LOL, even the local Houston media is picking the Lakers in 6: ----------------------------------------------------------- The joy of six again? Not for the Rockets this time Jonathan Feigen May 03, 2009 What had been a burden has become a rallying cry. Criticism is motivation. Doubts are fuel. Though the Rockets have made a point to announce that they place no stock in the predictions of their imminent playoff demise - and in truth, they seem to have enjoyed playing the role of the prohibitive underdog - that does not mean that the Lakers' status as heavy favorites is not justified. The Lakers have earned that. The dominated the Western Conference and swept the Cavaliers, the only team with a better record this season. They played the Rockets four times and beat the Rockets four times. Of course the analysts looking at the matchup expect the Lakers to win. Some would go further. They would argue that the Rockets will beat the Lakers right after pigs fly. So what is everyone taking about these days? Swine flu! The Rockets might have more substantial reasons to believe in themselves than that, but going back to those doubts, they might in some ways offer the best reasons to not dismiss the Rockets' chances as impossible dreams. The Rockets have been their best when challenged, their worst when seemingly on a roll. In past seasons, they had been front-runners. When things were going well, they were pretty good at keeping it going. When they went badly, they struggled to turn it around. They seemed to have begun to change that mid-way through last season. The Rockets developed the sort of fortitude necessary to win in the playoffs. They did not win their series against the Jazz that season because they were out-manned playing without Yao Ming and with Rafer Alston missing 2 ½ of the six games. Going into that series, they seemed hopeful at best, but did not seem to expect to win. That has changed since. The Rockets began the playoffs after a tough, disheartening loss in Dallas, but they were certain they would beat the Trail Blazers. They now face the daunting task of going against the Lakers, but again seem to believe in themselves as they could not before. Much of that comes from the personality of the players that fill the roster, from Ron Artest's sometimes goofy belief that he is among the game's top handful of players to the influx of youth that have no reason to doubt themselves. Most of that comes from Rick Adelman, who mixed unblinking faith in his team with harsh demands that it do better. He did not panic through the season's - or even in games' - ups and downs, but neither does he accept them. It has always been the height of idiocy to assume he drowsily sits back and accepts mediocrity. His anger is carefully-timed but as harsh as any. That has led the Rockets to always believe they can do better. If Kobe Bryant goes nuts for awhile, if the Lakers' defense bottles up the Rockets' vital ball movement, if the Lakers go on one of those Staples Centers runs that gets the hard-to-please faithful from their seats, the Rockets will believe they can return any punch they receive. That is why this series is no sure thing, despite the Lakers' wealth of size and talent built around one of the game's greatest players. The Rockets have been their best when things seem their worst. They seem pretty tough these days. It would be wrong to count them out. There is, however, no doubting the enormity of the challenge they face. Lakers in six. ----------------------------------------------------------- http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2009/05/the_joy_of_six_again_not_this.html
That's why we play the games. If the results are determined by the media, there would be no need to actually watch the games.
OP read the article again, and then take "lakers in 6" out of context. theres a reason why he said that
LOL, LA is NOT that good. LA is a damn talented team don't get me wrong, but if we can play aggressive defense like we have been, the calls being pretty fair like they have been (not Stern favored calls for LA), and we shoot a little better than we did versus the Blazers (esp at the FT line), we can win this series. It takes slowing down Kobe as well as Gasol OR Odom to beat the Lakers. They are build like the Spurs of old, a bunch of role players who seem better because of their 3 best players. When playing Spurs before (with Gino) if you could make the BIG 3 into the BIG 1.5 or 2, then you had a shot to win, and that's what needs to happen vs. LA.
