The Houston Rockets are the higher seed, have home-court advantage and won the regular season matchup 3-1 against Portland. But don't tell that to the Trailblazers, who are currently up 2-0 in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

Both games have been very close coming down to the wire with the Trail Blazers winning both games by a combined nine points.

In game one, Portland stole the game by outscoring the Rockets by six points to force overtime and would come out victorious by two points, 122-120. In game two, Portland led for the majority of the basketball game with Houston closing the gap late in fourth quarter. The Trail Blazers would win by seven points (112-105) with clutch shots made down the stretch.

In the series, LaMarcus Aldridge has played like a superstar for the Trail Blazers. In both games, Aldridge has scored over 40 points (46, 43), and he is shooting a ridiculous 35-59 in the series thus far. Not only is Aldridge scoring at an extremely high rate; he's grabbing rebounds as well. Aldridge has 26 rebounds in the first two games of this series.

The series isn't over yet, but with the Rockets 0-2 already at home heading to Portland, things don't look good.

Easily the biggest disappointment for the Rockets so far has been shooting guard James Harden. Harden shot an abysmal 8-28 in game one and disappeared in overtime. In game two, Harden shot 6-19 bringing his shooting total to an embarrassing 14-47 from the floor. What is even worse than Harden's inefficient offense has been his defense. Harden refuses to play hard on both sides of the floor and continually turns the ball over.

Rockets head coach Kevin McHale has been using head-scratching techniques in the first two games of this series. He refuses to establish a full-time point guard, whether it be Patrick Beverly or Jeremy Lin, and at times makes Harden the point guard. The Rockets best offensive scheme seems to be to try and get to the free throw line. The chemistry doesn't appear to be the same in Houston. That's not going to work in Portland.

Dwight Howard has never been an elite offensive center, but in game two he did score 32 points. Despite Howard scoring 32 points, the Rockets playing at home, and the Rockets holding a 3-1 advantage in the regular season, the Trail Blazers still came out with wins. Bad sign for Houston. As long as the Trail Blazers win one of the next two games in Portland, they will take a commanding 3-1 series lead.

The Trail Blazers were 31-10 at home this season. In order for the Rockets to win the series, they must now win two games in Portland and four of the next five games. That is no easy task.