[ClutchFans] Rockets vs. Thunder: Five Matchups To Watch

Our Bench has to be big in the playoffs. I know they can be. And keep focus all four quarters. (Review 1st two games w/ OKC)

 

If this team is focused on both ends of the floor, and locked in on their 3 point shooting, I don't see this series going past 5. The Thunder, outside of Westbrook, "aren't scaring anyone." Force their bigs to pass out of the post, force Westbrook to the perimeter, and limit turnovers. I'm hoping and expecting to see a newly focused Rockets team come Saturday/Sunday.

Also, for the love of God, can Eric Gordon and Lou Williams figure out that they're good at basketball??

 

We'll know officially on Wednesday. But my gut tells me ABC will take GSW and CLE on the early afternoon Sat & Sun timeslots. TNT picks next and probably takes HOU/OKC and that would likely be the Sunday 8pm EST game. Again, don't know for sure but seems likely from past broadcast decisions.

 

That would give our guys an extra day to prepare and heal up some dings. I'm not opposed to that, although I'm as eager for the first game as anyone. I'm worried about the series. We need Harden at his best and at least one of Williams, Gordon, and Lou to be scorching the net from deep every game, in my opinion. A collective hot streak would be nice. So would the best defense they can muster, and some surprise contributions from unexpected sources. I wish we had Dekker back, but maybe Troy Williams (lots of freakin' Williams' to keep track of!) and Brown won't fold under the pressure and provide some scoring and defense.

Great preview by Clutch! Loved that he pointed out just how unfairly Harden's being viewed by the media, and the low expectations of the Rockets before the season. We've improved our record by 13 wins, with a game left to play. I thought we'd squeeze out 57 wins, but 54, or even better, 55 wins would be an outstanding achievement. The won/loss record during the regular season is important for seeding and our peace of mind, but playoff success is paramount.

 

Onaku must play for us to have a chance to stop the OKC bigs. I hope D'Antoni doesn't sit him the entire series.

 

Daniel Anthony would destroy him

 

No likes for correctly predicting the broadcast decision?

 

You got it!

(come on, people - it's a ClutchFans tradition to reward any kind of prediction that comes true!)

 

Heh, the analysis only made me more nervous that indeed, in terms of the superstars, they have a defender who's better at slowing harden than we do against westbrook. I'm just going to hope that the games by Harden were "off nights." Otherwise, we'll really need our shooters to come through. Then again, having won 3/4 it should also give us confidence that even with harden shooting horrifically and Westbrook going off, we still pulled them out. Shrugs. I keep saying it's all about whether Beverly takes out Westbrook by getting in a fight with him. It does seem bound to happen haha

Let's hope Gordon & Lou can figure out how to both be deadly together. I think we'll really really need it.

 

I'm excited to see: 1) how Gordon turns it up for the playoffs. He's such a great veteran presence and gives us another defender to throw at Westbrook. 2) Harden's shot making. If he's looking for foul calls on drives, they won't be there. Can he continue to finish over defenders? 3) How many times does Westbrook go to the line? The refs will be all over Beverley. What help and rotations can we offer? If we blitz and recover, is there any rebounding?

The biggest difference between OKC and Houston is the pressure that we put on them to score. We have so many X-factors of offense: Lou Williams; Anderson and Ariza ability to stretch the floor; Harden's passing, etc. OKC has to have everything go perfectly to put up points. If this game is all about rebounding, we'll compete and pull away.

 

The worry is he actually plays defense because winning might come in front of triple doubles now

 

I am worried simply because we have a terrible history vs the Thunder franchise going back to the Sonics days. That being said, we've beaten them 3/4 times this year and we have a better team so hopefully tonight will go well.

 

double post..sorry

 

He'll definitely play strong on-ball defense against Harden because that's where the cameras will be. But help defense? He'll probably still be reflexively shading off his man getting ready for the rebound.