I honestly think the Rockets never manage load like other teams. Why was he playing with soreness at all? It sounds like he should not have seen the court at all during this period, if that means he only plays the last game for chemistry, then so be it. Better a rusty Westbrook than no Westbrook at all. Clearly. So why play him? But I see this crap a lot with the Rockets, we had RoCo and Tucker turn an ankle in these last few games and we still play them. We're just like F It, they'll get through it...and then they make it worse and we wonder why we always have hurt players in the playoffs. Turns out the seeding didn't even matter too. HCA isn't a thing, we still get the toughest low seed of the bunch, so all that was really accomplished was that we played Russ on a sore quad for chemistry...and now he's going to miss games in the playoffs instead of missing glorified scrimmage games for us. Very dumb. Hopefully, Harden beast mode is activated and Ego can have fun. OKC is beatable without Russ, just that much harder.
Yea I don't understand how the dude was playing if the quad injury was that severe.That definitely is on Mike if that's the case.
There are so many layers of irony around Westbrook getting injured right now, the stars aligning to face OKC, and OKC having a 2-1 record against us with a very consistent offensive output of 112-113-112 - when fans here couldn't stop bashing CP and OKC wasn't projected to make the playoffs. I have some fears about this series. Westbrook is also the type to play himself out of the game when he's too charged up about an opponent, and this could be the worst of all, so maybe it's a blessing for him to watch and breathe from the sideline first.
ML has been a mess. Finding the real motives behind all these teams was tough, not knowing when guys would sit in the midst of a game. But I've had a good week thus far and last week. especially the games for portland and phx who have been red hot. and look for that to continue. the bubble game on saturday and/or maybe sunday is going to be easy $
The chances that D'Antoni played Westbrook, knowing the extent of his injury, are way, way lower than the chances that Westbrook concealed it because he foolishly thought he would help the team more by playing through it.
yup the only way in which this is not a **** up by medical staff is if the injury is no worse . But if he played and aggravated it then I mean cmon . it did look to me like he was already having some issues . Maybe he was expecting to have made more progress during the spurs game . it’s getting hard at this point to just think the rockets are getting unlucky . What is going on with our medical staff ? It feels like they are ripping off of Moreys “high risk” philosophy and applying it to how they treat players . We are so so lucky how durable James has been *knock on wood* tho I don’t like MDA’s rotations all the time , he DOES follow the guideline of medical staff and listens to players . It feels like somewhere along the way , the chain of decision making is flawed. I understand wanting to get game minutes to “tune-up” . But when guys aren’t 100 percent , don’t you have to be more cautious this close to the playoffs !?
Yeah, Russ seem like the kind of guy that would try to just play through it in order to tune up. I'd still say its on medical to stress the importance and risks. I'm sure they are doing their best but man it just sounds like he shouldn't have played at all during this time.
Looks like I was wrong, and the Basketball Gods do have a sense of humor after all (a ****ed up sense of humor, like when someone smiles at a funeral). I hope James is ready to face double teams pretty much from when he gets up to take his morning **** all the way until his midnight snack. Let's see if Gordon, Rivers, RoCo, Tuck, Uncle Jeff, and House can do better than the merry band of idiots from that Spurs series a few years ago, and actually help Harden out.
I'm talking about him finishing inside... that's paramount when he's playing and not simply getting to the line or settling for jumpers
How does Keith Jones still have a job? He is horrible. Russ recovering from Covid, it was Keith's job to make sure Russ was fit and at full strength before pushing himself. But no surprise really. Keith is the same guy that ****ed up Yao's career... ...and yet still has a job lol. Hey at least we have a terrific owner...
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but even if Russ comes back for the playoffs: 1) He is going to be rusty. Will take a couple of games to get back in game shape. By then it might be too late 2) He will most likely re-injure it. This is a great loss for once in a lifetime pre-season playoff tournament.
This seems to be one of the smaller concerns on CF but it will be exaggerated and amplified by national media and casuals.
