The Trail Blazers can take a little something from their 86-83 loss at Houston on Friday night, which put them down 2-1 in the best-of-seven playoff series.
"It's hard to talk about confidence right now after a loss," Portland point guard Steve Blake said. "But we know we can play with (the Rockets) down here. We made too many mistakes, and we were still right there." Houston coach Rick Adelman is wary of Sunday's Game 4.
The Blazers "are going to come out and be tough as nails," Adelman said. "We'll have to match their intensity and play smart "smarter than we did at times tonight."
ROCKETS 86, BLAZERS 83: On a night when Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and Travis Outlaw couldn't hit a canvas with a can of paint most of the way, Portland was there until the end. Aaron Brooks sank four free throws in the final 20.4 seconds to lift the Rockets to victory.
Portland got outrebounded 41-32, lost the points-in-the-paint battle 40-30, got combined 14-for-44 shooting from Roy, Aldridge and Outlaw and still had a great chance to win.
"We can't blame nobody but ourselves for this one," Portland center Greg Oden said.
The Blazers held Yao Ming to seven shots and limited Yao and Ron Artest to a combined 16 points. Role players Luis Scola, Shane Battier and Carl Landry picked up the scoring slack as Houston seized the advantage in the series.
