The Official Site of Brandon Roy

Mon, Apr 27th 2009, 10:36

Brandon's 31 points not enough as Blazers fall 88-89 in Houston

Now it comes down to this for the Trail Blazers: Win or go home for the summer.

The Blazers on Sunday were pushed to the brink of elimination in heartbreaking fashion when the Houston Rockets forged a fourth-quarter comeback and took a commanding 3-1 lead in this best-of-seven playoff series with an 89-88 win at the Toyota Center.

The loss left the Blazers stunned and disheartened, and nobody tried to hide the sting of a game that firmly established momentum, if not the outcome of the series.

“The guys are down,” said Blazers guard Brandon Roy, who continued his standout series with 31 points. “This is tough. Tough. But we feel like our backs are against the wall now, so let’s go out and play our hearts out. Not only for ourselves, but for Portland, our fans. We are going to need them more than ever on Tuesday.”

Game 5 is Tuesday night in Portland.

If Game 5 is anything like the two games played in Houston — a three-point Rockets victory in Game 3 and this one-point nail-biter in Game 4 — the game will probably come down to one rebound, one free throw or one turnover.

“We have two teams here that are dead even,” Houston coach Rick Adelman said. “We’ve been fortunate to pull out two here.”

That was especially true after the Blazers seized control of the game in the third quarter, outscoring the Rockets 26-14 to turn a 50-44 halftime deficit into a 70-64 lead entering the final quarter. It was the first time in four games this season in Houston that the Blazers had led outside of the first quarter.

The lead was still six at 77-71 with 9:03 left, and the Blazers were still clinging to an 83-82 lead when Roy made a three-pointer with 4:00 left. But down the stretch, there will only be plays that live in Blazers infamy.

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