[CBS Sports] Why Houston's first-round struggles bode well for its playoff future

Refreshing to read a positive perspective. Great writeup.

 

Awwww yeah

 

yup its a very good thing to know the rockets can still win games despite not doing what the public thinks the rockets only do and that's shoot a lot of 3's

To be a good team you have to be able to win in a variety of ways. it's the playoffs. it won't be pretty. You'll have to grind it out til the end. The fact that the rockets can use their defense as a card to close out games is an absolute positive. If we're able to see all of our guys play well at the same time, that's when our game will just get "boring"

 

Thanks for sharing... also Napalm... I love your avatar - JAYNE, the man they call Jayne!

 

It's true. The Rockets really didn't play well at all in this series, yet still won 4-1. Hell, they were a Harden 3-pointer away from a sweep. Even the 31-point blowout in Game 1 was a 2-point game about 3 1/2 minutes into the 3rd quarter.

Imagine what they could accomplish if Anderson and Ariza show up offensively in the next series. If Capela plays as well on the road as he does at home. If Harden plays as well in the 1st half as he does in the 2nd. If Dekker is healthy and can provide the same hustle and energy he did earlier in the season.

They could beat anyone short of the Warriors if those things happen. And I'd at least give them a 1 in 4 chance of knocking off Golden State should they advance that far.

 

+Their defense in the 4th quarters of this series was very impressive to say the least and got very little credit from the bias media. OKC IMO was better than most people would think. My only concern is some of the bone head decisions in closing out these games, they will have to play much much smarter in the next series while not having to face a completely unstoppable Westbrook. If the Rockets can close out on the Spurs 3pt shooters, they could have a real shot at beating them.

 

Knew it'd be a good read when I read "but from a Houston perspective, the most important element will go completely under the radar as the attention goes to the other series going on, the future of Westbrook, and the Thunder, and a million meaningless MVP takes."

 

total media conspiracy. I'm serious.

 

It forced them to learn how to defend. As Mike said, are legs were little tired by game 5 because we usually don't defend. It forced them to defend.

 

good read
Lou was very important too

 

it's a positive spin, which is nice to see...but does it really bode well for us?

OKC showed the formula for shutting out both Anderson and Capela on the PnR. that's a big part of our offense that was basically shut down. Hopefully the extra time off gives Mike D the opportunity to formulate a counter to that defensive approach, because we certainly didn't make an effective correction this series.

 

I don't know if it bodes well for us given teams like GS can impose their will on their opponent regardless. Really this was more about OKC's limitations than Houston's strengths. I do think it's worth noting that Harden was clearly hampered by his minor injury for the last few games of this series. I think the fact he was blocked so often is a clear sign that he lost a step from the injury. We better pray this Memphis series goes 7 so Harden has the most amount of time to heal because we aren't going to outscore SA or Memphis' bench by 50+ points and certainly not GS's bench.

 

One hundred percent correct.

 

Lou and eg are a package deal to me. We can weather things out if one picks up the slack for the other.

 

it's a good thing that GS is basically the team to beat. The series going to 7 games or not doesn't matter. The second round is slated to start monday regardless if memphis loses tomorrow

 

For all of the talk of the Rockets "sharp shooters," they shot 28.4 percent from the 3-point line, LAST among the 16 playoff teams.

Just amazing to me.

 

Golden State imposes its will on EVERYBODY. The Rockets being unable to execute against them is not an indictment on the roster, or the system. It's an indictment on the fact that we don't have 4 All-NBAers on the court at the same time. Also, whether SAS/Mem goes 6 or 7 doesn't matter. Round 2 starts on Monday regardless.

Also, outside of Golden State, the Spurs and the Grizzlies don't have the roster flexibility that the Thunder have in terms of lengthy players who can defend reasonably well. The Thunder threw Roberson, Gibson, Grant, Westbrook, Adams, Kanter (lol), and Abrines at the Rockets PnR with varying measures of success. Those are all long players that are capable of switching, which allowed them to fade back or play aggressively interchangeably. I'm sure someone with more technical knowledge (@heypartner) can help break this down further, but I don't see the Spurs defending us this way. They will try and use a different approach in the PnR.

 

I'm more worried than encouraged. Our starting lineup's defense is horrific. OKC got off to hot starts as a result. Plus we were kind of bailed out every fourth quarter due to Westbrook's chucking. He's always been a low efficiency scorer, so we benefited every time he decided to put up a hero shot. He took the shots we wanted him to take, sure, but he was more than happy to oblige. That won't happen with Kawhi, he hits the shots he takes.

Plus, our late game execution is lacking. Turning the ball over when you're up by 5 with 28 seconds left. Ariza not realizing Westbrook was behind him last game. Almost turning the ball over on the Harden push off. We always let OKC think they had life left when we really should have put the game away. This series was just bad basketball. Thankfully, we can do better.