Pass. Would rather be the Rockets than the Raptors, Cavs, OKC, Celtics and all the other supposed preseason favorites. All that matters is that we get to the WCF healthy.
Based on the first round... I gotta give a C... passable - but unimpressive... We won the series - so that's great and all, but we did not look impressive overall... We've looked great for a quarter here - and a half there... but play has been very inconsistent - and at some points downright bad - not what I would expect from a championship caliber team... but hey, it was the Timberpuppies, so maybe the team just didnt take them serious enough to maintain a consistent effort and will do so with the next opponent...
I'm giving defensive tandem A+'s to James and Chris for 22 steals and James and Clint for 16 blocks. Trevor gets an A+ for 7 assists and only 1 turnover. Anderson gets and A+ in 3PT% of .455, but an F for hesitation and passing back to Harden. Paul gets a D for 3PT % of .296, and C's go Green with .308 and Gordon with .302. A+'s to Clint and Nene for FG% of 67%, and D to EG for FG% of 34%. F's in FT% go to Trevor 44% and Nene 43%. A+ in rebounding goes to Clint with 24-71, and B's to GG 4-26, and James 3-24. A's for scoring go to our triple threat of Harden, Clint, and CP3 for 319 points.
I wouldn't say their defense was terrible. They got better on perimeter defense, though there was still room for improvement. There is no doubt that CP3 will have to hit his 3's at 35 percent in every game at the least, plus giving us solid defense. Harden too will need to shoot more consistently in order to win. Gordon needs to be the 3rd playmaker/ shooter. His success will take pressure off Chris and even Harden to some extent. Go Houston Rockets!
Why do we excuse Minnesota for dropping to the 8th seed because Butler missed 23 games? Chris Paul missed 24. Rudy Gobert missed 26. Stephen Curry missed 31. DeMarcus Cousins missed 34. Paul Millsap missed 44. Kawhi Leonard missed 73. Even OKC lost Roberson for 43 games. Portland was the only team in the Western playoff race to stay relatively healthy.
Rockets won .793 percent of their games during the regular season. Rockets won 80% of their games int he first round. A
I am not excusing Minny, I am just reminding folks that Minny is a lot better than their record portrays them to be, especially considering how close the teams ended up being between 4-8 spots.
Because Tom Thibodeaux plays his starters 55 minutes a game and their bench stinks. His ON-OFF rating is +13.2 as a result.
Geez! We basically demolished a Twolves crew in game 4. Totally demoralizing them. That was already checkmate. The adjustments we made trumped everything they had in the playbook. That’s read and react rocket basketball all the way. When you have 2 floor generals on the floor at all times who are skilled at seeing the defensive schemes alOng with eyes on the bench and morey upstairs. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.
Excellent point. I don’t think minny was some severely underrated team. I don’t think they matched up well with us though. Even with Butler, given how close the West was, there’s no guarantee that they hold onto the third seed.
B+, since We got 3 blow out games in the playoff series, which is impressive since Timberwolves are not a bad team.
team score: A. 4-1 in the first round, pretty good. James Harden, A-, FG% is not great, prob because of efforts on defense. Chris Paul, A, 49% on FG%. great defense. 3pt FG% is not high, mainly because of the 0-8 in game 5. Clint Capela, A+, impact on both end of the court. Eric Gordon, B, Trevor Ariza, B+ Gerald Green, B, PJ Tucker, A-, 3pt FG% is not bad, A on defense. Ryan Anderson, A-, needs to have more FGAs in the rest of this season. Nene Hilario, B+, Joe Johnson, B-.
I don't think they played anywhere close to their potential during this series - aside from Two Quarters. Capela was damn good the entire series. Harden got it going a couple times but I expect more consistency. CP3 figured out the defense and was solid. The Wings , particularly Ariza kept them in two games in the first half when Harden struggled , that first game they all shot abysmal and got away with it. Tucker defending 7 footers .... dude is tough as nails. GG , what can we say , living a dream. As a team they never really shot well from deep. They can play a lot better than they did ....
