the Blazers seem to cool off and allowed Houston to blow them out of the water after half time. They kept it close allowing Houston to at most lead by 12 but some bad turnovers and poor decisions allowed Houston to take control of the game. Portland lost 104 - 100. This is the 4th of 5 games in which Portland has lost by 5 points or less.

Photo of the night:

Careful Scola, Steve Blake might go UFC on your behind.

The Blazers continue their Texan back to back in Dallas tomorrow night.

Series Notes:

•  Dallas had won 11 straight home contests over the Trail Blazers (Portland’s longest current road losing streak against any team), before Portland earned an 85-81 win in Dallas on Dec. 22 in the first series meeting between the teams. The Mavericks led in the fourth quarter by as many as seven points, but Portland used a 27-16 edge in the final period to claim the victory.
•  The Mavericks outscored the Trail Blazers, 99.7.0-94.0, outrebounded Portland, 40.0-35.3, and held a 22.7-16.3 advantage in assists in three wins last season. Dallas won all three games by single digits.
•  The Trail Blazers shot 47.7% (21-44) from three-point distance while holding the Mavericks to 31.4% (16-51) from long range in three meetings last year.

1. Low Scoring Game - We need to keep the Mavs under 100 points if we want to take away a win. Dallas is 17-4 when scoring 100+ points and lost 10 of 12 games when scoring 96-or-less
2. Slow Terry and Dirk Down - When Jason Terry and Dirk Nowitzki have big nights the Mavs flourish, the Mavericks are now 10-2 when both Dirk Nowitzki (28) and Jason Terry (21) score 20+ points. We need to slow them down if we want to stand a chance, which really means LaMarcus or Juwan and probably Martell and Nico need to keep their defense solid. 
3. Gotta Make Your Free Throws - If we can beat Dallas to the line and shoot well, we can take away a win, but that means we need to get to the hoop instead of settling for jump shots. 

(Photos Courtesy Of: Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images & Yahoo! Sports)