While the Rockets struggle for consistency on the court as they begin the playoffs, at least fans will enjoy consistency on the air: Each game of the Rockets-Portland series will air in standard-def and HDTV on KTXH (Channel 20).
Bill Worrell, Clyde Drexler and Matt Bullard will call games on Channel 20 alongside the national broadcasts on ESPN, NBA TV and TNT (Dave Pasch and Doris Burke will call Game 1 on ESPN). Local broadcasts have flip-flopped between Channel 20 and Fox Sports Houston in recent years, but the addition of Astros games on FSH makes it more practical to keep the entire series on 20. As for the on-court product, ESPN analysts Jon Barry and Avery Johnson are playing point-counterpoint. Barry likes the Rockets while Johnson opts for Portland.
"Not having home court (advantage) will be a factor," Barry said. "But the Rockets have been overachievers. What Rick Adelman has done with the team has been tremendous, using guys he had no idea would be playing so much this year. I think it's a seven-game matchup, and the Rockets are more capable of winning on the road than Portland."
Johnson, noting the Rockets' fourth-quarter collapse against in the Mavericks in a game of playoff-like intensity Wednesday night, said he expects the Rockets to struggle against Portland.
"Portland is a terrific home team, one of the best in the league, and they're not bad on the road," Johnson said. "I give Portland the edge in this series."
TNT's Doug Collins, meanwhile, fingers the Houston-Portland winner as having the best chance to knock off the Lakers.
"When you play against the Lakers you'd better have size, and the Houston Rockets have size," Collins said. "You'd better have two or three guys who can run at Kobe Bryant that will compete against him and try to make his life as difficult as possible. (The Rockets have) Ron Artest and Shane Battier. (Bryant) really did a number on Artest (when the teams last played), but those guys have the ability to make him work hard every night."
Remembering Madden
Like anyone who ever worked alongside John Madden, who announced his retirement from broadcasting Thursday, Verne Lundquist of CBS Sports could tell Madden stories all day. His favorite, though, stems from a visit with Madden to Pitts-burgh for a preseason game at Three Rivers Stadium.
Three Rivers, of course, was the site of the Immaculate Reception, the Franco Harris catch of a deflected pass that enabled the Steelers to beat Madden's Raiders in 1972. After the catch, referee Fred Swearingen went to the sidelines and called upstairs on a black telephone, apparently to NFL officials supervisor Art McNally, before signaling touchdown.
When Lundquist and Madden arrived to the stadium for the game years later, Lundquist said Madden asked an equipment manager if the phone Swearingen used was still in place. It was.
"He told all of us, ?Come with me,'?" Lundquist said. "And so we walked to the first-base dugout, and he ripped the phone off the wall and put it on the bus and kept it on the bus for probably a year and said, ?At least I'm going to get out of here with something.'?"
Four DVRs, no waiting
Stop me if you've heard this before, but KHOU (Channel 11) finished in the bottom 10 among the 56 major markets for Sunday's Masters telecast on CBS. The major market Nielsen average was 8.8, and Houston came in at 6.5, ahead of only San Antonio, Los Angeles and San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose. CBS totaled 42 million viewers for its weekend coverage, the most since 47.9 million in 2001 and up 6 percent from 39.7 million last year. ... Merle Harmon, the veteran announcer who called Texas Rangers games on radio during the latter stages of his career, died Wednesday in Arlington at age 82.
david.barron@chron.com
