Beginning of the end for Oden. Dude was just to injury prone. If only Tmac was healthy because with a healthy tmac playmaking that team would have crushed the Lakers in the Semis
Yao was out at some point in the 2nd round against the Lakers. Looking back, we had a pretty good team then and playing structured and physical brand of basketball. It's amazing how quickly NBA has evolved in less than 10 years. We took the Lakers to game 7 and only lost in LA. The Lakers then went on to win the championship and thanked us for giving them a real fist on the way.
And that was without T-Mac for the rest of the playoffs. That team was HANDS DOWN the best Rocket team since our title run. Would've easily made it to the finals (and probably won) if just Yao had stayed healthy.
The year prior (22-game win streak season) could have been one of those years too with a healthy team. Lost Yao mid-way through the streak, Mac was pretty beat up coming in to the playoffs with a hurt knee and shoulder, and Rafer missed 2 games, and got pulled from another because of the hamstring injury. Then 2009 happened - even without Mac, the team was solid and could have gone the distance, but losing Yao and Deke hurt more than losing Mac. Rockets had no size without Yao or Deke.
We played Yao a little too much. He would have gotten Nene's rest in today's NBA. He also played way too many international games. In that game 4 against Blazers, Aldeman pretty much played Yao for 40 minutes. Yao would be a protected species in today's NBA.
Is that the game where Shane Battier hit a couple of big 3's in the 4th? Aside from Games 1 and 6 where the Rockets dominated, that was a close, competitive series that could've gone either way. The Rockets came up with some huge plays down the stretch.
Yes Battier. Had we lost that game, it probably would have been a different series since they would have regained the home court advantage.
Man, Yao Ming, Ron Artest, Brandon Roy, Greg Oden, so many mid-range shots.... how quickly things change. Also, ---- wtf?
Yeah, as much as like this years team, the discipline that the 09 team had is sorely lacking with this years team.
A shot blocker plus a bunch of pest perimeter defenders seems to be the recipe to kill this year's Rockets.
That team just didn't have the scoring to keep up. Love Battier / Artest, but they aren't going to be able to stop Harden's blitzkreig pick and roll attack.