1) portland shot 45% v. us, so obviously i don't expect LA to shoot any worse b/c they have more options. 2) we shot 47% v. portland, which was very good, so anything near 50% i'd be ecstatic, and that would make us much more competitive 3) i do agree with you about making fts more, but more importantly, GET TO THE LINE MORE. we have to slow the game down, be more physical b/c the lakers are more of a finesse team. i disagree that the lakers are like the spurs. 1) they're much more balanced and deep offensively + they have arguably the best player and closer in the game 2) they really don't have a big 2 or 3. pau gasol only averages 11-12 shots per game. after kobe, the ball really spreads around and that's why they are so hard to stop. again, we gotta play near perfect to win and that can happen. there's a reason they "toyed" with the jazz. kobe really didn't turn it on outside of game 4 and gasol did'nt even play that well and they destroyed the jazz pretty easily if you actually watched the game. but like i said, once you start a game, anything can happen. we gotta steal game 1 and hold homecourt.
I would consider this season a success if we went to 6 games. Call me a scaredy cat or a coward if it makes you feel better, but the Rockets just do not have enough offense to match the Lakers. We are missing 20 ppg, something that we made up for with defense against the Blazers. Locking Roy in the Portland series meant almost a guaranteed victory because it forced their other guys to step up. The Lakers are a different story. There are 5 players on the Lakers that can score 20+ on any given night against the Rockets, and about 3 of those can go for 30 easily. The lakers are big, huge. They are long and they are athletic. 6 games is what I am hoping for. 7 is a gift. 5 is realistic, too. and 4 is not impossible. If Yao was an imposing force that would hammer it down everytime -- like Shaq did during his prime -- then we wouldn't have to play nervous basketball. He's our guy and yet I still think he's too easily neutralized, if you will. It pisses me off that a team from the Nuggets/Mavericks will be under the title "WCF". That title did not come easily in the past if a team played in the West. I'm disappointed but I guess there are easy roads for 1st round teams to make WCF, like the Rockets of 07. Beat the Jazz, beat the Warriors = WCF, which was really a possibility then. BRING NASH IN! BRING PEJA IN! BRING A HEALTHY T-MAC IN! Whatever happens from here is something we can build on for next year. Next year (I hate saying this), I wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than a 7 game WCF series (assuming we resign Ron and make use of T-Mac, either via trade or bringing him back into the team).
Then I'd expect us to hold LA to a lower percentage because the Blazers were the best offensive team in terms of efficiency this season. Their pace distorted the numbers, but if you were to actually look at pace-adjusted stats, you'd see that Portland is actually the better offensive team. The Lakers are just scarier because of Kobe, but I think we are better prepared for him because we faced a beast in Brandon Roy. Then again, you could say that the 45% we held Portland to is not what it seems to be. You could say that the blowouts in games 1 and 6, as well as the sub-par performance of many of their usually consistent role players (READ: OUTLAW), distorted the numbers. Then we don't know what we can attribute to the Rockets defense, and what we can attribute to the Blazers' inexperience. As Adelman always says, it's likely a mix of both. Honestly, after all I said, I don't have a clue what to expect in terms of the Rockets' performance in Game 1. We haven't seen the good guys play this deep into the postseason for a while now. All I know is that if they bring the hustle and the energy that they showed in Round 1, then they are going to put themselves in a good position to win every game (barring a Kobe explosion). They must continue to look for Yao. They have to wait for the good shots to come, which will likely be at near the end of the shotclock. Scola and Landry will have to continue to hit their shots to punish the defense for cheating. They have to beat Kobe up, and Artest has to keep his emotions down. He should just bruise Kobe and make him hurt and not try to do too much on the offensive end unless he's open. Kobe is going to roam for sure, so he has GOT to make his open looks. Man, I got too excited just typing this all up. GO ROCKETS!
We shot 47% against Portland in the regular season as well. Unfortunately we shot 46% against Lakers in the regular season, so I expect our shooting to be a little worse going against the Lakers.
Oh well, Rockets are clearly an underdog and aren't favored to win the series. But that also doesn't mean they should go on the court, give the ball to the LA and let them score. This is basketball, this is men sport, you have to fight hard to earn W in your column. Lakers haven't impressed me so much, they have their weak spots and I believe Rockets have all the tolls to stop them. I'd even go further and say that Rockets have deeper bench than Lakers.
We will need to replicate the lone Jazz win in the Lakers series. They slowed the game down, got physical with the Lakers and forced Kobe to shoot a lot. We are better equipped than the Jazz to play that style.
