Chin Up, Portland: Artest Thinks You’ll Come Back

You wouldn’t think one of Ron Artest’s strongest personal convictions would be compassion for the energy. Ron’s violent on the court, proud and crushing. Taking on that persona, Houston absolutely crushed the Blazers in Portland, piling up a 31-point lead in the second half on the way to a 27-point victory. Yao Ming and Aaron Brooks did much of the offensive damage, while Artest kept Brandon Roy (21 points on 23 FGAs) far from efficient and Luis Scola shut down LaMarcus Aldridge.
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↵But there’s Artest after the game, reassuring Portland that this series isn’t over yet.↵↵⇥“They’ll recover. It’s basketball,” Artest said. “You lose by blowouts during the season. The next game you beat a good team. It’s just basketball. They’ve beat a lot of good teams in this building.”↵↵Houston’s a great team, and I’ve never seen a fluke that ended with a 27-point margin. But Yao and Scola aren’t going to shoot perfectly from the field again, Aaron Brooks’ peak can’t be higher than the 27 he scored Saturday, and Aldridge (who has three or four inches on Scola) will get it together. But given Roy’s struggle, it’s unclear whether that will be enough.↵