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As hard a time as the Rockets will have guarding Aldridge, the Blazers will have it equally tough guarding Howard, but that is not the only reason for this pick. Terry Stotts does not shy from using the "hack at Howard" tactic to disturb the Rockets' pace, which partially paid off in the first game, as Howard made 9 of his 17 free throw attempts. He ended the game with 27 points and 9/21 shooting from the field, and he pointed out himself in the preview that he'd like to get more attempts and that the Rockets should play inside out. The margin is pretty high, but I think it goes along with the tendency towards 210-220 point games in this series. Besides, Howard usually went over it during the regular season.

The first game proved what was clear even before the series started: LaMarcus Aldridge will "wipe the floor" with Terrence Jones. In the 45 minutes he spent on court he scored 46 points with 17/31 shooting from the field, and got 18 rebounds, of which seven on offense. The talk of double-teaming don't worry me much, nor does Omar Asik's enthusiasm (of course he will speak up after he got 12 minutes in the first game and guarding LMA guarantees more time on the court). Whomever the Rockets put on Aldridge, he will have a classic mismatch, so I'm convinced he will dominate the entire series. Of course, he will hardly manage to repeat the performance he had on Sunday, and might have a bad game, but the point is this hinges more on him than on the Rockets, as they still failed to find a solution for him in the first game although his regular season performance against them was 28 (10/27), 27 (11/26), 31 (12/22) and 21 points (9/19).