The NBA has their perfect scenario and it's not good for the Rockets

People said the same thing last year when they won 10 of their first 11 playoff games and were up 2-0 in the Conference Finals.

 

Last year Clippers was bounced from 1st round and Lakers didn't make post-season. Rockets at least played in 2nd round. If we judge only by most recent playoffs run, we should be in the mix.

Media can hate on rockets, but one'd need a villain for that. Last year many pundits said they wished GSW played HOU in WCF. But seeding wasn't rigged like that. GSW swept Blazers, hardly anyone talk about it, because people knew HOU was Warrior's closest Western rival that year. Probably would have meant higher TV ratings.

Media can still have their juicy match up if LAL plays LAC in 1st or 2nd round, don't have to be in the WCF. If they want narratives, how about a Giannis v. Harden NBA final. This year Giannis smack talking Harden's defense. The 2019 MVP candidate talks divided people to two camps, now squaring off for the trophy. Bucks lose finals, "oh no!", will Giannis stay.... ??? He must stay... unfinished business. Reporters can have many angles to write about into the summer.

 

the bucks look great, but I wonder if their outside shooting will hold up in the playoffs. its already been sliding a bit and now sit at 36.1%

george hill shooting over 50%, middleton 44%.... those are big jumps from their % last year. I wonder just how much beating up on some of the bottom feeders in the east is skewing their numbers. Its just hard to imagine this kind of shooting continuing for the whole year. some other high % shooters are korver and ilyasova, but can they even stay on the floor against some playoff teams ?

id rather this rocket team peak late in the year than early. they would still probably be our toughest matchup even if they were off though. giannis is just a different animal than even AD when it comes to attacking the rim. and he is a media darling so the refs give him the benefit of the doubt often.

 

I didn't because Giannis hadn't been embarassed in the playoffs, now he's worked on his shot the whole year and is unstoppable and is even better defensively than he was last year, and the team has another year of chemistry and the best stretch 5 in the game. Unbelievable how people discount them they will dominate and in hindsight it will be totally predictable when they win 70 games and win it all. Anything can happen though I give you that.

 

100% agreed with this. most of the LA fans are front-runners and they will go for the Lakers and if the Lakers face someone else in the WCF the league will get money from both markets. It doesn't make sense to promote the LA-vs-LA thing on the face of it.

 

No one is really discounting them. I am definitely saying that if we faced them we’d probably lose in 5. I just don’t think they’re as unbeatable as you seem to think. Middleton can’t possibly be this good in the playoffs, Giannis hasn’t solved his shooting problem, and I expect Bledsoe to suck. But yeah, I mean it’s not outrageous to have your view either. They are the definite favourites.

 

The Saint of Kobe wants an honest respectable Playoffs.....or so they say.

 

I was AT the Lakers / Kings series rooting for the Kings. Worst officiated series ever. But it was ONE series. Even as a Kings fan at the time I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that the NBA had told the refs to Intentionally cheat.

There is NO way that the NBA could rig games via refs and avoid a whistleblower coming forward and putting a lot of people in prison. There are Billions riding on sports books and there’s no way Vegas would stand for games being rigged by the league.

Tim D went to prison. You are proving the argument against yourself.

 

So a ref is in prison for rigging games proves refs don’t rig games? That ref straight up said the NBA sends certain refs into certain games to influence the outcome. I wish it wasn’t true but I believe him.

 

It proves that IF the NBA were rigging games they would have been caught by the FBI and put in prison as well. I don’t believe his BS excuses that the league does it for a minute. He was just trying to distract people from his BS.

 

MLB has had the opportunity to have yankees/Dodgers in the World Series for like 5 years and they never let it happen. NBA wanted Lebron Kobe in finals for years never happened

 

The clippers don't really have much of a fan base. Their tickets were going for like $10.

 

No... because Houston is the foil. The heel.

 

The last few years moist refs are "subconscious" against the Rockets and a couple who are insure of there jobs its blatant especially in the playoffs just my opinion.

 

Nothing new. Silver and his goons have screwed us in the postseason before.

 

The league will definitely be rigged to improve ratings and if we end up on the Lakers side of the bracket, there will be 0 chance we make the WCF.

Basically we need to get that 2nd or 3rd seed or we're screwed.

 

Agreed how much more of a fan base will they be able to pull in with the clippers on top of Lakers? The Houston market has got to be higher than clippers market provided the Lakers are in

 

... in related news, fire sale on aluminum hats ...

 

If we don’t play near perfect basketball, we’re screwed either way. League is going to want the Clippers over us as well.

 

Clippers are team glass man. I still believe in Lebron more than Kawhi even if its just due to durability.