When you realize your favorite team's season is going to amount to a big steaming pile of average you start to wonder. What if we had gotten blow out game 6 last year as it looked like we were headed for until we sat up out of our coffin and made the comeback?? If we had lost game 6 after getting our clocks cleaned in game 3 and 4 would we be watching the same team we are watching now? If we would have lost could we actually have considered winning round 1 against a Dallas team that really had no business being in the playoffs with an injured starting small forward, a basket case in Rondo and a fossil in Dirk a success? Maybe just maybe we should have lost that series for the overall good of the team. This year it has sucked to be a fan of this team. From the buildup over the summer to the absolute donkey punch that is our record. That comeback was awesome. There is no denying that. But I wonder if it gave us some false sense of accomplishment and some sense of being right there when we are clearly staring across the grand canyon at the Larry O'Brien on the other side. Would you trade last years game six if it meant fundamental changes over the summer that had us a solid coach and maybe a different looking team that had us sitting at say 38-11 instead of 25-24. I just think this squad from the coach down to the putz that washes jock straps is nothing but a big question mark. Maybe that game 6, while a great experience, ended up begin quite expensive in the long run.
If we had lost game 6, they would be talking about us like they talk about the Spurs and the Warriors because this team would have came back hunger. Instead, this team think they won a title. Howard said, "I'm a champion." Harden said, "I'm the best player in the world." All this because we won game 6 and thought we were really that good and Warriors just got lucky because "they ain't really that good."
The Rockets would have come into the season motivated and with a sense of urgency instead of the nonchalant way they embarked it. Unfortunately, it may have been all for not anyway as the Warriors, Spurs, and Thunder are so potent this year. The Rockets had a great chance to make the WCF last year and they capitalized on it.
I'm certain 100% of CF would say yes. Being a loser in the Finals is technically the same as being the worst team in the league - you have no trophy to show for either scenario. Getting past Lob City and losing to the Warriors doesn't mean anything. Instead, it created a false sense of security, in that we believed "oh, we'll just have to try a liiiiitle bit harder next year, and we'll win the title."
Stupid assumptions are stupid, how do you know that getting eliminated would make them motivated and win more games this year. What if they just sulked more and the morale went to nothing and we tanked what people don't realize is we didn't get that much worse, we were pretty lucky in the regular season last year because the East was weak as hell and we preyed on weak teams to get W's while losing consistently to better teams. Even against weak teams we needed hero ball from Harden to save us on dozens of situations. The way we played basketball was flawed, even last season. Sure Harden could be playing "harder" but we shouldn't dependent on him that much in the first place.
well written post by the op. i know what you're thinking. ofc i'd trade the game 6 comeback with a better record for now. but there's no guarantee that had they been eliminated sooner they'd come back hungry or more motivated. absolutely none.
then we become a title contender instantly and beat gsw by 30pts each time we play against them. because dwight would be much much more involved in offense and harden will be inspired to play great defense. and that will propel the whole team...
I cry in the shower after watching game 6 highlights after I get depressed.... ...no one can tell if you're crying in the shower.
