ESPN: First Round Upset in NBA Western Conference?

Well if we draw the Spurs in the first round, people should think we're going to lose. I'm not saying we can't beat them, but the Spurs would definitely be favored in that series despite us having homecourt advantage.

 

I would much rather take the Spurs in the 1st round than the 2nd round. 2nd round they will be eyes-rolled back, well-oiled machine Spurs. Or even more so than the 1st round. But I really think the Spurs can't hang with our guys. In their prime, absolutely. Now? Harden and Howard would be too beast.

 

Why are you surprised?

We have a coach who HAS NEVER EVER in his life gone past the 1st round as a coach. Playoff time coaches play chess, McHale plays checkers (DD). Our recent history suggests that we are just not a good playoff team despite having a superior roster to most of the other teams.

Would you be surprised if we lost in the 1st round to the SPurs or Clippers?

 

McHale has the number 3 seed with a plethora of injuries this year.

He has done a good job.

 

...in the regular season

Playoffs? Not so much.....

And this thread is talking about the PLAYOFFS

 

Lmao here you guys go. You guys are the same ones that were laughing last year at everyone who picked Portland. This means nothing, if I had to pick I would've said the same thing. Not a big deal

 

8 games to go, get all 8 your definitely set in 2nd spot. The most the Rockets can lose out 8 and still get the 2nd spot will be 3 anything more than 3 will get the Rockets the 4th or 5th spot.

 

I thought he did well last year in the playoffs.

Yeah he took a while to double Aldridge, but the Blazers played well. They were hitting tough shots and Harden played horribly the whole series.

Rockets still win the series if Jeremy Lin kept it together mentally.

 

Chris Broussard picked Harden to win the MVP last night, where is a hating from him? I do not think so.

Tim Legler likely picked Curry last night, but it was ok too. Legler does not like the rockets very much, but I do not think he hates the rockets either.

The rockets had the first round upset history last year, all other teams have passed the first round before. What do you want them to say?

 

If you think he did well last playoffs, then so be it.

To each his own then

 

Uh, I agree with them. The fact that many of us have been saying for weeks that we'd like to get the 2nd seed not so much because it means home court in Round 2, but rather because it allows us to avoid the Spurs or Clippers in the 1st round tells you all you need to know about how confident we are in this team's ability to win a playoff series. It's dependent heavily on who we play.

Add to that the loss of Beverley and the ongoing questions about Dwight(is his knee really healthy?) and of course the Rockets are the most likely first round upset.

 

Because the teams are pretty equal 2-7, the only legitimate upset would be 1 and 8

 

Remember, before the season started, ESPN had the Rockets as the most likely Western Conference team that made the playoffs last year but wouldn't make it this year.

Look how that has turned out so far.

Let them say whatever they want to. Honestly, the Western Conference is so close, from top to the bottom, I wouldn't really consider any team losing in the first round to be an upset except Golden State. But let's hope the Rockets shut the media up just like they have been all season long.

 

If we're being honest...he had good moments and bad moments in that series. His bad moments cost us multiple games, though. No adjustment on Aldridge was inexcusable, but going back to the Asik/Howard lineup was smart (though it happened to late).

I don't think he was the primary reason for us losing that series, though. If Harden doesn't lay an egg, we win in 6 games or less.

 

There was plenty of blame to go around. But McHale made lots of mistakes. Not doubling Aldridge or at least putting someone other than T-Jones or Dwight on him for the first 2 games was a critical error. Not calling a timeout(or instructing the team to do so) when Lin had the ball late in Game 4 allowed the Blazers to force OT where they won. Not focusing all of our defense's attention on Lillard at the end of Game 6 when literally everyone in the arena knew they were drawing up a play for him was inexcusable. Even taking Dwight out in the 4th quarter of Game 1 was questionable. Sure, he was bricking his free throws when the Blazers started intentionally fouling him, but without him, we had no interior D and Portland quickly tied the game which led to OT(again where they won).

It's that list of screwups that has me still upset to this day over the premature 3-year extension. I've said many times I think McHale's done an excellent job coaching this season. But he still needs to prove himself in the playoffs. We cannot afford those kinds of mistakes this year given the distinct possibility we may wind up with a team coached by Gregg Popovich as our first round opponent.

 

To be honest, I don't remember too many good moments. It took him almost two whole games to go to the Asik / Howard line up and that was forced on him since he tried everything else. That is reactive coaching, not proactive esp when LMA was draining everything over TJ

Having that bonehead mental midget Lin in crunch time cost us. The above are two are the main reasons we lost the series and both could have been fixed with a proactive coach. Obviously Harden being shut down cost us but as a coach you need to be able to find different ways to get your main guy going and give him different looks esp when Portland clearly said we're taking away what Harden likes and going to make him work no matter what it takes.

Anyway, it's done. It's the past. I'm not going to discuss anymore. Let's hope he has become a better coach after that humiliation.

 

That prediction isn't all that bad. OKC has major injury issues, Spurs, Clippers, Blazers, and Mavericks records are very close. Most people wouldn't have predicted the Warriors to make the jump they did in Kerr's first year, and the Grizzlies have done better than most expectations. The big beef I assume you have is with the Rockets win total prediction, and most of us on the board after the off season didn't think a 50 win season was going to happen since we didn't get a big name free agent. Not only have the Rockets shattered the media's prediction of the 2014-15 record, they out did most optimistic ClutchFans predictions, and this is going with the assumption of a relatively healthy team. They did this with major injuries to starters and reserves, and with having multiple shake ups to the team via trades and bringing players in and out of Rio Grande.

I'm very proud of what the Rockets have accomplished this year, and I also don't fault people for thinking this wasn't a 50 win team at the start of the year (many of us didn't think so either) with all of what we lost on paper.

 

media just hate us
not like golden state (other than best record in the season) has proven anything yet
remember #1 san antonio and dallas got knock out of 1st round playoff before

 

not bad
at least they got minnesota and sacramento correct

 

what a stupid segment on ESPN... do they not realize were are tied in the loss column with the 2nd seed?

like, we have the same record essentially... we could easily end up with the 2nd seed.