By defeating the Pacers, the Thunder now hold the eighth playoff seed for now. The season is still young, but it is possible that Rockets face Thunder in the first round. To me the Rockets would rather face, say, Pelicans, Trailblazers, Jazz or Nuggets instead. If it looks like the Rockets are matched up against the Thunder in the first round late in the season, they might consider resting players to tank in order to dodge Thunder in the first round.
No. You dont tank no matter what. You try to get the 1 seed to secure homecourt in every round of the playoffs. Thats pu$$y **** to lose games just to dodge an opponent
Have you seen Nene and PJ Tucker? Our cocks are collectively harder than anything OKC can muster. The only thing I fear is injuries. We are going to have to ice our balls all summer after all the boning we are going to be doing in the playoffs this year.
No. Just no. Warriors are the bar, you do everything to put yourself in the best position to beat them. That means gunning for 1st.
Did you see the ending to that game? Melo air ball followed by a Westi air ball and aberinas or whatever his name is got a offensive rebound to save them. Go watch the last minute of that game and see how aweful they are on offense in end of game situations.
Thunder blew another 10-point lead in the 4th quarter and were on the ropes when Thaddeus Young missed a free throw to tie the game with under a minute to go. Nobody is scared of the Thunder.
Didn't we just beat that same Pacers squad by like 20+ a week or so ago? Lol the thunder? Scared? No way, I would love to play them in the 1st round and send Westbrick back home 2 years in a row. They suck. Any team led by Russ is never a serious threat, the media is finally coming around to what Iv already known for years. Apparently KD, olidipo and kanter all agree with me lol.
lol at tanking just to avoid the mess that is OKC smh, we would handle them in 5...not even worried about them
Pacers had the game if they had played well at the end. Oladipo went full westbrick at the end. There was no flow and they miss a free throw. One of their last possessions was terribly executed. Also their announcers called it before okc possession. They just had to rebound the ball and they could have win it. Instead they collapse with Westbrook’s drive, he passed it. Abrenas drived and missed westbrick rebounded then his airball was tipped in by abrenas. Yet pacers had a chance to tied and what did they do after a time out. Young inbounded the ball to Oladipo and it was so bad pg13 tipped it and stole it when young wanted to saved the ball. He should have let the ball go out. Just terrible. I’ve watch okc a bit specially on the 3&4th quarters. They are bad. I wouldn’t fear them they are ready to implode and trade PG or fire billy.
How many 1st seed teams were deathly afraid of the 8th seed in NBA history? Sure.. the Supersonics should have feared Deke a little more. Dirk should have honored the skills of Baron Davis. The Spurs should've respected Zach Randolph. Tim Hardaway certainly should have showed up against Charlie Ward in 99' (the year of @tinman) but this Thunder team isn't functional yet. If they become functional they'll climb to something other than 8th, if they're dysfunctional they'll be easy to pick apart. I don't see the worry here when nothing is in the bank. We have a long way to go before the West is settled. If we want a championship... bring on all comers... the 1995 Rockets know ALL about that.
While you are looking at potential matchups...going for the 2nd seed could force you to face the (potentially) 3rd seed Spurs, followed by the (potentially) 1st seed Warriors. That is AFTER facing whoever is the 7th seed, because of dodging the (potentially) 8th seed Thunder, in the first round. YAY!
You always, always go for the 1 seed, playing in GS is not easy deep in the playoffs... The Thunder aren’t even better than the Jazz. Let’s see of they can hold on to that playoff spot.
Man forget that nonsense. I bet the Thunder are going to implode before then, but even if they don't they are first round fodder this year if they make the playoffs at all. They may be capable of good defense, but that offensive system is beyond broken