That's the only possible reason they could lose to the Rockets, according to the national (and LA) media. The hard series against the Spurs took a lot out of them, while the Rockets had a much easier time beating the imploding Mavs. That seems to be the narrative being passed around today. HOWEVER... A huge part of being a professional athlete is conditioning. If your team is exhausted at an critical point this early in the playoffs, you don't deserve to advance. We're talking about the NBA championship. If you're not physically and mentally strong enough to fight through ANY type of adversity, then you simply don't get to play in the finals. Period. The Clippers were weak when it mattered most. The Rockets, on the other hand, were getting their asses handed to them with only a quarter left in which to right a quickly sinking ship. And the Rockets did what championship teams do: Dig down and summon up strength from deep within at the exact time when you need it most. Talent is only part of the equation in the post-season. The Clippers are making vacation plans today because they were the weaker team, physically and mentally. <BR><BR>
"but but it's the archaic division winner rules that gave HOU homecourt advantage" "….otherwise we coulda been outscored 49-18 in the last 14.5min at home in game 7 instead of game 6!!"
Wasn't a big part of the Grantland article posted earlier about the percentage of minutes their starters played? I recall something about teams with starters playing over 75% of minutes never advance. I believe they were exhausted due to a mixture of poor coaching and a weak bench. McHale did an excellent job of handling our minutes.
I think it had something to do with it, definitely. Rockets fans need to stop being so sensitive, when it's brought up. The problem is how it's interpreted. Part of the game is positioning yourself in the playoffs favorably and having depth on your team. That's where the Rockets excelled, so you could say they beat the Clippers before the playoffs even started. Clips just didn't do a good job of building their bench and they didn't chase down their division leader, so they paid the price for it, in the end.
Media is simply justifying their incorrect predictions. They knew LAC's situation going into games 6 and 7 and still stuck to their guns. Expect their flip-flop when HOU beats GS.
Houston is just lucky, Mavericks implode and rockets too advantage. Clippers Implode and Rockets took Advantage. Weird how every team so far they rockets played implode on themselves. Yeah, Rockets have nothing to do with that. If the Mavericks win that series, Rondo story doesn't exist. Before this series, everyone praised the clippers for beating the spurs and turning the corner, now that they lost, it's oh they collapsed and gave it away, horrible franchise. Ok media...
Stop this already. We won. Period. It is over. We have a date with destiny tomorrow so let's discuss that.
Who cares, we won. Life ain't fair. People can make excuses. Good for them. We won, we advance, and that's all that matters.
Jordan never had that excuse, Duncan n company didnt have that excuse, Lebron, Kobe etc. All the great players who plays TONS of minutes, you never heard it from them, this is pro ball, you suck it up and man up and perform!
whatever they can say whatever they want its the Rockets playing tomorrow night in Oakland - not the Clippers and trust me the Rockets are like the kings of "IF" when it comes to their team. They've been so snakebitten with injuries and bad luck its comical. Even this season but there was something inside of this group of guys and coaching staff that just said "ENOUGH" Clippers were tired -- sucks but the Rockets were out two starters -- so yeah we had better depth but we still had guys that probably had no business playing at all (Capela, Prigs) playing meaningful minutes and contributing. Thats what professionals do. Clippers did not - they had an injured Paul who looked to be fine from game 3 onwards. Clippers playing a 7 game series against the Spurs sucked but not sure what to say they won the series I am sure they would rather win in 7 than lose in 5. The whole division rule thing - at times it sucks but teams are not all divided equal. The Clippers have the added benefit of playing 2 extra home games a year thats counted as road games - now even though the lakers suck this year thats still a huge boost - maybe the Lakers at the beg of the season when they played could have taken one of those games if the Clippers had to go through the same sort of situation for other road games -- flights, hotels, early mornings or long nights. Its part of their division and they play in a weaker division outside of course of the Warriors. Division winners should be entitled to something even with the same record the rockets fought through much more adversity with far less fan fare (griffin was out 2-3 weeks and everything was how Paul kept the Clippers afloat with a .500 record) Conference record cant be fully trusted if the Rockets had to play a tougher conference schedule (since they must play all their division 4 times and only some of the other divisions 3 times) so how would that be a fair judge? Its not fair but its something we've had for a long time its almost like the media is saying "its not fair that the Rockets won the toughest division in the NBA in decades - that shouldnt entitle them to any benefits" And its not as simple as if it went to tie breakers clippers would have won with conference record (see above about how conference record then isnt a fair tie breaking situation). Yeah then Games 5 and 7 would be in LA and much harder for the Rockets to advance. But everyone is then conveniently forgetting that Games 3 and 4 where the Rockets were blown out would be in Houston and more than likely those outcomes wont happen. Game 1 where CP3 doesnt play - the Rockets probably arent as casual and all having to start on the road and steal one of the first two games making the series way more different in their heads coming home with HCA for games 3 and 4. despite all that the clippers were up 3-1 and then 3-2 with a sizeable lead late in the third quarter and even in the fourth and lost it. The Rockets deserve all the credit they had their guys collectively step up. Clippers tried to dig down and found nothing - tells me a lot about their character and the character of our own guys.
I mostly live in a cf.net bubble anyway. But, it's funny I don't hear these narratives directly. I only hear the reflections on these narratives. I listened to some 610 after the win, and the guy was going on about how the story was going to be all about how the Clippers lost and how Chris Paul couldn't get over the hump. I haven't heard much talk about it except from 610. I'm not worried about that or about whether the Rockets and heroes or villains or afterthoughts. Just win and I'll be happy. Maybe they can put an asterisk next to it because Michael Jordan wasn't 100%. I still won't care what they say.
I've also heard "Houston being down 2 starters was actually a hindrance to LAC as they weren't sure how we played..." and "LAC was playing too hard to win."
Shockingly, the game of basketball isn't played by 3 or 4 people. I'm glad that paid experts on basketball realized this fact decades after the game has been invented and dissected. Well, better late than ever I guess.
I do give them a nod, Clippers was exhausted. Should of let off the gas to let them catch their breathes.
