[The Ringer] - The Further the Rockets Go, the More They’ll Need Their Other Stars

I’m surprised as to how everyone is fearing the warriors all of a sudden. They are not the same team as last year and don’t have the same drive or hunger. Everyone who is thinking it will be a shoot out 120 point plus series doesn’t know basketball. This series will be decided by defense. I don’t see either team breaking a 100 points. It will be chippy and lots of fouls and technicals will be called. Rockets have stepped it up on defense and will shock all the talkers after game one.

 

Thanks for the article but I’m going to respond to your “the way the rockets have been playing” comment because it’s something I’ve been seeing all over this forum.

What is the margin of victory the Rockets needed to display in order to have confidence for this series? Because they easily cruised in the first 2 rounds. They have 8 wins by an average of 14.5 points and only 1 of them was under double digits. It was not even close. The rockets can play better but they haven’t played poorly. What if they won each game by 40? Wouldn’t really mean anything going forward.

My point is, if you thought we had a chance to beat the Warriors before the playoffs started, I’m confused why anyone would change their mind now. We’ve done exactly what we were supposed to do and probably even faster than most of the media expected.

I get that the Warriors are favorites, but we’ve continued to display that we are a legitimate threat.

 

Don't you mean the:

UNITED Warriors

 

Are the Warios going to rub their pelvises on Rocket shooters like Utah did? I don't think so. We'll be free stroking this series.

 

The Rockets were clearly playing better during their win streaks than what they have shown in many of the games in the playoffs.

It's a legitimate concern because they'll need to be at the top of their game to beat the Warriors. The Warriors seem to be in top form across the board right now. The Rockets have a lot of questions. James has been hot and cold, Gordon has been mostly bad, Anderson is out of the rotation.

Capela and Paul have been mostly awesome, and James has been generally awesome with a couple of bad games.

Gonna need everybody to step up.

 

GS has had their issues just like the rockets have. not all of there guys have been playing well. it just looks like that way for someone who hasn't seen every single one of their games. theyve gotten beat just like the rockets have.

 

^^^That's a post I made way early in the season, in December. I honestly don't know if it applies anymore. Gordon has been mediocre in these playoffs, Ryno is out of the lineup and Tucker isn't on our bench anymore. Nene has significantly declined (but should be better against David West). And Luc is still slowly getting his groove back. Our depth has taken a toll these last few months, hopefully one or two of these guys can be resurgent against the dubs.

However, Capela's ascension was an unexpected development. I don't know what the series is gonna really look like until game 1 in all honesty, but I do the Rockets have a damn good shot.

 

Depending on how hungry they are because the Rockets are hungrier.... all I know they already got them 2 rings......but I think Durant will be pretty hungry to get more.

 

the old "anyone who doesn't agree with me doesn't know basketball" line is so annoying.

Tipjar bet right now that the winner of majority of games will score over 100 points. I'll bet you $100 right now to the tipjar.

If there are 5 games, 3 will be won by a team scoring 100 (or more), if 6 it will be 4, if 7 4. If it's a sweep we'll call it a push.

 

Look.... the Warriors are a monster, and they may very well won this series and a title this year.

However the idea that all of a sudden Eric Gordon has to play like a superstar is false.

The Rockets need better three point shooting from their role players but none of them need to turn into stars.

Also, the Rockets and Warriors have each gone 5 in their two rounds. The Spurs were a joke. They had almost no talent, they were without their best player and their coach lost his wife. That wasn’t a hard series. The Warriors are a terrible match up for the Pelicans.

We will play the games and see what happens. Neither the Rockets nor the Warriors have been pressed this post season.

 

Sure but there aren’t new questions about how we matchup against the Warriors as a result of the first 2 rounds. The Rockets need to play better to beat a historically great team. No doubt. But they’ve beaten 2 playoff teams by an average of close to 15 points per game. We are not by any means limping into this next round.

 

My post isn’t about how we matchup against the Warriors or our odds of beating them. My point is that the Rockets have taken care of business easily to this point. It’s weird to sour on them right now.

On that note, the Warriors haven’t played a team nearly as good as the Rockets either. It’s an unknown for both of us, how this thing ends up.

 

Somebody tell Eric Gordon the playoffs have started!

 

If they were playing right now at the level they were during the streaks there'd be a lot more optimism. Right now it feels a lot more like a "puncher's chance" than "let's do this"

 

EG has to get going. He's been straight trash in the Utah series. Hopefully without Gobert clogging the paint he would be able to penetrate more.

 

we aren't the same team with Ryno/EGO no showing either.

 

Eh, I’m not sure how much worse we look than we did during the streaks, if at all. Outside shooting is obviously cold but the level of intensity and quality of competition every night is superior to the average team we beat in the regular season.... and these games haven’t been close. We put up a 50 point quarter a week ago and have had multiple 30 point leads. Total domination.

If we won by 20 last night and Harden had 40 the mood here would be totally different. But that’s because Recency Bias is too powerful for the average fan to get their mind past. Both those things have happened more than once in the last 2 weeks.