A realistic view of what this loss means for the series

The series isn't over but that game summed up who the Rockets are. They are a team that has yet to go out and crush a team when they should. They played a bad game in game 4 against the Mavs and instead of coming out motivated in game 5 they give up tons of good shots and committed 21 turnovers. Luckily Dirk and the Mavs are done and couldn't capitalize.

But until this team comes out and asserts itself in a big game it will be hard for me to believe in them. This feels like it's going to be the Blazers series all over again where we outplay a less talented team but find ways to lose.

 

agree with your comment. sloppy passes. unnecessary showboating passes.

 

Both CP3 and Blake>>>Harden.

 

It's playoff basketball homecourt will not decide the series, executing on both ends will. We just have to regroup. We have a lot to improve on from game 1 (obviously) and despite Paul missing game one, Barnes and maybe even griffin will see a reduction in production as a result.

This is a good team we are facing, we just have to bounce bac. Lose game 2 and we are in real trouble

 

Clippers landed the first punch. Time for us to hit back. Fights far from over.

 

The Clippers just have our number. We only reason we managed to beat them twice this year was because,
A) Griffin missed the one of the games and had his first game back from injury in the other.

B) Crawford missed the second game as well.

The two games we lost, were blowouts.

 

I agree with both of you (yes BMoney, I'm agreeing with you 100% on this). This was absolutely unreal. Nobody, I mean nobody, saw this coming.

Let's just take a second to think about this: AUSTIN RIVERS just dropped 17 POINTS on The Rockets tonight! AUSTIN RIVERS!! I don't think he even had 17 total points in the 1st rd of the playoffs in all 7 games against the Spurs. CP3 is going to annihilate this team once he comes back. I really do think the series was lost tonight.

Nice try loco, but the Clippers didn't lose hca twice to a SA team that was fatigued, hobbled, and missing their best player like the Rockets did tonight.

The guy just looks lost out there. He also plays soft and hesitant like he's unsure of himself. I'm not sure what it is...maybe he's intimidated by Griffin or DJ. I guess he can only "man-up" and play physical when an old homeless man is involved.

Um, at this rate, we will all be lucky if there are four more games left.

 

If we're going to have a stinker of a game in this series might as well be game 1. We're too good and talented to not fight back, play better and make this a series. Realistically 1 game was lost tonight. We're fine. RELAX.

 

Just a real bad matchup for us but I would have never expected a high school team out there. I'm glad we didn't come back and win this one like so many pervious wins that clearly the team didn't learnt from (thx McHale). Now we have a chance that the group wake up and play with discipline and focus.

 

Dude, this might be the breakout playoffs for Austin Rivers. He had at least one big game (16 pts) against the Spurs last round.

 

Just how are the Clippers less talented then us???

 

Right. This is like going down by twelve in the 1st. You might never recover from that deficit, but at least it is the 1st quarter and you have a lot of time to make up those twelve points.

 

Bottom line is the long layoff killed them, they looked flat and sloppy. And the human nature factor kicked in with Chris Paul not playing with them thinking they would probably cruise to an easy victory. Perfect storm.

 

I agree with everybody who says we have nothing to fall back on, because we simply have a freeflow offense and neither the coaches nor the players seem to be interested in becoming that defensive team again. Dwight got a couple of blocks but other than that, it was horrendous. So many open shots for them, Harden ball watching and just hanging back, gambling etc.

This was 99% on the players, though a little accountability wouldn't hurt. Rudy T, Dream, OT, Elie all got in each other's ears and showed some form of leadership. I have only seen Terry and Prigs do it ocassionally, other than that, we're still immature and lack any sort of discipline.

Harden cannot be excused for this pis-poor performance. Yes it might be unfair, but when you think you deserve to be MVP, you are going to be judged as an MVP. Simple as that. I fear like many have said that he just does not that mental toughness and another gear for the play-offs. You look to your best player in games like this and he just shied away from it.

Those lazy passes were the worst and not just from Harden, not getting back in transition after losing the ball second to worst and also not just Harden. For Harden and others: stop throwing it so low, big guys are not supposed to get the ball at their heels!! Those TOs need to stop. Jumping into the air for a lay-up or in the middle of the lane, only to throw it over your shoulders or to the corners sloppily is not play-off basketball. We are playing some kind of ugly street ball out there and it's too late to stop that. This is not an easy fix and indeed our flaws showed. We may be able to hide them for 1 or 2 games, but not for 4 games so goodbye to your play-off hopes.

 

I can't help but be depressed. I really thought things were working out perfectly for us..

***Get an old dysfunctional Dallas squad first rd***

***Avoided the Spurs in the 2nd rd***

***Playing the Clippers 2nd rd and missing their best player the first game***

I'm sorry but championship teams take advantage of these types of situations!

 

Doesn't the winner of game 1 win the series something like, 75% of the time? And the rockets came out and played with no heart and no effort. I feel like a chump for caring about this team so much when our supposed leader doesn't even seem to give a crap. I guess all that talk about being focused on more important things than MVP and wanting to get back to the finals was just BS.

 

it's the same story with clippers regardless of who plays for them. Rockets ahead or tied at half time, mid way through the 3rd clippers make a run and pull away by 7 -10 points and it becomes a blowout or 10+ point defect the rest of the way.

 

I definitely am very curious to see if the Clippers sit Paul for Game 2 specifically because they won Game 1

If I were them, I would definitely consider it. Assuming he's not going to be 100% for Game 2

 

It's just one game. Clips even without CP3 are a very good team and they were playing inspired basketball.

But game 2 is crucial. Rockets have to dig deep like Spurs did after their embarrassing game 1 in last round.