none of the championship contenders are healthy. i don't consider Cleveland to be a championship contender even if they go to the finals, as i doubt that they can defeat a healthy Lakers, Spurs or Houston squad. having said that... Lakers are missing Bynum. it's deja vu. that squad wasn't good enough to win it all last year, but likely will this season. Spurs lost Ginobili for the season, and Duncan's banged up. they might be able to beat Utah, but anyone else could upset them in the first round. Celtics are without KG, and when/if he comes back he may only last a round or two before he has to shut it down again. they're not going to the finals. Hornets don't have Chandler healthy. they weren't really a contender to begin with, but even less now. Jazz aren't missing anyone, but might finish with the 8th seed. they're a terrible road team except against the Rockets ; i don't see them winning two rounds on the road. Rox just need to avoid them until they're knocked off. Denver and Portland are healthy, but they don't have what it takes to even beat Cleveland, let alone the Lakers. the Mavs are way underachieving, but as it is, Josh Howard is just starting to work himself back into the rotation, with only about 10 days till the playoffs against the Lakers (lose) or the Nuggets (lose) or the Spurs (win). if they Rockets can get the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, or 7th seed, and don't play Utah in the first round, they can go to the WCF, and then anything can happen.
Did I miss something? We were swept by the Lakers, the Cavs have been looking great and we still have to worry about the Celtics. Besides, if you're afraid of Utah in the first round then you're certainly not ready to talk championship. Let's just get out of the first round and then go from there.
Maybe we need a Denver vs Seattle moment where the Lakers lose in the first round to really kick this post season off. DD
bynum is said to be back by this week. I don't see this rockets team to beat LA in 7 game series anyways. I'm happy if they can advance to 2nd round and hopefully play denver.
no chance Kobe's Lakers drop an opening round series. We just have to take care of our business and hope things fall into place for us
Yes, Kobe could get injured. But I don't wish that on Kobe. I'd much rather beat the Lakers straight up.
Except teams are looking at us and go, "They don't have T-mac, Carl Landry was shot, and Ron Artest is back to his bullheaded chucking ways. Yao? Just front him and there's no way they pose a threat."
And don't forget, we have no point gaurd and we can't get out of the first round. But other than that we're a lock to win it all! hehe.
unlike all those other team's injuries the rox acutally just replaced tmac with artest. So we should not be down and out like the spurs for example that lost manu--who is going to replace manu? Artest can score and PLAY D, which mac could not or would not. Yes mac did well in the postseason, but everyone stood around and watched. Now with Artest if he can stay controlled and move the ball and work it into yao and if artest can force the issue down low himself, I would say the rox are one of the healthiest/best playing teams heading into the postseason and you add landry and woot woot ................................holy run on sentence batman.
They probably don't even know who Landry is, much less the fact that he got shot. They're probably looking at our roster thinking, "Nice, T-Mac is done for the year. We can contain the overrated Yao because of his weak mentality. Artest is on crack... WHOA Mutombo is still in the league!?"
getting out of the first round is priority number one and is best achieved by avoiding the Lakers by finishing 2nd, 3rd, 6th, or 7th in the west. if they can avoid the Jazz too, even better, but they actually have a fighting chance against the Jazz if they finish 2nd or 3rd. right now it looks like the Rockets will win the southwest, and finish in the top 4. the Spurs outlook is looking really bad right now. Parker and a hobbling Duncan's not enough. sure, the Lakers swept Houston, but if the Rockets just don't finish 4th or 5th, they can avoid them until the WCF. the Rockets don't have to worry about anyone from the east until they get to the finals. looking at the KG less Celtics, or the Rafer led Magic, i think Cleveland with homecourt advantage (37-1 right now) is a lock to go to the finals. the thing is they still have to play 3 straight on the road after the first two. remember Yao's "see you in Houston!"? the Rockets just need to steal one of the first two games. of course, they still have to get to the finals... my point is, in the next week or so, the playoff picture will be much clearer, but it's looking wide open right now, Lakers notwithstanding.
even with injured bynum lakers are still a level a bove us. Cleveland is looking great, celtics have slowed down a bit but definitly a legit contender. then you have spurs portland which we will have trouble with in the post season. lets just get out of first round and then start thinking about championship, cuz right now you dont know what you are going to get in the playoffs with this houston squad
If the Rockets want a chance to go far they need to hope that another team knocks out the Lakers and Jazz.
If we get some solid PG play and Ron plays under control I like our chances against any team But those are big if's
I dont get how this is the rockets best chance at all based on your post....you're basically saying it's their best chance if this happens, and if this happens, and then if this happens, and if this happens, and so on. These ifs can exist any other year as well. You're completely dismissing the cavs, not sure why because they can definitely reach the finals and Lebron can definitely go Crazy like Dwade did to dallas. You also say cleveland cant beat the spurs, but then you say the spurs aren't gonna do anything without Manu..I'd say Cleveland can definitely beat a Manu-less Spurs team... Not that i think NO is a contender, but Tyson will be back next week. You didn't even mention Orlando. You have thought out a very unlikely scenario for houston, all based on assumptions and ifs, yet you don't take similar scenarios into consideration for other teams. You can sum it all up by saying anything can happen, yes it can, but for ANY team.
