No they didn’t the 22 game win streak got bounced in the first round. The team that took the lakers to 7 was the yao artest rockets without Tmac. That team was good and could have won had Yao not gone down in game 3, but they didn’t win 22 game straight. The 22 streak rockets was the 08 team and Yao was lost for the season after the 10th win.
I'm not. D'Antoni is a nice guy and all and it's a shame that he'll never ring, but he had his chance this year and completely blew it. He completely choked Game 6 with his horrific decisions on minutes distribution. We just wasted one of Harden's prime years with incompetent coaching and we can't continue this. Being capped out, Morey will have to find different ways to improve the team, and coaching is a great way to do it since hiring a new coach doesn't count towards the cap.
yeah, free throw rates actually go up in the playoffs. people love this myth that refs stop calling fouls. it only goes down for james harden for some reason. i didn't look after the last few games, but at one point in our series, steph curry (who warriors fans will claim never gets calls) had a higher free throw rate in the 2019 playoffs than james harden. that's how drastically different james is treated. i looked at the top 100 minutes guys in the playoffs, and the drop off in harden's free throw rate was the 82nd worst, and i believe westbrook was the only big name player with a bigger drop-off (and it was basically the same as harden's). i believe giannis' actually went up substantially, and it was already higher than harden's in the regular season. even accounting for the free throw prevention of the opponent, harden's drop was basically as bad as it gets (and the drop last year was much larger than this year). somehow, only james harden getting up-ended on 3's is where the refs just suddenly swallow the whistle. also, i don't know why, but i feel like the magical 23 points curry scored in the 4th needs to be mentioned in the context that 8 of those points were free throws when the rockets were fouling on purpose in the last 30 seconds. he sucks all series, then has a 15 point 4th quarter and now we're supposed to act like it was the greatest quarter ever while harden with his 35/7/5 for the series is a playoff choker.
Sure enough, ESPN had the spin ready of how curry outscored the whole rockets team in the last 4 minutes or something. He made 2 shots and was gifted 8 freebies but hey, what good is context when you have so many sheep to herd.
Wow I know we’re all disappointed but this is a little much. Those teams even with a healthy Yao or Tmac would never get to the 2nd round let alone a game 7 in the WCF against the best team maybe ever. I think some of you keep forgetting that we’re losing to the demented team nobody can even win more than one game against and we’ve went to game 6 and 7 in b2b years.
I’m proud of what James and the team has accomplished this year but bitterly disappointed in what could have been
Woulda, coulda, shoulda. The Harden-era Rockets are looking like they will be mentioned in the same breath as the numerous 90's teams that couldn't get past Jordan and his Bulls. And another MVP in Harden who never won a title. Hopefully all that changes but it ain't looking good.
Worriers are better without Durant and you know it. Curry is one of, if not the most, efficient scorers of all time with unlimited range and with KD on the floor he takes way less shots. That makes them worse. Remove KD and suddenly the most efficient scorer or all time gets all the shots. Only chance anyone has is if Curry is injured and has an "off" night. Otherwise they gonna roll everybody until KD comes back.
Rockets are going down as chokesters and its a reality at this point. Gerald Greene didn't register a slam dunk if I'm not mistaken. Gordon doesn't play well when angry. It s best to not count them out for next year.
Only CERTAIN Whistles get swallowed The League is more HANDS ON with the Refs in the Playoffs Rocket River
I don’t believe the team is better without Durant, but I do believe the offense can be way more explosive.
Yeah it's a weird dynamic. I definitely believe that when Durant is out of the game if Curry is on they are nearly unbeatable. His 3 point making ability is just soul stealing. He can't be guarded. It's really just a matter of whether he's on or not.
He can by KD and that was my point. KD playing big minutes as the #1 option makes them a worse team imo because nice guy Curry willfully (and mercifully) takes a backseat.
The blazers won last night's rebounding battle so blazers are actually positioned well after game 1 loss. I don't expect looney and Bell to outperform harkless, kanter, and Collins for the entire series. Playing through KD does not make them worst because bogut was scoreless in rockets game 6 and bogut has not made more than 4 points in the games since KD went down. KD puts pressure on the other team's bigs pretty much every possession so it wears down their bigs over the course of seven game series IMO. The clippers pretty much got one good game from montrez harrell and Lou Williams because of the pressure of guarding KD.
my face was sincerely burning for the last couple minutes of the game, just like i was supposed to give a graduation speech in front of everybody but i did not prepare, just standing there in front of everybody not able to utter a single word, i haven't felt like this ever in my life, the feeling of shame is so strong, i was not even able to talk to my wife about the game after it, since i told her that the rockets get this series since KD is down, they will finally go into the finals........
I was surprised with the outcome. I was counting on rivers to step up, counting on green to hit big shots. I was surprised at the lack of composure from cp3, and the cp3 offensive production was great but the arguing and distractions with the referees was a lost of focus for team as a whole.
