[ClutchFans] How the West playoff matchups could best align for the Rockets

I’m partial to the revenge tour bracket.

Kills all the excuses

 

Utah is the team I wanna see in 4th. Likely go to a game 6 or 7 against whoever they play and we should handle them.

 

Personally, i don't want to see utah in the first round. The way its sitting right now we would see utah or SAS in the second round (if everything goes well) and that doesnt sit well because that could tire us out before the warriors in the WCF (if everything goes well again lol).

But id like to see OKC get 7th and play the warriors, then Portland stay 3rd and Jazz get 6th so that way the warriors will have to possibly play teams that will play them hard and tire them out before they come to us

 

Line 'em up. I don't care who we face. Kill everybody.

 

25 years of hearing the Rockets only won because Jordan left....

I don't want excuses.

Line up OKC, San Antonio, Warriors at full strength, and Lebron.

 

Minnesota is our bread and butter. Don't go for Utah....they're tall.

My hope is Denver sneaks in.


Worst case for me in the first round: NO; SA or OKC if they fall like RUss' shooting percentage.

 

Come on Cod, where’s the confidence I get what you and others are saying, but give me the teams we’ve met in the playoffs in the last few years like SA, OKC, POR .

 

Remaining games and how I hope they go down...

Spurs
vs Portland L
vs Sac W
vs NOLA L
46-34 with tiebreaker over Thunder

Thunder
vs Houston L
vs Miami L
vs Memphis W
46-34

T-Wolves
vs @denver L
vs LA W
vs Memphis W
vs Denver W
47-34

1st Rockets
2nd Warriors
3rd Blazers
4th Jazz
5th T-Wolves
6th Spurs
7th Thunder
8th Pelicans

I hope I did that right. If so then this would be ideal in my book. We would beat up the Cousin-less Pelicans, then beat up either Jazz or the T-Wolves in the 2nd round, cause we have both their numbers.

Warriors would have to face the Thunder in Round 1, then most likely the Blazers in Rd 2. We would hopefully have an easy path then to the WCF while the Warriors would have to expend some energy to get there, which they will.

 

Agreed. If Denver keeps winning (and that's a huge if), they may play themselves right in. I'd rather they make it than others. Denver as the #8 seed would be smooth sailing.

Though the computers set their odds as terribly low, weirdly Denver has some control of their own destiny. In fact, they keep winning, by virtue of playing Minnesota twice, they'll do more than sneak in. They could actually flip to the #6 seed (or higher). If Portland cares at all, they could knock off the Spurs, which would create more chaos. But they don't have much to play for. The same could be said for the Warriors (and their later matchup with OKC).

So with about 5 games left, it's all very murky. However, things could be trending toward an ultimate playoff play-in night for the last game of regular season. For example, it could come down to the winners of SAS vs. Pelicans and Den. vs. Minn. being in and somebody (either 1 or 2 of those teams) going home that night.

 

I'm salivating at a Nuggets match up. Jokic will be straight abused and violated by the end of the series.

 

Honestly, I think it would be more fun to watch us knock out the Spurs or Thunder in the first round.

 

This is the ideal scenario!

 

If the Rockets beat the Thunder, the Warriors beat the Pels and the Blazers beat the Spurs (and Denver closes out the Clippers who they are leading by 16 in the 4th) there will be 5 teams at 45 - 35 fighting for the #5 - #9 spots in the West. CRAZY.

 

Spoiler Alert
OKC will not make the playoffs

 

Silver will not let that happen.

 

Not to face spurs and okc are our favourite. 1st round vs wolves and then 2nd round face jazz or portland or pecilians

 

To me the loss to okc has been the most likeable loss ever as a Rockets fan. I'm a lot more confident in your scenario happening now.

 

Denver is the dream for the first round. I don't think New Orleans would be much of a problem either. And I get people wanting to do the revenge tour, but I want the Rockets to be somehwat rested for the WCF instead of being worn out from a pair of tough series. We need every edge we can get

 

All WC playoff teams are a threat but these Rockets can beat anyone so I'm a little torn. Do I want the easiest path or the hardest? I have reasons to wish for both.

As for who I think would be easiest in first round it would probably be the T-Wolves.

If there's a team I think we'd most want to avoid in the first round I'd say it's the Jazz.

The thing I care about most is that we play a fully healthy GSW team in the WCF and play a real challenger (whether Cavs, Celtics, or Raptors) in the finals.

Almost 25 years of asterisks next to our championships (when we had the Bulls' number WITH MJ) has me wanting us to beat the most difficult teams. And I fully believe we can beat anyone we play in a seven game series.

Those asterisks are why we were the first and only team to win a NBA championship and not get the cover of Sports Illustrated except in a special Houston edition. Worse, they're why Rudy T seems locked out of the HOF. So much disrespect over the years. This year I want to prove all the doubters wrong and that means I want to match up against the most difficult teams and beat them.